China's publishing industry has a long history. As early as more than 3,000 years ago, primitive books appeared in the slave society of Yin and Shang Dynasties, and there was editing work in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. At that time, many Confucian classics were compiled and edited. After the invention of block printing in Tang Dynasty, private publishing houses appeared. Imperial academy and Xingwen Department, official engraving institutions in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, had full-time officials, editors, proofreaders, engravers and printers, which were the embryonic form of the later press and printing bureau. In the Ming dynasty, the national publishing institutions had carved books in different categories (such as Duchayuan, Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Ritual, Ministry of War and other state organs also managed book engraving); Compared with Song and Yuan Dynasties, local publishing institutions have developed. All provinces have chief secretaries and governors who engrave books, and many prefectures and counties also publish books and local chronicles. In the early Qing Dynasty, the way of publishing books in the Ming Dynasty was changed, and the official inscriptions were centralized and unified in the Wuying Hall of the royal family. Seal cutting workshop is a handicraft seal cutting institution operated by ordinary booksellers. Appeared in the Tang Dynasty, flourished in the Song Dynasty and became an important force in book publishing. In the Song Dynasty, bookstores were found in major cities in China, with Hangzhou and Jianyang being the most developed. There were more square engravings than official engravings in the Yuan Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, there were book-engraving workshops all over the country, including medical books, custom books, novels and operas. Fangke in Qing Dynasty was more prosperous. In addition to official engraving and workshop engraving, there is also a private engraving, also called family engraving, which is a privately funded school magazine book. These people try their best to select excellent rare books and carefully revise and reprint them. Generally, they are of high quality, and many of them have become "rare books" handed down from generation to generation.

After the Opium War, with the introduction of western printing equipment, the Mohai Library run by foreign missionaries was moved from Singapore to Shanghai in 1843. The Wentong Pavilion (1862) and the Translation Pavilion of Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau (1868) founded by the Qing government began to compile books. Commercial Press (1897), Wen Ming Bookstore (1902), Zhonghua Bookstore (19 12), Yadong Library (19 13), Taitung Bookstore (.

After the May 4th Movement, the publishing industry in China began to undergo great changes. Publishing organizations under the leadership of producers of China * * * ─ People's Publishing House (192 1.9), Shanghai Bookstore (1923. 1 1), Changjiang Bookstore (1926. A large number of private publishing enterprises, such as Huaxia Bookstore, Guanghua Bookstore and Ming Kai Bookstore, jointly edited and published books with the famous Commercial Press, Zhonghua Bookstore, Life Bookstore, Reading Publishing House and Knowledge Bookstore led by the producers of * * * under difficult conditions. By 1949, there are more than 200 public and private book publishers in China. In the early days of the People's Republic of China, Xinhua Bookstore had three tasks: publishing, printing and distribution. From 65438 to 0950, the second working meeting of Xinhua Bookstore made the Decision on Specialization of Division of Labor and Adjustment of Public-Private Relations in State-owned Books and Periodicals Publishing and Printing Enterprises. Since then, publishing, printing and distribution have been managed separately. At the end of the same year, there were 2 1 1 publishing houses in China, including 6 central, 2 1 local and 84 private. By the end of 1956, it was reduced to 10 1 after joint venture adjustment. Over the past 30 years, especially after 1978, China's publishing industry has made great progress to meet the needs of socialist construction. By the end of 1987, there were 467 book publishing houses in China. There are 24 book publishing houses that run audio-visual publications concurrently, and 72 publishing houses that specialize in audio-visual publications (see People's Republic of China (PRC) Publishing House).