DIAN SHI ZHAI. &
[JIAO Bingzhen.]
Yu zhi geng zhi tu. [Imperially Commissioned Pictures of Tilling and Weaving] - Rice Growing Illustrated; Silk Culture and Manufacture.
In the late 17th century the Kangxi Emperor ordered Jiao Bingzhen to come up with a re-interpretation of ‘Pictures of Tilling and Weaving’ which originally date from the Song Dynasty. Jiao produced a set of 23 pictures for tilling and another 23 for weaving, each of which was accompanied with a commentary and a poem by the Emperor and published together with an introduction by the Imperial Press in 1696. The present is the first reprint and translation using photo-lithography which had recently been introduced at the Dianshizhai publishing house in Shanghai.
The Dianshizhai Lithographic Press was established in 1879 by Ernest Major (1841-1908), a remarkable British media entrepreneur who founded the first Chinese independent newspaper Shenbao in Shanghai in 1872. Dianshizhai was the division responsible for illustrated publications within the Shenbao Publishing House. The Press offered affordable lithographic editions of some of the great classics of Chinese literature. The publications of the Dianshizhai Press were notable not just for their pioneering use of lithography, but also for their striking publisher’s wrappers, often printed in gold on vivid colored silks.