Helping Our People “to Jointly Hurry Along the Path to Civilization.” The Everyday Cyclopedia, Riyong baike quanshu 日用百科全書

Abstract

The notion that a book should provide people with all the knowledge needed to master everyday life is a rather peculiar one. It presupposes that this knowledge is no longer transmitted through a living tradition within a stable social structure, or that such transmitted knowledge is no longer operative in a new environment and that a book is needed to provide the wherewithal of information for a new everyday.

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Traditional Everyday Knowledge: Questions of Transmission and Practical Relevance

The notion that a book should provide people with all the knowledge needed to master everyday life is a rather peculiar one. It presupposes that this knowledge is no longer transmitted through a living tradition within a stable social structure, or that such transmitted knowledge is no longer operative in a new environment and that a book is needed to provide the wherewithal of information for a new everyday.

The large numbers of poor Europeans emigrating to the New World during the nineteenth century may serve as an example. While many among them settled for an existence in a linguistically and culturally familiar environment with little contact outside, the younger and more outgoing immigrants saw the need for a broad range of new practical knowledge to be functional in their new home, assume middleman or even leadership roles in their communities, and climb the social ladder. William Balch’s (1852–1917) The People’s dictionary and Every-day Encyclopedia, with the subtitle “A hand-book for everybody for each day,”¹ was one of the many books offering to provide this information. These books were not produced by the immigrant communities, but by established US citizens who saw it as their social duty to help with the integration of these newcomers, and were willing to bet that there was a market to reward their labor.

Japan and China were engaged in a radical transition to a Westernized “modernity” at about the same time as the immigration waves came to the US. In East Asia, however, the entire society, not just a segment, faced a situation where significant and growing parts of the political, intellectual, and commercial elite felt that “old” was no longer a suitable or sufficient base for the “new” future of the country. Whether with the support of the state leadership, as in Japan, or without it, as in China, these elites were pushing for a radical makeover of the concepts, institutions, and practices of their country. As these new forms consolidated, everybody became in a way an immigrant in his or her own country without having moved an inch and without being asked whether such ‘immigration’ suited his or her purpose.

These modernizing elites, with their strong orientation towards a shared and global standard of civilization, saw it as their duty to “civilize” their people and secure their break with what they would call the old notions, institutions, and customs. The new knowledge required to meet this standard of civilization ranged from the laws of physics, to recognizing the national flag, to greeting someone with a handshake. To spread it from the literate urban dwellers to the rural elites and through them to the population at large, they were looking to the Western genre of the encyclopaedia of everyday life that had played a similar role. In both Japan and China the first encyclopaedias of new knowledge mostly dealt with in the present volume focused on governance and technical learning and left the field of everyday knowledge to the traditional encyclopaedic works of this kind.² Once new state structures were in place, however, the environment changed dramatically in Japan and China. It did not suffice anymore to have small urban pockets of modernized elites, the entire people had to make the transition to modernity so as to allow the full development of the nation’s potential.

In Japan, The Encyclopaedia for Everyday Use, Nichiyō hyakka zensho 日用百科全書, which had been published since 1895, already indicated with its American-inspired title that the institutions of the new Meiji state had consolidated to a point where the moment had come to spread modernity into everyday life beyond the state and the military, beyond education and manufacture. This Encyclopaedia was published between 1895 and 1900 in about 50 volumes by the main publisher of translations and encyclopedic works, the Hakubunkan 博文館 in Tokyo.³ Comprising one single author and topic each, these volumes introduced everyday modern knowledge on items such as the world’s religions, Japanese and Western public and private social rituals, the basics for setting up a school, different business cultures, ways to conduct trade with foreign countries, but also hands-on guides to agriculture, house building, cultivating fruit trees and vegetables, photography, and physiognomy. Some, like the volumes on music, theater, essay writing, cooking, clothes making, cosmetics, and home management retained a traditional Japanese base to which some Western elements were added, while others like games for entertainment, introductions to fine arts—including painting and calligraphy—and even the article on “the Navy” emphasized contributions from both East and West. This compilation reflects a global perspective with Japanese society appearing confident in the success of its transition to the modern world. The authors, whose personal voices remained present in these texts, seemed to offer personal aid and advice rather than formulating norms. At the same time, these personal voices were also highly opinionated and at times moralistic, in particular when it came to the responsibility of the citizens—both men and women—in building the modern nation.

Many of the later Chinese calls for change ended up being more radical than the Japanese in their rejection of tradition. These voices became dominant after the founding of the Republic in 1912. Convinced that the long-cherished values and habits of its people were the main source of China’s weakness, they pushed for radical change in the everyday lives of the common people. With the publication by the Shanghai Commercial Press, Shangwu yinshuguan 商務印書館, of the Everyday Cyclopedia, Riyong baike quanshu 日用百科全書, in 1919, some 7 years after the founding of the Republic, China also moved into the second stage of encyclopaedia publishing—namely, that of replacing the old encyclopaedias for everyday use with new dispensations.⁴ The work might be seen as an unacknowledged Chinese counterpart to the Hakubunkan set. Its publication in the midst of the New Culture movement in China is no accident.

The Commercial Press was a publishing house that discovered the market potential of modernity in China in all its aspects, from the schoolbook to the women’s journal, and from important Western works in translation to classical Chinese works in careful editions as well as modern Chinese scholarship. It was a commercial enterprise that functioned without subsidies from missionaries or political advocacy groups. The success of its publications, including that of the Everyday Cyclopedia, which by 1925 was in its 13th run, shows that there was a public willingness—a pull—to attain the new knowledge, not just a push from some elite figures.⁵

In this encyclopaedia the agenda of presenting the wherewithal needed for the modern reconfiguration of everyday values and habits is clearly spelled out in the first sentence of the preface of the Riyong baike quanshu with its official English parallel title Everyday Cyclopedia.

The progress made in learning in recent times and the creation of new ideals and new causes calls for our people every day to jointly hurry forward along the path towards civilization (wenming).

近世學術進步, 新理想新事業之發明,日詔吾人以共趨於文明之途。⁶

The key term for this encyclopaedia is wenming or civilization. The mission of this compilation is to aid in the hurried rush to civilization. We will thus have to analyze how this encyclopaedia and its supplements and sequels defined the notion of being civilized, and what kinds of knowledge and behavior they presented as leading along this path. The focus will be on “family” related entries since this represents one of the most sensitive parts of a society in fundamental social transformation, and in some of the most essential ways it defines the everyday and Mr. and Mrs. “Everybody” in a society. As the Japanese publication also had the “family” category, we will examine whether it provided the model for the Commercial Press, and how the two works compare in their notions of civilization and nation-building.

The Everyday Cyclopedia and the Notion of the Everyday and of Everyone

The 1919 Everyday Cyclopedia, which comprised two fat volumes with four million characters altogether, was a major enterprise. It quickly came to dominate the market and was reprinted with very minor changes throughout the 1920s. An extensive single volume supplement, bubian 補編, which was issued in 1925, also went through many printings.⁷ After a 1931 Japanese bombing raid had burned the Commercial Press plant, and with it the ready printing sets for an extensive further update together with the reference materials, the Commercial Press came out with a completely redone three-volume set “in the 3rd year after the national catastrophe,” (that is, 1934) as the official dating in the end announced. This was the Completely Revised Everyday Cyclopedia, Chongbian riyong baike quanshu 重編日用百科全書.⁸

The 1919 edition was organized by topics. Beginning with the subject of “Astrological Signs,” Tianxiang 天象, it went on to the “Organization of Time,” Shixu 時序, “Geography,” Dili 地理, “History,” Lishi 歷史, and “Education,” Jiaoyu 教育, to end with “Shushu” 數術, a traditional term for magical calculations and fortune-telling. These large categories (to the number of 44) were subdivided. It is clear that the basic division of knowledge here is one between China and the West and between old and new ways of organizing life. This cultural rather than alphabetical principle of organization meant that if the reader did not know the precise term for the concept, institution, practice, or object about which he wanted information, he/she could locate the desired information by going to sections marked by terms that were widely accepted and familiar. The focus in the organization was on practical usefulness for a very general readership rather than on a new, utterly modern taxonomy accessible only to a few people.

The sources on which the 1919 edition draws in order to map a new lifestyle, together with an entirely new world, are largely and explicitly Western, although Chinese traditional learning and custom form part of the reference. The general introduction claims Chinese and Western illustrations and books, miscellaneous records, and newspaper articles as sources, but does not give particular references in the individual entries as had been done by some late Qing works discussed in this volume such as the 1884 Classified Compilation of Western Affairs, Xishi leibian 西事類編.⁹ The “Introduction” also claims that quite a few entries had been incorporated from translations of Western, especially American, works. The encyclopaedia in fact seems to largely draw on American sources; often the names of the authors of the translated works are given in English as well as in transliteration. Besides the title, however, there is some evidence that the Japanese work was at least used in part as a model. They both share organization according to subject categories rather than according to a random formal criterion.¹⁰

It is well known that the Commercial Press employed a large number of people with foreign language abilities. Between 1903 and 1930, the company hired 1,362 translators, among them four Japanese nationals. During the same period, the company actively engaged student returnees from both Japan and the West to join in, ending up with 2 from France, 3 from England, 18 from America, and 49 from Japan. Many of these later became well-known writers, professors, translators, and politicians. According to the memoir of Zhou Yueran 周越然 (1885–1946), an English translator who was one of the compilers of the Everyday Cyclopedia, English and American publications played a huge role as models for the compilation of different kinds of publications including journals and textbooks.¹¹ For the publication of encyclopaedias, the models were mainly from America, England, and Japan.¹²

The Knowledge Needed to be “in Tune with the Civilization of the World Community”

“How should we accumulate the great variety of learned knowledge so as to be in tune with the civilization of the world community? There is no other way but to enlarge our knowledge!” (吾人應如何預儲種種學識 , 以應世會之文明? 惟是學識繁博!) declared the editors after the above quoted first phrase of their “General statement of purpose” for the 1919 edition. They were to “include all that was fit for practical use” 取其切有實用者 in Chinese and Western books. The terms “practical use,” shiyong 實用, “useful,” youyong 有用, and “of everyday usefulness,” riyong 日用, appear repeatedly in the preface. The “everyday” indeed included a broad array of things, and the encyclopaedia promised to offer “the regular knowledge of daily use that one could not do without” 日用不可少之常識 in science, fine arts, and handicraft production as well as about state, society, and family. A civilized citizen needed practical knowledge of everyday science; calligraphy, embroidery, photography, or bookbinding might be his or her cultural interests. In the field of production it included Chinese and Western knowledge of agriculture, industry, and business, including household industries led by women. In the field of state and politics we have democratic institutions, citizens’ duties and rights, and a basic knowledge of diplomacy, military matters, finance, and taxation. For social relations it included all kinds of etiquette for different life situations such as marriage, funeral or memorial services, with guidance for both “modern” Western and “traditional” Chinese practices.

The Architectural Blueprint for the New Family in the Age of Republican Reform

The entry on “Family” comes at the end of the Everyday Cyclopedia. It consists of a body of knowledge plus comments that convey mixed messages. The hidden struggle of the compilers with the concept of the modern family is at the center of this. What does this new structure mean in real social terms? How should men and women behave in such a new structure? What about the traditional family structure? What might be the relationship between the two? And finally, what might the Cyclopedia offer to its readers as advice on what kind of family system could be held up as an optimal model for China as it hurried towards becoming a civilized society? The editors are critical of the traditional—or, as they put it, the “old”—family system, but they also state that the “new family system” is a “Western” feature, which offers the reader (and the editors) the option to keep a certain distance from the information they are providing. Since the structure of the family represents the very core of “everyday” and “everybody,” and as the Cyclopedia set out to instruct “everybody” how to live an ideal modern life “everyday,” the quandaries of the editors as they go into the details of their civilizing mission are revealed most clearly in their juxtaposing contradictory assessments of the old family system.

The Old Family System

One of the most sensitive issues in the agenda to modernize China is the position of women within the family. This is dealt with at the very beginning of the “Family” section. The first item in the first subsection “Family Education,” Jiajiao lei 家教纇, is an extract from Ban Zhao’s (45–116) “Admonitions to Women,” Nü jie 女誡. It is a normative text reaffirming the inferior social position of women. It notes that in ancient times a female infant would be placed under instead of on the bed to imprint into her mind the “lowly and weak position of always being under the master” 明其卑弱, 主下人也.¹³ Further excerpts from Analects for Women, Nü lunyu 女論語,¹⁴ and Guidance for Women, Nü xun 女訓,¹⁵ buttress this line. The second subsection deals with “Home Management,” Jiazheng lei 家政類, and introduces the “old” and the “new” family system. The strength of the old system, the text states, is that “Our country makes with a completely ‘man-made’¹⁶ society clear distinctions between men and women, establishes a clear order between the old and the young, and its social customs of honesty, sincerity, friendliness, peacefulness, moral integrity, and chastity are all qualities still being admired by the civilized states in Europe and America”¹⁷ 我國以完全<人為>之社會, 而男女有別, 長幼有序, 敦睦之風, 貞操之節, 至今尚為歐美文明國稱道者. These virtues are the result of an education that took place within the family. However, the weaknesses of this system, as the editors point out, are numerous as well. The custom of “living together” in the extended family (同居), arranged marriages, and an inheritance system that favors the eldest son, are “not compatible with the trends of modern times” 不適於今日之時勢; they “restrict the freedom of family members” 束服家人之自由, and “hinder the progress of society” 阻止社會之進步. A more critical statement comes at the end where the author claims that “the major cause for the slow progress of society in our country is the lack of reform in the family system” 我國社會進步之遲滯以家庭之不改革為其大因.¹⁸

While the juxtaposition of these strengths and weaknesses might demonstrate the ambivalence of the editors themselves, the lack of a unified point of view also functions as a kind of discussion platform for the reader, with the text sharing the readers’ dilemmas on the issue rather than—as happens in other segments of the work—boldly instructing them. By using the “scientific” language of evolutionism and the rhetoric of stating objective fact rather than belief or conviction, the text claims as incontrovertible truth that key features of the old system block the progress of civilization that had become the trend of the day. This is made much clearer if one is juxtaposing the depiction of the old system with that of the new.

The New Family System

The “new family system,” the reader is told, “refers to the system of the civilized countries in Europe and America. Its difference in structure from the one practiced in China in fact hinges on a difference in the underlying doctrine. That is to say, China continues to hold on to the old clan doctrine, whereas the Europeans and Americans advocate a doctrine that is focused on the individual” 新家庭制度者, 指今日歐美文明囯之家庭而言。其組織與中國不同, 實在根本主義之差異。蓋中國仍守舊家族主義, 而歐美則崇尚以個人主義.¹⁹ As the description proceeds, the author time and again inserts his arguments and his opinion by comparing the two systems and endorsing the Western-based new family system.

In the section on “The Organization of the New Family” the three main topics are—not surprisingly—“Living Separately [viz. in nuclear families],” “Marriage System,” and “Property [rights].” In all three the criticism of the old Chinese family system is repeated. The advantages of the new system are “strong cohesion” due to the small size of the family (凝結堅固), “unity of spirit” (精神貫澈), and the prevalence of love between parents and children with filial piety continuing to be strong and vibrant.²⁰ The editors reassure the reader that the new system is not a threat to moral values and social order, but that in fact it maintains the positive basic values associated with the old system.

Regarding “the system of marriage” the author takes a completely evolutionary point of view. After the matriarchal and patriarchal stage of social development, marriage based on love is the necessary third stage in human development. At this stage, the role of parents in partner selection is marginal; they can only offer their advice. The freedom of marriage based on love also comes with its own set of responsibilities, which go beyond those prevailing at the two earlier stages.

With regard to property and inheritance, the person who accumulated the wealth is its natural owner. There is no obligation either on the side of the father to leave his property to his son or sons, nor do his sons have a right to demand it. On the other side, the son has no obligation to offer all his income to the father. Only when there are difficulties will the family members help each other out.²¹

The author goes into great detail about the family relationships within the new family. Under the heading “The Components of the New Family,” Xin jiating zhi chengfen 新家庭之成分, he distinguishes the three components of the nuclear family: husband, wife, and children and declares, “The husband is the representative of the entire family in all matters dealing with the outside” 一切對外之事, 悉以男子為一家代表. Coming with this power is the duty to support his entire family, and the primary responsibility of being the head of the household is to take the interests of the family as his basic guideline. As for the wife, the title of the section already announces that there is a “difference in the responsibilities of men and women” even in the new family 男女職事之不同: “To put it simply, the one is dealing with the outside world, and the other is managing the internal world [of the family]” 簡言之則曰一對外而一對内而已. The work of the women in the household is as important as that of the husband outside. In this sense, the status of women and men is equal. The responsibilities of the wife include family hygiene, children’s education, and moral guidance as well as management of the household economy. The section ends with a very strong comment on the part of the author. Under the heading “Women Should Focus on Domestic Affairs Exclusively,” Nüzi dang zhuanwu jiashi 女子當專務家事, he argues that the importance of the task of the wife cannot only be gauged from its direct impact on the family, but also from its indirect impact on the well-being of society and the country as a whole.

The Japanese Everyday Cyclopedia of (1895–1900)

The use of identical Chinese and Japanese characters in the title suggests a direct relationship between the Chinese and the Japanese encyclopaedias “for everyday use.” Indeed, similar opinions on the family are found in the Home Management and Domestic Affairs volume of the Japanese series.²² This is all the more remarkable as some 20 years of rapid change separate the two. For one thing, all the terms used for the categories in the Everyday Cyclopedia are modern terms cast in Japan, if not taken directly from the Japanese encyclopaedia. The Japanese volume is divided into sections including: “Home management,” Kasei 家政, “Society,” Shakai 社会, “Child care,” Hōiku 保育, “Servants,” Bokubi 僕婢, “[Home] economics,” Keizai 経済, “Savings,” Chochiku 貯蓄, “Art,” Bijutsu 藝術, “Style,” Yōgi 容儀, and “Time,” Jikan 時間. Although, there is no clear indication from these larger section headings that the Chinese text was based on the Japanese work, a comparison of the subsections within these larger categories reveals a clearer link. Included under “Home management” is the subsection on “Housewife,” Shufu 主婦, from which most of the arguments made in the Chinese work under “Husband” and “Wife” appear to have been taken. They include a description of the differences between men and women both in terms of physical and mental characteristics, which make them better suited for given tasks. For men these would be activities outside the home having to do with social, military, political, and legal affairs, and the duty to protect family and country and maintain peace; women are better suited for activities within the household such as household management, maintaining correct principles and moral standards, the education of the children, and promoting the safety and happiness of their family, and all this while maintaining a mutual respect with the husband, thus fulfilling the “basic duty,” honmu 本務, of a wife.²³ There is no status hierarchy involved, this Japanese encyclopaedia argues, the division of labor only follows the natural strengths of each sex.

The Chinese encyclopaedia also adheres closely to this line of argument, and in its discussion of the demand for equal rights for women it uses almost the same rhetoric as the Japanese text.²⁴ Even the list of the basic duties of a housewife is identical, including household hygiene, education of the children, setting moral standards within the household, the management of household servants, management of household economics, and household entertainment. Both texts define the home as the foundation of the state.

The difference between the entries on women and family in these two encyclopaedias lies in their handling of the impact of the ‘new’—the West—upon traditional values. As the easy issues of science and technology are not in the picture, a fundamental reassessment has to be given of the ideal home and home management, of the proper relations between men and women—in short, of issues close to the heart of cultural identity. While the values upheld in both works are identical, the framing is keenly different. While the Chinese text stresses the contrast between the new and the old family system, the Japanese text simply states the ideals without either using the terms new or old, nor East and West. The West, so frequently referred to in the Chinese text as the model, seems totally absent from the Japanese discussion. Because the Japanese state had dictated the terms of modernity for women, the issue was simply closed. The only time that the West appeared as a model in the Japanese work is in the upper segment of the slip page introducing “Western method of managing servants,” Seiyō yōnin kanri-hō 西洋傭人管理法. In this sense, the West is presented outside the normative segment and only as useful knowledge for reference. With the historical approach of contrasting the new order with the old, the Chinese text effectively inserts itself into the process of inevitable global social evolution on the way to the state of “civilization.” China is not an anomaly, but part of this historical transformation. No such historical perspective is visible in the Japanese text. The contrast between the past and the present is presented, isolated, and trivialized here in a series of illustrations about changing clothing fashions entitled “The Competition Between Today and the Past,” Kinseki kyō 今昔競.²⁵ While the Chinese discussion centers on change, the Japanese emphasizes modernity already achieved. In 1919 no strong center was available in China that could and would have pushed through a top-down reform. The Chinese encyclopaedia therefore tries to mobilize individuals to shoulder the responsibility of bringing about change themselves.

On the issue of the social position of the child in the household, the Chinese discussion goes much farther than the Japanese, adding the rights of a child to the standard topics of childcare and education. Children as tomorrow’s citizens have rights. It claims that there are people who “misunderstand the meaning of freedom and equality” within the new family structure and claim that “there is no hierarchical order between father and son.” “As a consequence they create a society where fathers do not behave like fathers and sons do not behave like sons” (今人誤解自由平等之意義. 遂謂父子之間無尊卑上下之分, 因之造成父不父子不子之社會). This misunderstanding is based on ignorance. Freedom and equality are by nature a spiritual thing and not some outer form. The respect and love of children towards their parents are as natural as nature itself. The authority of parents is equally natural. “This is not to say that like in our country, children are asked to blindly obey their parents, or just because they live with their parents, they are regarded as being filial. In fact, children should obey that which represents righteousness. This represents the spirit of the new family. To blindly obey does not represent filial piety.” The author concludes by openly criticizing the old family system and calling upon young people to move beyond the confines of the family and take on social responsibilities. To hold on to old forms of filial piety by living at home is only living the form of that ideal, whereas to try to contribute to society’s wellbeing is to be filial to one’s parents in an essential sense.²⁶

The section on “Family education” in the Chinese text reproduces much of the standard notions and texts on the subject. The result is a completely outdated set of traditional prescriptions. In contrast, the section on “Home management” offers a lively debate, juxtaposing different points of view and confronting the old family system with new arguments.

From these examples we can see that the Everyday Cyclopedia retains a rather strong—if contested—agenda and is not simply a commercial product that tries to keep to a common denominator. This agenda, however, had become mainstream enough to provide an incentive to buy the set. The construction of a knowledge base that was both necessary and suitable for the common peoples’ progress into modern life was a highly contested field. The Commercial Press was not the only big player on the Chinese book market by far. Still, the Everyday Cyclopedia remained the only work of its kind on the market in Republican China. The Commercial Press released the supplement and the new edition, and all of them went through a large number of reprints. This success, which was replicated by the Encyclopedic Dictionary of New Knowledge, Xin wenhua cishu 新文化辭書,²⁷ signals the success of a business strategy that banked on the willingness of literate and moderately affluent segments of the public to invest in this guide to everyday modernity, which came with the added bonus of being highly visible on the bookshelf in the living room of the new nuclear family. This strategy involved risking substantial amounts of capital and high-quality manpower over lengthy periods to produce works of a quality that would secure an extended shelf life in both markets and homes. The strategy was successful enough that no other publisher tried to challenge the Commercial Press in this territory. As there was in fact no competition for the Everyday Cyclopedia, with its wide distribution it assumed the character of a standard reference work that ended up having a semi-official character in the absence of anything else that could be called an official government line on everyday modernity during these chaotic years after Sun Yat-sen’s edicts on the Republican citizens’ mandatory haircut, hat, and ritual dress in his few weeks as president in 1912.

The Civilization Project Completed?

If the editors of the 1919 edition of the encyclopaedia were still cautious in mapping the contours of the new ideal family, the 1925 Addendum, following the same subject headings, bluntly focused on the “Essentials of the New Family,” Xin jiating gaiyao 新家庭概要, leaving the “Old Family System” to a separate section. The stance taken in this later work was proactive and unequivocal in its support of the new family system. To highlight the difference, a short table with “A comparative perspective on the new and old family [systems],” Xin jiu jiating bijiao guan 新舊家庭比較觀, was inserted. For example:

Old: Restricts the freedom of the younger generation; thus not able to create all-rounded individuals capable of independent thinking.

New: Freedom in one’s thinking. Independent in living; ability to define one's own individual character.

Old: Despotic arrangement of marriage. Largely restricts the happiness of the children.

New: Freedom in marriage. The acquisition of knowledge and of moral understanding can be guided by individual character. And the [old] system of adolescent-marriage can be legally persecuted and punished by society.²⁸

舊 : 束縛子孫之自由, 故不能造出有思想能發達個性之人。

新 : 思想自由, 個人自營生活。可由個人之個性決定。

舊 : 專制主婚, 子女之快樂大半為之限制。

新 : 婚姻自由, 智識道德可隨個性而結合。並早婚之制尚可由社會裁制。

The stance taken in this Addendum indicates that by 1925, the social consensus concerning the ideal family system—if not social practice—had shifted towards the new. The Addendum reflects this shift in the self-confidence of its language and does its share to promote it. The extreme idealism in the description of the new family might indicate, however, that in terms of social practice it was still in its honeymoon phase with Chinese urbanites.

In 1934 the Commercial Press came out with an entirely new three-volume set edition of the Everyday Cyclopedia, compiled by a new group of editors.²⁹ It did away with the old arrangement of topics with its Heaven, Earth, Man sequence that had been designed in 1919 and 1925 to help readers quickly find what they needed. With its topical arrangement it presupposed a reader steeped in a modern order of things, and helped to locate details with an extensive new-style “four corner” index. Although it was a much more comprehensive and complete work—which proved able to maintain its market monopoly—the entry “Family” was in fact shorter than in the 1919 edition. In general, with different sections totally eliminated and others shortened, it is a much more condensed version of the earlier entries. From “Family,” the items “Reform of the Marriage System,” Jiehun gailiang shuo 结婚改良说, and “Women Socializing According to Western Style,” Funü jiaoji xili shi 婦女交際西禮式 from the 1919 edition, as well as “What Women Should Pay Attention to at this Time of Transformation,” Nüzi zai gaizao shidai ying zhuyi zhi shilei 女子在改造時代應注意之事項, from the 1925 addendum had all disappeared. These condensations and eliminations largely reflected a new social reality where new civic regulations and laws had been passed addressing many of the issues involving individual rights and freedom in marriage.³⁰ Nonetheless, the fact that an entirely new edition was deemed necessary—apart from the bombs that burned the print-ready cases for a revised edition—reflects the changes that had taken place between 1919 and 1934. The West no longer appeared as a separate entry that needed to be highlighted, or entered as a form of authoritative source. Rather, on the narrative level, all things Chinese and foreign are combined into a unified knowledge base without any clear national borders. The earlier didacticism had all but vanished from the narrative stance, and the encyclopaedia now read as a book full of useful facts for a reality that appeared to be already that of an ideal future.

Does this suggest that the task of bringing the Chinese people closer towards wenming or civilization had been achieved? If the preface to the 1934 edition is any indication, the answer is yes:

The Everyday Cyclopedia that our company published in the past has received high praise in society. However, in these last ten years or so, society has undergone many transformations, and all kinds of new thinking, new knowledge, and new causes have sprung up like spring shoots after a rainfall, the speed of transformation is amazing. Therefore we came to believe that to meet the needs of our everyday life at present, what was compiled some ten years ago, has either lacunae or is no longer applicable for today’s use. Therefore, our publishing house decided in 1929 to make an addendum.

本館前出日用百科全書, 頗承社會稱許。惟十餘年來, 社會改革既多, 各種新思想新學術, 及新事業之發生, 如春筍經雨, 瞬息變觀。吾人為應付目前日常生活環境之需要, 逐覺十年前編著之本書, 或右罅漏, 或失實效。因此本舘於民國十八年, 即從事增訂。³¹

In fact, the 1934 edition was a product that had survived the test of war:

It took two years to complete the work for this undertaking. When the manuscript was finished and had been sent to be printed, we [the printing plant of the Commercial Press in Shanghai, C.Y.] were attacked [by Japanese aircraft] on January 28 [1931] and the whole project was reduced to ashes. After we returned to business, we started again to collect the materials and [decided to come out with] a completely new edition.

逾二年, 稿成付印, 而總廠突遭一二八之難, 全稿化爲灰燼。復業以後, 重新搜集材料, 全部徹底改變。³²

The new encyclopaedia is thus, in part, the product of war and reconstruction. It reflects a sense of defiance against brute force as well as the coming of age of Republican China. In an important way this new edition of the Everyday Cyclopedia redefines not only China’s self-image as a modern country run by a modern state, but the notion of “civilization” itself. In fact, the 1934 edition marks a transition from the goal of “civilization” to that of “modernization.”

The changes in the “Family” section are not unique but part of a wider readjustment in which the readers’ profile was shifted together with their everyday needs in an increasingly modern world. The “Family” section with its additions, abbreviations, and eliminations over time is a particularly sensitive gauge for the editor’s perception of the social transformations taking place in China as well as the development of their own thinking on the role of their encyclopaedia.

The clearest examples under the “Family” heading, which documents the process of recording and crafting the image of the modern state, are marriage rituals and clothing fashions. The first effort is recorded in the 1919 edition under “Code of Etiquette,” Lizhi 禮制. Opening the first section on “The Essentials of the New Marriage Ceremony,” the great importance of this social ritual as part of a government agenda of social modernization is emphasized: “A draft law on marriage ceremony has been completed by the Office of Code of Etiquette. Due to the fact that this type of code of etiquette is most fundamental to society, the text will be recorded in full” 禮制館所議婚禮草案, 已經擬定。此种禮制與社會關係, 最爲切要 。特錄其原文.³³ The person in charge is the head of the household. The ritual involves “discussing a match” by the parents, which requires, however, the consent of their child. If the young people make their own matrimonial choice, they must attain the consent of their parents. The new aspects of this clause are the rights given to the young people in question; in the past the marriage arrangement had been made between parents with the help of the matchmaker and without any participation by the young people in question. “Making the match” involved the exchanging of the names and the dates of birth after which the agreement was sealed. The next steps included presents, setting the date for the marriage, and the wedding ceremony itself. This last event involved the bridegroom escorting the bride to his home for the marriage ceremony with a respected elderly man serving as the witness. What is new here is that during the ceremony the bride and the bridegroom only bow but no longer kneel, and apparently the bride is not required, at least it was not mentioned, to cover her head and face with red cloth.

After these details of the new marriage ritual, an even newer “new wedding ceremony” that had recently started to spread out from urban areas was introduced. A simple affair, it was held in a public meeting hall, a witness read an official marriage license that had been prepared ahead of time, after which the “matchmaker,” jieshaoren 介紹人, the witness, the bride, and the bridegroom gave their presentations; the witness says some words of admonition and the whole event ends with the singing of the “Civilized Marriage Song,” Wenming jiehun ge 文明結婚歌, by all present.³⁴ The three advantages of this procedure are that the choice of the marriage partner lies with the young people, although even here parental consent is required; that after becoming engaged, the couple may make a separate agreement pledging to continue their studies and supporting themselves before marrying; and that such a wedding costs less since the only gift the parents should offer is a pair of wedding rings.³⁵ To help the reader to visualize the procedure, a map indicates the places where the different actors stand (Illustration 1).³⁶

Illustration 1

Arrangement in Ceremonial Hall for New-style Marriage. The registrar has his place at the head in the middle, flanked by two matchmakers. Bride and bridegroom stand on this side of the ceremonial table flanked by their guardians. No priest is present. Wang Yanlun et al., eds. Everyday Cyclopedia. Shanghai: Shangwu yinshu guan, 1919, juan 16, 7

Following the new marriage ceremony are the “Old and New Combined Marriage Ceremony,” “Old Form of Marriage Ceremony,” and “Wedding Ceremonies in Europe and the United States.” All are given in great detail but without evaluative comments.

The only item added in the 1925 Addendum in the “Code of Etiquette” was “Etiquette of Social Intercourse in Europe and the United States.”³⁷ In the 1934 edition the equal status given earlier to the old, the new, and the Western marriage rituals is replaced by the unequivocal dominance of the new marriage ritual. In 1928 a new draft law on the ceremonies of marriage, burial, and social greeting was promulgated by the newly established Nanjing government that also heralded a new stage in government engineering of social mores. The new laws were necessitated, the reader learns, by the confusing simultaneous existence of a great variety of different ceremonies and practices; Cai Yuanpei 蔡元培 (1868–1940), the former revolutionary and anarchist who had now become minister of education, and Xue Dubi 薛篤弼 (1892–1973), the then interior minister, had both participated in drafting these laws.³⁸ The rhetoric of the encyclopaedia is clearly supportive of the government’s effort to create a unified standard of civic etiquette as part of the larger nation-building project. The new ceremony is extremely simple, moving from “Engagement” through formal and very short letters to fixing the place of the wedding either in a public hall or at home in a ceremony that is the same as the “New Marriage Ceremony” of the 1919 version, minus the singing of the “Civilized Marriage Song.”³⁹

While the description of the old marriage ceremony in this 1934 edition is extremely detailed, the crucial difference to the entry in the 1919 edition is the decisive historical framing of the old ritual as occurring “in the olden days” 昔日. This ritual is framed as no longer having any significance. In its loving detail it joins in the efforts by Chinese scholars at the time to record the vanishing customs of the people. This narrative stance, together with the elimination of the entry on Western social etiquettes, signals an increased self-confidence but also a merger of the civilizing objective of the encyclopaedia with the reinvigorated government’s efforts at nation building. Both interact in offering guidance for a civilized everyday life. As part of this transformation, the encyclopaedia began to redefine the meaning of wenming or civilization. As Chinese society entered modern times, its development was very much in the trajectory set out by the West, and its past could be calmly viewed as part of the development of human civilization in general and Chinese civilization in particular.

The section on “Clothing” further demonstrates this sense of a coming of age in terms of national identity, with the transformation of the “ceremonial dress,” lifu 禮服, serving as the clearest example. Under the heading “Clothing” the 1919 edition quoted the new dress code of the Republic, stating that “the ceremonial dress of the Republic has been stipulated in general to follow the customary dress code of the West” 民國禮服制定大概仿效西洋通行之式.⁴⁰ It then goes into detail as to the different kind of formal dress, including the dress code for morning and evening. Under the section on dressmaking, the Cyclopedia provides illustrations as to how to make such outfits. It also includes the short jacket (Manchu style!), and long gown (Illustration 2 and Illustration 3 right side) as men’s formal dress for ordinary occasions.⁴¹ The ceremonial dress for women is simply a long, fitted gown, and daily dress includes a short jacket and a long pleated shirt (Illustration 3 left side and Illustration 4).⁴²

Illustration 2

Regular dress: Short jacket for men. Wang Yanlun et al., eds., Everyday Cyclopedia, Shanghai: Shangwu yinshu guan, 1919, juan 36, 7 and 8

Illustration 3

Regular dress: Long gown for men. Wang Yanlun et al., eds., Everyday Cyclopedia, Shanghai: Shangwu yinshu guan, 1919, juan 36, 7 and 8

Illustration 4

Formal dress: Women’s jacket and pleated skirt. Wang Yanlun et al., eds. Everyday Cyclopedia. Shanghai: Shangwu yinshu guan, 1919, juan 36, 10–11

The 1925 Addendum added nothing new to the dress code. The changes in the 1934 edition, however, signal once again a coming of age in the Republic together with a re-crafting of the national image. The ceremonial dress for men had been changed completely. The Western model had been eliminated, and the 1928 dress code law only allowed the short jacket and the long gown for men (Illustration 5, left side and right side top) all in black.⁴³ For women it was a long or a short gown (Illustration 5, right side lower half). A clause stipulated, however, that when attending international events, dress should follow the going international fashion. For government employees, the law stipulated what is known today as the Sun Yat-sen dress (Illustration 6).⁴⁴

Illustration 5

Formal dress (a) and (b): Men’s formal dress according to the new 1928 dress code. (c) Women’s formal dress according to 1928 dress code. Huang Shaoxu et al., eds. Completely Revised Everyday Cyclopedia. Shanghai: Shangwu yinshu guan 1934, juan 28, 5794–95

Illustration 6

Sun Yat-sen dress for government servants (1934). Huang Shaoxu et al., eds., Completely Revised Everyday Cyclopedia, Shanghai: Shangwu yinshu guan, 1934, juan 28, 5796

The insertion of the formerly independent “Clothing” heading under the “Family” section implies that dress was now the responsibility of the family; it is here that the clothes were made, and thus this was the place for the guidelines. At times, however, reality intruded into these normative guidelines. In “Female Ceremonial Dress,” Nüzi lifu 女子禮服, the compilers added a bracket after describing the office dress code “as stipulated by law,” fa ding de 法定的, and then describe a different dress of this type adding in a bracket “what is in fashion,” liu xing de 流行的. The reason for this was that because the new law code on dress had come into effect only recently, “therefore we are describing what is in fashion at the moment, so as to comply with needs.” This gown itself is rather unique, it seems to have been inspired by the Western-style swallowtail evening coat for men, except that the piece in the backside after being cut out is sewn back in, only leaving the impression of a swallowtail (see Illustration 7).⁴⁵ This garment is far more elaborate than the one decreed by the new law. The added entry tells us something about the self-assigned role of the compilers and through them, the Commercial Press. Even as the encyclopaedia increasingly showed an affinity with the Republican government, it was still published by a commercial press and needed to answer the needs of ordinary readers. In this case the editors were willing to back the government in its effort to establish a respectable modern nation; at the same time, their readers also needed practical information. Whenever this information was in conflict with state regulations, a choice had to be made. In this case, at least, the editors chose the side of practicality. Men’s dress was more important for the image of the land and therefore it was treated differently. There certainly were men’s clothing fashions that did not comply with the new laws of the state, but this information was simply not entered. The absence of information is itself a statement.

Illustration 7

Image of first step in the One Step dance together with graphics about dance step sequence and direction as well as detailed textual directions. Huang Shaoxu et al., eds. Completely Revised Everyday Cyclopedia. Shanghai: Shangwu yinshu guan, 1934, juan 26, 5323

Joining in the party-state efforts on state rule exercised by the party,⁴⁶ the 1934 edition emphasis was less on a civilized lifestyle and more on becoming worthy citizens of modern China. This general orientation is even more evident in the pervasive use of “nation” or “state,” guo 國, or China, Zhongguo 中國, in new entry headings. This started in 1925 with items like “Chinese theater,” Zhongguo xiju 中國戲劇, but by 1934 we find entries like “National [style] martial arts,” guoshu 國術, “National [style] painting,” guohua 國畫, and “National [style] music,” guoyue 中樂, which clearly reflect the efforts of both government and society to establish a high-status national core of cultural identity in the manner of the West and Japan. It also implied a reevaluation—as well as a re-crafting—of Chinese traditional culture, which had been so much vilified as utterly incompatible with modernity by the May Fourth agitation that had coincided with the first publication of the Everyday Cyclopedia.

The initial civilizing agenda of the encyclopaedia was still very much part of the picture, albeit existing parallel to or subsumed under the nation-building agenda. Much of the new information in the 1925 and in 1934 editions even elaborated on the original agenda of the Cyclopedia, which prescribed civilized lifestyle and public behavior in great detail. The two later editions place greater emphasis on new healthy leisure activities and pastimes for citizens. This also reflected the coming of the New Life Movement, Xin shenghuo yundong 新生活運動, which was initiated by Chiang Kai-shek and his wife Soong May-ling in February 1934, the year the new revised edition of the Everyday Cyclopedia was published.⁴⁷ Under the subject heading “Family,” the first item under discussion and instruction was “Clothing,” which was all about how to economize on clothing, how to choose the most suitable fabrics for daily use, and how to mend, wash, clear, and store clothes. In other words, it was about how to live modestly in the manner that was encoded in the agenda of this party-state sponsored movement.⁴⁸ Under the new subject heading “Leisure,” Yule 娛樂, a selection of healthy new pastimes was presented, including Chinese and Western music, games (for adults, children, and family, already in the 1919 edition under the heading “Games,” Youxi 遊戲), and Western-style ballroom dancing—a subject first broached in the 1925 edition in the form of an introductory essay, but now providing the actual dance steps (Illustration 7).⁴⁹ Motion pictures, which had recently developed into a real industry with movie houses popping up in many urban centers, were treated in a subsection with an introductory essay on the relationship between culture and film, a history of the invention of film, film history, and a detailed description on how to make and show motion pictures (now with sound).⁵⁰ Throughout, Chinese elements are an organic part of this civilized activity.

Women continued to be a key target for instruction with modern topics. An entry called “The Exercise for Girls During Puberty,” Nüzi fayu shidai zhi yundong 女子發育時代之運動,⁵¹ appears under “Physical Exercise and Gymnastics.” With no further introduction, it describes the exercises with the aid of illustrations (Illustration 8). It had been included in the 1925 Addendum with the same subheading,⁵² but there it had been illustrated with photographs of a Western girl (Illustration 9), while the 1934 illustrations incorporated this foreign feature into the modern state by shifting the illustration to drawings of Chinese girls and erasing the references to its foreign origin.

Illustration 8

Western girl as model in the 1925 edition. He Songling et al., eds., Everyday cyclopedia. Supplement. Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1925, Bian 41, 11

Illustration 9

Chinese girl as model in 1934 edition. Huang Shaoxu et al., eds. Completely Revised Everyday Cyclopedia. Shanghai: Shangwu yinshu guan, 1934, juan 25, 5019

The same happened with the issue of women’s suffrage. The 1925 edition had entered two new entries related to women under the subject heading “Constitutional Politics” in the “Politics” section, “An Investigation on Women Suffrage in Various Countries” and “The Recent History of Women’s Movements in England, American, Germany and France.” The first of the two compares the voting rights of different European countries and the United States; it is a short but rather detailed report on different levels of participation, including national, regional, statewide, and social and financial institutions. It also includes information on the eligibility of women to stand election for public office. In the comparison Denmark and Norway came out ahead, while American women had voting rights in some states and the European women had different degrees of voting rights relating to property and taxpaying status. The author concluded that as time went on, women would inevitably get voting rights.⁵³ The second, longer, article offers a historical perspective on Western women’s movements focusing on equality including voting rights and social position in society including marriage laws, education, labor rights, and protection. Women in Great Britain come out ahead in Europe, having already won the right to stand for office. And in the United States with the strong legislative powers of the states women had made important inroads.⁵⁴ The 1934 edition replaced these foreign-focused entries with two short and very abstract entries about voting rights under the subject heading “Politics and Administration”; namely, “The Rights of People,” Renmin zhi quanli 人民之權利, and “Groups Eligible to Vote,” Xuanju tuanti 選舉團體.⁵⁵ In fact, Chinese women only received the right to vote in 1947.

Family-related subjects appear under a wide variety of headings. Many of the modern practices that have been dealt with actually involved other much more complex elements. Fixing the date for a marriage, matching two partners, even making a business decision or deciding on an apartment all involved the traditional arts of finding the lucky day, partner, investment, or place, and people were likely to sing their “Civilized Marriage Song” in unison on a day that had been determined by an old lady in a fortune-telling stall. The additions and changes in the different editions are indicative of the changing ideology and concerns of the editors as well as of changing social realities. The most radical shift, however, is the complete elimination of an event that happened only rarely. The example is “Shushu” 數術, a traditional term for magical calculations and fortune-telling, but also the art of cunning politics. With no less than 84 pages, this had been one of the largest sections in 1919, and in 1925 another 45 pages were added. Together they provided information on the “new” Shushu, including (Western) hypnotism and palmistry together with information on the old Shushu category of fortune-telling, physiognomy, geomancy (fengshui 風水), and Chinese-style hypnotism. Without explanation, Shushu vanished altogether from the 1934 edition. The reasons for its inclusion as well as its eventual erasure can be found in the fate of these arts in the West and in the social and cultural transformations in China. During the nineteenth century, hypnotism, mesmerism, and physiognomy were widely accepted as “scientific” and modern in Europe. Like many of its European counterparts, the Cyclopedia’s compilers must have thought that the very popular Chinese arts of fortune-telling based on the Book of Changes, Zhouyi 周易, palm reading, and the like belonged to this branch of learning. By 1934 mesmerism had vanished from the modernity and science package in Europe as much as Social Darwinism had. In China, the anti-superstition campaign of the 1920s—now supported by rigid state- and party-sponsored indoctrination in modernity—had deeply cut both into the acceptance of these practices by the modernizing elites, and into the legitimacy of such a topic in an encyclopaedia committed to the modernity project. Thus, the topic was simply thrown out. What began as an effort to join what was fashionable in the world ended up being affected by the same forces; as these practices lost their acceptance in mainstream Europe and United States, the Chinese retreated as well. After all, modern state could not tolerate superstition among its people.

Just to demonstrate the potential of this source for studies of the political, social, and cultural history of the period, a short glance at the public activities of men and the party-state will be given. How to conduct different types of public gathering for example, a subject that was introduced already in 1919 and was continued in 1934, while new topics such as “Common knowledge on social intercourse between Chinese and Westerners” were also added. Among the continued topics, the “Essential Method for Giving a Public Speech,” Yanjiang yaoshu 演講要術, offers an interesting window into an evolving public culture, where readers needed advice on how to handle this kind of public action. With the rapid expansion of public speech-making on Party and state sponsored occasions during the 1930s, this information remained useful for an ever larger circle of readers. An activity that once had been—and to a degree still was—associated with political agitation for reform and even revolution, had become the emblem of a civilized nation, something citizens had the right and often the duty to perform. The entry provides not only verbal instructions but also illustrations as to the possible impact of certain gestures on the audience similar to the manner in which an actor on stage elicits an emotional response from the audience (Illustration 10).⁵⁶ The 1934 edition also made some changes. It eliminated gesture seven “May God Be with you” (Illustration 11)⁵⁷ and predictably changed the clothing worn by the speaker from the traditional Chinese jacket, pants, and cloth-shoes in 1919 to the Sun Yat-sen’ outfit with Western style pants and leather shoes.

Illustration 10

Effective gestures for public speeches suggested 1919. Wang Yanlun et al., eds. Everyday Cyclopedia. Shanghai: Shangwu yinshu guan, 1919, juan 16, 42–43

Illustration 11

Changes in suggested gestures 1934 (the gesture on the second last line on the right “May God be with you” has been deleted). Huang Shaoxu et al., eds. Completely Revised Everyday Cyclopedia. Shanghai: Shangwu yinshu guan, 1934, juan 28, 5832–34

Probably the single most obvious change brought about by the 1934 edition was the prominent position given to the Kuomintang (KMT) and its government. Its presence is pervasive and found under all kinds of headings. Everything related to the party and the government, from its function, its institutions, and its laws, down to samples of letter headings for official stationary, is all amply presented, linking the everyday life of the people with that of the KMT and the state. For example, information regarding the KMT and the national flag forms part of the subject matter for instruction. The two flags had by 1934 became mandatory fixtures for all official public buildings (including classrooms) and meeting halls. In the section on “Code of Etiquette” the Cyclopedia in fact shows its reader how to make such a flag (Illustration 12).⁵⁸ It also gives detailed instruction as to where the flags, together with Sun Yat-sen’s portrait, were to be hung, including the angle at which they should be placed on the front wall.⁵⁹

Illustration 12

(a) and (b) Design for making officially approved type of national flag. Huang Shaoxu et al., eds. Completely Revised Everyday Cyclopedia. Shanghai: Shangwu yinshu guan, 1934, juan 28, 5784–85

Conclusion

The production of an encyclopaedia for everyday life that could be used by “everybody” implies that the process of civilization involves all people on a daily basis. The notion of the “everyday” as a field of social transformation or civilization signals that the process had moved beyond the grand institutions of the state, the introduction of science and modern ideologies, the creation of a new language and school system, and the development of machinery towards the transformation of the private lives of people. The publication of a book of new standard practices and notions banks on—and enlarges on—the doubt in the minds of people as to whether or not their habits and values are in tune with the times. The Everyday Cyclopedia mapped out the civilized daily life of a private citizen and it prefigured that life. As much as it placed the burden of becoming modern or civilized on the individual, it also offered the individual an active role in the process of social change. The unit of change here is the individual. This individual is identified as someone with the potential to behave like a citizen or guomin 國民. The encyclopaedia challenges the reader to live up to this standard, and offers practical help to get there.

With a strong market orientation comes the fact that this blueprint for the ideal everyday and everybody world cannot afford a total and alienating distance from actual social practice, instead it tries to accommodate readers’ anxieties. By comparison, the Grande Encyclopédie by d’Alembert and Diderot was more normative and radical in its break with existing practice, because it was less oriented towards the market to which, given the harsh censorship laws of France and the quick ban of the set, it could not even hope to have free access.⁶⁰ The Commercial Press’ encyclopaedia is a compromise version of the standard of civilized daily life, and the reader is not left out in the cold without anything familiar to hold on to. By incorporating many instances of “old” or “Chinese” knowledge and practices, the Cyclopedia gives the reader a measure of security and offers some sense of cultural reference.

The models were no doubt there, the most obvious being the American and Japanese encyclopaedias that were oriented towards useful and practical knowledge for the new immigrant or new citizens-to-be. However, by 1934, with an increasingly assertive Chinese state, the imprint of the foreign model that had once been a form of validation and cultural capital was obliterated.

The prominent position given to women reflects the view that has often been articulated since the late Qing that women hold the key to the process of making China a civilized or modern society. This made women into a crucial part of the intended readership of the Everyday Cyclopedia. Women were the educators of young China and had to be convinced to do so in modern ways that would contribute to broader national goals. Many of the articles directly addressed women and appealed to them to reform their lifestyle and to live out their potential as contributors to social progress by gainfully working in society—women were also challenged by the Cyclopedia to transform themselves. As these direct appeals recede in the 1934 edition, the message was transformed and incorporated into a more formal and normative narrative discourse. This can be seen in the increase in information about home economy and management, and the reduction of discussions about the power structure of the family and the division of labor. This seems to suggest that the role of women in the modern family was by that time a given.

By probing the subject of the family in terms of its structures, social relationships, rituals, and pastimes, this study has tried to explore the role of an encyclopaedia with a monopoly hold on the market in the changes and changing notions of this social realm. The finding suggests that the compilers were extremely careful not to convey the impression that a revolutionary change was coming. Rather, they brought in the new in a controlled and confined manner paralleling the old. Although criticisms were made about the old, they are balanced and non-confrontational in manner. Seen in the context of the radical challenges coming with the May Fourth Movement, the Commercial Press’s Everyday Cyclopedia kept to a moderately progressive position in the potential conflict between new and old culture. The message seems to be that civilization does not come is one single form; this diversity is what the Cyclopedia tries to present. Yet, the general picture is rather clear: the model of civilization is Europe and the United States. The Everyday Cyclopedia is driven by an agenda of modernity and a drive to be connected to the cultures and knowledge of the world. Both of these imply a break with tradition, which is the very justification for the need of such a new encyclopaedia to replace the popular handbooks of practical knowledge like the Wanbao quanshu 萬寶全書, which implied continuity of everyday life since the Ming. These handbooks were still on the market during the Republican period. History, however, was also a player in the evolution of this encyclopaedia. The 1919 edition is marked by a huge lacuna—the absence of Japan as a modernizing model. This might be read as a reaction to the growing Chinese animosity towards Japan’s increasingly aggressive demands. The 1925 Addendum was published at the height of the anti-foreign agitation emblematized by the May Thirtieth Incident, although there cannot have been a direct impact at the time. The elimination of all overt reference to foreign models in the 1934 edition follows the drift towards a more self-asserting rhetorical stance, but it was almost certainly also a reaction to the Japanese forays into China, including the bombardment of the Commercial Press in 1931. With the consolidation of the KMT control over China and its efforts to guide society, the normative element of the Everyday Cyclopedia, both in terms of its rearrangement of subject matters and the overwhelming presence of the party, signals a very close interaction between government–party and social actors like the Commercial Press.

As the title of the Everyday Cyclopedia suggests, the key unit of change in the coming of the civilized and the modern is the everyday life of the average individual. This focus did not change in the different editions of the Everyday Cyclopedia. What did change was the ever- increasing intrusion of the modern state into the private lives of the citizen, a drift that continued well beyond the period of KMT dominance over the mainland.