The History of Book Binding Design

There is no word "binding" in China ancient books, but binding, that is, the floorboard of artistic design and craft production. Sun Qingzeng, a bibliophile in the Ming Dynasty, discussed the art of binding in the Book Collection Summary: "Binding is not about gorgeous decoration, but about appropriateness, elegance, appropriate thickness and exquisiteness, which is the first." In other words, the principle of book binding is to protect the integrity of books and make the reading function and aesthetic requirements dialectical and unified, which is by no means a simple gorgeous decoration. This principle still has practical significance for modern book binding.

1, simple form (bamboo slips)

Jane Eyre, the earliest book form in China. Bamboo books, which began in the Zhou Dynasty (1 1 century BC) and flourished in the Qin and Han Dynasties (3rd-2nd century BC), were called simplified books by the ancients, and wooden books were called editions.

Three methods of binding silk books

At present, there are three kinds of silk book binding: folding, which is mainly used for large-scale silk painting; Packed, the pages of this silk book are basically the same area and are rectangular. After writing, arrange the leaves in order and put them in a square box. The significance of this kind of binding is that it completely breaks away from the traditional habit of making bamboo slips into a book and rolling them up for collection, thus creating conditions for the gradual transition of China ancient books to book leaf system. Rolled up, this silk book still imitates the simple book and connects all the pages into a long strip, and then rolls up. Because the silk book is soft, it is not convenient to roll it up directly, so people stick a small slat or stick on the left end of the silk book and roll it up for collection. Watch some silk paintings. Stick a reed pole on the top of the silk paintings as a shaft and tie a thread in the middle to hang it.

2. Rolling form

It appeared in the Six Dynasties and was widely distributed in the Sui and Tang Dynasties (4th century to10th century). The scroll is made of silk or paper. Four main parts: roller, shaft, dart and belt.

3. Folding and whirlwind loading (transitional form from scroll loading to album loading)

Late Tang Dynasty (9th century AD)

After folding, the long paper is folded into many connected rectangles.

Cyclone installation, folded books with wooden boards in front and back.

Some folded Buddhist scriptures in the Song and Yuan Dynasties were obviously different from those in the Ming and Qing Dynasties: a book cover was installed at the front of the book in the Song Dynasty and at the end of the book in the Yuan Dynasty. The width of the book cover was more than twice that of the book, and the whole book was wrapped from the left and right directions respectively. Japanese scholar Han said in the book Textual Research on Ancient Books that it is probably this kind of binding. He thought that this was what Zhang Bangji called "whirlwind leaf" in "Mo Zhuang Man Lu". Because of his unclear narration, according to his explanation of the whirlwind leaf, later generations decided that the right side of the folded book was wrapped with the cover of a whole book, and the binding of the head and tail of the book was the whirlwind binding of China ancient books.

4. Album form

Originated in the Five Dynasties and extended to the Ming and Qing Dynasties (A.D. 10 century to the beginning of the 20th century), papermaking and printing were important conditions to promote the development of books.

5, butterfly dress, a plate is a page, the page is folded back, so that the center of the plate is inward and the mouth is outward. The folded mouth is stuck together on a piece of hard paper with a back, and sometimes silk is used as the cover fabric. When it is turned over, it spreads its wings like a butterfly, hence the name.

6, Bao Beizhuang, similar to the current paperback.

Thread-bound, instead of wrapping the whole book, is divided into a front cover and a back cover, with no spine. Cut the upper and lower parts together with the spine with a knife, punch holes and thread to make a book.

7. Modern book forms

Paperback, hardcover and multimedia CDs.