ORIEJSTAL ELI:MENTS OF CULTURE TN THE OCCIDENT. 525 



period. Lithe succeeding' centuries it was (Terniaiiy that assichiously 

 culti^■at(>d fabric print-in^^bi the Occident." 



Printing" on paper arost> in'C'hina as a consequence of pa})er iii\en- 

 tion. As early as 175 A. I), the text of theChin(\se classics was })osted 

 on tlie out(M' walls of the uni\'ersity and ini})ressi()ns were taken of it. 

 At the end of the sixth century ])rintini4- was cari'ied on in C'hina with 

 wooden plates, for at that time the iXMunaiits of the classical books 

 were cut in wood l)y order of the founder of the Sui dynasty.''' At 

 an early period the Chinese invention niig-rated to dapan. On the 

 beginnino's of dtipan(\se pi'inting Satow gi\'es a thorough study. We 

 learn from it that in 7M the flapanese Empress Slio-toku ordered a 

 million of small wooden pagodas, each containing an imprint of a })as- 

 sage from the l)uddhist book A'imahi nirbhasa Sutra, to be distributed 

 among the lUiddhist temples and monasteries. The carrying out of 

 this connuand was brought to an end in TTo. A iuunl)t'r of these 

 pag'odas ha\e been r(»discovered in the lloryu monastery at Vamato. 

 They contain on long rolled-up strij)s Sanskrit texts, but in Chinese 

 characters. Facsimiles so far exist only in Japanese works.' Wo 

 also possess metal printing plates of the year SK;, with Chinese signs 

 in relief.'' Mirth found a book oii'ered for sale in China wdiich was 

 printed from plates in 1054 A. D.. containing })oems by a poet of 

 the Sung dynasty, with a portrait of the author in woodcut.' For 

 the succeeding centuries information on book printing in Fast Asia 

 becomes more and more abundant. 



Although the geographer Kitter pointed out the anticiuity of the 

 art of l)()ok })rinting in the monasteries of the Lamas,' no headwa\', it 

 seems, has been made in lixing the dates of the old Tibetan prints, as 

 the persons mentioned in them as the i)rinters or })atronsare otherwise 

 ludvnown. According to the history of Buddhism in Mongolia, trans- 

 lated by Huth,-' the tirst Til)eta.n copy of the Kaiijur and Tanjur was 



"In addition to the literature mentioned alcove, compare on calico printing 

 Forrer, Die Zeugdruoke der l)yzantiniychen, romanischen, goti.sdien und spilteren 

 Kunstepochen, Strassbnrg, 1894; Karabacek, Fi'ihrer dureh die Ausstellnng (Tajiy- 

 rus Erzherzog Rainer), Wien, JSi)4, pp. 228,229. 



''Satow, On the early history of jjrinting in .hii>aii: Transactions of tiie Asiatic 

 Society of Japan, vdl. x, Yokohama, 1882, j>. 4sff. 



''Kwanko zattsho und Kokoku shobatsu. 



''Reproduced in Shiuko zisshiu, vol. i. 



«F. H., Old Chinese books: Journal of the China branch of the Royal Asiatic 

 Society for the year 1885, New Series, vol. xx, Slianghai, 188(), p. 5;!. 



./" Erdkunde, 2d part, 2 book; Asien, vol. I, 2d ed., Berlin, 18o2,pp. 744-74"). 



f/'Jigs-med nam-mk'a aus dem Tibetischcn hcnuisgegelK>n, iibersetzt und erliiiiteit 

 von GeorgHuth, ii, Strassbnrg, 189(), |). 165; (-(imp. Krippeii. Die lieligion dcs r>uddha, 

 ii, p. 277: "Ti})et is, like (iermaiiy and China, a land of ])onks. Much is hi-ing 

 ]>rinted there and it has been so a Iniig time hack, for the jn-inting press has been ■ 

 known to the inhabitants of the snow kingdom perhaps since the T'ang dynasty 

 under which it \v'as invented in China, but certainly since the Mongol period — that 

 is, at least two centui'ies Ijefore it was known to the Europeans." 



