Knowra Chinese woodblock printing Chinese woodblock printing Chinese woodblock printing reproduces text or images by applying ink to carved wooden blocks and pressing paper or cloth against them. It enabled the production of multiple copies from a single carved surface.
Relief printing : A printing method in which ink transfers from raised surfaces while recessed areas remain uninked. Woodblock printing is a relief process: carved-away areas do not print.
Diamond Sutra : A Buddhist scripture whose Chinese printed edition, dated 868, is the oldest known complete dated printed book. Its surviving edition provides a landmark early example of Chinese woodblock printing.
Chinese book culture : The traditions of producing, circulating, collecting, and reading books in China. Woodblock printing became a durable means of making and distributing Chinese books.
Movable type : A printing system that assembles reusable individual characters or letters into a page before printing. Unlike a carved page block, movable type separates reusable characters from the page layout.
Woodcut : An image-making technique that prints ink from the raised surface of a carved wood block. Its image-making practice shares the carved, inked surface used in Chinese printing.
Dunhuang manuscripts : A collection of manuscripts and printed materials sealed in a cave near Dunhuang and discovered in the early twentieth century. The cache preserves early Chinese printed texts, including evidence of their circulation.
Chinese encyclopedia : A reference work that organizes knowledge across subjects for consultation, often in multiple volumes. Large encyclopedias demonstrated how blocks could reproduce extensive, organized bodies of text.
Bi Sheng : A Chinese artisan credited with inventing ceramic movable type during the eleventh century. His method offered a character-by-character alternative to carving whole pages.
Chinese paper : Paper made in China from plant fibers, developed during the Han dynasty and refined over centuries. Its thin, absorbent sheets suited the rubbing and pressing methods used for block impressions.
Buddhism in China : The development of Buddhist institutions, teachings, and practices in China after Buddhism arrived from South Asia. Demand for Buddhist texts helped motivate the reproduction of scriptures in multiple copies.
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