The Craft Status of Jinling Scripture Engraving and Printing Technique

The Jinling Scripture Engraving Office is the only place in China that engraves and prints and circulates woodblock Buddhist scriptures, and it is also the Buddhist cultural institution with the longest history and wide influence in the history of modern Buddhism in China. Based on the study of Buddhism, it engages in the business of printing scriptures and lecturing, which not only promotes the revival of modern Chinese Buddhism, but also makes important contributions to the preservation and continuation of traditional Chinese culture as well as academic and cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries.

Jinling carve the scripture selection of strict, pure content, proofreading rigorous, edition sparse, the word large and pleasing to the eye, carving and printing, paper and ink, used to be called Jinling this. The hand-printed Buddhist texts there are more than three hundred, including the Avatamsaka Sutra (80 volumes), "Xuanzang master translation of the whole collection" (1347 volumes) and other important scriptures. Jinling engraved scripture carving, printing technology is in the world of printing history occupies an important position.

However, the hand-printed thread-bound scriptures are more costly and expensive than the paperback machine-printed scriptures, and their purchasing objects are relatively fixed, which limit and affect the production and circulation of the engraved scriptures. Jinling scripture carving office has only two carvers, inheritance problems are prominent, carving skills at any time there is the possibility of loss of scripture, need to take measures to explore, rescue and protection.