Jīnxī

Jinxi's book trade found a particularly active centre at Huwan, beside the Fu River in Jiangxi. Water transport connected the town with wider markets, while woodblock printing brought merchants, block cutters and learned editors into the same business. The industry expanded during the later Ming and early Qing periods. Books produced here circulated under the name of Jiangxi editions, carrying the work of local workshops beyond the county.

During the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns, from 1736 to 1820, more than sixty printing workshops and bookshops gathered along two lanes known as Front Bookshop Street and Rear Bookshop Street. Merchants assembled printing blocks and hired craftsmen; scholars helped correct the texts before publication. Huwan's streets thus joined the physical labour of carving and printing to the preparation and sale of books. This concentration of workshops gave one part of Jinxi a distinctive place in the commercial world of Chinese reading.