which the common term for printing is derived, had
long been performed. The process leading to the de-
velopment of xylography is presumed to be an exten-
sion of the practice of cutting wooden Daoist charms
in order to make impressions on clay (early fourth cen-
tury C.E.) and, later, covering them with the red ink of
cinnabar or vermilion to make imprints on white pa-
per (early sixth century C.E.).
The earliest examples of Buddhist printing involve
a type of charm or spell called a DHARANI. To date, the
oldest printed material that has been discovered is the
Korean Mugu cho ̆nggwang taedarani kyo ̆ng(Chinese,
Wugou jingguang datuoluoni jing; Great DharanlScrip-
ture of Flawless, Pure Light), a scroll, nearly twenty feet
long and three and a half inches wide, produced from
about twelve woodblock pages printed on bamboo pa-
per. Executed with great skill, it was rolled together and
placed in the relics container of a stone pagoda at Pul-
guk Monastery in Kyo ̆ngju, Korea, in 751, and was dis-
covered in 1966. Scholars believe that it was printed
sometime between 704 and 751 in either Kyo ̆ngju or
Luoyang, China. The next oldest examples of printed
material are the remnants of the Japanese Hyakuman-
todarani(Dharanlof the Hyakuman Pagodas), which
were printed around 770 to commemorate the end of
a long civil war. These dharanare copies of the first
four of the six dharanincluded in the Great Dharanl
Scripture of Flawless, Pure Light.They were made from
copper blocks printed on small scrolls of yellowish
hemp paper. Although technically inferior to the Ko-
rean dharan, the Hyakuman-to daraniwas a great
achievement; 3,076 of the printed dharan are pre-
served at HORYUJIin Nara, Japan.Xylography
Most Buddhist texts in traditional East Asia were
printed using xylography or woodblock printing.
After the dharan scriptures, the DIAMONDSUTRA
(Vajracchedikaprajñaparamita-sutra) of 868, which was
discovered at DUNHUANGin 1907, is the oldest known
printed book. It was printed for merit and for every-
day use on seven woodblock pages and pasted on a
foot-wide scroll sixteen feet long. Other dharantexts
and versions of the Diamond Sutrathat were placed
as relics in Buddhist sculptures and pagodas during
the tenth and eleventh centuries have been discoveredPRINTINGTECHNOLOGIES
A monk holds a hand-carved wooden printing block of the Buddhist canon in the xylograph repository at Haeinsa in Taegu, South Ko-
rea. © Leonard de Selva/Corbis. Reproduced by permission.