Chapter 17 3. The invention of woodblock printing and the emergence of early printed books

The invention of woodblock printing originated from hammering and stamp making techniques. Our ancestors engraved characters on stones. The earliest objects were stone drums in the late Warring States period. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cai Yong played an inscription in Xiping (172-177) to revise the text of the "Six Classics".The carved stone scriptures of the Han Dynasty set an example for the rulers of later generations.The tradition of stone carving activities in our country lasted from the 2nd century AD to the 18th century.The tradition of stone carving developed the technique of hammering.The method of transcribing stone inscriptions onto paper is called rubbing.

"Sui Shu·Jing Ji Zhi" records that Emperor Sui Yang has all the rubbings of the Han and Wei Stone Classics, and records that there are also rubbings of the Stone Classics in the collection catalog of the Liang Dynasty in the Southern Dynasties.Rubbing steles is an excellent method of copying text, which not only solves the labor of copying, but also avoids copying errors.However, because the inscriptions on the inscriptions are inscribed, the tattered version has white characters on an ink background, and the reading effect is not ideal. However, it has brought important inspiration to the invention of printing.

The technology of making stamps has existed in our country for a long time.Seals have been common in the Warring States Period. There is a record of "Xi Festival" in "Zhou Li". "Xi Festival" is a seal.After Qin Shihuang unified the country, the seals used by the emperor were called "seals", and those used by ordinary officials and privately were called "seals".In the Han Dynasty, seals were used to check memorials, so they were called seals.Before the Qin and Han Dynasties, most of the seals were in Yin script, and after the Qin and Han Dynasties, most of them were Yang script.The size of the seal is very small, and generally only three or four characters of the name or official title are engraved.Since most of the seals are in Yangwen, that is, engraved in reverse, what is printed on the paper is black characters on a white background, which is very clear.The combination of the hammering technique and the engraving method of the seal led to the invention of woodblock printing.

The invention of engraving and printing, judging from the literature, should not be later than the middle of the Tang Dynasty.For example, in December of the fourth year of Changqing (824) of Emperor Muzong of Tang Dynasty, Yuan Zhen wrote "Changqing Collection Preface" for Bai Juyi, which records the appearance of printed books at that time. In terms of physical objects, we must first mention the "Diamond Sutra" discovered in Dunhuang in the ninth year of Xiantong (868), which is the earliest woodblock printing with an exact date in the world.This book is a scroll about sixteen feet long. This article is made up of six printed sheets pasted together. There is also a picture in front of it entitled "Gishu to the Lonely Garden", which shows that Buddha Shakyamuni lived in Gion. The story of Jingshe preaching to the elder Subhuti.At the end of the scroll is engraved with the words "On April 15, the ninth year of Xiantong, Wang Jie respected and made general offerings for his two relatives".Now housed in the Museum of London, UK.The earliest printed almanacs that can be seen today are the almanac of the fourth year of Qianfu (877) and the almanac of the second year of Zhonghe (882). In 1944, a "Dharani Sutra Mantra" was found in a Tang tomb near the Wangjiang Tower outside the East Gate of Chengdu. The earliest surviving printed Buddhist scriptures in China.

The engraving and printing materials of the Tang Dynasty in my country are mainly the works needed by the people in daily life and the scriptures and laws propagated by Buddhism.At that time, this new technology was only used in local areas (Sichuan and the lower reaches of the Yangtze River) and local areas (folk and temples). Its original purpose was not to spread knowledge, but to accurately copy scriptures, etc. Therefore, The printing of books is only at an early stage, and by the Five Dynasties, it has gradually transitioned from the stage of writing to the stage of printing.

By the Five Dynasties, folk and Buddhist book engravings had developed further.Printing, which was mainly spread among the people and temples, gradually entered the scholar-official class during the Five Dynasties, and many noble literati "paid their own salaries" or pooled money to hire people to print books.He Ning is the first person who engraves books with private funds.He Ning was a Bachelor of Hanlin in the Later Tang Dynasty, and served as Prime Minister in the fifth year of Tianfu in the Later Jin Dynasty (940).He is good at short songs and erotic songs. There are a hundred volumes, which he transcribes and engraves on the board.The monk Tanyu of the former Shu engraved and printed the "Zen Yueji" written by his master Guanxiu in Chengdu; Six Posts" and other engraving printing.

During the Five Dynasties period, printing technology also attracted the attention of the government, and the business of publishing books by the government began.In the late Tang Dynasty, the chancellors Feng Dao and Li Yuzuo asked the Confucian classics to be engraved. The highest institution at that time, Guozijian, organized special personnel to engrave the Nine Classics on the basis of the Tang Kaicheng Stone Classic, and printed "Yi" and "Poetry". ", "Chunqiu Zuo's Biography", "Chunqiu Gongyang Biography", "Chunqiu Guliang Biography", "Rituals", "Zhou Li", "Book of Rites".This was the first time that Confucian classics were engraved, and it was also the beginning of the official use of engraving to print books. The engraving of the "Nine Classics" went through four dynasties from the third year of Changxing (932) in the Later Tang Dynasty to the third year of Guangshun in the Later Zhou Dynasty (953), and it took 22 years to complete all of them.These books are engraved by Guozijian, which is called "Jianben".This system influenced the following dynasties. The Jianben of the Song Dynasty was engraved with the Jianben of the Five Dynasties as the base, and the Song people called the Jianben of the Five Dynasties the "Old Jianben" or "Ancient Jingben".The printing technique entered the government from the folk, and the scope of printed books rose from miscellaneous books to classics, which improved its status and was more conducive to its development.

There are very few engraved books of the Five Dynasties, only the "Tang Yun" and "Qie Yun" discovered in Dunhuang, the "Diamond Sutra" engraved in the fifteenth year of Tianfu and various Buddha statues (now stored in the Paris Library of France), which were discovered in Zhejiang in 1917 Several volumes of the "Baoxi Yinjing" engraved during the reign of Qian Chuxiande, king of Wuyue, were found in the elephant trunk of the stone carving scriptures in Tianning Temple, Huzhou. The only surviving edition of the Five Dynasties.When my country's engraving and printing reached the Five Dynasties, books engraved by bookstores, private engraved books and government engraved books were all available, which opened the way for the engraving of books in the future.