清代初中期作為產業的蘇州版畫與其商業面向

Art as Commodity: The Commercial Aspects of Suzhou Single-Sheet Prints in the Early and Middle Qing Dynasty

蘇州單張版畫盛行於清代康雍乾三朝，記載於乾隆初年《吳縣志》中，為地方特產。蘇州版畫可依主題內容、尺寸大小與品質高低區分多種，現今留存至少數百張，可見當時產業發達之盛。以往研究蘇州版畫多自內容或形式出發，且專注於少數幾張或一類版畫，無法見到整體版畫生產之勢。本文將蘇州版畫定為蘇州城市所生產的藝術商品之一，觀察蘇州版畫的商業面向，此為版畫史研究少見的角度，也能一窺蘇州地方產業的特色，更可藉以探究當時藝術類文化商品的市場發展與消費區隔。本文自蘇州版畫的生產時間與地點入手，討論產業的發展與商業策略，最後並以行銷與消費為主題，統合前面的討論。由於相關文獻記載不多，本文透過對於版畫本身的分析，觀察版畫所透露出的製作、出版與行銷訊息。本文的議題與分析方法，希望提供學界對於中下層文化商品研究新的分析角度與方法。再者，由於眾多蘇州版畫運用西洋透視與陰影法，本文雖非以中歐藝術交流為中心的研究，也觸及蘇州版畫的西洋風格及其來源問題，並指出蘇州版畫在歐洲的收藏狀況。

This study investigates the production and consumption of extant Suzhou single-sheet prints in order to gain a comprehensive picture of the art industry that made them a popular product. The issues dealt with include when and where these prints were produced, the business and marketing strategies of the print workshops that produced them, and the consumption of such low-end artistic works in early-modern China. These prints were mostly produced from the 1660s to the early nineteenth century in at least two concentrated areas inside the city of Suzhou. These prints exist to this day in great quantities (300 by a conservative estimate). Despite their popularity, they are scarcely remarked in textual records. Nonetheless, this study is able to explore the commercial aspect of these prints, treating them as highly commoditized and in-stock artworks sold by the print workshops that produced them and the specialized shops that carried pictures. These prints, likely one of the famous local products of Suzhou, circulated widely in China but stood on the bottom rung of the ladder of artworks. Moreover, these prints represent an artistic interaction between China and Europe as well as China and Japan in the early modern period, being exported and also displaying European stylistic features.