Editing Printing (section)

====In East Asia====
[[File:Jingangjing.jpg|thumb|left|The intricate frontispiece of the [[Diamond Sutra]] from [[Tang dynasty]] China, AD 868 ([[British Library]]), discovered at the [[Mogao Caves#The Library Cave|Library Cave of Mogao Caves]] in [[Dunhuang]], but probably printed in [[Sichuan]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://idp.bl.uk/4DCGI/education/silk_road/pages/dun262a.html |title=Cat 262: Printed dated copy of the ''Diamond Sutra'' |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=<!--Not stated--> |website=[[International Dunhuang Project|idp.bl.uk]] |access-date=8 December 2022 |archive-date=December 8, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221208072014/http://idp.bl.uk/4DCGI/education/silk_road/pages/dun262a.html |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
{{Main|History of printing in East Asia}}

The earliest examples of ink-squeeze rubbings and potential stone printing blocks appear in the mid-sixth century in China. A type of printing called mechanical [[woodblock printing]] on paper started during the 7th century in the [[Tang dynasty]],<ref name="Suarez & Woudhuysen" />{{sfn|Tsien|1985|p=8}} and subsequently spread throughout East Asia. [[Nara period|Nara Japan]] printed the [[Hyakumantō Darani]] en masse around 770, and distributed them to temples throughout Japan. In [[Korea]], an example of woodblock printing from the eighth century was discovered in 1966. A copy of the [[Buddhist]] Dharani Sutra called the [[Pure Light Dharani Sutra]] ({{korean|hangul=무구정광대다라니경|hanja=無垢淨光大陀羅尼經|rr=Mugu jeonggwang dae darani-gyeong}}), discovered in [[Gyeongju]], in a [[Silla]] dynasty pagoda that was repaired in 751,<ref name="Tsien 1985 149,150">{{harvnb|Tsien|1985|pp=149,150}}</ref> was undated but must have been created sometime before the reconstruction of the [[Seokgatap|Shakyamuni Pagoda]] of [[Bulguk Temple]], Kyongju Province in  751.<ref name="Pratt">{{cite book |last=Pratt |first=Keith |title=Everlasting Flower: A History of Korea |date=August 15, 2007 |publisher=Reaktion Books |isbn=978-1861893352 |page=74}}</ref><ref>[http://eng.buddhapia.com/_Service/_ContentView/ETC_CONTENT_2.ASP?PK=0000593746&danrak_no=&clss_cd=&top_menu_cd=0000000808 Early Printing in Korea. Korea Cultural Center] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090208232218/http://eng.buddhapia.com/_Service/_ContentView/ETC_CONTENT_2.ASP?PK=0000593746&danrak_no=&clss_cd=&top_menu_cd=0000000808|date=2009-02-08}}</ref><ref>[http://www.rightreading.com/printing/gutenberg.asia/gutenberg-asia-6-china-blockbook.htm Gutenberg and the Koreans: Asian Woodblock Books. Rightreading.com]</ref><ref>[http://www.rightreading.com/printing/gutenberg.asia/gutenberg-asia-9-korea.htm Gutenberg and the Koreans: Cast-Type Printing in Korea's Goryeo Dynasty (918–1392). Rightreading.com]</ref><ref>[http://countrystudies.us/north-korea/7.htm North Korea – Silla. Country Studies]</ref> The document is estimated to have been created no later than 704.<ref name="Tsien 1985 149,150" />

By the ninth century, printing on paper had taken off, and the first completely surviving<!--i.e., not separated--> printed book is the [[Diamond Sutra]] ([[British Library]]) of 868, uncovered from [[Dunhuang]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/sacredtexts/diamondsutra.html |title=Oneline Gallery: Sacred Texts |publisher=British Library |access-date=March 10, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110093610/http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/sacredtexts/diamondsutra.html |archive-date=November 10, 2013 }}</ref> By the tenth century, 400,000 copies of some sutras and pictures were printed, and the Confucian classics were in print. A skilled printer could print up to 2,000 double-page sheets per day.<ref name=Needham>
{{cite book |last1=Tsuen-Hsuin |first1=Tsien |author-link1=Tsien Tsuen-Hsuin |last2=Needham |first2=Joseph |author-link2=Joseph Needham |title=Paper and Printing |series=Science and Civilisation in China |volume=5 part 1 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=158, 201 |year=1985}}</ref>

Printing spread early to [[Korea]] and Japan, which also used Chinese [[logogram]]s, but the technique was also used in [[Turpan]] and [[Vietnam]] using a number of other scripts. This technique then spread to Persia and Russia.<ref name=Carter>[[Thomas Franklin Carter]], ''The Invention of Printing in China and its Spread Westward'', The Ronald Press, NY 2nd ed. 1955, pp. 176–78</ref> This technique was transmitted to Europe by around 1400 and was used on paper for [[old master print]]s and [[playing card]]s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mayor |first=A Hyatt |title=Prints and People |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |location=Princeton |volume=5-18 |isbn=978-0-691-00326-9|year=1980 }}</ref>