Production and Circulation of Lithographic-printed Examination Aids in the Late Qing Dynasty: Private Lithographic Publishers in Shanghai from 1880 to 1905.

Lithography was introduced to China from the West in the late Qing dynasty. As the new technique made it possible to produce large volume printing without compromising on quality, publishers made use of it to produce cheap and reduced-size editions of aids important for candidates preparing for official examinations. Included in such materials were commentaries on the Four Books and the Five Classics, selections from essays of successful candidates at civil service examination (weimo ...), anthologies of eightlegged essays, poems and political essays, encyclopedias, compilations of Western learning (Xixue ...), and writings on statecraft (Jingshi wenbian ...). This paper examines the production and circulation of lithographic-printed examination aids by publishers in Shanghai from 1880 to1905. It argues that, to meet the needs of candidates, publishers produced the aids in accordance with the curricular format prescribed for provincial and metropolitan examinations. It also notes that they took advantage of the new print media--in particular, newspapers (such as Shenbao ...)--to market their examination aids, and the modern transportation systems and postal services to expand their sales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]