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Zhonghua Book Company is housed in a grey building in the west 3rd ring road in Beijing. Over the past century, this publishing house has worked hard to fulfill its motto: "We hope progress will be made in our nation and society, and that is why progress should be first made in education. We hope progress will be made in education, and that is why progress should be first made in publishing industry. Publishing industry is a small industry, but it is much more relevant to our nation and society than any other industry."
Zhonghua Book Company was founded by Lu Feikui in January 1912. Lu was born in Tongxiang, Zhejiang Province. He began to study Chinese classical literature under the mentorship of his mother. In his twenties, he was heavily influenced by reformists and advocated Westernized modernization and reform in China. He joined in revolutionary groups and published many articles criticizing the feudal system. Later he was employed as the chief of the publishing division of the Commercial Press and the editor-in-chief of The Education Magazine. Lu called for saving the nation through education and put forward many proposals such as use of simplified Chinese characters, male and female students studying in the same school, etc. He wrote in an essay, "If we successfully promote education throughout the country, our people will be enlightened with improved morality and strong body. Thus our nation will become prosperous."
As the founder of Zhonghua Book Company, Lu raised two slogans - "make revolution by publishing textbooks" and "run the company by wholly...