The Yan'an period (1935-1948) marked a crucial stage in the development of the publishing industry of the Communist Party of China. Drawing on the development experiences and publishing traditions of the early days of the Party, the Great Revolution, and the Agrarian Revolutionary War, publishers emerging during the Yan'an period utilized books as their stronghold, adhered to the principles of Party integrity, and actively disseminated the Party's lines, principles, policies, and Marxist ideology, becoming an important force in advancing the Chinese revolution.

This study takes the core links of book publishing—editing, printing, and distribution—as the entry point to systematically investigate the composition, cultivation paths, and historical contributions of the book publishing community of the Communist Party of China during the Yan'an era, aiming to provide historical insights for talent cultivation in the contemporary publishing industry.

The study reveals that during the Yan'an period, the publishing community in the Communist Party of China consisted primarily of three groups: editors, printers, and distributors. The editorial group comprised party leaders with editorial and publishing experience, represented by Mao Zedong, Zhang Wentian, and others, alongside professional editors represented by Deng Tuo, Zhang Zhongshi, Xin Anting. The printing group centered on the staff of the Yan'an Central Printing Factory, encompassing a large number of practitioners who emerged in the practice of printing material infrastructure construction, such as paper and ink research and development, as well as equipment and technological innovation. The distribution group was represented mainly by the distribution personnel from the Xinhua Bookstore.

During the Yan'an period, in cultivating the group of book publishers for the Communist Party of China, the Communist Party of China transformed this community of publishers from "professional publishers" into "professional revolutionaries" through a combination of externally directed lecture-based learning and school education, self-organized political and cultural study and skill training, as well as production competitions that integrated revolutionary ideals with production practices.

As a publishing community possessing both revolutionary nature and professional competence, the group of publishers of the Communist Party of China during the Yan'an period played a significant role during the revolutionary period. Through efficient collaboration, they established a revolutionary publicity mechanism integrating editing, printing, and distribution, which functioned effectively in political communication and provided strong support for revolutionary mobilization. The publishing talents forged during the Yan'an period possessed both revolutionary ideals and professional capabilities, guaranteeing the workforce for the development of the publishing industry in the early years of the RPC, and ensuring a smooth transition and rapid development of the publishing industry after 1949. Their professional spirit not only shaped the character of the publishing community of the Communist Party of China during the Yan'an period but also laid the foundation for the revolutionary construction of modern publishing professional ethics, offering significant value guidance for the development of contemporary publishing and talent cultivation.