Evolution of Printing in China

The history of printing goes back to the era when pictures were duplicated by the use of stamps. Initially it was developed using the ancient principles but gradually the entire process underwent various levels of modifications as per and in accordance to the varying needs of the people.

One of the most important inventions in the world took place in China between 4th to 7th century A.D. Prior to this there was no way in which any written material could be preserved for the time to come.

The first printing was done in the skin of the barks of trees. It was written on these barks and casually kept over and preserved as books. Each tree skin bark was each page of a book. However, these were difficult to preserve and got destroyed after few years. This was required to be improved but no alternative was available. Initially, detailed inscriptions was a de on the wodden blocks and coated with rice paste to retain the impression of the ink. A craftsman would then cut away a raised impression of the inscription, which was brushed with ink and then pressed with a sheet of paper. This method was perticularly important as it for the first time allowed multiple production of texts.

In China the use of small blocks preceeded the use of big blocks. Like India and Europe, China had also made its first printing works in cloth pieces, the impressions of print were printed on silk cloth until the 17th century.

Then came the use of BLOCK PRINTING which was a technique for printing texts, pictures, or patterns, and was quite widely used in a wide scale in Eastern Asia, both as a method of printing on textiles, and later, under the influence of Buddhism, on papers. As a method of printing on cloth, the easiest example from China dates back to 220 A.D

The earliest printing China are the world's earliest made woodblock printing. These fragments are of silk, printed with flowers with three colours from the era of the Han Dynasty.

This technology of printing on cloth was taken down on paper under the influence of Buddhism, which encouraged the translation of standard translations over a large area, as well as the idea of printing multiple copies of the key texts of religious origin. The oldest book printing China is the 'Diamond Sutra ' which dates back to the Xiatong Era.

The next landmark in printing evolved with the emergence of movable printing. Bi - Sheng brought in for the first time, movable type dystem for printing in China around the year 1040 A.D using ceramic materials, during the Song dynasty.

Later, Zhou Bida, am officer of the Sang dynasty enhanced the earlier clay typing method and brought added some new attachments to it thereby making it work in a much better way. It overcame the defects of the first, which was fragile and could not be used for large scale printing. In it, large sized clay tablets were baked in ovens after printing on it. These were portable and also could be preserved for long periods. However, ls ter, the size of these tablets were reduced so that they could be easily carried. Woodden printing types were also invented by Bi Sheng, but their use was preffered less as compared to the clay ones which gradually rubbed off their existence. This had a problem also that is, their surface became rough and uneven when they were soaked in ink.

Tsai Loun achieved remarkable success in developing the modern paper. This paper was made from a combination of hemp, bark, and quite strangely, from recycled fish nets. The paper which was made was soft, thin, with a tight texture and smooth finish. This was the first ever made papers in the history of printing techniques.