Woodblock printing
Xilografía (impresión de bloques de madera)
- Date
- 868 · confidence high
- Place
- Dunhuang / Chang'an, Tang China
- Credited to
- Tang Buddhist workshops (Diamond Sutra, 868)
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
Printing of whole pages of text and images from a wooden block carved in relief; the Diamond Sutra of 868 is the oldest dated printed book. The first mass reproduction of texts.
Earlier Buddhist printed items exist (Korea c. 704–751, Japan 770), but without an explicit date.
What it led to
- the spread of Buddhism and printed Confucian classics
- paper money, playing cards and printed calendars
- the printed Song canon and an examination bureaucracy based on cheap books
Built on
- seals (stamps)
- textile printing
Made possible
- Mugujeonggwang Great Dharani Sutrac. 704-751
- Hyakumantō Darani764-770
- Mordant block-printed cotton (chintz)c. 1000
- Paper money1024
- Ceramic movable typec. 1044
- Yingzao fashi building standards1103
- Tripitaka Koreana1236-1251
- Wooden movable type with revolving case1313
- Multicolour woodblock printing1340 (dos colores) / 1633 (policromía)
- European woodcutc. 1400
- Copperplate engravingc. 1430-1450
- Movable-type printing pressc. 1450
- Nishiki-e, Japanese full-colour woodblock printing1765
- Nishiki-e full-colour woodblock print1765
- Paper money
- Ceramic movable type
- European woodcut