Woodblock Printing

Timeline

1. 868–907Dunhuang · GansuThe Xiantong 9 (868 CE) Diamond Sutra printed edition unearthed at Dunhuang shows that woodblock printing had matured in paper, ink, and layout. In the late Tang, temples and printing workshops across various regions printed Buddhist scriptures, calendars, and poetry; the technique expanded from single-sheet prints to bound volumes, laying the foundation for large-scale official and private printing in the Five Dynasties.
2. c. 907–970Chengdu and Hangzhou · ChinaDuring the Five Dynasties, Later Shu printed the Nine Classics and the Qian family of Wuyue printed large quantities of Buddhist scriptures; woodblock carvers and printing workshops formed industrial networks in Sichuan and Jiangnan. Temple-supervised production, government-sponsored projects, and commercial workshops coexisted, and standards for layout, proofreading, and binding gradually became standardized.
3. 971–1000Around Jingzhong Temple, Chengdu · SichuanIn the fourth year of Kaibao (971), Emperor Taizu of Song ordered the printing of the Kaibao Canon, supervised by the monk Zhang Congben, taking over ten years to carve and print more than one thousand volumes of the Buddhist canon. This project concentrated the finest carvers and collators of the time, marking woodblock printing's transition from scattered printing to national-scale publishing, and deeply influenced the tradition of printing Chinese Buddhist canons in East Asia.