Chapter 15 Section 1 From Scroll Manuscripts to Block Printing Books

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the form of books in my country underwent major changes, from scrolls to booklets; the invention of printing made books change from manuscripts to printed books.Between the 4th century AD and the middle of the 9th century AD, Chinese books were mainly scroll-style manuscripts.This kind of manuscript uses a rod as a shaft, glued to the last piece of paper, and rolled into a bundle around this, called a scroll.Sidebars and boundaries are drawn on each sheet for easy writing.When the scroll is placed on the bookshelf, the shaft head is outwards for easy extraction and insertion.There is a stick attached to the shaft head, on which the title and volume of the book are written.

Block printing first appeared no later than the middle of the Tang Dynasty.The "Diamond Sutra", which was engraved and printed on April 15th in the ninth year of Emperor Yizong Xiantong (868 AD) at the expense of Wang Jie (jie Jie), is the earliest surviving engraving and printing.Liu Ji (pin frequency) also mentioned woodblock printing in his preface to "Liu's Family Instructions": In the summer of Guimao (883 A.D.) in the third year of Zhonghe, Luanyu was in Shu for the third year, and I was a member of Zhongshushe.During Xunxiu, I read books in the southeast of Chongcheng. There are many Yinyang, Miscellaneous Notes, Zhanmeng, Xiangzhai, Jiugong, Wuwei and other books, as well as calligraphy books and elementary schools.The rate of woodblock printing paper, dipping and dyeing cannot be fully understood.

Printing first emerged and became popular among the people, and most of the first published books were frequently used by the people and required a lot of books. Therefore, the necessary books for people’s life-almanacs, the tools for literacy-character books, primary school books, etc. , popular collections of poetry and books on divination and geomantic omen were the first to be engraved and printed.In order to promote Buddhism, the practice of copying Buddhist scriptures in the Sui and Tang dynasties reached an astonishing level. Both temples and individuals were engaged in copying Buddhist scriptures.Due to the large quantity required, Buddhist scriptures became one of the first books to be printed.

Driven by the folk printing industry, in the third year of Emperor Mingzong's Changxing (932 A.D.) in the later Tang Dynasty, the government engraved and printed "Shangshu", "Chunqiu Zuoshi Zhuan", "Chunqiu Gongyang Zhuan", "Spring and Autumn Guliang Biography" and "Yi Li", "Zhou Li", "Li Jing" and other nine kinds of scriptures, "Five Dynasties Meeting Yao" recorded this event: He ordered Guozijian to collect doctoral and Confucian disciples to copy and annotate the Xijing stone scriptures, each with the scriptures and sentences in the professional script, and read them carefully.If people of all colors want to write scriptures, they must follow the printed imperial editions, and the miscellaneous editions must not be intertwined.

The engraving of the "Nine Classics" is mainly based on the 12 Confucian classics engraved in the Chang'an Guozijian in the second year of Tang Wenzong Li Ang's Kaicheng (837 A.D.), the so-called "Kaicheng Stone Classics". It took more than 20 years to engrave and print made.After that, the work of printing books by the government began.After the Five Dynasties, manuscript books were gradually replaced by printed books.The wide application of printing has effectively promoted the development of culture and facilitated the spread of world civilization. The emergence of woodblock printing caused changes in the form of books, and there was a transition from scrolls to books.It turns out that scrolls are time-consuming and inconvenient to read.Therefore, Hu Yinglin (AD 1551-1602), a scholar of the Ming Dynasty, pointed out in "Shaoshi Shanfang Bi Cong·Jing Ji Hui Tong" that "by the end of Tang Dynasty and the beginning of Song Dynasty, banknote records changed into printed copies, and scrolls changed into books. Yi Cheng , Difficult to destroy, Saving money, and Easy to store, these are the four virtues.”

A volume of Buddhist scriptures engraved and printed in 949 AD in the second year of Qianyou in the Later Han Dynasty stolen from Dunhuang by the British MAStein (1862-1943 AD) is the earliest volume-bound book that we have seen in our country.Stein said in "Dunhuang Collection" that "... there is another small volume of Buddhist scriptures, which is poorly printed, but it is quite evident that the old form has changed into a new type of book. The book is not a scroll, but a folded book, covering this form. It is also the first book." It can be seen that the period of the end of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties was a turning point for books in our country to change from scrolls to booklets.