明末“画本”的兴盛与市场

明末以后,有别于以往仅作为文字附属品的插图,以绘画为主体的纯画本开始大量刊行,我们可以看到《历代古人像赞》、《明状元图考》、《金陵图咏》、《唐诗画谱》等各个领域的画本实例。在中国, 插图本原被认为是通俗之作,多数书籍都仅以文字构成。因此,书籍中开始添加插图,后来甚至出现以绘画为主的书籍,这可说是中国书籍史上的一个大转变。这个转变确实可视为原本属于文人士大夫阶层的“雅”的书籍之通俗化。早期刊行的插图本,如元代的《全相平话》等,便是以通俗市场为取向的。然而,细察明末刊行的画本,则可见在当时版画技巧提升的背景下,出现了水平相当高的“雅”的作品。这些作品都锁定水平较高的读者市场而出版。但从另一个角度观察,在读者的定位上,相较于不借助绘画的帮助也能够鉴赏诗词的读者而言,《唐诗画谱》、《诗馀画谱》等可以说是较低层次的或以所谓中间层读者为取向的出版物。因此,对于明末的书籍市场而言,大众化(通俗化)与精英化(雅化)的两个层面都有考虑的必要。画本与此类在晚明出现的新兴读者有很密切的关系,两者之间是相辅相成的。

The Rise of Picture Books in the Late Ming Dynasty and Its Background

After the late Ming Dynasty,unlike the illustrations being merely accessories of writings in the past,pure″picture books″t hat mainly consisted of pictures began to be published widely . We can see such examples in the various fields,like Lidai Guren Xiangzan,Ming Zhuangyuan Tukao,Jinling Tuyong,Tangshi Huapu,etc . In China,books with illustrations had been regarded as vulgar and most of the books consisted merely of words .Therefore,thefact that illustrations began to be added to books and there even appeared books containing mainly pictures later on suggests a big change in the history of Chinese books . This change can certainly be regarded as thepopularization of the″refined″books that formerly belonged to theliteraticlass . Books with illustrations published in earlier times,such as Quanxiang Pinghua in the Yuan Dynasty,were intended for the common people . However,if we examine the picture books published in the late Ming Dynasty,we can find″refined″works of very high level with the development of the engraving techniques at that time . These works were all intended to cater for a high-level reader market .Nonetheless,observed fromanother angle,readers of Tangshi Huapu and Shiyu Huapucanalsobe said to belower-level readers,or middle-level readers,incomparison with readers who were able to appreciate poetry without help of illustrations . Therefore,concerning the book market in the late Ming Dynasty,it is necessary to take into consideration both layers of popularization (vulgarization) and gentrification (refinement) .″Picture books″h ad a very close connection with such newly emerged readers in the late Ming Dynasty .