When was printing invented in ancient china

By , paged books in the modern style had replaced scrolls. Two color printing black and red was seen as early as The "Diamond Sutra" scroll is the world's earliest, dated, printed book.

Although not the earliest example of blockprinting, this scroll is the earliest which bears an actual date. The colophon, at the inner end, reads: "Reverently made for universal free distribution by Wang Jie on behalf of his two parents on the 13th of the 4th moon of the 9th year of Xiantong [i. It was one of a small number of printed items among many thousands of manuscripts, comprising a library which must have been sealed about AD.

The quality of definition makes it clear that the blockcutter had a considerable experience and skill.

It is not known where the printing was carried out, although Sichuan, in southwest China, is known to have been a center of printing activity at this time. Beginning years ago in the Western Han Dynasty B. This led in the Sui Dynasty to the practice of engraving writing or pictures on a wooden board, smearing it with ink and then printing on pieces of paper page-by-page. This became known as block printing. The first book with a verifiable date of printing appeared in China in the year , or nearly years before that happened in Europe.

Yet block printing had its drawbacks. All the boards became useless after the printing was done and a single mistake in carving could ruin a whole block. In of the Song Dynasty , a man named Bi Sheng carved individual characters on identical pieces of fine clay which he hardened by a slow baking process, resulting in pieces of movable type. When the printing was finished, the pieces of type were put away for future use.

This technology then spread to Korea, Japan, Vietnam and Europe. Later, German Johann Gutenberg invented movable type made of metal in Movable type was first created by Bi Sheng , who used baked clay, which was very fragile. The Yuan-dynasty official Wang Zhen is credited with the introduction of wooden movable type, a more durable option, around Francis Bacon , a leading philosopher, politician, and adviser to King James I of England, was unaware of the origins of these inventions but deeply impressed by their significance when he wrote:.

These are to be seen nowhere more clearly than those three which were unknown to the ancients [the Greeks], and of which the origin, though recent, is obscure and inglorious; namely printing, gunpowder, and the magnet. Starting around BCE, seals were impressed on official documents, personal letters, and works of art.

From the 9th century onward, the Chinese printed books from large wooden blocks. Printing in China was soon performed on a larger scale and books were available throughout China.

Bookshops were trading in every Chinese city.