Asian Books

China, Japan, Korea and the wider region, where printing is older than Gutenberg by centuries. Bamboo slips, the Diamond Sutra of 868 as the oldest dated printed book, Korean movable metal type in 1377, the Tripitaka Koreana's 81,000 blocks, and the Japanese and Chinese book trades.

Part of Books

86 moments in this segment.

  1. - Diamond sutra. Frontispiece of a printed dated copy of the Diamond Sutra. Ink on paper: woodblock print. Or.8210/P.2
  2. - Himalayan Tibet Museum - Darjeeling - Diamond Sutra (1). The Diamond Sutra, the Dunhuang copy of 868 is the earliest dated printed book to survive complete.
  3. - Tibetan Diamond Sutra. The Diamond Sutra, the Dunhuang copy of 868 is the earliest dated printed book to survive complete.
  4. - Diamond Sutra - Exhibits on the ground floor of Himalayan Tibet Museum in Darjeeling 12. The Diamond Sutra, the Dunhuang copy of 868 is the earliest dated printed book to survive complete.
  5. - Meta-Discourse on the Teachings from the Treasury (Abidharmakosha-Bhashya). ). Japan, Heian period (794–1185). handscroll; gold and silver on indigo-dyed paper. Cleveland Museum of Art, 1100s. This is a reproduction of the object itself, not a modern photograph of a building.
  6. - Lalitwistra Waipulya Sutra. A Buddhist sutra manuscript or printed text, the copying of sutras was itself a devotional act. Low-resolution scan retained as scarce primary material.
  7. - GYANTSE Bibliotheque. A Buddhist sutra manuscript or printed text, the copying of sutras was itself a devotional act.
  8. - Dharmakīrtisāgara.. A Buddhist sutra manuscript or printed text, the copying of sutras was itself a devotional act. Low-resolution scan retained as scarce primary material.
  9. - Tangut Diamond Sutra frontispiece. Initial illustration to a woodblock printed edition of the Tangut translation of the Diamond Sutra recovered from a stupa near the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang, now held at the Dunhuang Research Academy [G11·035].
  10. - Handwritten diamond sutra zhang jizhi song dynasty 1253. The Chinese calligrapher Zhang Jizhi (張即之, 1186–1266) made this handwritten edition of the Diamond Sutra (section depicted) on 18 July 1253 during the Song dynasty. The calligraphy is in the style of the regular script with elements of the running script. The transcription of sutras, a practice for which Zhang Jizhi was well-known, was considered an act of accumulating merit in Buddhism. The India
  11. - Avatamsaka Sutra No. 78. Bound Volume in the Cleveland Museum of Art (Korean Art). Korea, Goryeo dynasty (918–1392). Digitised image of the artefact itself; dated to the object, 1300s.
  12. - Jikji pages. Two pages (pp. 4v, 5r ) of a 1377 manuscript of the Jikji, the oldest example of printing with metal movable type. Held at and digitized by the Département des Manuscrits at the Bibliothèque nationale de France
  13. - Selections from the Collection of Japanese Poems from Ancient and Modern Times (Kokin wakashū) with Design of. (1573-1615) to Edo period (1615-1858). handscroll; ink on silk with gold and silver. Cleveland Museum of Art, 1600s. This is a reproduction of the object itself, not a modern photograph of a building.
  14. - Гэндзи by shakko. Material relating to The Tale of Genji, written by Murasaki Shikibu around 1010 and often called the first novel.
  15. - Selections from the New Collection of Japanese Poems from Ancient and Modern Times (Shinkokin wakashū) with Pr - Hon'ami Kōetsu. Selections from the New Collection of Japanese Poems from Ancient and Modern Times (Shinkokin wakashū) with Printed Designs of Chinese Lions and Crab Finger Grass. Japan, Edo period (1615–1868). handscroll; ink, gold, and silver on paper. Cleveland Museum of Art, early 1600s. This is a reproduction of the object itself, not a modern photograph of a building.
  16. - Sanskrit Manuscript Wellcome L0070772. A palm-leaf manuscript from South or Southeast Asia: text incised into dried palm leaf with a stylus and inked, then strung between wooden boards.
  17. - Skanda Purana, Sanskrit, miniature Grantha script, Whish manuscript collection, acquired 1829 CE. A palm-leaf manuscript from South or Southeast Asia: text incised into dried palm leaf with a stylus and inked, then strung between wooden boards.
  18. - Selections from the New Collection of Japanese Poems from Ancient and Modern Times (Shinkokin wakashū) with Pr. Calligraphy in the Cleveland Museum of Art (Japanese Art). Japan, Edo period (1615–1868). Digitised image of the artefact itself; dated to the object, early 1600s.
  19. - Buddhist Manuscript. 1700. This is a reproduction of the object itself, not a modern photograph of a building.
  20. - Kammavacha: Buddhist Ordination Text. (Burma). Cover: lacquer, gilding, and glass appliqué on wood; leaves: lacquer a. Cleveland Museum of Art, 1800s. This is a reproduction of the object itself, not a modern photograph of a building.
  21. - Kiatagawa Utamaro. Daikokuten drawing himself. Material from the Japanese woodblock production process, key blocks, preparatory drawings and proofs, showing how a printed book or sheet was actually made.
  22. - Ukiyo-e dsc04680. Material from the Japanese woodblock production process, key blocks, preparatory drawings and proofs, showing how a printed book or sheet was actually made.
  23. - SDIM3878MKGUtamaroDetail. Material from the Japanese woodblock production process, key blocks, preparatory drawings and proofs, showing how a printed book or sheet was actually made.
  24. - Ukiyo-e dsc04679. Material from the Japanese woodblock production process, key blocks, preparatory drawings and proofs, showing how a printed book or sheet was actually made.
  25. - SDIM3877MKGUtamaroDetail. Material from the Japanese woodblock production process, key blocks, preparatory drawings and proofs, showing how a printed book or sheet was actually made.
  26. - Diamond Sutra of 868 AD - The Diamond Sutra (868), frontispiece and text. Diamond Sutra of 868 AD The image depicts the frontispiece to the world's earliest dated printed book, the Chinese translation of the Buddhist text the 'Diamond Sutra'. This consists of a scroll, over 16 feet long, made up of a long series of printed pages. Printed in China in 868 AD, it was found in the Dunhuang Caves in 1907, in the North Western province of Gansu.
  27. - Conserving the Diamond Sutra, the oldest dated printed book. The International Dunhuang Programme films conservation work on the Diamond Sutra (British Library Or.8210/P.2), printed in China in 868 CE and recovered from the sealed cave library at Dunhuang. It is the earliest complete printed book with a date on it.
  28. - Inside the Derge scripture printing lamasery. A visit to the Bakong printing house in Kham, where Tibetan texts are still printed from wooden blocks by hand.
  29. - Chinese woodblock printing as living heritage. UNESCO documentation of engraved block printing technique in China, inscribed on the intangible heritage list in 2009.
  30. - Wooden movable-type printing in China. UNESCO records the surviving Chinese wooden movable-type practice, where characters are hand-carved, stored in rotating trays and composed for genealogies.
  31. - Ukiyo-e woodblock printing with a master printer. Printer Keizaburo Matsuzaki demonstrates registration, inking with a brush and pulling impressions with a baren.
  32. - Jikji movable type (replica), 1377 - Korean Culture Museum, Incheon Airport, Seoul, South Korea - DSC00787. Replica of historic item in the Korean Culture Museum in Incheon Airport, South Korea. Modern photograph of the subject as it appears today.
  33. - Jikji (replica), 1377 - Korean Culture Museum, Incheon Airport, Seoul, South Korea - DSC00785. Replica of historic item in the Korean Culture Museum in Incheon Airport, South Korea. Modern photograph of the subject as it appears today.
  34. - Jikji movable type (replica impression), 1377 - Korean Culture Museum, Incheon Airport, Seoul, South Korea - D. Replica of historic item in the Korean Culture Museum in Incheon Airport, South Korea. Modern photograph of the subject as it appears today.
  35. - Conserving the Diamond Sutra. British Library on the decade-long project to conserve the oldest dated printed book.
  36. - Haeinsa and the storage of 80,000 woodblocks. UNESCO and NHK on the Janggyeong Panjeon depositories at Haeinsa temple in Korea, purpose-built in the 15th century to hold the Tripitaka Koreana, 80,000 woodblocks carved 1237-48 and still intact.
  37. - Learning to read Chinese by building blocks. ShaoLan Hsueh's method of teaching character recognition from a small set of pictographic components.
  38. - JAN 24 LBC JIKJI. The Jikji, printed in Korea in 1377 with movable metal type, 78 years before the Gutenberg Bible. Modern photograph.
  39. - The Diamond Sutra: printing, piety and preservation. Susan Whitfield of the International Dunhuang Project on the scroll's making and its Silk Road context.
  40. - Two golden ages of Chinese colour woodblock printing. Portland Art Museum lecture on multi-block colour printing in China, including the Ten Bamboo Studio manuals, centuries before colour printing in Europe.
  41. - 20170812.해인사 장경판전(Haeinsa Janggyeong Panjeon).04. The Tripitaka Koreana at Haeinsa, Korea: over 81,000 woodblocks carved in the thirteenth century and still stored in their purpose-built halls. Modern photograph.
  42. - 20170812.해인사 장경판전(Haeinsa Janggyeong Panjeon).03. The Tripitaka Koreana at Haeinsa, Korea: over 81,000 woodblocks carved in the thirteenth century and still stored in their purpose-built halls. Modern photograph.
  43. - 20170812.해인사 장경판전(Haeinsa Janggyeong Panjeon).01. The Tripitaka Koreana at Haeinsa, Korea: over 81,000 woodblocks carved in the thirteenth century and still stored in their purpose-built halls. Modern photograph.
  44. - 20170812.해인사 장경판전(Haeinsa Janggyeong Panjeon).02. The Tripitaka Koreana at Haeinsa, Korea: over 81,000 woodblocks carved in the thirteenth century and still stored in their purpose-built halls. Modern photograph.
  45. - 20170812.해인사 장경판전(Haeinsa Janggyeong Panjeon).05. The Tripitaka Koreana at Haeinsa, Korea: over 81,000 woodblocks carved in the thirteenth century and still stored in their purpose-built halls. Modern photograph.
  46. - Vietnam's imperilled bloggers. Al Jazeera's Listening Post on the prosecution of Vietnamese writers publishing online.
  47. - Conserving the Tangut documents. Time-lapse of British Library conservation work on Tangut material from the Stein collection.
  48. - Japanese woodblock printmaking explained. A museum demonstration of the Japanese multi-block colour process and the division of labour it required.
  49. - Jikji: the first Korean metal-type printing. A seminar talk on the 1377 Jikji, printed with movable metal type 78 years before the Gutenberg Bible.
  50. - Conserving a Chinese ancestor portrait. Cleveland Museum of Art conservators treat a large Chinese portrait scroll for display.
  51. - Hindu sacred texts as manuscripts. The British Library on the Vedas, Ramayana and Mahabharata, and the long passage from oral recitation into written palm-leaf and paper manuscript traditions.
  52. - The Ramayana as painted manuscript. A curator at the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, on illustrated Ramayana manuscripts and how the Sanskrit epic was copied and pictured across South Asia.
  53. - Conserving the Bodleian's Japanese collections. Head of Conservation Virginia Lladó-Buisán on the Japanese books and scrolls at the Bodleian and the specific materials their treatment requires.
  54. - The Derge printing house. The Tibetan printing house completed in 1729, which still holds hundreds of thousands of carved woodblocks.
  55. - Repairing ancient Chinese books by hand. A Beijing book-repairer shows how damaged Chinese thread-bound books are taken apart, mended and resewn.
  56. - Image and text in woodblock-printed Diamond Sutra commentaries. Academic talk on how illustration and commentary were combined in printed Chinese Buddhist books.
  57. - The woodblocks of the Tripitaka Koreana. A close look at the carved blocks of the Korean Buddhist canon and the accuracy of their text.
  58. - Seonjang: Joseon-dynasty Korean binding. A demonstration of the stab-sewn seonjang binding used for Korean books during the Joseon dynasty.
  59. - Woodblock publishing in China's first age of print. A British Library Panizzi Lecture on Chinese printed book production centuries before Gutenberg.
  60. - The Razmnama: the Mahabharata in Persian. A lecture on the illustrated 1599 Mughal manuscript translating the Mahabharata into Persian for Akbar's court.
  61. - The UNESCO Jikji Memory of the World Prize. UNESCO's prize named for the Jikji, the oldest surviving book printed with metal movable type.
  62. - The materiality of Tibetan Buddhist books. A Bibliographical Society panel on Tibetan books as physical objects of power, not just carriers of text.
  63. - Chinese collections at the Bodleian. Chinese books have been in the Bodleian since 1604; curators introduce the collection and its earliest acquisitions.
  64. - Conserving the Lotus Sutra. British Library conservators report on a five-year project on the Lotus Sutra manuscripts.
  65. - Conserving the Lotus Sutra manuscripts. British Library conservators present case studies from five years of treating Chinese Buddhist scroll manuscripts.
  66. - Digitising the Lotus Sutra manuscripts. A British Library conference paper on the project to image and catalogue Lotus Sutra manuscripts.
  67. - The untold story of Chinese woodblock prints. CGTN on the long history of woodblock printing in China.
  68. - Conserving and remounting Chinese paintings. The British Museum's Chinese paintings conservation team disassemble, treat and remount scroll paintings.
  69. - Jikji. The Jikji, printed in Korea in 1377 with movable metal type, 78 years before the Gutenberg Bible. Modern photograph.
  70. - Hanji: the Korean paper that lasts a thousand years. A report on hand-made Korean hanji from paper-mulberry fibre, and why the number of workshops keeps falling.
  71. - Murasaki Shikibu and the writing of The Tale of Genji. History podcast episode on the Heian court lady-in-waiting who wrote The Tale of Genji around 1010, a 54-chapter work often called the world's first novel. Covers who she was, how the text circulated in manuscript, and why no autograph copy survives.
  72. - How Chinese characters work. The structure and history of the Chinese writing system, and how its logographic principle differs from an alphabet for the reader.
  73. - Inside a Japanese notebook factory. A tour of the Kokuyo Campus notebook plant, showing paper handling and binding at scale.
  74. - Japan's National Diet Library. The NDL's own introduction to its role as the only national library attached to the Japanese Diet, its legal deposit function and its digital collections.
  75. - Piecing together Dunhuang fragments. A case study in reassembling scattered Diamond Sutra manuscripts from fragments held in different collections.
  76. - Diamond Sutra Rev 12-12-24. repainted based on a sketch of the Diamond Sutra found in the Mogao Caves
  77. - How were ukiyo-e prints made?. A curator walks through the collaboration of publisher, designer, block-cutter and printer behind a Japanese print.
  78. - The Asian Resources Room at the Kansai-kan. The National Diet Library's Kansai-kan on its Asian-language collections and how researchers use them.
  79. - Shakyo: Buddhist sutra copying as practice. A Zen teacher explains shakyo, the practice of hand-copying sutras, and its place in Buddhist devotional book culture.
  80. - Reconstructing the Dunhuang Library Cave. A presentation on researching and reimagining the sealed cave that held tens of thousands of manuscripts for nine centuries.
  81. - Cutting traditional Chinese woodblocks. A carver works a traditional Chinese design into a printing block, showing knife control and the removal of waste wood.
  82. - The cave temples of Dunhuang. The Getty on the Mogao Grottoes, the Silk Road cave complex whose sealed library reshaped the history of the book in Asia.
  83. - A night inside the National Library of China. Walkthrough of the largest library in Asia in Beijing, and of the reading culture that keeps its halls full.
  84. - Lead-made Chinese Movable Types, Hangzhou National Archives 112. Movable type, individual sorts of metal or wood assembled into a page. Modern photograph.
  85. - Replica metal print plate of Jikji Shimche Yojeol. The Jikji, printed in Korea in 1377 with movable metal type, 78 years before the Gutenberg Bible. Modern photograph.
  86. - Tibetan manuscript and xylography. An introduction to the Tibetan book: manuscript production, block printing, and the Kangyur and Tengyur as archival systems.
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