Mapping the Printing of Sino-European Intercultural Books in China (1582–c.1823)

Abstract

This article focusses on the production of Sino-European intercultural books in China from the late Ming until the mid-Qing (1582–c.1823). It seeks to answer questions such as: where were the Sino-European books printed? How did the printing places evolve over time? And which factors influenced this evolution? It does so by investigating the private publishing places of these books, which have been referred to as ‘tang printing’ (tangke 堂刻) or more specifically ‘church printing’ (jiaotang ke 教堂刻). By using historical and geospatial data visualization, this article locates, maps, and analyses the production centres of Sino-European books over the course of more than two centuries. It further puts the evolution of this industry in the context of the available printing techniques, the social actors, and the relevant socio-political changes. This investigation shows that the technology of woodblock printing and the flexibility and elasticity of the labour force made the expansion of publishing Sino-European texts relatively easy. As will be discussed below, the regional spread of printing centres over the course of time was determined by internal factors linked to social actors, such as the number of European missionaries and their productivity, and by socio-political external factors, such as periods of persecution and exile. After delineating the printed artefacts that are used for this research, this article establishes a historical and geospatial narrative of the development of this intercultural ‘book world’, visualizing its evolution through digital humanities methods. In doing so, it gives unique insight into the printing history of the early Sino-European encounter in China.