Printing
in Ancient China was believed to be one of their greatest inventions which
consequently resulted in the development of ink and paper. The earliest prints
found in China dates back to 220 BC which used block printing (a printing
process where a thin piece of paper is glued to wood and then carved with the
characters creating a text or image impression. The earliest woodblock prints
collected had printed flowers on various colored silk. The first book published
in 868 called Diamond
Sutra was printed through this method.
As printing developed in
China, it spread to neighboring countries such as Japan and Korea. There was
evidence of woodblock
printing in Japan which dates back to the 8th century. But
because the process was expensive and time-consuming, it was only in 1650 when
the first illustrated book was created in Japan.
Unlike Japan, Koreans had
higher demand for religious books. This is evidenced by the existence of books
as far back as the 13th century. Koreans first started using
woodblock printing and then moved to the moveable type print. Later
on bronze casting was adapted. But unlike in Europe, Korean books were only
available to the noble sector of the society.
That's where we give China the credit. Thanks for sharing. It still astounds me how we moved from very tedious printing process to instant ones.
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