Tongwen Shuju (1882 – 1899), 同文書局 or sometimes 同文書會, the Combined Learning Publishing House, was the first Chinese owned and operated Lithographic book publisher in China, credited for China’s lithographic ‘golden age’ (1876 - 1905). Established in Gunagxu 8 or 1882, the firm was founded by the wealthy merchant Xu Run (徐润, 1838 – 1911) and Xu Hongfu (徐鸿复) printed books and broadsheets in lithograph. Xu Run was impressed with British publishers active in Shanghai and wanted to duplicate their printing success. He purchased 12 large rotary lithograph presses and established an office in Shanghai that employed nearly 500 workers. Their publications included printed of Chinese classical texts, western texts, missionary materials, broadsides, and official documents. Their offices were destroyed by fire in 1893, leading to the loss of much of their equipment. Xu Run, who also established the first insurance service in Shanghai, had the business well insured and they consequently quickly recovered. It continued to print until 1898 or 1899. More by this mapmaker...

London Missionary Society Press (1842 – 1889), known in Chinese as 墨海書館, was a British-Chinese missionary publishing house active in Qing Shanghai during the second half of the 19th century. The press was founded by missionaries Walter Henry Medhurst (1796 – 1857), William Muirhead and William Lockhart (1811 – 1896) in 1842. Shortly afterwards they were joined by Joseph Edkins, and William Charles Milne. The firm is considered to be the earliest modern printing establishment in Shanghai and the first to introduce western-style Chinese-language printing. It is said their first presses were giant iron contraptions run by a belt that traveled through a hole in the wall where it was driving by concealed oxen walking in circles. The Society Press focused on publishing western religious and moral works in Chinese, as well as Chinese-English crossover works. The organization ceased printing on its own account in 1873, but continued to publish work by contracting other local printers until about 1890. Learn More...

Joseph Edkins (December 19, 1823 – April 23, 1905), known in Chinese as Ai Dijin 艾迪瑾 or Ai Yuese 艾約瑟, was a British Protestant missionary and Sinologist who published many works on the Chinese language and Chinese religion. He was involved with several key institutions of 19th century Chinese history, including the London Missionary Society and the Imperial Maritime Customs Service, and he was one of several missionaries in Shanghai who visited the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom based in Nanjing to determine the nature of their self-proclaimed Christian faith. Many of Edkins' books were reference works, including dictionaries, encyclopedias, catalogs, etc. Learn More...