Editions of traditional genealogies in China’s Southern Zhejiang province

Editions of traditional genealogies in China’s Southern Zhejiang province

VINCENT, Clément

Article:

Confucius advocated the practice of ancestor worship cults, and for some Chinese families the edition of traditional genealogies, tracing back to the 13th century, continues to be one of the responses to remembering and honoring ancestors. This article focuses on a specific printing technique that uses wooden movable-type for the editions of genealogies. It is a de-tailed description of the various steps involved in the printing process: type carving, layout / composition of pages, and printing as seen practiced in Dongyuancun, a village in Rui’an township in Zhejiang province, mainland China. Additionally, the examination of past geneal-ogies kept at the Gushan and Zhejiang libraries in Hangzhou shed light on the artistic and ty-pographic value of these editions. However, the making of a genealogy book, its format, pa-per, layout, and kind of characters used, cannot be fully understood without an appreciation of the cultural, social, historical, and religious traditions associated with it.

Confucius advocated the practice of ancestor worship cults, and for some Chinese families the edition of traditional genealogies, tracing back to the 13th century, continues to be one of the responses to remembering and honoring ancestors. This article focuses on a specific printing technique that uses wooden movable-type for the editions of genealogies. It is a de-tailed description of the various steps involved in the printing process: type carving, layout / composition of pages, and printing as seen practiced in Dongyuancun, a village in Rui’an township in Zhejiang province, mainland China. Additionally, the examination of past geneal-ogies kept at the Gushan and Zhejiang libraries in Hangzhou shed light on the artistic and ty-pographic value of these editions. However, the making of a genealogy book, its format, pa-per, layout, and kind of characters used, cannot be fully understood without an appreciation of the cultural, social, historical, and religious traditions associated with it.

Palavras-chave:

DOI: 10.5151/despro-icdhs2016-01_001

Referências bibliográficas

• [1] Mr. Wang Chaohui (王超辉 先生), August, 2009 and October 2012, Dongyuancun, Zhejiang.
• [2] Mrs. Wang Xianzhu (王仙珠), October 2012, Dongyuancun, Zhejiang.
• [3] Mr. Huang Laingping (黃良平), October 2012, Dongyuancun, Zhejiang.
• [4] Mr. Wang Falu (王法炉), Association for movable type printing in the city of Rui’an. October 2012, Dongyuancun, Zhejiang.

Como citar:

VINCENT, Clément; "Editions of traditional genealogies in China’s Southern Zhejiang province", p-1-7. In: Wong, Wendy Siuyi; Kikuchi, Yuko & Lin, Tingyi (Eds.). <strong>Making Trans/National Contemporary Design History [=ICDHS 2016 – 10th Conference of the International Committee for Design History & Design Studies]</strong>. São Paulo: Blucher, 2016.
ISSN 23186968, DOI 10.5151/despro-icdhs2016-01_001