Conclusion
As mentioned above, the Japanese case provides the best example of how Buddhism influenced printing. In China the religion was a populist one, which actively sought out those that were marginalized by Confucian society. Korea had a voracious appetite for Buddhist texts and the combination of the scarcity of resources for woodblock printing as well as the Mongol invasions stimulated the use of new printing technologies. As Mair writes, “There is little doubt that printing in East Asia, from its inception, was primarily a Buddhist phenomenon.”(736) Buddhism, being a universalistic and populist religion, as well as its zealous conversion of the common person to its faith, was able to utilize print technology like no other religion at the time was able to. The ostensibly oral origins of the religion allowed Buddhism to utilize vernacular language in the printed form to reach a much wider audience than Confucianism, Taoism, or other religions. So in this way Buddhism was able to wield an influence on print technology that was unknown before its introduction to East Asia.
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