Although the popularization of printed matter was a hallmark of the early modern period throughout the world, the consequences often attributed to the development of print in Europe—increased output of reading material and altered reading styles; a standardization of intellectual life that led to the awareness of regional and intellectual differences; a new critical attitude toward text and information; new modes of collecting and organizing data; and a new fixity of textual transmission and the emergence of a new public arena of discourse—were hardly universal, nor did they appear in a universal sequence. In China, these characteristics, importantly, emerged not in decades or even over a century, but were spread out over several centuries. The consequences of print development assumed to be necessary in Europe proved to be contingent in China, and the history of print development in China requires a rethinking of the logic of print development everywhere. In this richly researched and eminently readable series of essays, Joseph R. McDermott explores the appearance and ascendance of the imprint in China, and the long tradition of literati book collecting in the late imperial period. Marked by both common sense and thoughtful articulation, McDermott's formulations will surely form a foundation for ongoing studies in this important field.

McDermott begins with the irony that although East Asians were the earliest printers in the world, they never claimed to have invented printing. Carving the woodblocks for printed materials was artisans’ work, which Chinese literati did not write about. Nonetheless, beginning with the production of Buddhist charms, carvers grew ever more sophisticated. Volume increased particularly during the Song dynasty, in part because of the growth in demand for books, written about by Lucille Chia, and in part because of a standardization of calligraphic style that made the carver's life easier.

While McDermott and Chia agree on the growth of imprints in the Song, they disagree on the importance that printed matter had during the dynasty. Chia argues that the printers of Jianyang and others like them effectively popularized the imprint. McDermott argues that the imprint did not replace the manuscript, at least in the catalogues of elite libraries, during the Song dynasty. Citing library catalogues, literati complaints about the availability of important texts, and accounts of the journeys that important intellectuals would take to search for texts, McDermott shows that the Song elite did not yet assume that their textual needs could be met by the printing press.

McDermott's examples, which draw on very broad readings, are telling, though some caveats may be raised. Convinced that a golden age existed in the past, China's literati were unlikely to boast of progress; they preferred to lament the inaccessibility of the past. Moreover, the absence of imprints on library lists does not mean they did not exist; rather, the elite simply did not boast of them. Both McDermott and Chia acknowledge that the hard numbers necessary to assess the significance of the Jianyang publishing industry in the Song probably will never be available. But both argue that in the years following the Song, during the Yuan and early Ming, printing declined significantly.

Perhaps most telling, as McDermott argues in his last two chapters, the production of imprints had little impact on elite book collecting, which faced serious obstacles throughout the late imperial period. In China, as in Europe, few accessible and reliable repositories of classical texts could be found. Government collections were accessible only to the rulers and their close associates, and they were susceptible to damage by fire and warfare. Private collections were equally vulnerable and also subject to the additional danger of partible inheritance and the vagaries of children who did not share their fathers' bibliographic passion. Private collections had very strict rules of access, which made copying and even consulting difficult by those who did not belong to an “oligarchy of letters.” McDermott's fine collection of anecdotal and narrative accounts makes clear why scholars welcomed the enormous collection and copying project that resulted in the “Complete Library of the Four Treasuries,” which made texts available to scholars with credentials. Regrettably, however, this project was accomplished just before a wealth of new texts, ideas, and methods of reproduction flooded China, making the serious intellectual's lot much more complicated.

In his concluding chapter, McDermott notes that the argument of his book narrows as the chapters progress. His early chapters take up the impact of imprints on Song literate society; his later chapters focus on the collecting of rare and fine editions. The later chapters draw on a wide reading of elite sources, and in this respect, they are quite valuable. But one wishes that McDermott had continued his focus on the impact of printing on the social character of literati communities; indeed, the imprint appears to have made its greatest cultural and social impact on the later Ming. The advent of cheap printing appears to have shaped literati life in the Ming significantly, though perhaps not elite book collecting, possibly even laying the foundation for a new sort of scholarly community in the Qing.