These print stories, you may really not know

Since the block printing appeared in the Tang Dynasty, the invention of movable type printing has gone through a whole long process. China is the home of printing. In the long process of human civilization, this major invention has allowed the Chinese culture with a long history and extensive and profound to be widely inherited, and has also completely opened up the exchanges between the Middle East and Western cultures in the world territory.

The emergence of printing, in the end, what important role for China and even the world?

Why is it that people say it is so important that it has been passed down, evolved and developed for thousands of years, and we still talk about this great invention?

Portrait of Bi Sheng, painted by Yuan Wu

It is said that before the invention of printing, 90% of Europeans were illiterate, especially those of the aristocracy. Because books in the Middle Ages were expensive, it took nearly 1,000 sheep skins to make a Bible. Except for the big Bible, the information that needs to be recorded and copied in the book is extremely rigorous, and the content is mostly religious teachings or ideas.

Manual copying is time-consuming and laborious, and it is easy to give up all the previous achievements because of copying mistakes and omisses, which not only causes a waste of resources, but also hinders the development of culture to a certain extent.

At this time, the Chinese people are also distressed by the cumbersome hand-copying.

They were inspired by seals and stone inscriptions, and this experience led them to focus on improving technology - using paper to inker stone tablets - which directly pointed the way to the emergence of block printing.

After the two stages of development of block printing and movable type printing, China's civilization has achieved unprecedented development. Printing with its convenient and flexible, time-saving and labor-saving powerful characteristics, thus opened the door to a new world of human invention technology. In this way, the technology became famous around the world.

With the advent of printing, the map of the world changed from dispersed to concentrated, and cultures changed from estrangement to integration. Whether it was European countries or African countries at that time, or North America, South America and even Asia, printing allowed the religious beliefs and national cultures of various countries to develop and spread within a certain range, and also because of cultural exchanges such as the sea and land Silk Road, it broke through the obstacles of communication between the East and the West, allowing China to see the world and the world to see China.

At this point, printing began to move farther and farther from east to west. Take a few continents on the world map that benefited greatly from the development of printing.

For Europe in the 15th century, the introduction and emergence of printing technology was like a huge torch, illuminating the whole Europe out of the dark Middle Ages. The ever-changing printing technology has become a tool for preaching, a booster of the Renaissance, a means of scientific Renaissance, and the most powerful lever for the rise of Europe.

For Africa, the introduction, passage and rise of printing revealed that the acceptance and development of new things on the barren African land showed a slow and difficult process, which also reflected the speed and characteristics of the development of African civilization in ancient and modern times. This will play an important role in our future study of African civilization.

For North America, where economic development is uneven, printed historical stories record different situations of economic development in the same country. It documents the polarization in North America due to differences in printing technology and the development of publishing culture. This phenomenon also greatly promoted our political, economic and other different levels of thinking and research.

Compared with the uneven development of North America, South America was the first pioneer of Indians, and printing was able to develop slowly and prosperously on the South American continent. Even though there are only 12 independent countries and regions such as French Guiana, seven of the seven countries have printed short historical stories that convey the customs and social processes of South America.

For the Asian region, the cradle of printing gave birth to a rich diversity of cultures and religions. As the hometown of printing, the birth of printing benefited from the prosperity of ancient Chinese culture, and was closely related to the birth and spread of Buddhism in Asia.

There is no doubt that the dissemination process of printing is the beginning of the "world" to open an unprecedented exchange, reference and integration. Whether it is the Oriental legend of printing or the global spread of printing, whether it is the story of Chinese printing or the story of world printing, the cultural phenomenon presented in it is also giving the contemporary the most profound inspiration, that is:

Cultural inheritance and communication technology is the premise and lever to lead the development and progress of civilization.