During the week, I was able to read the first chapter of Joseph Peter McDermott’s A Social History of the Chinese Book : Books and Literati Culture in Late Imperial China. I learned about the (ambiguous) origins of printing and techniques, for example, for woodblock making. A surviving copy of the Jingang jing, published in 868 during the Tang era, appears to be the “oldest extant printed book” (11). However, Buddhist, Korean, and Japanese charms were created in the eighth century, using similar printing techniques (11). Evidence points to similar printings were occurring across East Asia, making it difficult to officialize the origin of printing.
The procedure of printmaking was not recorded in detail when these various prints were made; there were only brief notes from foreign observers that align with the time period of printing (12). The process of printmaking was revealed in the twentieth century in an interview, “some 1,200 years after the discovery of printing” (12). This discrepancy highlights the phrase that Dr. Dorothy Ko used, “head over hands.” There is a hierarchical aspect that distinguishes scholars and commissioners from artisans and craftsman. While there is more information about the commissioners, there is a limited amount of information about the art process, let alone about the artists.
Things I Learned this Week
- The discovery of printing is debatable.
- There is an established hierarchy between scholars and artisans.
- Early Chinese emperors are materialistic and oversee the production of crafts.
Bibliographic References
McDermott, Joseph Peter. A Social History of the Chinese Book : Books and Literati Culture in Late Imperial China. Understanding China. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2006.
Podcast: New Books in East Asian Studies, interview with Dorothy Ko, author of The Social Life of Inkstones.
Slides
