In This Essay I Will Be Discussing One Of The Most Important Innovations Of Ancient China
Ahmad Nour
Term paper
Dr. Mark Wishon
History 100
In this essay I will be discussing one of the most important innovations of ancient China – Woodblock printing. This is a type of printing that involved carving a block of wood into a full page of text. The block would be inked and a piece of paper would be pressed onto it. There would need to be a block of wood for each page of a book and the process would be repeated for each page. Woodblock printing first appeared in 600 C.E. during Chinas Tang Dynasty.
Before woodblock printing, everything was handwritten. This was incredibly tedious and time consuming, and therefore, very expensive. Only the elites would be able to get their hands on any books, scriptures, or educational texts. Like most ancient civilizations, knowledge was not evenly distributed among all citizens. Instead, only the elites of the society were able to benefit from the wisdom of written words. Woodblock printing completely changed everything.
One could argue that without books, we would still be in the dark ages with no knowledge and no advancements. With the invention of woodblock printing, books could be mass produced and therefore be available to most, if not all factions of society to benefit from. Since books were now much easier and quicker to produce, their price was greatly reduced so that most people could afford them. In fact, a study on the price of books between the mid eighth and eleventh century showed that the price of books had been reduced by approximately 90 percent (Thomas H.C. Lee, 2006). This meant the end of ignorance and the start of a new age in China. More and more people had the same opportunity to learn as the elites. This age was the start of something that would completely transform Ancient China as people knew it. The ubiquitous widespread of literacy and knowledge in China eventually led to the Keju System.
The Keju System was implemented in early-600 CE by the Tang Dynasty. This system was something
Term paper
Dr. Mark Wishon
History 100
In this essay I will be discussing one of the most important innovations of ancient China – Woodblock printing. This is a type of printing that involved carving a block of wood into a full page of text. The block would be inked and a piece of paper would be pressed onto it. There would need to be a block of wood for each page of a book and the process would be repeated for each page. Woodblock printing first appeared in 600 C.E. during Chinas Tang Dynasty.
Before woodblock printing, everything was handwritten. This was incredibly tedious and time consuming, and therefore, very expensive. Only the elites would be able to get their hands on any books, scriptures, or educational texts. Like most ancient civilizations, knowledge was not evenly distributed among all citizens. Instead, only the elites of the society were able to benefit from the wisdom of written words. Woodblock printing completely changed everything.
One could argue that without books, we would still be in the dark ages with no knowledge and no advancements. With the invention of woodblock printing, books could be mass produced and therefore be available to most, if not all factions of society to benefit from. Since books were now much easier and quicker to produce, their price was greatly reduced so that most people could afford them. In fact, a study on the price of books between the mid eighth and eleventh century showed that the price of books had been reduced by approximately 90 percent (Thomas H.C. Lee, 2006). This meant the end of ignorance and the start of a new age in China. More and more people had the same opportunity to learn as the elites. This age was the start of something that would completely transform Ancient China as people knew it. The ubiquitous widespread of literacy and knowledge in China eventually led to the Keju System.
The Keju System was implemented in early-600 CE by the Tang Dynasty. This system was something
Citations: McKay, John P. Understanding World Societies: A Brief History. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin 's, 2013. Print. Guttman, John. "The Invention of Woodblock Printing in the Tang (618–906) and Song (960–1279) Dynasties." Asian Art Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2015. <http://education.asianart.org/explore-resources/background-information/invention-woodblock-printing-tang>. Tian, Yu. "The Invention and Impact of Printing in Ancient China." Research Project. N.p., 28 Oct. 2007. Web. 27 Apr. 2015. <http://courses.educ.ubc.ca/etec540/Sept07/tiany/researchtopic/research%20project.html>. Ward, Walter D., and Denis Gainty. Sources of World Societies. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin 's, 2012. Print. Thomas. H.C.Lee (2006). Functional Literacy, General Literacy and Changing Dynamics of Literacy in Traditional China <http://www.eastasianhumanities.org/FunctionalLit.pdf> McLuhan, M. (1962). The Gutenberg galaxy: The making of typographic man. New York: McGraw-Hill.