书籍是人类表达思想、传播知识、积累文化的物质载体。书籍的装帧艺术则是这个物质载体的结构和形态的设计,纵观书籍装帧的发展史,不同时期的书籍,有不同的装帧概念与形式。本文以中国古典四大名著《水浒传》为例,用符号学理论的角度,来简要研究、分析、书籍这一符号系统与其变化。一、书籍符号系统分析1、从符号本身:能指与所指在《普通语言学教程》中,索绪尔把语言符号定义为两面实体,一面称之为能指,即符号 Books are the material carriers of mankind’s expressing thoughts, spreading knowledge and accumulating culture. The art of book binding is the design of the structure and form of the material carrier. Throughout the history of the book binding, books of different periods have different concepts and forms of binding. Taking the “Heroes of the Marsh” by four famous Chinese classical authors as an example, this paper uses the perspective of semiotic theory to briefly analyze, analyze and change the symbolic system of books. First, the book symbol system analysis 1, from the symbol itself: to the meaning and meaning In the “General Linguistics Course”, Saussure defines the language symbol as a two-sided entity, the one side is called the signifier, the symbol