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Tang Woodblock Printing

Type Object Region China Time c. 800–900

Tang woodblock printing was a technique of carving text and images in reverse on wooden boards, inking and pressing to mass-copy texts and images, ma…

Timeline

  1. c. 800–850Chang'an · Xi'an CityThe flourishing of Buddhism in the mid-Tang drove the shift from hand-copied scriptures to woodblock reproduction. Temples and popular engravers formed a division of labor, and the processes of block carving, printing and mounting became standardized, laying the technical foundation for mature printed editions such as the Xiantong edition.
  2. 868Mogao Caves, Dunhuang · Dunhuang CityWang Jie reverently commissioned the Diamond Sutra for his parents: six sheets of text plus a frontispiece illustration of the Jeta Grove and Anathapindika's Garden, with a complete colophon at the end. The carving of text and images is skilled and the ink even, making it the earliest surviving dated woodblock print.
  3. c. 870–900Dunhuang · Dunhuang CityAfter the Xiantong edition, Buddhist scripture printed editions with frontispiece illustrations appeared successively in Dunhuang and elsewhere. Woodblock printing spread from Chang'an and Luoyang to northwestern temples, and printed single scriptures replaced part of hand copying; the technique had reached a high degree of maturity.

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