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East Asian Publishing and Society 7 (2017) 127-166 EAST ASIAN
PUBLISHING
AND
SOCIETY
brill.com/eaps
Reading the Guides, Directories, Manuals, and
Anthologies of Liulichang
Emily Mokros
University of Kentucky
emilymokros@uky.edu
Abstract
During the Qing dynasty, Liulichang became a prominent bookselling and publishing
district in the imperial capital. Yet, most historical and scholarly writing on Liulichang
has addressed only the antiquarian and rare book trade, and has neglected the promi-
nence of commercial publishing of informational texts in Beijing. Commercial book-
seller-printers formed a significant presence in Liulichang, and their research,
publishing, and marketing practices were attuned to the changing dynamics of life in
the capital. For clerks, merchants, and aspirant officials, Liulichang publishers offered
books such as guidebooks, official directories, examination results, forensic handbooks,
and administrative anthologies. Based on an examination of hundreds of books pub-
lished in Liulichang and focusing on official directories ( jinshen lu) and guidebooks,
this paper demonstrates how publishers managed connections with the state, cultivat-
ed sources, recycled texts, and crafted printing practices. It argues that publishing prac-
tices in Liulichang became more standardized during the dynasty, both in reaction to
the state’s loosening of controls on publishing and to the growth in the market for infor-
mational texts.
Keywords
Liulichang – official directories – informational texts – print strategies – commercial
publishing
Describing his strolls through Beijing’s Liulichang 琉璃廠 district in the de-
cade after the fall of the Qing dynasty, the scholar-official and book collector
Miao Quansun 繆荃孫 (1844-1919) reflected with displeasure on changes in
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128 Mokros
the environment of the district. Miao based his description on over forty years
of ‘pleasant times with books’ and many years in the capital between 1867,
when he began his official career, and 1910, when he spent a year working at the
newly-established Capital Library ( Jingshi tushuguan 京師圖書館).1 Not only a
record of his own experience, Miao’s diary also paid homage to an earlier nar-
rative of Liulichang authored by the collector Li Wenzao 李文藻 (1730-1778). In
this essay (preface dated 1769), Li had declared browsing through Liulichang
and dropping in on specialist booksellers run by highly knowledgeable propri-
etors as one of the greatest pleasures associated with a trip to the capital on
official business.2
Miao attempted in his narrative to follow the same trajectory as Li, and drew
attention to the circumstances that had changed significantly in the interven-
ing one hundred and fifty years. Most prominent in Miao’s impressions of the
decline of the district since Li’s day are his comments on the sale of cheap
editions and on shops devoted to selling directories and informational texts.
Lately, Miao complained, Liulichang shops and other venues such as temple
fairs seemed only to distribute cheap volumes and editions, not necessarily all
authentic.3 In recording these changes, Miao related his dissatisfaction at the
dissipation of a golden age of scholarly culture and book collecting. Indeed,
scholarly bias led Li and Miao to neglect the significant and booming presence
of commercial publishing and to focus instead on the decline of the rare book
trade. Even as these connoisseurs mentioned in passing the growing trade in
‘cheap’ books, they understated the prevalence of commercial publishing.
In fact, evidence from Liulichang editions, the diaries of contemporaries,
and other archival records shows that ‘cheap’ texts—including almanacs, di-
rectories, guidebooks, and court gazettes—made up an important segment
of Liulichang publications from the late seventeenth century onwards, and
their number grew most dramatically in the second half of the nineteenth
century.4 By the early twentieth century, Miao could not describe a walk
through Liulichang without mentioning the commercial publishers, although
he disparaged them. Yet while connoisseurs may have scorned the cheapness
and utility of commercial publishers and their products, others associated a
1 Miao Quansun, Liulichang shusi houji (1911), 1a.
2 Li Wenzao, Liulichang shusi ji, 1a.
3 Miao Quansun, Liulichang shusi houji, 3a-b.
4 Zhenjun 震鈞 (1857-1920) also attested to the release of rare editions onto the commercial
market after 1860, and steadily increasing prices for these editions throughout the late Qing:
quoted in Wang Yeqiu, Liulichang shi hua, 34.
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guides, directories, manuals, and anthologies of liulichang 129
trip to the capital with these relatively inexpensive but highly useful print
products. For a growing class of sub-bureaucratic clerks, unranked ‘expect-
ant’ (houbu 候補) officials, and recipients of degrees-by-purchase, Liulichang
imprints provided access to knowledge essential for advancement in official
life, from paths around the capital city to the names and ranks of official
colleagues.
This article profiles the products and activities of Liulichang commercial
booksellers during the Qing period, when the ranks of low level officials and
sub-bureaucratic clerks were swelling. It contends that Liulichang’s com-
mercial publishers worked at the boundary between official and commer-
cial worlds, both in terms of the market they cultivated and the information
sources on which they relied. Just as the boundaries of the official world ex-
panded to incorporate growing numbers of clerks and degrees-by-purchase, so
did these boundaries open up to commercial publishers seeking to republish
personnel registers, updated regulations, and other state documents. In this
process, Liulichang publishers created a unique set of printing and publishing
techniques to supply usable products to their market.
Official directories (jinshen lu 縉紳錄) and guidebooks to the capital city
exemplify the intersecting worlds of publishers and consumers. Both products
appealed to newcomers who needed information on the city’s officials, mar-
kets, and calendar. Liulichang publishers formed and maintained relationships
within state institutions that enabled them to obtain and update government
documents, including the details of personnel and tax quotas. The publish-
ers endeavored to use this information in as many texts as possible, and de-
signed their textual products to support frequent updates without significant
outlays. Especially in the production of directories, Liulichang publishers used
the woodblock as a template within which they inlaid or removed discrete col-
umns of information. Advertisements for frequently updated guidebooks and
custom texts including souvenirs, placards, and couplets, further attest to the
reputation for speed and customization achieved by the Liulichang publishers.
Capital of a Print Empire?
In many ways, the activities of Liulichang’s commercial publishers appear dis-
tinct from the practices of woodblock publishers in other parts of the empire.
While Beijing has long been acknowledged as a late imperial print center due
to its administrative status, few studies have elucidated what the relationship
between administrative and printing activities looked like on the ground. In
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130 Mokros
contrast to the Imperial Printing House (Wuyingdian 武英殿), which spe-
cialized in showpieces and collectible editions, the commercial printers of
Liulichang offered many books valued solely for their utility.5 Throughout the
dynasty, the constant motion of scholarly and official travel to Beijing bol-
stered the commercial trade in informational books. Although publishers in
other cities, notably Hangzhou, also produced legal and informational texts,
Liulichang booksellers excelled in the rapid production of books compiled
from the archives of the metropolitan government itself.
Liulichang booksellers retained ties to other imperial printing centers
and interregional networks while operating within a distinctive commercial
environment in southern Beijing. According to both Liu Wenzao and Miao
Quansun, most Liulichang bookstores were run by natives of other provinces,
especially Jiangxi. Some shops may well have been branch outlets of enter-
prises stationed throughout the empire.6 This practice drew on late Ming prac-
tices of selling—but not printing—books in the capital city.7 In selling paper
and stationery products alongside their imprints, Liulichang publishers drew
on interregional mercantile networks which supplied ‘southern paper’ (nanzhi
南紙) and inkstones, among other things. Nonetheless, by the nineteenth cen-
tury, the Beijing shops mainly capitalized on the publishing of imperial di-
rectories. Only in Beijing could publishers obtain reliable access to imperial
offices and the court gazette so as to print the quarterly directories.
The case of Liulichang suggests that we need to attend more closely to the
dynamics that differentiated the publishing and consumption of texts, both
across the empire and within the frame of the woodblock print. Publishing in
the imperial capital did not simply mean imperial publishing, just as elite lite-
rati tastes did not dictate the output of publishers in regional printing centers
like Sibao and Jianyang.8 Liulichang publications, from guidebooks to directo-
5 The Imperial Printing House did publish editions of the Qing Code. However, these editions
came out in limited numbers, were costly, and were published at an extremely slow pace. As
a result, they were valued more as representations of imperial favor than useful administra-
tive references. See Ting Zhang, ‘Information and power: printing, law, and the making of
Chinese legal culture, 1644-1911’, 44.
6 Based on a survey of library catalogs, common branch locations included Changsha, Suzhou,
Yangzhou, and Chongqing.
7 Francis Lok-Wing Yee, ‘The historical geography of book markets in China: a case study of
Liulichang’, 74.
8 Lucille Chia, Printing for profit: the commercial publishers of Jianyang, Fujian (11th-17th centu-
ries); Cynthia J. Brokaw, Commerce in culture: the Sibao book trade in the Qing and Republican
periods.
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guides, directories, manuals, and anthologies of liulichang 131
ries, linked producers, consumers, and the imperial state in unexpected ways.
Browsing a Liulichang directory brought the reader into mediated contact with
the official realm; booksellers offered scholar-officials the chance to purchase
custom print editions of their own writings; and publishers included address-
es for government offices in guidebooks. With their rapidly changing content,
Liulichang imprints highlight the diversity of printing strategies involved in the
production of woodblock-printed texts. Indeed, a range of woodblock printing
strategies remained effective for commercial publishers through the end of the
Qing dynasty despite the increasing prominence of new technologies of print.9
Shops for the Sleeves and Sashes
The writings of late Qing literati refer to ‘directory shops’ (jinshen pu 縉紳舖)
associated with the production of official directories.10 These were not mere-
ly ‘directory shops’, but shops that offered products of use to the ‘sleeves and
sashes’—Qing officials and clerks in their employ. Alongside books, the shops
sold specialty and decorative paper products as well as stationery supplies.
An advertisement placed by the publisher Ronglu tang 榮祿堂 just inside the
cover of a guidebook boasted wares such as:
brushes from Huzhou, ink from Anhui, gold paste, dyes, envelopes of
aged cotton, Eight Treasure ink for stamps, exquisitely carved silver and
bronze ink boxes and accessories; seals of crystal, jade, and stone in Qin
and Han seal script, Duan inkstones from Guangdong, Anhui She County
inkstones, compasses …11
9 My observations of the continuities in Liulichang printing practices affirm that Beijing
publishers retained woodblock printing techniques despite the advent of print technolo-
gies like lithography and metal movable type that characterized new-style publishing in
cities like Shanghai. Studies of songbook publishing have also revealed the persistence of
woodblock printing into the twentieth century: thanks to an anonymous reviewer for this
insight. See Christopher A. Reed, ‘Dukes above, scholars below: Beijing’s old booksellers’
district Liulichang, 1769-1941—and its influence on 20th-century Shanghai’s book trade’,
East Asian Publishing and Society 5 (2015): 105-6.
10 Xu Ke, Qingbai leichao (1918), 1264.
11 Chaoshi congzai, juan 5, 1a.
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132 Mokros
Another advertisement in an official directory listed directories, lists of crimi-
nal statutes, calligraphic samples, fans, lamps, and other items alongside the
familiar inkstones and seals.12
More occasionally, these advertisements mentioned the commonplace in-
formational texts among the shop’s offerings.13 So-called ‘directory shops’ like
Ronglu tang published a diverse catalog of texts, including guidebooks, ad-
ministrative writings, forensic guides, legal guides, and anthologies of official
writings (Table 1).14 While Ronglu tang offered a generalist’s catalog, other pub-
lishers specialized. Tongsheng ge 同陞閣 published bilingual Manchu-Chinese
texts, Rongjin tang 榮錦堂 featured detailed legal research publications, and
Wencui tang 文萃堂 sold literati writings and poetry alongside its directories.
Although not defined as a genre within publishers’ catalogs, directories should
be considered informational texts. Basic informational texts presented sche-
matic representations of the Qing state, its personnel, spaces, regulations, cal-
endars, and rituals, while more specialized texts facilitated the myriad tasks
of local administration.15 Lists of examination results and customized com-
memorative placards enshrined an individual’s earned position in the bureau-
cratic realm. The sale of guidebooks to Beijing alongside administrative texts
suggests that sojourners made up a significant core of the browsing and pur-
chasing market at Liulichang.
Directories, although perhaps as mundane as the early modern equivalent
of phonebooks, were coveted by Qing officials who thirsted for up-to-date in-
formation about members of the bureaucracy. In 1867, Li Ciming 李慈銘 (1830-
1895) was living at home in Zhejiang after a stint in Beijing as a low-paid junior
official. Li, who later returned and enjoyed a successful bureaucratic career
and a more lavish lifestyle, craved news from the capital. Thus, one day that
spring he recorded in his diary that he had borrowed the most recent issue
12 Da Qing jinshen quanshu (Beijing: Songzhu Rongbao hekan, summer 1896), interior of set
enclosure. On the consumer objects for sale in Liulichang, see Reed, ‘Dukes above’, 85.
13 Da Qing jinshen quanshu (Beijing: Ronglu tang, fall 1889), inside covers of juan 1 and juan 5.
14 Of 114 Beijing publishers identified by Zhang Xiumin, at least sixteen published directo-
ries. Meanwhile, thirty-nine publishers found in this survey were not identified by Zhang.
Thus, attention to directory publishers significantly expands our knowledge of publishing
activity in Beijing. See Zhang Xiumin, Zhongguo yinshua shi, 1: 393-4.
15 I see these as analogous to what Mary Elizabeth Berry describes as a ‘library of public
information’ available to a hypothetical clerk in Tokugawa Japan, including ‘maps, atlas-
es, encyclopedias, dictionaries, calendars, almanacs, rural gazetteers, urban directories,
travel accounts, personnel rosters, biographical compendia, manuals of work, manuals
of play, guides to shopping and local products, and school primers’. Mary Elizabeth Berry,
Japan in print: information and nation in the early modern period, 15.
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guides, directories, manuals, and anthologies of liulichang 133
of the Directory to officialdom. In his diary, Li recorded, ‘Reviewing it, it seems
there have been many transfers of high-level officials, and I will summarize
as follows …’, and he then listed extensive details for the rosters of the Grand
Council, Board Secretaries, and other prominent metropolitan appointments.16
Unable to purchase updated editions of the quarterly text, Li may have an-
notated his directory throughout the year with notes from the court gazette or
other information sources, as did the owner of an 1838 directory preserved in
the Harvard-Yenching Library (Figure 1).
Notes: This directory and others profiled here were diminutive and measure only 18 centimeters
in height. In the top margin of the left-hand image, the reader has added the names of two
metropolitan officials not included in the print edition. In the top margin of the right-hand
image, the reader notes that Zhou Zhiqi (listed below as a censor) went on mourning leave
owing to the death of his mother.
Figure 1 Notes in an official directory.
(From left to right) Da Qing jinshen quan shu (Beijing: Jingdu fang, spring 1838),
Harvard-Yenching Library: juan 1, 13b, and juan 3, 1a.
16 Li Ciming, Yuemantang riji, 3:1475. According to his diary, Li also bought copies of the
directory in Tongzhi 2 (1863), Guangxu 4 (1879), and Guangxu 13 (1888).
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134 Mokros
Emotional reasons also compelled Qing officials to pore through directories.
In a diary entry, the official Zhu Pengshou 朱彭壽 (1869-1950) reflected on both
the ephemeral nature and the lasting value of the directories’ contents: ‘as soon
as an official were transferred, it would become outdated’. Nonetheless, after de-
cades or even centuries, the directories might reemerge as valuable resources.
Zhu described how he visited the bookshops of Liulichang and flipped through
decades-old directories to locate his relatives and predecessors. Zhu found his
relatives in volumes from the Qianlong, Jiaqing, and Daoguang reigns, includ-
ing both county magistrates and capital officials. He recalled, ‘With each flip of
the page, I obtained a glimpse of my predecessors’ names, and felt extremely
pleased.’ The examples of Li and Zhu demonstrate the craving for information
that drove the market for official directories and the emotional connections
that propelled some to seek out seemingly outdated informational texts.17
Anecdotes of utilitarian and emotional encounters with official directories
adumbrate the larger range of activities involving the wares of Liulichang pub-
lishers. Liulichang products could be both useful and treasured. Directories,
like other informational texts, were distinguished by their date and compre-
hensiveness, not by their author or publisher. In fact, over time the products
of the diverse array of Liulichang publishers became increasingly interchange-
able and less distinctive.
Who were the Directory Publishers?
A large corps of bookseller-publishers published official directories in
Liulichang during the Qing period. Information about publishers can be locat-
ed in the directories on their covers, in the publisher’s frontispiece (fengmian
ye 封面頁), or in the preface, making it possible to ascertain information about
them from extant library and reprint collections. This study draws on a sample
of 918 directories published in Liulichang, ranging in publication date from
1726 through 1919 (Table 2).18 Of these, only 101 (11%) lack information on the
17 Zhu Pengshou, Anle kangping shi suibi, juan 5, 42. See Kan Hongliu, ‘Qingdai jinshenlu de
neirong, tedian, yu shiliao jiazhi tanxi’, Qingshi yanjiu (May 2012): 148.
18 The sample draws on four main sources. I searched the union catalog of rare books held
at major universities in China, CALIS (Gaoxiao gu wenxian ziyuan ku 高校古文獻資源
庫), as well as catalogs for the National Library of China and Harvard University. I also
consulted the 95-volume compilation of directories put out by Tsinghua University in
2008: Qinghua daxue tushuguan keji shi ji gu wenxian yanijiu suo eds., Qing dai jinshen lu
jicheng, hereafter QDJSL. Although editions from as early as the Shunzhi reign are avail-
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publisher due to either damage or omission. The majority (665, or 72%) of the
sample dates to the late Qing (1875-1912), a fact which reflects the ephemeral-
ity of the directory as material objects. Nonetheless, the persistence of large
numbers of directories in library collections attests to the productivity of the
Liulichang commercial publishers throughout the dynasty.
Contemporary records attest that in the late Qing, the directory publisher
Ronglu tang dominated the production of official directories.19 While my sam-
ple bears out the ascendency of Ronglu tang in the late Qing, it also demon-
strates that the commercial publishing market remained lively in this period.
With 455 copies, Ronglu tang imprints make up nearly fifty percent of the sam-
ple, most dating to the second half of the nineteenth century. Yet, Ronglu tang
and other heavyweights never entirely monopolized the market: twenty-four
different publishers put out directories in the Guangxu reign. Besides Ronglu
tang, other prominent late Qing directory publishers include Binsheng tang
斌陞堂, Songzhu zhai 松竹齋 and Rongbao zhai 榮寶齋.
Most importantly, this sample of directories demonstrates the liveliness of
Liulichang and the rapid turnover in the broader commercial publishing cli-
mate throughout the Qing dynasty, and refutes stereotypes of the district as
static prior to the late Qing or perpetually dominated by antiquarian booksell-
ers. From the early eighteenth century through the end of the dynasty, a small
number of publishers, ranging from one to three, appear to have controlled
the directory business at any one time. In total, the sample includes directories
able at the National Library of China, catalog records do not provide sufficient biblio-
graphic detail. Therefore, I excluded records that did not include specific quarterly dates. I
did, however, include multiple copies of the same edition, when found, since this sample
is meant to approximate the prominence of various publishers, not the number of titles
available. For a survey of similar holdings, see Liu Cheng-yun, ‘An ji jin cheng yulan yu
Qingdai jinshen lu de kan xing’, Zhongyang yanjiu yuan lishi yuyuan yanjiusuo jikan 87.2
(2016): 356-61.
19 In a recent article, Liu Cheng-yun examined imprints attributed to Ronglu tang (written
either 榮祿堂 or 榮錄堂), and determined that these imprints, dating between the late
seventeenth century and the early twentieth century, cannot be definitively sourced to a
single publisher. In the nineteenth century, as I show, publishers presented their products
as interchangeable, which led to the longstanding confusion over the proper name of
Ronglu tang. Adding to the confusion, prefaces to Ronglu tang directories published in
the early Republican era made apocryphal claims about the name changes. Zhonghua
jinshen quanshu (Beijing: Ronglu tang, winter 1912); Zhonghua minguo jinshen quanshu
(Beijing: Ronglu tang, fall 1916), juan 1, ‘Ronglu tang qi shou jinshen laopu ji’. See Liu, ‘An ji
jin cheng’, 358-9. For another study of Ronglu tang’s imprints and approach to this ques-
tion, see Liu Qiang, ‘Ronglu tang yu Qingdai jinshen lu zhi chuban’, Tushuguan zazhi 10
(2008): 65.
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attributed to fifty-five distinct publishers. Of these, it has only been possible to
identify one or two editions for the majority (40, or 73%) of publishers.20 While
some publishers, like Rongjin tang 榮錦堂, operated for more than a century,
the average estimated lifespan of the publishers, based on the dates of extant
editions, is 16.5 years. Incorporating both long-term fixtures in the market and
publishers that came and went almost immediately, this estimate corroborates
Miao Quansun’s observation that much had changed in Liulichang between
the 1760s and his first walks in the district during the Tongzhi era.
Although Li Wenzao and Miao Quansun’s essays on the Liulichang district
enumerate publishers and booksellers, they do not offer comments on the exi-
gencies that shaped the community of publishers. Late Qing newspapers and
other sources likewise offer few comments on the nature and evolution of the
commercial publishing neighborhood. However, the imprints themselves at-
test to the evolving practices of Liulichang’s directory publishers. This evolu-
tion is best exemplified in a comparison of the early-to-mid-Qing publisher
Rongjin tang with the late Qing publisher Ronglu tang. First, it will be useful
to give a brief overview of the print genre of late imperial official directories.
An Introduction to Civil and Military Directories
Official directories provided readers with a wealth of information about the
Qing civil bureaucracy, territorial administration, and the military. The earli-
est antecedent of the comprehensive directories of the Qing period may have
appeared in the Southern Song capital of Lin’an, although no copies of these
official lists have survived. By the late Ming, private publishers in Beijing sold
texts with titles like A newly published overview of official positions in large-size
standard script (Xinkan zhenkai dazi quan hao jinshen bianlan) and A newly
published annotated overview of official positions (Xinkan xiangzhu jinshen
bianlan), and examples of these late Ming directories are preserved in the
National Library of China.21 Late Ming imprints, like their Qing counterparts,
attest to the involvement of private publishers in printing government lists and
the publishers’ tendency to highlight the publication’s recent revision.
20 Many booksellers used similar names, and more investigation in their imprints and genea-
logical materials is needed to better understand the Liulichang population of booksellers.
21 Kan, ‘Qingdai Beijing jinshenlu’, 146.
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Regardless of the publisher, directories shared a common format, and the
general principles of format and organization varied little over the Qing pe-
riod. Most civil directories consisted of four to six volumes. The first volume
contained a preface and an outline of the principles for inclusion, followed by
information about ranks, vacancies, and bureaucratic procedures.22 The direc-
tory proper then began, listing individuals who held positions in the metro-
politan government, including their banner and/or native place, degree status
and date of highest degree, any honorary rank they might have accrued, and
often a nickname. Sections for each province first covered jurisdictions, ranks,
taxes, and customs duties, then enumerated each prefecture, department, and
county, detailing briefly the official ranking for the post, bordering jurisdic-
tions, local characteristics, academies, local products, and bureaucratic and
sub-bureaucratic officials in each district.23
The fifth and sixth volumes, if included, turned to the military. Volumes on
the military were often sold independently under the title Zhongshu beilan
中樞備覽, and featured a separate publisher’s frontispiece and preface. The
military volumes proceeded in a similar fashion to their civil counterparts,
with an assortment of information about ranks, positions, and procedures.
This comprised a list of official ranks within the military establishment, honors
and badges associated with each rank and vacancies in each province. The text
then covered the qualifications for filling various positions (such as military
degrees, nominations, and so forth), and procedures for interactions between
subordinates and superiors. The military directory concluded with a detailed
inventory of military garrisons in each province, beginning with the capital,
noting individuals by rank together with their native place or banner status
and military degree status.
22 This information included: a list of ranked and unranked positions in the bureaucracy;
a list of the number of officials holding each metropolitan and territorial position; the
procedures for interacting with officials of higher and lower rank; the procedures for re-
ceiving rank increases and other honors; rules for inheriting rank from parents; rules for
mourning the death of a parent; rules for yanglian 養廉 stipends; time quotas and des-
ignated routes for traveling to accept a new position; quotas for provincial degrees; and a
very brief description of the capital city and the taxes processed at each of its gates.
23 It is hard to overstate the richness of these publications in terms of personnel data. A
study of the 208 directories in the 95-volume Tsinghua compilation led by James Z. Lee
and Cameron Campbell located 2.8 million records. See Ren Yuxue, et al., ‘Qingdai jinshen
lu lianghua shujuku yu guanyuan qunti yanjiu’, Qingshi yanjiu 4 (2016): 61-77.
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Rongjin tang and Liulichang Connections
Liulichang was adjacent to the Grand Secretariat and the outer clerical of-
fices that were concentrated on the southern edge of the Forbidden City. The
Liulichang location linked booksellers not only to their potential customers
but also to state institutions and offices.24 Through formal and informal prac-
tices that connected print shops with clerks in imperial offices and bureaus,
these state offices became key sources for Liulichang print products. Above all,
geographic proximity and personal relationships facilitated publishers’ access
to government information. As a result, publishers staked their reputations on
their publication of readily updated, accurate directories, in an environment
that at times put difficulties in the way of obtaining accurate information.
Exemplifying relationships between the official and publishing worlds is the
case of Rongjin tang, a Beijing publisher that operated between the late Kangxi
and mid Daoguang reigns. Its proprietors, the Li family, were seventeenth-
century transplants to the capital from Jiangxi.25 Li Wenzao, in his Qianlong-era
notes on Liulichang, noted the predominance among booksellers of natives of
Jinxi 金溪 County, a printing center that flourished in the late imperial period.26
The family not only ran Rongjin tang, but also boasted connections to suc-
cess in civil examinations and metropolitan government. For example, Li Zhen
李珍 (fl. 1700-1720) obtained a preface to a 1715 text from his famous relative Li
Fu 李紱 (1673-1750), who hailed from Fuzhou 撫州, the urban center bordering
on Jinxi.27 Furthermore, Li Zhen’s description of his editorial activities shows
that he drew on familial and personal connections to gain access to palace
archives.
In his own preface to the 1715 compilation Dingli quanbian 定例全編, Li Zhen
wrote that his motivation to bring together a compilation of administrative
24 On the density of the population in this area, and its links between official and com-
mercial worlds, see Susan Naquin, Peking: temples and city life, 1400-1900, 603-4. See also
Gilbert Rozman, Urban networks in Ch’ing China and Tokugawa Japan, 293.
25 On Jiangxi booksellers in Liulichang, see Reed, ‘Dukes above,’ 99. The case of the Li family
suggest that Jiangxi booksellers and publishers came to Liulichang much earlier than the
1770s.
26 There was also a Rongjin tang in Chengdu, suggesting that members of the Li family
spread across the empire establishing branches of their publishing enterprise.
27 Li Fu did not write a preface for Li Zhen’s next compilation, published in 1720. Li Fu had
risen to the rank of a Grand Academician and supervisor of the palace examinations, and
perhaps had no time for his bookselling relative. Shortly thereafter, Li Fu was embroiled
in a scandal over the administration of the 1721 palace examination. Zhao Erxun, comp.,
Qing shi gao, juan 293, 10321-5.
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law and precedents came from his experience in editing directories (juezhi 爵
秩). Curiosity and interest motivated Li to move past the tedium of directo-
ries, as he apparently on his own initiative immersed himself in systematic
research in published laws, statutes, and the court gazette (dibao 邸報), from
which he assembled two compendia documenting institutional and legal de-
velopments since the beginning of the Qing dynasty.28 Li proposed to use his
experience publishing directories and his hobbies of browsing bookstores and
reading laws and precedents to supplement what appeared to be insufficient
publications covering the administrative and legal changes of the previous
thirty years.29
Li’s comments tell us that not only did Liulichang publishers have access
to a wide variety of source materials including the court gazette, but also that
savvy Beijingers could access official documents through other sources. Li
attested that gazettes sometimes contained textual errors, abbreviated names,
or omitted important matters. On these occasions, he diligently performed
research in ‘memorial storage, archived copies of clerical memoranda, Board
offices, and bookshops’, to amend the record, but made no changes or altera-
tions if he could find no alternate source.30 Thus, Li had access to a variety
of official buildings and archives in the capital; yet despite this access, he
considered bookstores and the court gazette to be the primary resources for
his work.
Some fifty years later, the Li family again obtained a preface from a promi-
nent Fuzhou native, the Hanlin Academy official Yu Dong 余棟 (1727 jinshi).
Yu inscribed a preface to Rongjin tang’s Official directory for the winter of
Qianlong 30 (1765). In this era, it was not uncommon for directories to include
a preface from a serving official. This practice became less common later in
the dynasty, for reasons to be discussed below. Yu Dong’s preface offered ex-
ceptional praise of Rongjin tang and its products. Yu stated, ‘My fellow towns-
man, the merchant Mr. Li (吾鄉坊人李氏), found that his book collection had
expanded to overflowing, and decided to record a generation of officials and
ranks.’ Yu described Li’s meticulousness in maintaining records for his pub-
lications. Directories published by other houses, Yu suggested ruefully, could
never reach the detail and precision of this volume. He boasted, ‘scholars extol
28 See the entries on Li Zhen’s compilations in Pierre-Étienne Will, et al., Official hand-
books and anthologies of Imperial China: a descriptive and critical bibliography, entries 126
and 127.
29 Li Zhen, Dingli quanbian (Beijing: Rongjin tang, 1715), juan 1, ‘Li Zhen xu’.
30 Li Zhen, Benchao tibo gong’an (Beijing: Rongjin tang, 1720), juan 1, fanli.
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its expansiveness, revel in its convenience, and compete to procure a copy!’31
This preface graced Rongjin tang’s directories for a few years, but the publisher
dropped it later, perhaps as Yu Dong’s name became increasingly obscure.32
The story of the Li family’s Rongjin tang imprints thus strengthens our un-
derstanding of the Liulichang publishers as a link between bureaucratic and
commercial worlds in Qing Beijing.33 The Li family utilized native-place con-
nections not only to advertise their products but also to gain access to docu-
ments.34 Situated at the gates to the Inner City, and with family, friends, and
customers leading official careers, publishers like Rongjin tang took advantage
of their connections in order to produce informational texts in high demand.
Li Zhen, during his term as proprietor, outdid most other publishers in his
devotion to publishing texts that improved readers’ understandings of law
and precedents. Even after his tenure, the Li family retained connections to
officials—especially natives of central Jiangxi—that helped them maintain a
publishing business in Liulichang for over a century.35
31 Reprinted in QDJSL 2:209. Juezhi quan shu (Beijing: Rongjin tang, winter 1765), juan 1, xu.
The preface was also included in the 1768 edition.
32 A Qianlong 37 (1772) imprint of the military directory has a short preface attributed to the
Rongjin tang proprietor; a 1793 imprint of the civil directory contains what became the
standard preface for directories in the nineteenth century. The language of the standard
preface attested less to the specific imprint or publisher, and more to the classical admin-
istrative justifications for publishing a directory.
33 Although directory prefaces do not refer to the empire-wide compilation project, a
number of scholars have asserted that as compilers for the Siku quanshu (Four Imperial
Treasuries) project collected texts from shops in Liulichang, the district grew closer to
official life and culture. See Reed, ‘Dukes above’, 83-4. See also Benjamin A. Elman, From
philosophy to philology: intellectual and social aspects of change in late imperial China,
153-6, and R. Kent Guy, The Emperor’s four treasuries: scholars and the state in the late
Ch’ien-lung era, 47-8.
34 Around 1757, Rongjin tang published a set of examination records (Zhuangyuan ce
狀元策) with a preface dated Kangxi 60 (1721) by Zhang Yugao, a fellow Jiangxi Xiugu
native.
35 In 1745, thirty years after Li completed his first legal compilation, Rongjin tang published
a complementary volume, Dingli xubian, covering regulations issued since the end of
the Kangxi reign. The compiler, a private secretary and native of Jiangxi Gao’an 高安
named Liang Maoxiu 梁懋修 (dates unknown), tells readers that this text was originally
a compilation for private use, but was printed at the behest of his friend, the bookseller
Li Chaozuo 李朝佐 (zi Tianqu 天衢, dates unknown), who is given secondary credit for
proofreading in the preface. Liang Maoxiu, Dingli xubian (Beijing: Rongjin tang, 1745), xu.
See Will, Official handbooks, entry 402.
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Strategies in Directory Publishing
Liulichang publishers employed a variety of strategies, including material al-
terations to the printing process, advertising, and the development of legal
expertise, in order to market their products to capital residents and sojourn-
ers. These strategies demonstrate that links to the state bureaucracy were
important for the wider retinue of directory publishers beyond Rongjin tang.
Publishers adapted their printing techniques and manipulated the content of
the directories to meet the need for speed and accuracy as well as to reflect
political and administrative transitions like changes in territorial jurisdictions
and offices as the result of late Qing policies and reforms.
As a rule, given the potentially extensive shifts in the ranks of military and
bureaucratic personnel that might happen between quarterly print editions
of the directories, publishers needed to make timely adaptations to ensure an
up-to-date product. Publishers sought to minimize labor input while maximiz-
ing the functionality of their woodblocks. The case of Liulichang commercial
printers both affirms the flexibility of the premodern printing enterprise, and
simultaneously reminds us that the woodblock itself was not monolithic.
Directory publishers employed woodblock printing, but modified the pro-
cess to ensure rapid output and customizable results.36 Woodblock printing
might seem to present an inventory problem, as printers would be saddled with
hundreds of blocks per quarterly edition. If official transfers occurred on a syn-
chronized schedule, then the bookseller might need only to print an updated
cover, and patch up any damaged blocks. However, officials moved between
offices somewhat more irregularly. In publishing directories, Liulichang pub-
lishers physically split the woodblock into columns and subsections in order
to facilitate the exchange of names, ranks, and positions. As a result, directory
text was printed in tightly packed vertical entries. In the case of a replacement
or alteration, the space taken up by the individual entry would be physically
cut out of the block (Figure 2).37 This approach allowed the publishers to mod-
ify their product in a timely manner when necessary.
Publishers also organized the directories so that the most frequently re-
placed information, such as lists of provisional and recently dispatched
36 Although Zhang Xiumin, basing his discussion on the observations of the British diplo-
mat and translator John Francis Davis, stated that directories were printed with movable
type, directory publishing could incorporate elements of both movable type and wood-
block printing. Zhang, Zhongguo yinshua shi, 2: 598.
37 Variants of this method produced either an ink-covered segment or, through the insertion
of blank pieces of wood, blended in with the rest of the page.
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Note: Among other alterations, these images show the elimination of the name of Chengge from
the directory entry for the Supervisorate of Imperial Instruction (Zhan shi fu). The publishers did
not, however, eliminate Chengge’s biographical information, listed below his name, including
his banner membership and examination year.
Figure 2 Directory Modifications: 1804 imprint versus 1805 imprint.
(From left to right) Da Qing jinshen quanshu (Beijing: Chongming tang, winter 1804
and fall 1805), juan 1, 15b.
appointments, was placed in the back of the volume, so that their replace-
ment and alteration would not affect the surrounding text. This way, the tran-
sient information could be easily separated from the core text and replaced.38
Meanwhile, pages not commonly altered, such as the lists of routes to the capi-
tal, could be printed from a single woodblock that grew blurry with repeated
imprints (Figure 3).
In treating the column, rather than the page, as the fundamental unit in
printing to facilitate frequently changing the content, commercial publishers
drew on techniques typically employed for publishing ephemeral news-sheets
and announcements. Records of such activities are both rare and obscured by
38 In some cases, the publisher inserted a supernumerary page. The fall 1805 Chongming
tang edition included a page numbered you shisi (又十四), accounting for new clerks in
the Hanlin Academy.
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Figure 3 Provisional ‘work-relief’ appointments and routes to the capital.
(left) Da Qing jinshen quanshu (Beijing: Chongming tang, fall 1805), juan 4, 76a;
(right) Da Qing jinshen quanshu (Beijing: Jingdu fang, spring 1838), juan 4, 16a.
the focus upon collectible editions in the discipline of bibliographic studies.
However, alternative methods were more common than we sometimes pre-
sume. While investigating potential methods for the distribution of Christian
tracts in Chinese, the missionary William Milne (1785-1822) reported the use of
two ‘very quick’ printing methods. In the first, workers carved columns of text
on narrow slips of wood and then affixed them together with wooden pins. In
the second, workers carved characters in more yielding materials than wood,
such as wax, resin, or clay, in order to speed up production. Milne noted that
both methods were employed in the publishing of handbills, gazettes, and
announcements.39
39 I am not suggesting that directories were published from composites of slips: the diminu-
tive size of ‘pocket’ directories would prohibit this. However, printing techniques clearly
drew on this type of practical knowledge. William Milne, A Retrospect of the first ten years
of the Protestant Mission to China (Malacca: Anglo-Chinese Press, 1820), 223-4. This pas-
sage is discussed in Joseph P. McDermott, A social history of the Chinese book: books and
literati culture in late imperial China (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2006), 21.
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Practices that made printed text interchangeable also facilitated the pro-
duction of custom editions. Price lists attest to the fact that directories were
printed in a hierarchy of editions. In a price list printed inside the outer enclo-
sure of one late Qing directory, prices ranged from a very basic pocket edition
on bamboo paper for 2 qian, 8 fen, to a large ‘Official Format’ volume bound
in red thread for 4 liang (Tables 3a and 3b).40 At each of the cheaper price
levels, the publisher charged fifty percent more to add the directory devoted to
the military bureaucracy. Another Ronglu tang edition boasted ‘honest prices’
and offered a free upgrade in binding with purchase of a directory. In addition
to indicating the publishers’ initiative in customizing editions, the advertise-
ments also point to the quick pace of the publishing market. A statement on
the inside cover of some Guangxu and Republican-era directories notes that
the seller would not take the book back after three days (Figure 4).41
Although directories shared contents, format, and official provenance,
nonetheless individual publishers found ways to make their editions distinc-
tive. These customizations involved adaptations to the printing and publish-
ing process specific to the directory industry. Publishers sometimes included
a prohibition against unauthorized reprinting, as did Rongjin tang in 1833
(Figure 5). However, since the information contained in directories was widely
accessible to booksellers, these protections remained rare. Instead, publishers
competed to remind readers that their products were comprehensive and up-
to-date. State regulations permitted private publishing of official information
provided it remained unaltered, accurate, and comprehensive.
Directories, Gazettes, and Information Policy in the Qing Dynasty
Rongjin tang’s solicitation of official connections both to research the content
of their directories and to advertise their publications prompts the question
of how official regulations affected informational publishing. Qing laws and
For a discussion of the relative merits of wooden movable type for small, cheap print
runs, see Martin J. Heijdra, ‘Technology, culture, and economics: moveable type versus
woodblock printing in East Asia’, in Isobe Akira, ed., Higashi Ajia shuppan bunka kenkyū
(Tokyo: Nigensha, 2004), 230-33). Jin Jian’s Qianlong-era palace manual for movable-type
printing shows and describes the use of column forms to carve and print movable type:
see R.C. Rudolph, A Chinese printing manual, 1776 (Los Angeles: Typophiles, 1954).
40
Da Qing jinshen quanshu (Beijing: Rongbao Songzhu hekan, summer 1896), inside cover.
41
Da Qing jinshen quanshu (Beijing: Rongbao zhai, spring 1909), inside cover. Of the four
1909 editions in the Harvard-Yenching Library, three have these ‘return expiry’ stamps.
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Figure 4
Directory with stamped return expiry date.
Da Qing jinshen quanshu (Beijing:
Rongbao zhai, spring 1909), inside cover.
The date of purchase is stamped in red on
the far right, with a warning that the book
cannot be returned three days after this
date. Note that this Xuantong edition is
subtitled ‘The most recent complete
directory of officials’ (Zui xin zhiguan
quanlu).
Figure 5
Directory with warning against unlicensed
reprinting.
Da Qing jinshen quanshu (Beijing: Rongjin
tang, winter 1833), inside cover.
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statutes are largely silent on the issue of directory publishing. Evidence from
the imprints themselves suggests that the state sanctioned but did not directly
sponsor directory publishing. Most directory covers featured text connecting
the directories to official publications and documents of the provinces and Six
Boards.42 However, even as publishers sought to suggest connections between
directories and other government publications, a closer look at the compila-
tion process suggests more tenuous relationships to the state.
References to official texts and regulations in directories exhibit little
change over time. Furthermore, most evade specificity in referring to relation-
ships between private publishers and the state. Even as the contents of the
directories evolved to reflect changes in bureaucratic positions and jurisdic-
tions, most directories between the late Qianlong reign and the early twentieth
century preserved a consistent set of ‘Principles of compilation’ (fanli 凡例).43
The standard ‘Principles’ includes both generalizations—noting, for example,
that the order of offices listed in the Directory follows that of the Collected
statutes (Huidian 會典)—and some curiously specific notes, such as clarifica-
tions of the recording of subordinate officials in the military jurisdictions of
Ningguta, Heilongjiang, and Suiyuan. These notes were retained for more than
two hundred years, and became increasingly vestigial. In general, new items of
note were appended to the end of the ‘Principles’, such as new institutions in
the New Policy reforms (1901-1908).
These prefatory notes emphasized the publishers’ commitment to consis-
tency and accuracy, and reminded readers of the measures taken to ensure
comprehensiveness and avoid ‘mix-ups’ (louluan 漏亂) and ‘inconsistent re-
cords’ (hunzai 混載). Most important in maintaining a complete and accurate
record was the consultation of proper sources. For records of taxes, fees, and
current treasury stores, sources included annual financial memorials submit-
ted by provinces (ge sheng zouxiao 各省奏銷) and Board registers (buce 部冊).
For personnel records, the directories cited the court gazettes published by
commercial printers in the alleyways adjacent to Liulichang. Finally, for proper
territorial jurisdictions, taxation quotas, administrative hierarchies and pro-
cedures, the directories relied on the Complete gazetteer of the Great Qing (Da
Qing yitongzhi 大清一統志) and the Collected statutes.
42 As Ting Zhang has demonstrated, commercial rather than official publishers drove the
production of the Qing Code, and likely the same was true for other ‘official’ texts like the
Collected statutes. Thus, there was not necessarily a direct connection to the state. Zhang,
‘Information and power’, 7-9.
43 Cf. Liu, ‘An ji jin cheng’, 365.
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While these notes on compilation at first seem specific, their constancy
stands out given the rapid pace of publishing and the changing composition
of the bureaucracy. Directory publishers may have relied on official documents
and compilations, but which editions? Did they prefer commercial or palace
editions? Furthermore, while references to state publications as sources pro-
vides a sense of certainty, other prefatory comments allude to major transitions
in the bureaucracy. For example, eighteenth-century editions often state that
Eight Banner registers provided incomplete or poorly organized information,
forcing publishers to doubt the accuracy of the Manchu names transcribed in
the directory. The complaint disappears by the early Daoguang era, perhaps
attesting to an improvement in materials. In the late Qianlong era, publishers
referred to the proliferation of sub-bureaucratic titles and attest to inclusion
in some cases and exclusion in others. However, as is well known, the ranks of
such sub-bureaucratic officials grew exponentially in the nineteenth century.
Yet, late Qing directory prefaces contain no records of these changes.
The long-term consistency of the ‘Principles of compilation’ is especially
puzzling in light of the well-known restructuring of communications and
decision-making networks in the eighteenth century.44 After the Yongzheng
Emperor oversaw the narrowing of communications channels and the estab-
lishment of the Grand Council to deliberate over palace memorials, these new
documentary practices became regularized in the Qianlong reign. How did
these developments affect publishers’ access to government documents?
Recently, the Taiwan scholar Liu Cheng-yun has uncovered archival evidence
that attests to a state-led attempt to standardize and control the publishing
of directories in the late Qianlong era. In 1773, the censor Fei Nanying 費南英
(1763 jinshi) submitted a memorial reporting that the products of commercial
directory publishers often included incorrect or missing information. Fei wrote
that directories were requisite purchases for bureaucratic officials visiting the
capital, and thus mistakes due to the hasty pursuit of profit were deplorable
indeed. Fei suggested that the Boards of War and Civil Appointments compile
lists of personnel on a monthly basis, which, after presentation for imperial re-
view, could be dispatched to the various commercial booksellers for sales and
distribution.45 Fei’s comments attest to a concern for the regularity and author-
ity of personnel records distributed for official and public perusal. Although
44 On the formation of the Grand Council, see Beatrice S. Bartlett, Monarchs and ministers:
the Grand Council in mid-Ch’ing China, 1723-1820 (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1991).
45 Quoted in Liu, ‘An ji jin cheng’, 350. Based on a reference in the First Historical Archives,
Liu dates this memorial to Qianlong 38/02/10.
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post-1773 directories do not make explicit notice of this policy change, the reg-
ularization of prefaces, ‘principles of compilation’, and contents around this
time suggests that Fei’s recommendations had some impact.46
What compelled Fei Nanying in 1773 to recommend that the Board take over
the work of compiling directory information? First, this memorial came in the
midst of the Siku quanshu 四庫全書 compilation project, which brought many
compilers to Liulichang to comb the catalogs of booksellers. Perhaps these ac-
tivities drew attention to the commercial publishers who shared street-space
with other vendors. However, comparisons with the state’s policy towards ga-
zette publishing, a related publishing community, are more revealing. Seen to-
gether, evidence from directory and gazette publishing suggests a push in the
mid-to-late Qianlong reign towards increased official purview over official doc-
uments and personnel materials. This initiative remained in effect for about
fifty years, after which commercial directory and gazette publishers regained
control of their operations.
The official push towards surveillance began in the Yongzheng reign, when
the emperor railed against gazette publishers who succumbed to factionalist
influences and printed unverified materials. Later, the Qianlong and Jiaqing
courts suggested limitations on private gazette publishing in reaction to in-
consistencies and mistakes related to the perceived profit-seeking of both the
publishers and their official overseers. For example, late in Qianlong 20 (1756),
the censor Yang Kaiding 楊開鼎 (1736 jinshi) argued that, although gazette
publishers had previously sent their own agents into the palace to copy the
day’s memorials, courier superintendents (zhujing titang 駐京提塘) should
henceforward assume this responsibility and even print the gazettes under
state auspices.47 These surveillance agendas represent a major departure from
the practices of the early Qing, when the state sanctioned private gazette pub-
lishing even as it sought to compel publishers to publish only authenticated
official texts.
In the nineteenth century, the court relaxed its limitations on gazette pub-
lishing and allowed city police forces to take initiative in overseeing commercial
46 In his notes on Qing history, Xu Ke infused elements of Qianlong-era political intrigue
into the history of directory publishing, suggesting that the Board of Appointments’ as-
sertion of direct control had been a result of Heshen’s coveting and scheming to control
the profits earned by commercial directory publishers. Xu Ke, Qingbai leichao, 1264.
47 For more on this history, see Emily Mokros, ‘Communications, empire, and authority in
the Qing gazette’, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation (Johns Hopkins University, 2016). See
also Shi Yuanyuan, Qing qianzhongqi xinwen chuanbo shi (Fuzhou: Fujian renmin chu-
banshe, 2008), 56-9.
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