Discusses the origin and development history of traditional oriental illustration

China's earliest illustrations appeared in the form of prints, with the introduction of Buddhist culture, in order to publicize the teachings of the scriptures in "disguise" illustration of the scriptures. At present, the earliest historical record of China's prints, the Tang Suzong published the "dharani sutra mantra map". The exact date of publication is the title page of the Vajrayana Sutra in the ninth year of the reign of Emperor Yi Zong of the Tang Dynasty (868). In the Song, Jin, and Yuan Dynasties, book illustrations made great progress. The scope of application was expanded to books on medicine, history and geography, archaeological atlas, daily encyclopedia and other books, and color overprint illustrations appeared. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, it can be said that the ancient art of illustration was a period of great development, and there were book engraving industries all over the country. Different styles were formed in different regions. The form of illustration has the following broadly: the volume attached to the first picture, illustrations in the text, the upper picture below or the lower picture above, the inner cover or title page painting and the card mark, and so on.

The historical evolution of China's ancient illustrations can be seen as the history of the development of printmaking. At the same time, it is also the history of folk yearbook. Only the folk yearbook earlier independent of a commodity, it is the predecessor of commercial illustration.

The history of illustration in Europe is similar to that of our country, and it was first used in religious books. Later, illustration was widely used in publications such as natural science books, grammar books, and collections of classic authors.

The history of illustration in Europe is similar to ours.