Chinese Wood Block Printing

Artelino chinese woodblock prints.

Chinese wood block printing.

Woodblock printing or block printing is a technique for printing text images or patterns used widely throughout east asia and originating in china in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper as a method of printing on cloth the earliest surviving examples from china date to before 220 ad. The text was first written on a piece of thin paper then glued face down onto a wooden plate. The use of woodblock printing quickly spread to other east asian countries. Although the chinese invented paper and woodblock printing the knowledge about chinese woodblock prints in western countries has been very limited.

For example in 971 at the beginning of song dynasty the monk zhang tuxin began a project to print the tripitaka a collection of essential buddhist scriptures using wood blocks. Chinese woodblock printing is an ancient art that has been done for thousands of years. The first mention of printing was in an imperial decree of 593 in which sui emperor wen ti ordered the printing of buddhist images and scriptures. Mechanical woodblock printing on paper started in china during the tang dynasty before the 8th century ce.

While the chinese used only clay and wood movable type at. As a method of printing on cloth the earliest surviving examples from china date to before 220 and from egypt to the 4th century. Woodblock printing existed in tang china during the 7th century ad and remained the. The characters were carved out to make a wood block printing plate which was used to print the text.

Woodblock printing is a technique for printing text images or patterns used widely throughout east asia and originating in china in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. With the economic and cultural opening of china art friends can now learn about a new and fascinating world modern chinese woodblock prints based on traditional techniques that are pretty different from.