Technology · 868 CE
The Diamond Sutra, oldest dated printed book
Mogao Caves, Dunhuang (Gansu, China)
In Tang China printers carved whole pages into wooden blocks, inked them and pressed them onto paper. A printed scroll of the Buddhist Diamond Sutra, dated 11 May 868 and made 'for universal free distribution', was sealed in a cave library at Dunhuang, found there in 1900 and acquired by Aurel Stein in 1907; it is now in the British Library.
It is the oldest surviving printed book that carries a date, though earlier undated prints exist.
Why it mattered
Printing let texts be copied quickly and cheaply, and in the 1040s Bi Sheng took the next step in China with movable type made of baked clay, one character per piece.
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