Woodblock Printing Originated in China

By Wu Shanqing

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Woodblock Printing Originated in China

By Wu Shanqing

Printing is one of the ancient contributions China made to the global civilization. Woodblock printing originated in China and spread overseas, playing an inestimably great role in nurturing and preserving culture across the world. It is of cultural, historical, scientific and artistic significance.

That is why some Chinese were surprised to learn that “Confucian Printing Woodblocks in Korea” was inscribed as International Memory of World Register in October 2015.

In fact, this world heritage of Korea is closely intertwined with Chinese culture. The characters on the woodblocks are Chinese, the printed texts are of Confucianism, and the woodblock printing originated in China. This world heritage can also beconsidered recognition of the role Chinese culture has played in the peninsula. Over centuries, Chinese characters were used there. Even today, the Chinese characters are a part of the Korean culture. “Confucianism is the gene of Korean culture,” says frankly Mr. Lee Yong-doo, president of the Advanced Center for Korean Studies which houses these printing woodblocks and conducts researches.

現存揚州中國雕版印刷博物館的世界非遺項目“中國雕版印刷技藝”一塊版片。This is a printing woodblock in the collection of China Block Printing Museum in Yangzhou.

The printing woodblocks comprise 64,226 hand-carved blocks used for printing 718 titles of works, written during a period from 1460 to 1956. Most of the blocks were made during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). Tremendous efforts went into the preparations for applying for a world heritage status. After the successful inscription of the woodblocks on the Memory of World Register, a 30-year project was launched for translating the Confucian texts into modern Korean language and making them digital for global promotion. At present about 40 scholars are engaged in this epic work.

In fact, South Korea has other world heritage items associated with woodblock printing. Haeinsa Temple in Gaya Mountains in South Korea houses the Tripitaka Koreana, carved onto 81,258 wood printing blocks made in a period from 1236 to 1251. It is the world’s most comprehensive and oldest intact version of the Buddhist canon in the script of Chinese characters. All the texts are in the handwriting style of Ouyang Xun, a great Chinese calligrapher of the Tang (618-907). The texts were reintroduced to Japan and China later. The Tripitaka was inscribed on the UNESCO International Memory of World Register in 1995.

Printed during the Goryeo Dynasty in 1377, Jikji is the abbreviated title of a Korean Buddhist document, whose title can be translated as “Anthology of Great Buddhist Priests’ Zen Teachings”. The document is the world’s oldest extant book printed with movable metal type. UNESCO confirmed Jikji as the world’s oldest metalloid type in September 2001 and includes it in the Memory of the World Register.

China is where woodblock printing started though exactly when is not known. The 7th century is the academic consensus. The earliest woodblock printing was done by folk artists for religious purposes as testified by existing antique books across the world.

Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province in eastern China, used to be a publishing center of the country. During the Five Dynasties (907-960), book publishing thrived in the city as the king of Wuyue Kingdom promoted Buddhism and a lot of Buddhist sutras were printed under his decree. Many of these Buddhist books were shipped to Korean peninsula and Japan. In the Song Dynasty (960-1279), Hangzhou climaxed as the nation’s publishing powerhouse. An Imperial Reader on Statesmanship, a 294-volumed history masterpiece put together by Sima Guang (1019-1086), was carved onto printing blocks in Hangzhou. The carving in Hangzhou took seven years to complete. The capital of the Song in the north was a printing center too. The central government’s decision to have the printing blocks carved in Hangzhou testified to the peerless workmanship Hangzhou boasted. During the Song, publishers Chen Qi and his son Chen Xieyuan in Hangzhou printed quite a few literary books. Chen Qi printed an annotated version of Avatamsaka Sutra and distributed a large number of copies to Korea and Japan. Lu You, a poet of the Song, had also printed quite a few books while working as a governor in Yanzhou.

Hangzhou as the national printing center exerted far-reaching influences onto the Ming (1368-1644) and the Qing (1644-1911). In these centuries, bookstores could be seen everywhere in Hangzhou. Private libraries became a trend. Thirty percent of book collectors were in Zhejiang. It was also during these centuries that New Year prints became phenomenal in China in terms of woodblock printing.

During the Southern Song (1127-1279), books printed in Hangzhou on agriculture, Buddhism, techniques were shipped overseas to countries in Southeast Asia as the Maritime Silk Road starting in Zhejiang made it possible for books to reach overseas readers. According to regional chronicles, the schools at county and prefecture levels in Zhejiang during the Ming and the Qing had their own printing blocks. Now and then these blocks were used to print textbooks for students. In the Ming and the Qing, Sibao in Fujian Province printed a great number of books for overseas market.

China Block Printing Museum in Yangzhou, the only one of its kind in China, houses over 200,000 printing blocks, the largest collection of the ancient blocks. In 2009, the China Engraved Block Printing Technique was inscribed onto the UNESCO’s Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

China, Japan and Korea are engaged in broad exchanges about Chinese characters and block printing. On November 28, 2015, a seminar about the block printing in northeast Asia was held in Beijing, attended by scholars from the three countries. Two days later, the 10th session of the Northeast Asia Trilateral Forum held in Seoul launched a new book on the 808 commonly used Chinese characters in the three countries.