Editing Scribe (section)

== China ==
{{See also|Chinese calligraphy|Clerical script}}
[[File:Cai Lun with Donchō and Mochizuki Seibee (Minobu Museum of History and Folklore).jpg|thumb|upright|''The Three Gods of Paper-making'', Cai Lun (middle) with the Korean monk [[Damjing]] (left), who brought the art to Japan, and Mochizuki Seibei, who brought the art to {{nihongo|Nishijima|[[:ja:西嶋和紙|西嶋]]}}.(Minobu Town Museum of History and Folklore)|alt=One man standing behind two seated men; they all are in particularly formal garb]]

The earliest known examples of writing in China are a body of inscriptions made on bronze vessels and [[oracle bone]]s during the late Shang dynasty ({{BCE|{{circa|1250}}{{snd}}1050}}),<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kern |first=Martin |title=The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, vol. 1: To 1375 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-521-85558-7 |editor-last=Owen |editor-first=Stephen |location=Cambridge |page=1}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Keightley |first=David |title=Sources of Shang history: the oracle-bone inscriptions of bronze-age China |publisher=University of California Press |year=1978 |isbn=978-0-520-02969-9 |location=Berkeley |author-link=David Keightley|page=xvi}}</ref> with the very oldest dated to {{BCE|{{circa|1200}}}}.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bagley |first=Robert |title=The First Writing: Script Invention as History and Process |date=2004 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-83861-0 |editor-last=Houston |editor-first=Stephen |editor-link=Stephen D. Houston |pages=190–249 |language=en |chapter=Anyang writing and the origin of the Chinese writing system |author-link=Robert Bagley |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jsWL_XJt-dMC&q=1200}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Boltz |first=William G. |title=The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221&nbsp;BC |date=1999 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-47030-8 |editor-last=Loewe |editor-first=Michael |editor-link=Michael Loewe |language=en |chapter=Language and Writing |access-date=3 April 2019 |editor-last2=Shaughnessy |editor-first2=Edward L. |editor-link2=Edward L. Shaughnessy |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=cHA7Ey0-pbEC&pg=PA108 | doi= 10.1017/CHOL9780521470308.004 | pages=74–123 }}</ref>{{rp|108}} It was originally used for divination, with characters etched onto turtle shells to interpret cracks caused by exposure to heat. By the sixth century BCE, scribes were producing books using [[bamboo and wooden slips]].<ref name="Books A Living History">{{cite book |last1=Lyons |first1=Martyn |title=Books A Living History |date=2011 |publisher=Thames & Hudson |location=United Kingdom |isbn=978-0-500-29115-3 |pages=18–20}}</ref> Each strip contained a single column of script, and the books were bound together with hemp, silk, or leather. China is well-known as being the place where paper was originally invented, likely by an imperial eunuch named [[Cai Lun]] in 105 CE. The invention of paper allowed for the later invention of woodblock printing, where paper was rubbed onto an inked slab to copy the characters. Despite this invention, calligraphy remained a prized skill due to the belief that "the best way to absorb the contents of a book was to copy it by hand".<ref name="Books A Living History"/>

Chinese scribes played an instrumental role in the imperial government's civil service. During the Tang dynasty, private collections of Confucian classics began to grow. Young men hoping to join the civil service would need to pass an exam based on Confucian doctrine, and these collections, which became known as "academy libraries" were places of study. Within this merit system, owning books was a sign of status. Despite the later importance of Confucian manuscripts, they were initially heavily resisted by the Qin dynasty. Though their accounts are likely exaggerated, later scholars describe a period of book burning and scholarly suppression. This exaggeration likely stems from Han dynasty historians being steeped in Confucianism as state orthodoxy.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Murray |first1=Stuart |title=The Library An Illustrated History |date=2009 |publisher=Skyhorse Publishing |location=New York |isbn=978-1-60239-706-4 |pages=47–49}}</ref>

Similarly to the west, religious texts, particularly Buddhist, were transcribed in monasteries and hidden during "times of persecution".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Murray |first1=Stuart |title=The Library An Illustrated History |date=2009 |publisher=Skyhorse Publishing |location=New York |isbn=978-1-60239-706-4 |page=47}}</ref> In fact, the earliest known copy of a printed book is of the ''[[Diamond Sutra]]'' dating to 868 CE, which was found alongside [[Dunhuang manuscripts|other manuscripts within a walled-in cave called Dunhuang]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lyons |first1=Martyn |title=Books A Living History |date=2011 |publisher=Thames & Hudson |location=United Kingdom |isbn=978-0-500-29115-3 |page=20}}</ref>

As professionals, scribes would undergo three years of training before becoming novices. The title of "scribe" was inherited from father to son. Early in their careers, they would work with local and regional governments and did not enjoy an official rank. A young scribe needed to hone their writing skills before specializing in an area like public administration or law. Archaeological evidence even points to scribes being buried with marks of their trade such as brushes, "administrative, legal, divinatory, mathematical, and medicinal texts", thus displaying a personal embodiment of their profession.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Selbitschka |first1=Armin |title=I Write Therefore I Am: Scribes, Literacy, and Identity in Early China |journal=Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies |date=2018 |volume=78 |issue=2 |pages=413–476 |doi=10.1353/jas.2018.0029 |s2cid=195510449 |url=https://doi.org/10.1353/jas.2018.0029 |access-date=29 November 2022|url-access=subscription }}</ref>