Question

‘By the seventeenth century, as urban culture bloomed in China, the uses of print diversified’. Explain the statement by giving suitable examples.

Answer 1

1. Print was no longer used just by scholar officials. Merchants used print in their everyday life, as they collected trade information.

2. Reading increasingly became a leisure activity. The new readership preferred fictional narratives, poetry, autobiographies, anthologies of literary masterpieces, and romantic plays.

3. Rich women began to read, and many women began publishing their poetry and plays. Wives of scholar-officials published their works and courtesans wrote about their lives.