Buddhist Influences On Print Technology - Brief Survey of Writing & Printing in Early China

Brief Survey of Writing & Printing in Early China

The earliest known writing in China are inscriptions on bones and shells which were used for divination for approximately three centuries until the late 11th century BC. Inscriptions can also be found on bronze, jade, stone, and pottery. Bronze was developed as a permanent record of socio-political and ceremonial information in the 2nd or 3rd century AD. Stone, on the other hand, is the only permanent method used continuously from ancient times to present. Also, stone was used extensively for inscriptions on monuments and for the preservation of Confucian, Buddhist, and Taoist texts. Clay inscriptions flourished from the 4th or 5th century BC until the early 4th century AD. These inscriptions were primarily records of names, titles, and phrases such as good luck sayings.(201)

Silk was also used for the recording of information starting in the 7th or 6th century BC. The predecessors to paper-based books in China were strips and tablets made of bamboo or wood, which were bound by cords and used much like books are today. This method of transmission of information was in use at the same time as the usage of bronze and the other methods. Bamboo and wood was used for approximately three centuries more than paper and silk was in use for some 500 years longer than paper. These methods were favoured by tradition and also had some advantages over paper.

A less expensive alternative was developed, a form of paper made from a refuse fiber called zhi. This paper was developed before the Christian era and became commonplace in the 1st or 2nd century AD for books and other documents, but the other methods of recording information continued. Paper books were originally in the form of rolls, then folded leaves, and finally bound volumes like the books in use today.

There were various methods for the production of early Chinese records. Bone and stone media were engraved or incised with a metal stylus or knife. Wood, bamboo, silk, and paper was written on with brush-pens; the ink was black; usage of ink dates to Neolithic China. Styli were also used and were made of bamboo, wood, horn, and metal, but it is not known when the stylus first came into common usage. Book knives were used as erasers for bamboo and wood tablets but not for inscriptions. Inscriptions on bronze were cast from molds. Inscriptions on clay were made by molds or were impressed with stamps. Seals were used to produce duplicates on soft clays and later on silk and paper. These seals were cast from metals or cut from jade or stone. Before the invention of woodblock printing, inked impressions from stone or other inscriptions would be made by rubbing or squeezing paper over their surfaces. This technique was used up to the early 6th century and led to the invention of printing. Moveable type was invented in China some 400 years before Gutenberg’s press. (1, 202-203)