subject: History Of Paper And Printing In China [print this page] It was in 105 AD, during the reign of Han Dynasty, which ruled China from 202 BC to 16 AD, that paper was invented. The invention is credited to Cai Lun, an official employed in the court of a Han king. Though writing paper came into use in China before printing in China started, the use of paper for other purposes had started there even before paper manufacture for writing started. Even as early as the 2nd century BC, some sort of paper was used in the country for wrapping medicines, for cushioning delicate objects, and for covering things. Writing medium in those days were bamboo strips and silk. Silk was very expensive and was only sparingly used for recording and storing important matter.
Paper, as well as printing from China spread to the European countries via land routes. The early paper that Cai Lun manufactured was made of mulberry pulp, recycled fishnets, hemp waste, and rags. However, the popular name 'paper' by which writing sheets and newspapers are known to this very day, originated from the word 'papyrus', or the papyrus plant which provided a writing medium for people of Egypt and other Mediterranean countries before paper manufacture in its standardized form was introduced by Cai Lun (also spelt Tsai Loun) in China.
printing in China emerged around 600 AD when woodblock printing technology was invented. In woodblock printing, the image or text was painted on a block of wood and coated with a paste that would help it to retain the ink. The paste-coated portion was then smeared with ink and pressed against a sheet of paper to make the imprint. In this way, multiple copies of the same image or text could be made. The next great recorded leap in printing from China was when apparently a whole book was printed in the 9th century. This book, known as 'Diamond Sutra', is a 'sutra' or sacred text of Mahayana Buddhism written in Chinese, and is dated May, 868 AD. The book is the earliest surviving complete printed book, and is nearly 600 years older than the Gutenberg bible, which was printed in the 1450s using movable type. A copy of Diamond Sutra, done in wood block printing, is still in the British Library.
Further improvement in printing in China was made in 1040 when an alchemist named Pi Sheng invented the movable type printing. In this method, alphabets were made of clay and then baked to harden them. These clay letters were then arranged and rearranged on a metal plate according to requirement to make the necessary ink impression on paper. This is the basic printing method which later evolved into offset printing and is still in use with many modifications. Though printing from China had spread to the western countries as early as the beginning of the first millennium, after the invention of the printing press, printing technology evolved fast in western countries by incorporating improved technologies of color printing, thermal printing, digital printing etc. However, with ultramodern printing machines at their disposal and skilled workers to operate it, printing in China has now returned to its former glory.
