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I found this book while looking for books on Chinese printing for the New Year display. When I ended up reading the conservator's notes for the display I discovered that I knew everything she was talking about. Later on the day I discovered that she had also read the same book. (But had not read any others and so included some of the questionable stuff from this text). It was a very enoyable introduction to the subject.
Chapter 1 Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Bronze and Stone Inscriptions.
Liu gives a brief history of each, though he points out that these early forms of writing were not books. It reminded me again of the importance of the stone inscriptions during the Han. In 175CE a complete text of the Confucian classics was inscribed in stone. These were used by people to make rubbings of so that they would have the an accurate record of the writings free from mistakes.
Chapter 2, Writings on Bamboo Strips, Wooden Boards and Silk.
When I was putting this book on the shelf at work I found that I had already put a book on reserve with the title of this chapter, that looked at very early Chinese books. But I thought I'd read this book first as it was shorter. The earliest books were made of bamboo stips, preforated and tied together. Because the strips were not numbered when the strings holding them together broke it often led to pages being put back in the wrong order.
One new thing I learned was about the use of wooden boards, which were mainly used for letters or short essays. On the top of one board was written the letter, and another board was placed as a cover with the names and addresses of the sender and recipent the two were bound together and clay was applied and a seal pressed into the clay.
A quote from Mozi in the 4th century BCE shows that both Bamboo and Silk were commonly used for making books. Silk had the advantage of being much lighter and more portable than the bamboo books. The period of silk books lasted roughly 800 years down to the third century CE. Only the wealthies could affoard to use silk for writing.
Liu looks at the early government attitude towards books, who from Qin Shihuangdi through the Han it was prohibtied to own books. He also mentions how Han Wudi was the first emperor to set up an official national library. (though this should be viewed more as an imperial collection rather than an actual national library).
Chapter 3, The Invention of Paper and the Scroll System.
It is interesting to see that paper is credited as being an invention of the people, arond 100CE. There is a recommendation from a eunuch that the court should start using paper, however Liu also states that in the beginning paper was not widely used becaue of the poor quality and that the aristocrats were prejudiced against new things and did not care to use the cheap things of the the common people (34). It was not until the 3rd century that paper gradually came into wider use. A common saying quoted in the book, "We are so poor that we cannot affoard to use silk and we have to use paper to write letters" (35).
No early paper scrolls survive, we only know the earliest books were in the form of scrolls from records. (presumably not written on scrolls), However many of these books from the 5th-7th century were found in Dunhuang, and are now part of the "Dunhuang Manuscript collection". The scrolls were labeld with the title of the chapter or essay, and the number of the scroll (chuan) and then the title of the book (the main title). At the end of the text was the year, month when it was copied and the name of the copiest the title of the chapter and the number of chuan. Each column contains between 20 and 24 characters. Annotated scrolls were written with the main text in red and the annotation in black. (37)
From the 7th and 8th centuries proffesional copiers and book shopes appeared. In the 9th century sutra binding and whirlwind binding also became popular, as it was easier to find text within the book.
Chapter 4 Block Printing
Block printing was invented in the Tang dynasty. (This book was written before Barrett's research and doesn't therefore contain his fascinating research on printing and Empress Wu). Oldest surviving printed and dated manuscript is the Diamond Sutra dated 868CE. It shows that printing was already highly developed by this time.
Printing reached a new height in the Song and became very popular. Illustrated books were commonnot just classics with illustrations of ancient things but also popular books and stories. Later illustrations became even more common, one ming edition of Three Kingdoms contained 240 illustrations. (55). Multi-colored printing was invented in the 14th century.
Chapter 5 Moveable Type Printing
Moveable-type Printing was invented in the eleventh century by Pi Sheng. The method he used is preserved in an 11th century text. It was not used widely after it was invented, because it was not convienient. Different methods however were developed and used, and it was used extensively during the Ming period.
The influence of the spread of Chinese printing is discussed. The rulers of Persia in the early 13th century had money printed with Chinese and Arabic characters, the imperial seal of the Presian rulers also contianed Chinese character and there is a description of Chinese moveable type printing in a 13th century Persian sourse written by Rashid-ad-din, the Persian prime Minister. The author speculates that the middle east learnt printing from the Uighurs.
Chapter 6
Books after the Invention of Printing
Looks at the different forms of the books, including bound volume form and different types of binding like butterfly binding and wrapped back binding.
The popularity of collecting books grew after the invention of printing.
Chapter 1 Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Bronze and Stone Inscriptions.
Liu gives a brief history of each, though he points out that these early forms of writing were not books. It reminded me again of the importance of the stone inscriptions during the Han. In 175CE a complete text of the Confucian classics was inscribed in stone. These were used by people to make rubbings of so that they would have the an accurate record of the writings free from mistakes.
Chapter 2, Writings on Bamboo Strips, Wooden Boards and Silk.
When I was putting this book on the shelf at work I found that I had already put a book on reserve with the title of this chapter, that looked at very early Chinese books. But I thought I'd read this book first as it was shorter. The earliest books were made of bamboo stips, preforated and tied together. Because the strips were not numbered when the strings holding them together broke it often led to pages being put back in the wrong order.
One new thing I learned was about the use of wooden boards, which were mainly used for letters or short essays. On the top of one board was written the letter, and another board was placed as a cover with the names and addresses of the sender and recipent the two were bound together and clay was applied and a seal pressed into the clay.
A quote from Mozi in the 4th century BCE shows that both Bamboo and Silk were commonly used for making books. Silk had the advantage of being much lighter and more portable than the bamboo books. The period of silk books lasted roughly 800 years down to the third century CE. Only the wealthies could affoard to use silk for writing.
Liu looks at the early government attitude towards books, who from Qin Shihuangdi through the Han it was prohibtied to own books. He also mentions how Han Wudi was the first emperor to set up an official national library. (though this should be viewed more as an imperial collection rather than an actual national library).
Chapter 3, The Invention of Paper and the Scroll System.
It is interesting to see that paper is credited as being an invention of the people, arond 100CE. There is a recommendation from a eunuch that the court should start using paper, however Liu also states that in the beginning paper was not widely used becaue of the poor quality and that the aristocrats were prejudiced against new things and did not care to use the cheap things of the the common people (34). It was not until the 3rd century that paper gradually came into wider use. A common saying quoted in the book, "We are so poor that we cannot affoard to use silk and we have to use paper to write letters" (35).
No early paper scrolls survive, we only know the earliest books were in the form of scrolls from records. (presumably not written on scrolls), However many of these books from the 5th-7th century were found in Dunhuang, and are now part of the "Dunhuang Manuscript collection". The scrolls were labeld with the title of the chapter or essay, and the number of the scroll (chuan) and then the title of the book (the main title). At the end of the text was the year, month when it was copied and the name of the copiest the title of the chapter and the number of chuan. Each column contains between 20 and 24 characters. Annotated scrolls were written with the main text in red and the annotation in black. (37)
From the 7th and 8th centuries proffesional copiers and book shopes appeared. In the 9th century sutra binding and whirlwind binding also became popular, as it was easier to find text within the book.
Chapter 4 Block Printing
Block printing was invented in the Tang dynasty. (This book was written before Barrett's research and doesn't therefore contain his fascinating research on printing and Empress Wu). Oldest surviving printed and dated manuscript is the Diamond Sutra dated 868CE. It shows that printing was already highly developed by this time.
Printing reached a new height in the Song and became very popular. Illustrated books were commonnot just classics with illustrations of ancient things but also popular books and stories. Later illustrations became even more common, one ming edition of Three Kingdoms contained 240 illustrations. (55). Multi-colored printing was invented in the 14th century.
Chapter 5 Moveable Type Printing
Moveable-type Printing was invented in the eleventh century by Pi Sheng. The method he used is preserved in an 11th century text. It was not used widely after it was invented, because it was not convienient. Different methods however were developed and used, and it was used extensively during the Ming period.
The influence of the spread of Chinese printing is discussed. The rulers of Persia in the early 13th century had money printed with Chinese and Arabic characters, the imperial seal of the Presian rulers also contianed Chinese character and there is a description of Chinese moveable type printing in a 13th century Persian sourse written by Rashid-ad-din, the Persian prime Minister. The author speculates that the middle east learnt printing from the Uighurs.
Chapter 6
Books after the Invention of Printing
Looks at the different forms of the books, including bound volume form and different types of binding like butterfly binding and wrapped back binding.
The popularity of collecting books grew after the invention of printing.