The earliest invention of printing - engraving printing

Printing is a general term for printing process technology. Engraving, movable type printing, short-run printing, stencil printing... all belong to printing, and they are different. They are all members of the big family of printing. So which of these specific printing techniques are the most specific? To date, it is known that engraving is the earliest.

Engraving printing is the process of engraving letters or drawings on wood plates, using plates with pictures and texts as printing plates, and performing ink printing. The process method is as follows: 1. Firstly produce planks according to the size of the layout (mainly pearwood, dumu, jujube); 2. Write text or draw pictures on thin paper according to layout requirements; 3. Wrote text or drawings The thin paper with the picture is affixed on the wooden board with a special paste; 4, the carving is used to sculpt according to the strokes and lines of the picture, so that the picture is highlighted, the space is sunken, and the printing plate is made; 5, in the printing plate Brush on ink; 6, lay the paper on the plate, brush with a brown brush, so that the ink is printed on the paper; 7, the paper is lifted, dried, you can bind a book. It is said that in the early days of the invention of printing, it was possible to print two thousand copies a day using this technique, and the speed was unmatched by the hand-written books.

The time for the invention of engraving printing remains controversial. Most people think it was invented in the late Sui or early Tang. Shao Jingbang, a historian of the Ming dynasty, wrote the documentary evidence of the “Women's Rule” issued by Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty in 636 AD, which he invented in the early Tang Dynasty or earlier for engraving printing. The original text reads: "After Taizong, there was a long Sunshi, a Luoyang person... ...an avalanche, thirty-six years old. On top of that," Gongjishi wrote his "Women" ten times, and collected ancient women to do good deeds. Sigh, this book will be descended from the foot, making it possible to do it.” This record shows that there was printing before 636 AD. Because Emperor Taizong ordered the "Women's Case" to be an imperial application of printing to print books, it was not to invent the printing technique. Therefore, the invention time of printing must be before 636 AD. In view of the fact that in 588 AD, Yang Wenjian of the Sui Wendi ordered the copying of 300,000 copies of Chen Zhuozhu's official script. It is unlikely that the printing technique would prove to be earlier than the year 588 AD. It was said that the printing technique was invented during the Sui and Tang Dynasties. suitable.