중국의 선장본 보급과 그 배경

Abstract

The form of books changed from the roll(juanzi) to bound volume(cezi) with the spread of printing in the Northern song period in China. However, the form of bound volume was not stitched binding which is the most popular binding nowadays, but butterfly binding(hudie zhuang) at the beginning. We can confirm Quanxiang Pinghua printed in the Yuan dynasty, fourteenth century was bound with butterfly style, because its illustration on the top of one leaf is joined together, yet the illustration of Xixiangji printed in the mid-Ming dynasty, fifteenth century were not. The form of Xixiangji in the mid-Ming must be wrapped-back binding(baobei zhuang) or stitched binding. We can see the way of binding had changed from butterfly to stitched binding until the mid-Ming period. Every leaf should be pasted for butterfly binding and it took about two weeks to dry the glue up. On the other hand, as they did not need glue, they could market the book as soon as the books were printed and bound. In the end of the Ming dynasty, book printing was so flourished and demand and supply for the books increased more than ever before. Stitched book binding was born by this unprecedented book printing boom in the Ming dynasty.