Woodblock printing
China prints books four hundred years before Gutenberg.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 168 years
- Known to
- ± 50 years
- Era
- Post-Classical, Holocene
Full-page woodblock printing is in use in China by the seventh century, initially for Buddhist texts and charms. The Diamond Sutra of 868, found at Dunhuang, is the earliest dated printed book, and it carries a colophon saying it was made for free universal distribution. Woodblock suits Chinese writing well — cutting a whole page is no worse than casting thousands of individual characters — which is why movable type never displaced it there.