Chinese traditional bookbinding a study of its evolution and techniques by Edward Martinique

Part of the Studies in East Asian Librarianship series (and the Asian Library series Taipei). The book looks at Chinese traditional booking binding. Edward Martinique has a career I'd like to follow, he did an MA in Chinese and Chinese literature and then an MA in East Asian Librarianship and worked as the East Asian Librarian in a US university.

The book looks at the history of the development of changes in the format of books, and the development of flat books (largely inspired through Buddhism) in the Tang dynasty. Martinique goes into great detail about the processes and methods used in binding. In particular he saw Buddhism and the unity of China as leading to development in book binding styles.

It is notable that this book was published in 1983, as such he makes no reference to the books discovered at Mawangdui and instead makes much use of the Tunhuang manuscripts for his examples.

There is a very interesting section on the preservation of books in Ancient China. The sap of the Amur Cork tree was used as an Insecticide since the Han dyanasty. There is also a nice description of recommendations for a home library, how it should be upstairs and well ventalated but not subject to the elements, it even goes so far as to talk about the arrangement of bookcases. There was also a description from a 5th century text (Chia Ssu-hsieh/Jia si-xie 贾思勰Important arts for the people's welfare) about the importance of airing books.

If book rolls are not unrolled (to be aired) after the passing of summer they are sure to be eaten by insects. Between the 15th of the 5th moon and the 20th of the 7th moon, book rolls must be unrolled and rolled three times. This should be done on a clear day, in a spacious room which is airy and cool. They should not be exposed to the sun, for the sun will burn the scrolls, giving them a brown colour moreover scrolls heated by the sun will quickly attract insects. Rainy and humid days should be especially avoided. If you take care of your book rolls in such a way they will last several centuries. (60)

He also discussed how the Chinese could repair books that had been water logged for up to 10 years! It is also worth noting that the boxes, or detachable covers, which protected Chinese books were much more effective than hard European bindings, they led to an increase of life of the book and less wear when reading.

All in all a short, but very interesting book.

中国古代木刻与新兴木刻 Chinese Woodcut by Li Hua

I read the translation of this at St Bride's Library last night. It was a great Foreign Language Press book. It looked at the classical use of Chinese woodcuts in book illustrations from the Tang dynasty to the Qing as well as woodcuts used as New Year prints and political woodcuts from the 20th century (both pre and post 1949). It contained such great passages as:

Ancient and modern woodcuts are two connected inseperatble parts. However, the old belonged to a feudalistic epoch and the modern to an art of revolution (15)

and

The palace editions of woodcut prints were exceedlingly nice, but their content was merely propaganda for the Imperial court, so they were lifeless and hindered the growth of the woodcut

I did love the original illustrations, they were very pretty and depicted many scences from my favorite stories. What surprised me the most was how much I also enjoyed the political ones, they were much more stark but portrayed such real emotion I found them quite moving.

There was also a rather unflattering mention of Aureal Stein and his removal of the Dunhuang documents, "In the year 1907 an Englishman swindled part of the treasure including the Diamond Sutra" (19)

A lovely illustrated book, with a good deal about Lu Xuan and the Communist's fight in the Civil War. The author mentions, with obvious sadness, the time of the Cultural Revolution when woodcuts were considered to be evil. But was glad that once again he was seeing them return to popularity. Unfotunatley he didn't live long enough to see his book translated into English. But it was highly enjoyable.