Ming Official Woodblock Printing

Timeline

1. c. 1371–1373Nanjing · JiangnanIn the early Hongwu reign the court ordered the Directorate of Education, the Historiography Academy, and other offices to woodblock-print the Four Books and Five Classics, statutes, and histories of successive dynasties, to spread instruction and prepare for the imperial examinations, launching the Ming's large-scale official printing enterprise.
2. 1374–1378Nanjing Directorate of Education · JiangnanThe Directorate of Education established a block storehouse and printing workshops, forming a complete workflow of writing exemplars, carving, proofreading, printing, and binding. It printed works such as the Great Learning Expanded Meaning and the History of Yuan, with blocks kept in store for further printings.
3. c. 1377–1380Six Ministries and Office of Transmission in Nanjing · JiangnanIn the later Hongwu reign, the Ministries of Rites and Justice and the Office of Transmission also printed statutes, memorials, calendars, and other documents; official woodblock printing expanded from publishing classics into a means of mass-reproducing administrative documents and instructional reading.