源远流长的中华文明孕育了特色鲜明的中国书业，一定程度上，中国书业形成发展的历史便是中华文明的缩影。中华文明是世界上唯一一个从未中断过的文明形态，书业作为一种知识积累和文化传播的重要活动，在传承和传播中华文明的过程中发挥了极为重大的作用。数千年来，中华文明以书籍为载体，在世界广为传播，促成了亚洲儒家文明圈的形成，在世界文明的发展中发挥了巨大的作用。

The time-honored Chinese civilization has nurtured the distinctive Chinese publishing industry. To some extent, its formulation and development mimics that of Chinese civilization. Chinese civilization is unique in the world in its continuity. As a significant activity of knowledge accumulation and cultural inheritance, publishing has contributed greatly to the spread and inheritance of Chinese civilization. In the past thousands of years, Chinese civilization has spread all over the world with books as carriers and has taken a significant part in the development of world culture by constructing the Asian Confucianism civilization circle.

Preface: Three-thousand-year History of Books in China

A Long-standing and Well-established History

 The Origin of Chinese Characters

 The Appearance of Books and Compilations

 From Oracle Bone to Paper: Media of Ancient Books

 The Evolution of Publishing

Classical Ancient Books

 Selected Content and Editing Format of Ancient Books

 Printing and Transcription: Reproduction of Ancient Publications

 Common Development and Prosperity--Five Major Publishing Systems

 From Bamboo Strips to Stitched Binding: The Ancient Art of Bookbinding and Layout

The Course of Inheritance

 Bibliophiles and Book-collecting House

 Effective Ways to Protect Books

 The CirCulation of the Ancient Books

Crystallization of Chinese Culture

 The Thirteen Confucian Classics

 The History of the Twenty-five Dynasties

 Yongle Encyclopedia

 The Compendium of Works of the Past and the Present ii6

 Siku Quanshu and Revised Continuation of Siku Quanshu

 Poetry Anthologies of People from the Tang Dynasty:

  Complete Collection of Tang Poetry and Three Hundred

  Tang Poems

 Anthology of Ci of People from the Song Dynasty: Complete Collection of Song Ci

 Collections ofYuan Qu: The Complete Collection of Yuan Sanqu and The Anthology of Yuan Qu

 Novels in the Ming and Qing Dynasty: "Four Great Classical

  Novels" and "Three Collections and Short Stories"

 Encyclopedia of China

The Progressive Vicissitude

 The Introduction and Application of Mechanical

  Printing

 The Rise of New Publishing Houses

 The Emergence of New Publications

 The Social Transition Promoted by New Publishing

Carrying forward the Cause and Forging into the Future

 The Scale of Publication has Enlarged Yearly and Publishing

  Strength Increased Quickly

 Publishing Technology Advances and the Rapid Development

  of Digital Publishing.

 The Commercialization of Publishing System Speeds up in

  an Improving Legal Environment.

 Publication Talent Groups have Enlarged with Remarkable

  Accomplishments in Professional Education and

  Research

 Publishing Industries in Mainland of China, Taiwan, Hong

  Kong and Macao have Bloomed, Forming the Pattern of

  Diversity in Unity for Chinese-language Publishing

Road of Books

 The Spread of Papermaking Technique

 The Spread of Printing in Other Countries

 Exchanges between Domestic and Foreign Books

 Intensive Exchange of Publishing between Home and Abroad

  in Modern Times

 Copyright Trade and International Exchange in Publishing

  Industry in Contemporary Times

Appendix I: A Brief Chronicle of China's Publishing Events

Appendix II: Chronological Table of the Chinese Dynasties