The Yuli is a morality book of which are preserved some editions of the Qing dynasty (1644-1944). The comparison between a traditional imprint produced in a rural area during the 19th century and the publications issued by the mechanical press in Shanghai at the beginning of the 20th century allows us to highlight the evolution of printing media in China after the arrival of the Westerners in the coastal towns. The representation codes of images are transformed, some illustrations are used as advertising and the publishers develop new marketing methods for a wider circuit of potential buyers. Thereby, a text as the Yuli, which originally was supposed to be disseminated to the widest numbers of readers in order to acquire moral merits, became a commercial book, whereas the economic profits for publishers replaced the spiritual and symbolic benefits of the earlier editors.