Before the invention of printing, the circulation of books was all hand-written, which was slow and caused many errors. How to overcome these ills? Our ancestors searched for magic methods and made new inventions. As early as the Warring States period in the 4th century BC, seals were commonly used in our country. The characters on the seal were reversed in positive writing, and the printed version was the original, which was very convenient to apply. In the use of the embossed seal, our ancestors obtained a copying technique to obtain the positive writing from the embossed reversed text. The seal area is very small and only accommodates the name and official title. Why can’t the seal be enlarged to accommodate more characters? During the Eastern Jin Dynasty in the 4th century, Taoists used stamping methods to copy longer spells. Ge Hong’s Baopuzi recorded a 120-character spell Printed.

This kind of seal for copying text and pictures can be said to be the forerunner of the invention of printing.

Our country has a long history of stele inscriptions. In order to preserve the calligraphy of steles, our ancestors rubbed the inscriptions on paper, and the characters that were rubbed out became anti-books. Then they were carved on wooden boards and printed on paper. The calligraphy of steles was preserved without error. , And printing is convenient, and the number is not limited. This method of copying inscriptions has in fact opened a precedent for engraving.

Later, on the basis of seals and rubbings, one step further, the calligraphy and painting were carved on the wooden board, and the ink was printed, which is engraving. There is no way to find out when the woodblock printing originated. In the Sui Dynasty, Taoists wrote and portrayed on wooden boards and printed signs. In the early Tang Dynasty, Xuanxuan carved Buddha statues on wooden boards, printed them in large quantities, and distributed them in all directions. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, engraving printing has been used for printing needs and great religious content. Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty (627-649) ordered the printing of the "Nu Ze" + chapters written by the eldest grandson Wanghou, and engraving printing was used to print books. The earliest surviving engraving print in my country is the "Diamond Sutra" printed in 868. The Buddha statues printed on the pages of the book are vivid and rounded, indicating that engraving has reached a mature stage. In 1966, the Chinese character scripture "Wu Ji Guang Da Dharani Sutra" was found in the Sakyamuni Pagoda at Bulguksa Temple in Gyeongju, North Korea. There are new characters created by Wu Zetian in the scripture, indicating that it was a printed matter in the Wu Zetian period (684-704). This is the earliest known print in the world. In 751, Tang and the Arabs clashed in Danros, Central Asia, and the Tang army was defeated. The captives passed the Chinese papermaking technique to Cemahan in Central Asia. Soon, Baghdad and Cairo set up papermaking factories one after another, and papermaking technology spread rapidly. It stands to reason that Chinese engraving and printing should also be introduced at the same time, but this new invention with great practical value has not been used in the Arab world for a long time. Many Arab businessmen lived in Yangzhou, the printing center of the Tang Dynasty. It is impossible to be ignorant of advanced woodblock printing. The application of this new technology in their hometown will definitely bring considerable economic benefits, but the Arabs have no interest in it. The Arab prints left now do not predate the 10th century. Why can't printing be spread in Arabia where paper is widely used? The reason is actually religious taboos. The Arabs believe in Islam, and Islam prohibits pork. The broomsticks used for printing are made of pig violence, which is a religious taboo. Printing the "Quran" with a swine brush and broom is not an affront to the Prophet Muhammad! However, engraving printing is a new invention with obvious advantages and will definitely break through resistance and spread. Egypt discovered in the 10th century The printed fragments of the Quran and the 11-12th century prints are very similar to the Chinese engravings in terms of engraving, positive engraving, frame styles, and printing methods.

From the 11th to the 13th centuries, the European Crusaders invaded the east and brought oriental novelties back to Europe, including engraved prints.

In the 13th century, the Mongolian cavalry swept the Eurasian continent. The descendants of Genghis Khan ruled the vast areas from Russia and Arabia in the west to the East Sea in the east, connecting Eurasia together, and the spread of Eastern civilization to the west appeared unprecedented waves. The Mongolian-ruled Persia (now Iran) became a springboard to promote the spread of Eastern civilization to the west. In 1294, Persia issued banknotes following the Yuan Dynasty of China. Although banknotes were abolished after only two months of circulation, the engraving technique of printing banknotes attracted scholars' attention. In 1310, the famous historian Rashiddin's "Anthology of History", and in 1317, the "Garden of Wisdom" in Banakadi gave a detailed description of Chinese printing. Persia also used woodblock printing to print game playing cards that originated in China. In the 14th century, Chinese playing cards were introduced to Europe and became popular. In 1397, the mayor of Paris issued a special decree for this: prohibiting workers from fighting cards at work. This incident also shocked the church. In 1423, the church launched a movement to ban playing cards. The origin of playing cards so deep into the people cannot be far away from Persia or China, but as playing cards were introduced to Europe, the engraving technique of printing playing cards also spread to Europe. The dated engraving print in Europe is the statue of St. Christopher in Nuremberg in 1423. From the point of view of printing technology, it has been relatively skilled, and engraving should have been introduced to Europe much earlier. The European engraving printing method is exactly the same as that of China, and even the printing page is the same as that of China. Only one side is printed, two pages are printed on one plate at the same time, and then folded in half, book binding is also like China.

Engraving and printing are laborious and time-consuming, and the engraving is discarded after use, which increases the cost of books. It took more than 20 years to engrave the 5048 volumes of the Tripitaka in the Song Dynasty in my country, and the engravings were filled with several houses.

Engraving printing needs to be improved. Bi Jie, a worker with practical experience in the Northern Song Dynasty, invented the movable type of clay during the Qingli period (1041-1048), which was typeset with movable type, and the version was removed after use, and the movable type could be reused. This is the auxiliary technique of movable type printing. This important invention is recorded in "Mengxi Bi Tan" by Shen Kuo, a great scientist in the Northern Song Dynasty. After finishing the world, movable type printing has been continuously improved. From 1297-1298, Wang Heng created wood type, a set of wood type with a total of more than 30,000 characters. He also invented the runner type frame, which saves effort and time when checking characters. In less than a month, he printed 60 copies of "Tingde County Chronicles" with more than 60,000 characters. His "Calligraphy of Movable Type Printing" is the world's earliest movable type printing opera literature.

Chinese movable type printing was introduced to North Korea, and North Korea changed Chinese movable type to metal type, first using copper and then using lead. At the beginning of the 13th century, North Korea used "casting" to print the book "Detailed Liwen". This kind of "casting" is obviously metal type, more than 200 years earlier than European Gutenberg metal type.

Jiaohuang Thousand-Buddha Caves discovered ancient-dimensional Xianger wood movable type around 1300 AD. This kind of woodcut single type inspires the origin of European printing. The preachers, merchants, and travellers who traveled between Yuandadu and Europe were those who spread wood type. In 1454, Europe had the first Latin "Bible" printed with movable type by Gutenberg, Germany. It has been more than 400 years since Bijie invented movable type printing. Some Western scholars insist that movable type printing was invented by Gutenberg, the sugar country, and Gutenberg movable type printing has nothing to do with Eastern printing or even European engraving. This is obviously a prejudice. Of course, Gutenberg’s contribution to printing is not excluded, such as using letters as movable type, suitable for the needs of pinyin writing; the printing machine he created has made printing from hand to mechanization.

The spread of printing in Europe eventually changed the backward situation in Europe where only monks could read and write, and brought culture from churches to the people. Marx said that printing is one of "three great inventions that herald the arrival of bourgeois society." Printing

"Become a tool for Protestantism", "become a means of scientific revival, and become the most powerful driving force for the development of creative spirit"