General Situation of Social Environment and Printing Development in Modern Times

The development of any major process technology in history has its own inheritance and continuity. New and advanced process technologies always accompany the development of science and technology and advance on the basis of old and backward technology. Evolution. Printing is no exception.

The invention of Chinese printing, after a long period of thousands of years of evolution after passing through the source period and the ancient period as a basic feature of handcrafting, was transmitted to various parts of the world, to the eighteenth and ninth century, after the European Renaissance, the industrial revolution. With the formation of an industrial system centered on power, machinery, metallurgy, optics, chemistry, electrical appliances, and textiles and papermaking in the modern era, the printing industry and its printing industry have also achieved epoch-making and breakthrough progress. Manipulation is a new era in the history of printing development that is the main feature.

Because modern western printing was developed on the basis of the ancient printing techniques introduced from China and based on manual operations, people often regarded it as the “grandchildren” of traditional Chinese printing. This "grandson", with the cultural exchanges between China and the West, and more precisely, with the missionary activities of Western Christians and Western aggression against China, has returned to its hometown. It was this reversion that directly led to the development of science and culture and the major economic and social changes in China's modern history for more than one hundred years. China’s printing and printing industries have also entered a new historical period and played an extremely important role in China’s social transformation.

The return of Western modern printing is far more rapid than that of ancient Chinese printing. China's engraved printing was not transmitted to Europe until 600 years after it was invented and used to imprint books. The type of lead alloy movable type that was created by Gutenberg was 400 years later than Bi Shou's invention of movable type printing in the Northern Song Dynasty. The return of modern and technically complex Western modern printing was mostly in the 19th century, and most of them were invented and introduced. Obviously, this was facilitated by the fact that the rapidly developing capitalist commerce, the struggle of the western capitalist powers, the expansion of their sphere of influence, and the division of the world, and the fact that almost the entire world was involved in the whirlpool of capitalism.

The First Section of Modern Printing Technology Introduced into the Former World Political, Economic and Cultural Situation

I. Predatory expansion of imperialism

About a century before Western modern printing was introduced into China, the bourgeois revolution was first successful in Europe, Britain, France, and North America. Subsequently, the bourgeoisie in Europe, Germany, Russia and other countries also successively seized power. In the 1960s, Britain began the "industrial revolution." The industrial revolution led to a rapid increase in productivity and the rapid development of capitalist commerce. Taking the British Industrial Revolution as an example, in the short span of ten years since the industrial revolution began in 1760, we have completed the invention of various machines such as weaving machines, automatic weaving machines, spinning machines, hydraulic spinning machines, and steam engines. . The invention, application and promotion of these machines further promoted the development of Western capitalist production and caused a series of insurmountable contradictions caused by the shortage of raw materials and overproduction within the Western capitalist countries. In order to seek and expand new raw material bases and merchandise sales markets, the rulers of the bourgeoisie have expanded outward to compete for and expand their sphere of influence. By the early nineteenth century, the northern and southern parts of the African continent, Oceania, the western, central and south-eastern parts of Asia, and even North America’s Canada had successively been invaded and plundered by Western powers, becoming or have begun to become the capitalist powerhouses in Europe and America. Colonial or semi-colonial.

From 1756 to 1763, the British made a decisive victory in the war with France for India, making the British East India Company a joint venture company with a British government chartered company. It quickly became a political organization with large territory, thus laying the foundation for the United Kingdom. Far Eastern expansion and the foundation of colonial rule. The British colonialists, based in India, successively conquered East Africa, Persia, Afghanistan, Burma and Indonesia and other countries or parts; Japan, which is adjacent to China across the sea, has already made North Korea and China its first target of invasion and conquest; The tsarist Russia, which is adjacent to the west and north of China, is even more eye-catching and eagerly awaits and finds the opportunity to invade and plunder China. On the eve of the introduction of Western modern printing techniques into China, the iron hooves of the colonialists not only approached China's gates, but also basically completed the siege of China. An aggressive and anti-aggressive war is imminent, and it is imminent; a weak food is strong and can not bear torment. The tragic pictures and the Chinese heroes and heroes fighting against invasion can be seen in front of the world.

Second, Christians are almost crazy about missionary passion

In the international community, missionary-oriented religious activities between countries are normal cultural exchanges and have existed in ancient times. However, previous missionary activities, such as the introduction of Buddhism in India as the birthplace of Buddhism into China as early as the end of the Western Han Dynasty, was a very natural process of development. Compared with the modern West, it was politically colorful and imperialistic to varying degrees. The Christian, Catholic, and Orthodox churches that have served aggression and expansion have obvious differences in their mission to China. As early as the late seventeenth century, the French government under the dictatorial rule of Louis XIV in the Bourbon Dynasty had meticulously sent its egg-winged and supporting Catholic Jesuits to teach in China. These Catholic Jesuits who were sent to teach in China shouldered the task of serving the French colonialists’ invasion of China. Although missionaries from the Western countries who sent missionaries to China have been employed by the Qing government for the first time and they serve the Qing government on the surface, in reality they seem to be divorced and still remain the vassals of the Western colonialists. For example, at that time, he was the Belgian of Nan Huairen who was at the time of the supervision of the Qing Dynasty Qintian, and the Jesus Church preached teachers. The early Qing Emperor Kangxi preached in China. We can trust the calendar as the holy patriarch Kangxi. Tired official prison supervisor. When the Qing government and the Tsarist Russia negotiated the "Nebhu Treaty" demarcating the eastern border between China and Russia, they wrote a letter to Russia expressing their allegiance to Russia and provided China with confidential Chinese intelligence. There is also Xu Risheng, who serves as an interpreter, because he favored Russia and was appreciated by the tsarist government at that time.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Pope also dispatched three missionary envoys to China. However, the number of missionaries who came to preach in China was not only limited, but also the duration of stay was short. In the early nineteenth century, with the development of Western capitalism and the expansion of foreign expansion, the Christian culture in various countries in the West rose further, and an upsurge of frenzied overseas missionary was created. A group of highly educated college students came to teach in China. Although Western countries practiced the policy of separation of administration and education at that time, the church did not participate in the affairs of the state, but some speculative people in Western political circles, such as some bourgeois politicians and officials in China, are as aggressive and expandable as the East India Company and have economic strength. For the purpose of aggression and expansion, enterprises and societies put forward the idea of ​​instilling Western culture in China through means of teaching and education. They have adopted various methods to influence missionary activities in an attempt to allow missionary activities to serve their colonial expansion policies. . Because at that time, from the point of view of missionary work, or from the perspective of economic and trade, for the Western capitalist countries, China, with its vast territory and vast territory and large population, has a huge appeal. In this social environment, the missionaries from the West came to Japan day by day and reached a climax in the late 19th century. According to incomplete statistics, during the 50 years from 1868 to 1918, there were as many as 2,500 missionaries dispatched to the United States alone. The passion of Western missionaries to teach in China has almost reached the level of madness.

III. China's Closed China

China is not only an ancient civilization with a history of 5,000 years of civilization, but also a vast country with vast land, abundant resources, and abundant resources. From the 221 BC when the First Emperor Qin Shi Huang killed six countries, unifying China and setting up the first centralized feudal empire in Chinese history, it had been for nearly two thousand years since the late Ming and early Qing dynasty of the 17th century AD. Although the feudal society based on the small-scale peasant economy has changed, the dynasties have maintained close political and economic exchanges with neighboring neighboring countries. Even distant Africa and Europe have frequent exchanges through the sea and the Silk Road. It is these frequent exchanges that have strengthened economic and cultural exchanges between countries and promoted mutual development. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, with the development of western capitalism, the bourgeoisie in some European and American countries seized power, rapid development of science and technology, and rapid economic and cultural progress led to the rise of Western powers, and gradually to other countries and even thousands of miles away in China. expansion. The Manchu dynasty, which was just established, adopted and gradually strengthened its policy of closing the country and reducing economic and cultural exchanges with western countries in order to resist and get rid of intrusions from Western powers. This policy ended in the failure of the Opium War in 1840. Followed by the Western powers on China's weak meat, eating, quarrying and plundering, making China a semi-feudal semi-colonial situation.

1. The origins of closed-door locks

As early as the middle of the sixteenth century, western colonialists, after invading Asian countries such as India, began to invade China in the Eastern Fortress and were attacked by Chinese soldiers and civilians at that time. The invading forces of Portugal and the Netherlands that invaded China first were all repulsed by the Ming military and civilians. Afterwards:

In 1603, the Dutch invasion forces occupied Wuhu;

In 1622, the Dutch invading army again invaded Wuhu;

In 1624, the Dutch invasion forces invaded southern Taiwan;

In 1626, the Spanish invasion forces invaded northern Taiwan. The above Dutch and Spanish invaders were all repulsed by the Chinese military and civilians.

In 1637, the British intruders broke into Guangzhou and shelled the Humen Fort, sinking Chinese naval and merchant ships. The first military conflict took place between China and Britain.

In order to cooperate with China’s armed aggression, the West began to send Catholic Jesuits to China to open the gap between Western powers to invade China. These missionaries made use of the advanced science and technology knowledge newly developed in the West, such as astronomy and geography. They gained the trust of the Chinese rulers at that time and gained the opportunity to establish a foothold and teach in China. They built churches everywhere and developed church members. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, Catholicism had spread to 13 provinces throughout the country, and there were as many as 156,000 Christians.

Western colonialists, in addition to direct military incursions and sending Catholics to preach in China, have also used China’s internal military conflicts to support one side and participate directly in China’s civil war in an attempt to gain a foothold in China. In the coming years (1621–1627), more than 400 troops from the Portuguese Army set out from Macao to participate in the Ming Dynasty’s war against the Qing Army. In 1647, Nan Minggui Wang Yongli (1647) led the Roman Catholics Bi Fangluo to take part in the war against Qing. During this period, Bi Fangluo and another missionary Ruan Weiwei also directly participated in the military secret activities of Zhu Yongzheng, the emperor of Nanming Yongli.

Before the Qing Dynasty unified the country, these conflicts with the Western colonialists would inevitably have a direct impact on the establishment of the closed-door policy of the Manchu government against aggression.

2. Establishing a closed-door policy

After the establishment of the Manchu regime. The first task faced is the unification of China's territory. In order to unify China, we must first eliminate and eliminate the forces of Sansei, such as Wu Sangui, from the separatist provinces of Southwest China, and the anti-Qing forces left by former Zheng Chenggong, who is stationed in Taiwan; second, establish consolidation in remote areas such as Tibet, Xinjiang, and Mobei. The third is to eliminate the armed aggression and cultural infiltration of the western colonialists in the coastal areas, mainly in the south. During the more than one hundred years since the Manchu dynasty passed Kangxi to Qianlong, great efforts have been made to achieve the great cause of unifying China. During this time:

In 1681, the Qing Army pacified the Three Kingdoms and unified the southwestern provinces;

In 1683, the Qing troops subdued Zheng Keshuang and unified Taiwan;

From 1690 to 1693, the Qing dynasty Kangxi and his army marched and defeated Galdan.