History of Chinese newspapers
Encyclopedia
Terminology
Bao zhiTerminology
Bao zhi ( means newspaper. In this context, bao means to announce, inform or report; zhi simply means paper.News in ancient history
The historic roots of Chinese languageChinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
periodicals goes back to the Spring and Autumn Annals
Spring and Autumn Annals
The Spring and Autumn Annals is the official chronicle of the State of Lu covering the period from 722 BCE to 481 BCE. It is the earliest surviving Chinese historical text to be arranged on annalistic principles. The text is extremely concise and, if all the commentaries are excluded, about 16,000...
, and traces through more than a thousand years of tipao
Tipao
Tipao , literally "reports from the [official] residences", were a type of publications issued by central and local governments in imperial China. While closest in form and function to gazettes in the Western world, they have also been called "palace reports" or "imperial bulletins"...
, including Kaiyuan Za Bao
Kaiyuan Za Bao
Kaiyuan Za Bao, or Kaiyuan Chao Pao, Bulletin of the Court, was an official publication which first appeared in the 8th century, during the Kaiyuan era. Its main subscribers were imperial officials. Every day the political news and domestic news were collected by the editors, and the writers...
and the Peking Gazette
Peking Gazette
Peking Gazette was a publication of the Chinese imperial court dating back to the Tang dynasty in the 8th century, and issued almost every day from then until 1912, soon after the last Qing Dynasty fell and republican China was born....
.
The proper newspaper was introduced relatively late in the Far East, as a result of Western influence and the adoption of the printing press
Printing press
A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium , thereby transferring the ink...
:
Newspapers of the last century including today's newspapers of the People's Republic of China, Chinese newspapers overseas, and earlier papers such as Shen Bao
Shen Bao
Shen Bao, formerly transliterated as Shun Pao or Shen-pao , known in English as Shanghai News, was a newspaper published from April 30, 1872 to May 27, 1949 in Shanghai, China...
, Xin Wen Bao, Zi Lin Xi Hu Bao, also draw upon other influences in the history of newspapers.
News in modern times
The first reference to privately published news sheets in China is in 1582 in BeijingBeijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, during the late Ming Dynasty
Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
;
See also
Newspapers of the People's Republic of China#History- List of the earliest newspapers