How Many Types of Printing in Ancient China

There were two main types of printing in ancient China: engraving and movable type.

1, engraved printing

will be written in the manuscript of the writing sample, so that the side of the word on the board, you can carve the word, the engraver with different forms of carving knife will be on the wooden plate of the reverse body of the word ink engraved into the raised Yangwen, at the same time will be the rest of the blank portion of the wooden plate to remove, so that the concave. The words carved out of the plate protrude about 1 to 2 millimeters from the plate. Rinse the carved plate with hot water, wash away the wood shavings, etc., the process of carving the plate is complete.

2, movable-type printing

Movable-type plate to avoid the shortcomings of the engraved plate, as long as the preparation of a sufficient number of individual movable words, can be ready to spell the plate, greatly speeding up the time of plate making. After the printing of movable type plate, you can dismantle the plate, movable type can be reused, and movable type than the space occupied by the engraved plate is small, easy to store and keep. In this way, the superiority of movable type is shown.

Origin of Printing

Printing during the Warring States period (475-221 BC). Seals existed in the pre-Qin period, usually with only a few characters indicating name, official position or organization. Seals are engraved in reverse, there is a difference between yin and yang. Before the emergence of paper, official documents or letters are written on the letter, after writing, tied with a rope, in the ligature put sticky mud sealing knot, the seal will be stamped on the mud, known as the mud seal, the mud seal is printed on the mud, which is a means of confidentiality at the time.

After the emergence of paper, the mud seal evolved into a paper seal, in several pieces of official paper seams or official paper bag seal. It is recorded that in the Northern Qi Dynasty (550~577 AD) someone made the seal used for official paper sealing very large, much like a small engraved plate.

Refer to Baidu Encyclopedia-Printing