Why was printing of textbooks sponsored by the Imperial State

Print Culture and Modern World (10)

Why was printing of textbooks sponsored by the Imperial State in China?

Answer

Vast number of printing textbooks were required for the recruitment of huge number of bureaucratic personnel through civil service examination in China.

The imperial state in China was the major producer of printed material. China possessed a huge bureaucratic system which recruited its personnel through civil service examinations. Textbooks for this examination were printed in vast numbers under the sponsorship of the imperial state. From the sixteenth century, the number of examination candidates went up and that increased the volume of print.

Exam Year: 2019