Book Industry in the Period of Great Prosperity: Early Ming to Mid-Qing Dynasty

The era of Ming and Qing Dynasties was a flourishing period of Chinese feudal society. On the one hand, the social productive capacity reached the highest level in the feudal era and the population increased rapidly. In Hongwu fourteenth year (1381) of Ming Dynasty, population of the whole country was about sixty million (Ming Taizu Shilu 明太祖实录 vol. 140: “the total number of households in the country is 10,654,362, and the population is 59,873,305.”). By the end of the Ming Dynasty, total population of the country reached one hundred and fifty million to two hundred million. By Xianfeng first year (1851) of Qing Dynasty, population of the nation exceeded four hundred and thirty million. On the other hand, with the rapid development of commerce, great changes took place in the social structure as well.