Theme: Great Inventions Plan

Printing

Main article: History of printing in East Asia
During the Tang dynasty, printing was created in China (AD 618–906). The first mention of printing is in an AD 593 imperial decree by the Sui Emperor Wen-ti, who mandates the printing of Buddhist pictures and scriptures.

Woodblock printing[edit]

Blocks made from wood were used in the oldest type of Chinese printing. Printing textiles and reproducing Buddhist scriptures were also done using these blocks. Short religious writings were carried as charms in this manner.
The Chinese invention of woodblock printing, at some point before the first dated book in 868 (the Diamond Sutra), produced the world's first print culture. According to A. Hyatt Mayor, curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, "it was the Chinese who really invented the means of communication that was to dominate until our age."^[29] Woodblock printing was better suited to Chinese characters than movable type, which the Chinese also invented, but which did not replace woodblock printing. Western printing presses, although introduced in the 16th century, were not widely used in China until the 19th century. China, along with Korea, was one of the last countries to adopt them.^[30]

The intricate frontispiece of the Diamond Sutra from Tang dynasty China, 868 (British Museum)
Woodblock printing for textiles, on the other hand, preceded text printing by centuries in all cultures, and is first found in China at around 220.^[31] It reached Europe by the 14th century or before, via the Islamic world, and by around 1400 was being used on paper for old master prints and playing cards.^[32][33]

Moveable type printing[edit]

Printing in Northern China was further advanced by the 11th century, as it was written by the Song dynasty scientist and statesman Shen Kuo (1031–1095) that the common artisan Bi Sheng (990-1051) invented ceramic movable type printing.^[34] Then there were those such as Wang Zhen (fl. 1290–1333) who invented respectively wooden type setting, which later influenced developing metal moveable type printing in Korea (1372-1377). Movable type printing was a tedious process if one were to assemble thousands of individual characters for the printing of simply one or a few books, but if used for printing thousands of books, the process was efficient and rapid enough to be successful and highly employed. Indeed, there were many cities in China where movable type printing, in wooden and metal form, was adopted by the enterprises of wealthy local families or large private industries. The Qing dynasty court sponsored enormous printing projects using woodblock movable type printing during the 18th century. Although superseded by western printing techniques, woodblock movable type printing remains in use in isolated communities in China.^[35]