Chinese Rare Books in American Collections

Printing in early China centered on block printings of Daoist and Buddhist chants and sutras for devotional purposes. In the Song dynasty (960–1279) printing set standards of style, font, and technique that were imitated throughout later dynasties. Thanks to the development of papermaking and movable-type printing technology, by the beginning of the eleventh century, books were as commonly accessible in China as they would be six centuries later in the West. During the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), books ranging from illustrated novels to encyclopedias and colored prints were in great demand by both the educated elite and the general public. This exhibition traced the development of printing in China from the tenth through the eighteenth centuries, and included forty examples of woodblock and early movable-type printing, as well as related artifacts such as Ming dynasty ink cakes.