Abstract:How to dig deep into the ideology and culture contained in ancient books with the help of modern and popular expressions, and meet the public's demand for knowledge dissemination and cultural inheritance of ancient books are the problems and challenges that every publisher of ancient books needs to face. At present, most of the popular publications of ancient books focus on the popular interpretation of ancient texts, and rarely involve the popularization and dissemination of ancient book carriers, and the overall view of the protection of ancient books has not yet been formed. Based on the protection of ancient books, plan multiple topics; Create high-quality publishing products and form a brand effect; strengthen policy support and help the establishment of publishing projects; Promoting the integration of the ancient and the new and realizing cross-border cooperation should become the direction of efforts to popularize and publish ancient books in the future.
In April 2022, after the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Promoting the Work of Ancient Books in the New Era", the popularization and publication of ancient books ushered in a new development opportunity. How to dig deep into the ideology and culture contained in ancient books with the help of modern and popular expressions, and meet the needs of the public for the dissemination of ancient book knowledge and cultural inheritance, are the problems and challenges that every ancient book publisher needs to face.
At present, most of the popular publications of ancient books focus on the popular interpretation of ancient texts, and rarely involve the popularization and dissemination of ancient book carriers, and the overall view of the protection of ancient books has not yet been formed. In 2024, in order to promote the popularization of ancient books and knowledge of ancient book protection, the Institute of Ancient Books Protection of Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin People's Publishing House and Tianjin Ancient Books Publishing House will work together to plan the "Ancient Legends" series with the theme of "paper, engraving, binding and collection" for young readers. The series plans to focus on the carrier of ancient books, through the introduction of ancient books on paper, engraving, binding and collection, and compile and publish four kinds of ancient books with the titles of "Illustrated Chinese Ancient Paper", "Chinese Engraving Art", "Chinese Ancient Book Binding" and "A Brief History of Chinese Book Collection". Based on the analysis of the relationship between "protection of ancient books" and "popularization and publication of ancient books", this paper analyzes the current situation of the publication of popular reading materials of ancient books, introduces the publishing concept and compilation characteristics of the "Transmission of Ancient Books" series, provides examples for reference for the prosperity and development of the popularization and publication of ancient books in the future, and then puts forward some thoughts and suggestions on the popularization and publication of ancient books.
I. "Protection of Ancient Books" and "Popularization and Publication of Ancient Books"
In 2007, the General Office of the State Council clearly pointed out in the "Opinions on Further Strengthening the Protection of Ancient Books": "It is necessary to intensify the publicity of the protection of ancient books, popularize the knowledge of protection, display the results of protection, cultivate the public's awareness of protection, and create a good atmosphere for the whole society to jointly protect ancient books." In 2022, the National People's Congress and the National People's Congress for the first time included "ancient book protection" in the government work report. In this context, an in-depth analysis of the relationship between "ancient book protection" and "ancient book popularization" from the theoretical level can not only reveal the essence of the popularization and publication of ancient books, but also help clarify its prominent position in the protection of ancient books.
1. The popularization and publication of ancient books is an important part of the protection of ancient books
The preservation of ancient books is a series of activities to ensure that ancient books can be passed on for a long time and recognized by the world. At present, the protection of ancient books in origin, regeneration and inheritance has enriched the theoretical connotation of ancient book protection and constituted a "three-in-one" ancient book protection system. Different from the focus on the original and regenerative protection of the material and text forms of ancient books, the inheritance protection of ancient books emphasizes the inheritance of ancient books at the cultural level, which refers to a series of activities that make ancient book culture recognized and mastered by the audience and passed on from generation to generation through various channels and methods. The collation of ancient books, the exhibition of ancient books, the cultural creativity of ancient books, and the immersive experience of ancient books all belong to the scope of inheritance and protection of ancient books. From the perspective of its purpose and connotation, the popularization and publication of ancient books, which uses popular language to reinterpret ancient books and realize the popularization and dissemination of ancient books and ancient book protection knowledge with the help of socialized distribution means, is one of the implementation methods of inheritance protection of ancient books. The popularization and publication of ancient books can enrich the product form of ancient book publishing, meet the multiple needs of the masses of people to read classics and cultural inheritance, and help promote the dissemination and development of ancient book culture and the concept of ancient book protection, which is an important part of ancient book protection.
2. The protection of ancient books is the fundamental purpose of the popularization and publication of ancient books
As a collection of material forms and spiritual connotations with inheritance significance, ancient books contain great and lasting humanistic charm, and are the precious cultural heritage left by the sages of the past dynasties for future generations. The protection of ancient books is to protect the precious cultural heritage of our nation, which is of great significance for "continuing the Chinese cultural context, promoting the national spirit, enhancing the national cultural soft power, and building a socialist cultural power". For example, Gu Lei pointed out that the forms of ancient book publishing, such as photocopying, collation, and digital publishing, are the main content and means of the regenerative protection of ancient books, as well as the important content and means of ancient book protection. In fact, with the development of the protection of ancient books, under the concept of inheritance protection of ancient books, the popularization and publication of ancient books for the masses has become an important way of socialization and mass dissemination of ancient books. Through the popularization and publication of ancient books, the public can more easily and easily accept the influence of ancient book culture, consciously or unconsciously be influenced by it, improve their knowledge and cultural level, and make ancient books play a greater role in the inheritance of excellent traditional Chinese culture. Inheritance is protection, and in this sense, the protection of ancient books is the fundamental purpose of the popularization and publication of ancient books.
On the whole, "protection of ancient books" and "popularization and publication of ancient books" are complementary and mutually reinforcing. On the one hand, the popularization and publication of ancient books, as an important part of the protection of ancient books, can improve the public's awareness of ancient books and enhance the society's attention and support for the protection of ancient books. On the other hand, with the in-depth development of the protection of ancient books, more and more valuable ancient book resources have been excavated and discovered, which will also provide more abundant content materials for the popularization and publication of ancient books.
2. The current situation of the publication of popular reading materials for ancient books
The standard for the inclusion of the bibliography of popular reading materials in the General Catalogue of Ancient Books in New China is: "All kinds of ancient books compiled by modern people, including selected notes, selected translations, selected lectures, selected reviews, etc., regardless of the size of the book and the academic level, are regarded as popular reading materials." On this basis, Liu Yanfei pointed out that in addition to the collation and selection of ancient books, the popular publication of ancient books should also include the popularization of the entire ancient books. Whether it is a selection of ancient books or the collation of the entire ancient books, they essentially belong to the popular interpretation of ancient books, and what distinguishes them from them is the popularization of knowledge in both the content and form of ancient books. These two types of popular reading materials can reflect the current status of popular reading materials of ancient books to a certain extent, mainly including the following aspects.
1. Publication of popular reading materials dedicated to the public interpretation of ancient texts
The purpose of popularizing the interpretation of ancient texts is to transform the content of the texts into easy-to-understand language through in-depth excavation and sorting of ancient texts, and to realize the dissemination and promotion of various channels and forms, which belongs to the research scope in the field of ancient book collation. On the whole, the current popular reading of ancient texts mainly presents the following characteristics.
(1) The national policy has been vigorously promoted, and the modern translation of ancient books has been attached
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the party and the government have always attached great importance to the collation of ancient books, and have compiled and published a large number of ancient books. In 1981, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the "Instructions on Sorting Out Ancient Books on the Mainland", which clearly pointed out: "In order to make more people understand, it is not enough to do punctuation, annotation, proofreading, and exegesis. Since then, as the main form of popularization and publication of ancient books, the modern translation of ancient books has made great achievements. In January 2017, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on the Implementation of the Project for the Inheritance and Development of Excellent Traditional Chinese Culture", which put forward specific requirements for how to implement the project for the inheritance and development of excellent traditional Chinese culture. In April 2022, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Promoting the Work of Ancient Books in the New Era", focusing on the popularization and publication of ancient books from the national policy level, emphasizing "increasing the publicity and promotion of ancient books, and doing a good job in the popularization and dissemination of ancient books through multiple channels, media, and dimensions." improve the quality of popularization and publication of ancient books, and do a good job in the selection and translation of classic ancient books", and formulated a more specific and detailed "National Ancient Books Work Plan for 2021-2035". This series of programmatic documents highlights the importance and necessity of the popularization and publication of ancient books in the protection of ancient books in the new era.
Under the guidance of the above-mentioned documents, the publication of ancient books has gradually shifted from targeting small elite groups to serving the public. For example, in March 2022, the Office of the National Leading Group for the Collation and Publication of Ancient Books recommended the first batch of 40 classic ancient books and their collated editions, fully considering the reading level of academic researchers, middle-level readers and elementary level readers. In recent years, the popularization and publishing of ancient books has also made remarkable achievements under the support and guidance of policies, and among the nearly 1,800 kinds of ancient books published every year, about 1,000 kinds of popular ancient books have been published.
(2) Classic literary and historical masterpieces are still the protagonists of publishing
Classic literary and historical masterpieces record the historical development trajectory of human civilization, contain profound ideological connotation and artistic charm, and are more likely to be loved and sought after by the majority of readers. For example, in 1925, the Commercial Press published 46 of the 60 kinds of "Student Sinology Series" for middle school students who lacked or had a weak foundation in Chinese studies. Since the 80s of the 20th century, Guizhou People's Publishing House's "Complete Translation Series of Chinese Classics", Zhonghua Book Company's "Complete Translation Series of Chinese Classics" 74 titles, Phoenix Publishing House's "Selected Translation Series of Ancient Literary and Historical Masterpieces" 134 titles, and Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House's "Complete Translation and Annotation Series of Ancient Chinese Classics" 67 kinds have also focused on popularizing classic classics to the public.
(3) Publishing entities began to diversify
During the period of the Republic of China, due to the constraints of the social environment and practical conditions, the main body of the popularization and publication of ancient books was relatively single, mainly a few private publishing institutions such as the Commercial Press in Shanghai and the Zhonghua Book Company. For example, in the "Wanyou Library" edited and published by the Commercial Press, there are popular reading materials such as "Small Series of Chinese Studies" and "Student Chinese Studies Series". After 1949, state-owned publishing enterprises became the main body of the popularization and publication of ancient books, and some powerful ancient book publishers, such as Zhonghua Book Company, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, Yuelu Publishing House, and Sanqin Publishing House, became the main force in the popularization and publication of ancient books with the support of national policies and the support of the Ancient Books Publishing Fund. In recent years, with the in-depth development of the protection of ancient books, some creative and energetic private planning companies have also begun to enter the market of popular publishing of ancient books, and have launched a lot of classic books that are both knowledgeable and popular, such as "The Book of Songs", "Nalan Ci", "Ancient Literature and Guanzhi" produced by Ruomai Culture.
(4) The quality of publication is uneven, and low-level repeated publication is not uncommon
Although popular reading materials account for an increasing proportion of the number of ancient book publications, their quality level is not satisfactory, and low-level repeated publications are not uncommon. Driven by economic interests, some publishing houses tend to compete for packaging and gimmicks, and the seemingly dazzling exquisite printing is actually just a renovation of illustrations, a change of layout, or a change of the same text, which is quite a suspicion of "literature is better than quality", resulting in a new edition of ancient books that seem to be dazzling, but there are few popular reading materials that can be called high-quality.
2. Publication of popular reading materials for the popularization of ancient books dedicated to cultural inheritance and knowledge dissemination
Among the many popular ancient books, there are relatively few reading materials that take into account the content and form of ancient books to publicize the science popularization of ancient books to the public. Investigating and analyzing the publication of such popular reading materials, we find that there are mainly the following publishing trends.
(1) The content is mostly aimed at disseminating ancient cultural knowledge
At present, most of the popularization and publication of ancient book knowledge places it in the macro perspective of excellent traditional Chinese culture, and does not highlight the uniqueness and differences of ancient books themselves. For example, in the 90s of the 20th century, the Commercial Press published "The History of Chinese Papermaking", "The History of Chinese Printing", "The History of Chinese Book Collection" and "The History of Ancient Chinese Books" belong to the "Chinese Cultural History Knowledge" series; In 2010, "A Brief History of Chinese Book Culture" and "A Brief History of Chinese Calligraphy and Seal Carving" were published by Zhonghua Book Company, which belonged to the "A Brief History of Culture" series of books in "Cultural China". From 2011 to 2012, the Social Sciences Academic Press published the series of "Historical Tales of Silk Books", "Historical Tales of Jinwen", "Historical Tales of Papermaking" and "Historical Tales of Printing". Most of the contents of these popular reading materials are aimed at disseminating ancient cultural knowledge, but they do not deliberately strengthen the presence of ancient books in the public eye, and fail to form the overall social communication effect of ancient book protection.
(2) The content of publication has gradually shifted from the history of books and printing to diversified themes
Since the Republic of China, the popular reading materials involving the carrier of ancient books began with Zha Mengji and Chen Bingong's "History of Chinese Calligraphy". In the 50s and 60s of the 20th century, Taiwan published "The Story of Paper" and "Talking about Printing"; In mainland China, Liu Guojun's "Lovely Chinese Books" and its revised editions "The Story of Chinese Books" and "A Compendium of the History of Chinese Books" have also been published, in addition to "A Brief History of Chinese Binding", "The History of Chinese Books", "The History of Printing", "The History of Ancient Chinese Books" and other books have also been published one after another. It can be said that in the second half of the 20th century, this kind of popular reading of ancient books basically revolved around the history of books and the history of printing, in order to popularize the process of production, production and circulation of ancient books to the public.
Since the implementation of the "Chinese Ancient Books Protection Plan" in 2007, the concept of ancient book protection has become more and more popular, and popular reading materials with the theme of ancient book paper and ancient book restoration have been published one after another, such as "Paper Appreciation: Paper Appreciation for Ancient Chinese Calligraphy and Painting Documents", "Illustration of Chinese Ancient Book Restoration and Mounting Technology", "Searching for Paper", "Old Pictures of Chinese Traditional Handmade Paper Production", etc., presenting a publishing format with more professional concepts of ancient book protection as a whole. It can be said that popular reading materials with the theme of ancient book protection have begun to emerge.
3. The practice of popularizing and publishing ancient books: A case study of the "Ancient Legends" series
The Ancient Books Series is a series of books on the popularization of ancient books jointly planned by the Institute of Ancient Books Protection of Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin People's Publishing House and Tianjin Ancient Books Publishing House. The book series is scheduled to be finalized in September 2024 and published in March 2025. The analysis of its publishing concept and compilation characteristics will help the effective development of the popularization and publication of ancient books in the future.
1. Publication Ideas
Under the guidance of "continuing to promote the work of bringing ancient books into schools, and integrating the education of excellent traditional Chinese culture throughout national education", the series is based on the publishing concept of ancient book protection, and aims to popularize the knowledge and interest of ancient books as a carrier of traditional culture for young readers, and strive to present the material form and circulation history of ancient books in a multi-dimensional way with vivid and lively language, image and artistic expression, so as to break the obscure and difficult stereotype of ancient books and narrow the distance between ancient books and young readers.
In the initial stage, the following four books are planned to be published. The first part is "Illustrated Guide to Ancient Chinese Paper". The book is co-written by Yi Xiaohui, an expert in the protection of ancient books in the National Library, and Wang Fan, an expert in the restoration of ancient books in the Zhejiang Library, and intends to tell the story of ancient Chinese paper in easy-to-understand language, introducing "ancient paper in ancient books", "functional paper", "regional paper" and "special paper" in turn, and attaching pictures explaining the raw materials, processing process and related historical allusions of ancient paper. The second part is "The Art of Chinese Engraving". The book was co-written by Yao Boyue, a professor at the Institute of Ancient Book Conservation of Tianjin Normal University, and Li Yuze, a calligraphy teacher at Qilu Academy in Qufu, Shandong. The third part is "The Binding of Ancient Chinese Books". The book is co-written by Fu Li, Peng Ying, Li Yanrui and Niu Jiazhi, librarians of the Special Collections Department of Tianjin Normal University Library, and intends to sort out the history of ancient Chinese book binding, introduce the book system before the invention of papermaking and the classical binding forms of paper books, such as scroll binding, warp folding, butterfly binding, bag back binding, and thread binding, as well as the beauty of ancient book binding, and compare and appreciate it with the binding form of ancient books in Western languages. The fourth part is "A Brief History of Chinese Book Collection". The book was co-written by Yao Xiaoyan, a postdoctoral fellow of the Institute of Ancient Book Conservation of Tianjin Normal University, and Shi Kangning, a Chinese teacher at the No. 47 Junior High School in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province. In the future, Tianjin People's Publishing House and Tianjin Ancient Books Publishing House will continue to plan new topics around the protection of ancient books and create a unique brand of "passing on the ancients".
2. Compilation features
In order to highlight the publicity effect of the protection of ancient books, the "Biography of the Ancients" series intends to combine different aspects of the protection of ancient books, illustrated, illustrated, and illustrate the production and circulation of ancient books, so it presents unique compilation characteristics in terms of topic selection planning, author selection, and text expression.
(1) The topic selection is accurate, involving all key aspects of the protection of ancient books
The protection of ancient books includes the collection, cataloguing, sorting, research, publication, inheritance, and utilization of ancient books. The title of the series is "Passing on the Ancients", which means spreading the concept of ancient book protection and inheriting the culture of ancient books. Among them, the four themes of "paper, engraving, binding and collection" represent the paper, engraving, binding and collection of ancient books, covering the whole process of ancient books from paper production, engraving and engraving, binding design to collection and circulation, and also highlighting the protection characteristics of ancient books in terms of physical form. Each book on this topic is not only an independent article, but also tells the cultural connotation of ancient books from different perspectives, shows the multiple charms of ancient books, and integrates the process, focusing on reproducing the historical process of ancient book production and circulation, reflecting the overall concept of ancient book protection, and giving full play to the publicity effect of ancient book protection.
(2) Cohesion and cohesion, gathering a professional and sentimental author group
Scholarship and popularization are the two wings of ancient book publishing. Although the popular reading of ancient books is based on the principle of easy-to-understand language style and people's favorite way of expression, the quality of their content still needs to be built on a solid academic foundation. Therefore, how to achieve a balance between the academic background of the literature and the popular interpretation of the literature is an issue that needs to be carefully considered when publishing popular reading materials. The book series is cooperated by the Institute of Ancient Book Protection of Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin People's Publishing House and Tianjin Ancient Books Publishing House, and invites experts, scholars and teachers in the domestic ancient book protection industry and related fields to serve as authors, including ancient book restorers and ancient paper research experimenters with rich practical experience in the library industry, as well as teachers at all levels engaged in front-line teaching, which can be said to have realized the deep integration of talents in various fields of ancient book protection practice, scientific research and teaching.
(3) Story-first, telling vivid and vivid Chinese allusions
Compared with the boring and boring knowledge list expression, with the help of vivid and vivid stories, the paper, engraving, binding, collection and other contents of ancient books run through the period, which can arouse the interest of readers and is more in line with the essence of the popularization of ancient books. Young readers are easily attracted by stories with lively words and ups and downs in content, so as to leave a deep impression. The series puts the story first, telling interesting Chinese allusions, which can quickly attract the reader's attention and make them gain both knowledge and emotional feelings. For example, the book "A Brief History of Chinese Book Collection" in the book series presents the classic stories of ancient readers who loved, purchased, collected, and protected books in vivid language and images, such as "Xuefu Wuche", "Lubi Collection", and "Fusheng Teaching Scriptures", which not only shows the long history and profound book collecting culture in the mainland, but also makes readers truly feel the cultural feelings of the ancients who cherished words and paper and advocated reading.
(4) Illustrated and illustrated, showing the beautiful ancient book culture
Ancient books are not only tools for reading, but also works of art that integrate the skills and aesthetic taste of ancient editions. Many of the historical relics of the manuscript, rubbing, some of themselves are rare calligraphy art treasures, and the engraving of the layout, line, font, ink color, paper, binding and overprinting, engraving, arch flower techniques, etc., together constitute the ancient engraving rich artistic expression of the cultural form. At the same time as the text is narrated, supplemented by relevant pictures, it can concretely highlight the beauty of ancient books, and fully reflect the artistic appeal of ancient books with exquisite engraving, black paper and jade, and elegant binding. Therefore, the series of books adopts the form of illustration and text, and strives to reproduce the rich and colorful cultural scenes of ancient books and enhance the reader's sense of reading enjoyment.
4. Thoughts and Suggestions on the Popularization and Publication of Ancient Books
As an important way to realize the socialization and promotion of ancient books and the concept of ancient book protection, the popularization and publication of ancient books not only helps to inherit and promote the excellent traditional Chinese culture, but also improves the cultural literacy and aesthetic level of the public, and can provide new perspectives and ideas for academic research. Based on the above description, the author has the following thoughts and suggestions for the popularization and publication of ancient books in the future.
1. Based on the protection of ancient books, plan multiple topics
Ancient books in the narrow sense refer to books written or printed in China before 1912. Ancient books in a broad sense are all-encompassing, including Jiance, silk books, Dunhuang scrolls, ancient books written by ethnic minorities, rubbings of gold and stone, maps, folds, ancient letters, ancient contracts and other ancient documents, and even ancient books copied and published by various methods in modern and contemporary times, such as microfilm (film), new editions of ancient books, ancient book digital products, etc. In the past, the popularization and publication of ancient books belonged to a branch of the collation and publication of ancient books, which paid more attention to ancient books in a narrow sense, and mainly focused on the popular interpretation of the text content of ancient books. In fact, the connotation of ancient books is very rich, including not only the content of the text, but also the elements of physical carriers and inheritance skills. Under the concept of ancient book protection in the new era, the author believes that the popularization and publication of ancient books should be based on the concept of ancient books in a broad sense, and plan multiple topics from the three levels of ancient books: text, entity and technique, so as to deepen the publication of ancient books. The popularization and publication of ancient books should comprehensively consider the physical forms of ancient books, such as written characters, carrier materials, and binding forms, as well as technical forms such as printing skills, restoration skills, and binding skills, plan and select topics in a multi-dimensional and three-dimensional manner, publish a series of books for the popularization of ancient books, form a group effect, cultivate the public's awareness of the protection of ancient books, improve the public's cultural literacy of ancient books, and promote the in-depth development of the protection of ancient books.
2. Create high-quality publishing products and form a brand effect
Popularization is actually the contradiction and unity between the shallow content and the deepening of social functions. To do a good job in the popularization and publication of ancient books, on the one hand, it is necessary to improve the publishing quality of popular reading materials of ancient books, and on the other hand, it is necessary to do a good job in brand planning and publicity, so as to promote the popularization and publication of ancient books to develop in the direction of knowledge, quality and branding. In fact, "no matter how rich the form of publication is, the most fundamental factor that determines the quality of popular reading of ancient books is the content". Therefore, publishers should concentrate on creating high-quality ancient books for popular reading, put social benefits in the first place, and strive to achieve excellence and perfection in all aspects of topic selection and planning, author creation, translator translation, editing and processing. On this basis, it is also necessary to focus on the brand focus, constantly excavate and develop new publishing varieties, form product clusters, and create excellent brands with extensive social influence.
3. Strengthen policy support and help the establishment of publishing projects
Since the issuance of the "Instructions on the Sorting out of Ancient Books on the Mainland" in 1981, the state finance has allocated special funds every year since 1983 to support the collation and publication of ancient books, which has effectively improved the variety, quantity and academic level of new editions of ancient books, and the special funds for the publication of ancient books have achieved a very obvious exemplary role. However, among the collation and publication of these ancient books, the proportion of funding for the popularization of ancient books is very small. For example, in the "2011-2020 National Plan for the Collation and Publication of Ancient Books", a total of 491 projects were funded, of which only 3 were funded for popular reading. In the newly promulgated "2021-2035 National Ancient Books Work Plan Key Publishing Projects (First Batch)", only 13 of the 421 selected projects are popular reading materials, which is far lower than other ancient book collation projects, which is not conducive to the sustainable development of the popularization and publishing of ancient books.
In 2022, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Promoting the Work of Ancient Books in the New Era", emphasizing the need to "strengthen the scientific and standardized management of ancient books...... Improve the system of peer recommendation and expert review for the establishment of ancient book projects and the publication of results, and strengthen the overall coordination of special funds for ancient books work and related cultural, scientific research and publication funds for ancient book projects". At the end of 2023, the National Press and Publication Administration's "Notice on Carrying out the Application for the 2024 National Ancient Books Collation and Publication Funding Project" also made detailed provisions on the scope, focus and requirements of the application. In order to promote the prosperity and development of the popularization of ancient books, the national level should provide favorable policy guidance and financial support for the popularization and publication of ancient books, strengthen the funding planning of the publishing fund for the popularization and publication of ancient books, and fundamentally change the current situation of the lack of popularization and publication of ancient books. Publishing units should seize these opportunities and intensify their efforts in popularizing and publishing ancient books.
4. Promote the integration of Cuba and Singapore and achieve cross-border cooperation
Fully gathering the joint force of the development of the ancient book industry and building a popular publishing model jointly built by multiple subjects is the direction of efforts to promote the healthy and orderly development of the ancient book publishing industry in the future.
The rise and rapid development of new media technology has greatly changed the publishing industry of ancient books. Compared with traditional media, the immediacy, openness and integration of new media have brought about the digitization of technology and the interactivity of communication. Therefore, the popularization and publication of ancient books can explore the integration mode of "ancient + new media", use the new media platform to reconstruct the topic selection, and maximize the value-added content and communication effect with rich and diverse publishing forms with distinctive characteristics. For example, the "Four Famous Works" (Famous Broadcast Edition) published by Yuelu Books in 2016 uses digital technology to provide readers with functional modules such as video presentation, digital reading, expert explanation, and game interaction, which greatly shortens the distance between ancient books and readers. Publishing units can also cooperate deeply with the National Center for the Protection of Ancient Books, libraries, museums, colleges and universities and other institutions to rationally allocate human, material, financial and other resources in all aspects, so as to open up new ideas and create new models for the popularization and publication of ancient books. The Ancient Books Series, jointly planned and published by the Institute of Ancient Books Conservation of Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin People's Publishing House and Tianjin Ancient Books Publishing House, may be a model for reference.
In short, under the overall idea of ancient book protection, the popularization and publication of ancient books can consciously coordinate the efforts of all parties and carry out cross-border cooperation between different institutions, different technologies and different platforms, so as to activate the various formats of ancient books popularization and publishing, and create more and better knowledge and interesting ancient books with beautiful form and content, so that ancient books can go out of the ivory tower and into thousands of households.
Author and affiliation
Yao Boyue: Institute of Ancient Books Conservation, Tianjin Normal University
Yao Xiaoyan: School of History and Culture, Tianjin Normal University
This article was originally published in the 6th issue of Publishing Wide Angle in 2024
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