Book disaster means manmade damages to official collecting books in ancient China. As early as in Sui Dynasty, Niu Hong had the view of “Five Disasters”: the first was “Burning books” by Qin Shihuang in the Qin Dynasty; the second “Chimei” rebellion army entering the Central Plains at the end of West Han Dynasty; the third “Dongzhuo shifting capital” in Three Kingdoms Period, the fourth Liu (Liu Yuan) and Shi(Shi Le)’s Rebellion in Northern and Southern Dynasties; the fifth “Burning books” in Jiangling by Emperor Yuan of Liang in the Sothern Dynasty. Later, in the Ming Dynasty, Hu Yinglin added another five on to it, and they were: the sixth was “Burning books” in Jiangdu at the end of the Sui Dynasty; the seventh “the An Lushan Rebellion”in Tang Dynasty; the eight “Huangchao entering Chang’an”at the end of the Tang Dynasty; the ninth “the Humiliation of Jingkang” in Nor th Song Dynasty; the tenth the destruction of the Song Dynasty by Mongolia. These ten are called “Ten Disasters.”
First, the scale of the publishing industry is enlarging with the great enhancement of publishing strength. In 1950, there were 211 publishing houses in China and 12,153 kinds of books with the total printing runs of 275 million volumes in the same year. However, in 2007, there were 578 publishing houses and 248,283 kinds of books with the total runs of 6.293 billion volumes.
According to predictions in A study on the system of development index of publishing industry in a welloff society by the China Institute of Publishing Science, the added value of the Chinese publishing industry would reach RMB800 billion by 2020, accounting to 1.9–2.0% of GDP, and the types of books would be 300,000 with total press runs of 8.198 billion volumes.
Second, publishing technology is developing daily and digital publishing is booming. Combining computer technology with Chinese character printing, Chinese character laser phototypesetting technique helps the Chinese printing industry end its history of lead and fire and step into a period of light and electricity. Meanwhile, featured by single volume as the minimal number and the goal to meet personalized requirements, printing on demand (POD) has become a new starting point. The development of digital technology is influencing the Chinese publishing industry profoundly. Today’s Chinese publishing market mainly consists of paper, online and mobile phone publication forms.
Third, the transition of commercialization in publishing system speeds up and the law system of publishing improves. The development of new technology and the Chinese market going global are changing the development model of Chinese publishing. Due to the changes taking place in the news and publishing, most publishing institutions are becoming modern companies consistent with the development of modern company culture.
In the field of circulation, publishing channels such as nonstate-operated bookshops, online bookshops and reader clubs are rising. In the field of publishing educational research, higher education for and research on edition and publication in China have developed from nil and from small to large. With constant improvement of the legal system affecting the press and publications, the legal system framework centering on the Copyright Law has preliminarily taken shape and the law enforcement system for judicial and administrative protection has been formulated.
