What are the five processes in the development of printing?

1. Copper printing during the Warring States period (475-221 BC).

The technique of printing and dyeing, which involves carving out floral designs on wooden boards and printing them on cloth with dyes, also had a great deal to say about engraving and printing. In China, there are two types of printing plates: convex plates and openwork plates. two pieces of printed yarn unearthed in 1972 from the Mawangdui No. 1 Han Tomb in Changsha, Hunan Province (around 165 B.C.E.) were printed on convex plates.

This technique may predate the Qin and Han dynasties and date back to the Warring States period. After the invention of paper, this technique may have been used in printing; by changing the cloth to paper and the dye to ink, what was printed became an engraved print. In the Dunhuang stone room there is the Tang Dynasty convex plate and hollow plate paper printed Buddha.

2. Ge Hong, a famous alchemist of the Jin Dynasty (284~363 A.D.), mentioned in his book Hug Park Zi that the Taoists had already used a four-inch-square (13.5×13.5) large wooden seal with 120 characters. This was already a small engraved plate.

3. In order to make the scriptures more vivid, Buddhists often printed Buddha's image at the beginning of the scrolls of the scriptures, and this kind of handmade wooden printing was much less laborious than hand-painting.

4, the topography of tablets and stones technology on the invention of engraved printing technology is very inspiring. The invention of engraved stone, the history is very early. The early Tang found ten stone drums in Fengxiang, present-day Shaanxi Province, which was carved in stone in Qin during the Spring and Autumn Period in the 8th century BC. The first emperor of Qin went on a tour and carved stones in important places seven times. After the Eastern Han Dynasty, stone monuments were prevalent.

Han Lingdi four years (175 AD) Cai Yong suggested that the court, in front of the Imperial College to establish the "Poetry," "Shangshu," "Zhouyi," "Rites," "Spring and Autumn," "Gongyang Chuan," "The Analects of Confucius" and other seven Confucian classics of the stone tablets, ****209,000 words, carved in 46 stone tablets each 175 high, 90 wide, 20 cm thick, the capacity of the word 5,000, the tablet's front and back are engraved words. Lasted 8 years, all carved. It became a classic for readers at that time. Many people scrambled to copy it. Later on, especially during the Wei, Jin and Six Dynasties, some people took advantage of the lax or unattended guards to use paper to topographize the scriptures for their own use or sale. As a result, it was widely circulated.

5, topography is one of the important conditions for the emergence of printing technology. Ancient people found in the monument covered with a slightly moist paper, with a soft mallet gently hit, so that the paper into the monument surface of the text concave, to be dry and then wrapped in cotton cloth, dipped in ink, gently patted on the paper, the paper will be left on the surface of the black ground and white characters with the monument exactly the same as the handwriting. This method is easier than hand copying, reliable. So topography appeared.