What is block printing

Around the early 7th century AD, the world's earliest woodblock printing technology was born in the Tang Dynasty (618 AD to 907 AD).

Engraving printing requires first writing text on paper according to the required specifications, then pasting it on a planed wooden board, and then carving out Yangwen and reverse characters according to the text, so that the engraving is completed.

Then apply ink on the plate, lay paper, print with a brown brush, and then lift the paper to become the printed product.

Engraving the layout requires a lot of labor and materials, but once the engraving is completed and printed, it shows the advantages of high efficiency and large printing volume.

In some methods, block printing is superior to cast type printing.

For example, for a language like Chinese, which has a large character set, block printing will be cheaper in the initial investment.

This craft also allows for more artistic freedom, such as the drawing of pictures and diagrams.

However, the printing plate is not durable and is quickly damaged during printing use and needs to be constantly replaced, limiting the possibility of mass printing.

The earliest engraving printing object we can see now is the Tang Dynasty engraving "Diamond Sutra" printed in 868 AD and found in Dunhuang.

Block printing is a kind of human intangible cultural heritage with outstanding value, distinctive national characteristics and a high concentration of traditional skills.

It embodies several excellent traditional crafts such as Chinese papermaking, ink-making, engraving, and rubbing, and finally formed this unique cultural craft; it set a technical precedent for the later movable type printing, and is the world's first

The oldest technological source of modern printing, it has made outstanding contributions to the development of human civilization; its implementation provides the most convenient conditions for cultural dissemination and civilizational exchanges.

Woodblock printing is known as the "living fossil" in the history of printing. Last year, it was officially included in the national intangible cultural heritage protection list.

Yangzhou is the birthplace of Chinese woodblock printing and the only city in China that preserves a complete set of ancient woodblock printing techniques.

Currently, Yangzhou has nearly 300,000 ancient book plates from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and has published a large number of thread-bound ancient books using engraving printing, making it the largest thread-bound book processing base in the country.