The Historical Evolution of Chinese Book Binding Design (I)

Abstract: This article begins with the development of the publishing industry, the important role of book binding design in the publishing industry, and emphasizes the importance of learning and understanding the history of book binding design. Then, with historical years as the trajectory, the historical evolution of various material forms and book binding design forms for book binding was introduced concisely.

Keywords: book binding design development material form binding form evolution

Book binding design, in the past few people talk about this concept. Nowadays, with the development of the publishing industry and the gradual opening of the publishing market, as well as the continuous emergence of groups and individuals engaged in professional book design, book binding design has been recognized by the world and plays an important role in the development of the publishing industry. . Learning and researching book binding design as an independent art discipline has also been proposed today and has been recognized by everyone. This measure, as proved by facts, has indeed provided a powerful guarantee for the development of social civilization and cultural industries. From the perspective of the development of book binding design, if we want to systematically understand book binding design, we need to first understand its history of development.

When we talk about books, we have to talk about words. Text is the first element of a book. Since China’s Shang Dynasty, more mature texts have appeared—Oracle. From the perspective of Oracle's scale and classification, the seeds of books have already appeared at that time. In the Zhou Dynasty, Chinese culture entered its first period of booming. Various schools and doctrines emerged in an endless stream, forming a situation of contending with one another. Books as text carriers have appeared a lot. During the Zhou dynasty, Oracle had developed to the Jinwen and Shiguwen. Later, with the gradual development of the social economy and culture, the evolution of characters such as Daxu, Xiaoyan, Lishu, cursive script, regular script, and running script was completed. The material and form of the book also gradually developed. perfect.

(A) Oracle bone

Through archaeological discovery, a large number of carved tortoise shells and animal bones have been unearthed in the “Yin Hui” in Henan. This is the earliest material that has been discovered as a text carrier in China. Engraved characters are longitudinally arranged. The number of characters in each column is different. All of them are determined by the shape of the bones. As the oracle bone types have not been standardized, the strokes of the characters have been greatly varied, and the size of the lettering has been varied. Therefore, it is difficult to achieve horizontal orientation. Later, although there were also textual characterizations on pottery, rocks, bronze wares, and stone tablets, they were far from books, so they did not go into details. Around the year 2500 BC, ancient Egyptians engraved letters on stone tablets and called them inscriptions. The Babylonians engraved the text on clay-made plates and burned the clay plates into books.

(b) jade version

In the Han Feizi Yu Lao, there are “Zhou Youyu version”, and according to archaeological findings, the Zhou Dynasty has already used the high-grade jade material to write or engrave the text. Because of its expensive materials, the amount is not very large, and it is mostly the upper class. Supplies.

(c) Bamboo slips

The earliest carrier of Chinese regular books was bamboo and wood. Bamboo is processed into uniform bamboo pieces, placed on a fire to bake, and the moisture in the bamboo pieces is evaporated to prevent the insects from becoming wormy and deformed. Then the characters are written on bamboo pieces. This is bamboo slips. Bamboo slips are then linked by leather ropes into a "book," which they call "a simple policy." This binding method has become a relatively complete form of early book binding, and it already has the basic form of modern book binding. There is also the use of wooden slips in the same way as bamboo slips.牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍 牍In "Books and Toasts", they say that "only the ancestors, there are books and books," from the perspective of the materials used and the forms of use, they are the main writing instruments before paper appears and are used in large quantities. The title of the book probably began with the simplicity of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Today's book terms, as well as the writing format and production methods, are also traditions inherited from the period of primitive simplicity. At that time, Europe was an ancient manuscript and most of the materials used were leaves and bark. Due to the ages, bamboo materials are difficult to preserve for a long time, so now it is difficult for us to see ancient books. It is also a rare and comprehensive strategy for museums. At present, some publishers imitate classic classics such as "The Art of War" and "Historical Records" produced by ancient Jianze policy. They are often used as gifts or for collections, and are not popular reading materials. Even so, as a form of book binding design, understanding one or two is also very necessary, which is conducive to learning and drawing on excellent traditional culture and techniques.

(to be continued)