First, according to word of mouth, paper was not invented in the pre-Qin and Western Han Dynasties, and books were generally carved on bamboo slips or written on cloth. Books made of bamboo slips are heavy and inconvenient to carry, while books made of cloth and silk are convenient to carry, but the cost is very expensive.

Therefore, at that time, books could not be owned by ordinary people, and there was no special bookstore in society. At that time, books were mainly circulated by word of mouth, that is, the predecessors recited the contents of the books and then passed them on to future generations.

Second, the earliest way of copying in bookstores in China began in the Western Han Dynasty. Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty implemented the policy of "ousting hundreds of schools and respecting the Six Classics alone", there has been a great demand for Confucian classics and books that must be read for fame.

At that time, books were mostly made of bamboo and wood. In order to get books, scholars can only borrow books from others at first, and mainly use them for their own reading, not for trading. Later, a book trading market for exchanging classic manuscripts gradually appeared.

According to the Records of Arts and Literature, Chang 'an Imperial College has a book trading market at the beginning and middle of each month, where students can buy and sell classics. At first, only business students wanted to exchange the goods they needed. Later, it developed into someone copying books for sale, and books began to become a commodity.

3. Reciting Books With the increasing demand and supply of books, bookstores specializing in selling books have emerged. Yang Xiong, a famous writer in the Western Han Dynasty, said in his book The Eye of Law: "Good books are not in Zhong Ni, but also in books." A bookstore is a bookstore, which means that you like writing books but don't focus on Confucius' theory. Just like a bookstore, there are all kinds of books in it. This is the earliest record of a bookstore in the current literature.

With the development of society and the increasing prosperity of commerce, some emerging commercial cities began to appear in the Han Dynasty, which created conditions for the development of bookstores. In addition, papermaking appeared in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Since paper is cheap and easy to write and carry, there are more paper books, and then there are more bookstores everywhere.

It is clearly recorded in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty that when Wang Chong, a thinker in the Eastern Han Dynasty, was young, "his family was poor and had no books, so he often traveled to Luoyang and read the books he sold, so he learned from many people." In other words, Wang Chong was poor in his early years and could not afford books. He often visited the bookstore in Luoyang, saw the book he wanted, read it once and remembered it, and finally became a learned man.