Technology & Medicine › Medieval
Woodblock printing
c. 600s–700s (Tang China, Korea); Diamond Sutra 868· Invention or discovery· Communication & computing
Mostly agreedGood evidence; some details, dates or numbers uncertain.
Printing whole pages from carved wooden blocks, developed in Tang China and Korea in the 600s–700s.
See it on the Technology & Medicine map →How it works
A craftsman pasted a written page face-down on a smooth block, carved away the blank wood so the characters stood out in reverse, inked it and pressed paper on top. One block could print thousands of copies. Korea's dharani sutra, sealed in a Bulguksa temple pagoda by 751, and Japan's million printed charms (764–770) are early survivors. The Diamond Sutra of 868 is the oldest dated printed book. Korea's Tripitaka Koreana (1237–1248) used over 81,000 blocks.
Why it mattered
It made Buddhist scriptures, calendars, classics and paper money cheap and plentiful in East Asia, centuries before printing reached Europe.
How we know
Surviving prints, notably the Diamond Sutra from the Dunhuang caves (now in the British Library) and the Korean dharani found in 1966, and the Tripitaka Koreana blocks still kept at Haeinsa temple.
Still unknown or debated
Whether the Bulguksa dharani was printed in Korea or China, and exactly when, is disputed between Korean and Chinese scholars.
Inside this (1)
Connections (2)
▸Paper (improved by Cai Lun) made possible Woodblock printingWell documented
The connection
Printing needs a surface that takes ink evenly and is cheap enough to use by the thousand. Silk was too costly and bamboo too rigid. Thin, absorbent Chinese paper took a clean impression when pressed onto an inked block, so mass-producing pages became practical once paper was plentiful.
When and how
Tang China and Korea, 600s–700s, building on centuries of Chinese papermaking and on carved seals and stamps.
How we know
The surviving early prints, from the Korean dharani to the 868 Diamond Sutra, are all on paper; ink rubbings from carved stone came earlier.
Debates and open questions
Whether woodblock printing grew out of carved seals, rubbings of stone inscriptions or textile stamping is uncertain.
▸Woodblock printing led to Movable type (Bi Sheng)Well documented
The connection
Woodblocks meant carving every page anew, then storing stacks of blocks. Bi Sheng broke the page into single reusable characters that could be set, printed and rearranged, keeping the same inking and paper-pressing process. Woodblock printers supplied the skills, ink and paper; movable type changed only how the printing surface was assembled.
When and how
Song China, during the Qingli reign period (1041–1048), recorded by the scholar-official Shen Kuo.
How we know
Shen Kuo's Dream Pool Essays (1088) describes Bi Sheng's method in detail, presenting it as a development of long-established block printing.
Debates and open questions
Movable type never displaced woodblocks in China; with thousands of characters, carving a page was often simpler, so historians debate how big an advance it was there.