Woodblock printing

Despite the productive effect of woodblock printing, historian Endymion Wilkinson notes that it never supplanted handwritten manuscripts. Indeed, manuscripts remained dominant until the very end of Imperial China:

Despite the productive effect of woodblock printing, historian Endymion Wilkinson notes that it never supplanted handwritten manuscripts. Indeed, manuscripts remained dominant until the very end of Imperial China:

{{blockquote|As a result of block-printing technology, it became easier and cheaper to produce multiple copies of books quickly. By the eleventh century, the price of books had fallen by about one tenth what they had been before and as a result they were more widely disseminated. Nevertheless, even in the fifteenth century most books in major libraries were still in manuscript, not in print. Almost to the end of the empire it remained cheaper to pay a copyist than to buy a printed book. Seven hundred and fifty years after the first imperially sponsored printed works in the Northern Song, the greatest book project of the eighteenth century, the ''[[Complete Library of the Four Treasuries]]'' (四庫全書), was produced as a manuscript, not as a printed collection. About 4 percent of it was printed in movable type in 1773, but it was hand-carved movable wooden type. Indeed, the entire collection was only printed for the first time in the 1980s. Access to books, especially large works, such as the ''Histories'', remained difficult right into the twentieth century.{{sfn|Wilkinson|2012|p=910-911}}|Endymion Wilkinson}}

{{blockquote|As a result of block-printing technology, it became easier and cheaper to produce multiple copies of books quickly. By the eleventh century, the price of books had fallen by about one tenth what they had been before and as a result they were more widely disseminated. Nevertheless, even in the fifteenth century most books in major libraries were still in manuscript, not in print. Almost to the end of the empire, it remained cheaper to pay a copyist than to buy a printed book. Seven hundred and fifty years after the first imperially sponsored printed works in the Northern Song, the greatest book project of the eighteenth century, the ''[[Complete Library of the Four Treasuries]]'' (四庫全書), was produced as a manuscript, not as a printed collection. About 4 percent of it was printed in movable type in 1773, but it was hand-carved movable wooden type. Indeed, the entire collection was only printed for the first time in the 1980s. Access to books, especially large works, such as the ''Histories'', remained difficult right into the twentieth century.{{sfn|Wilkinson|2012|p=910-911}}|Endymion Wilkinson}}

Not only did manuscripts remain competitive with imprints,{{cite book |quote=In late Ming/early Qing China, cost for copying 20 to 30 pages was around .02 to .03 tael, which worked out to something like 0.005 tael per hundred characters, while a carver was typically paid 0.02 to 0.03 tael per hundred characters carved, and could carve 100 to 150 characters a day. |title=Publishing, Culture, and Power in Early Modern China |author=Kai-Wing Chow |year=2004 |publisher=Stanford University Press |page=36}} they were even ''preferred'' by elite scholars and collectors. The age of printing gave the act of copying by hand a new dimension of cultural reverence. Those who considered themselves real scholars and true connoisseurs of the book did not consider imprints to be real books. Under the elitist attitudes of the time, "printed books were for those who did not truly care about books".{{sfn|Chia|2011|p=41}}

Not only did manuscripts remain competitive with imprints,{{cite book |quote=In late Ming/early Qing China, cost for copying 20 to 30 pages was around .02 to .03 tael, which worked out to something like 0.005 tael per hundred characters, while a carver was typically paid 0.02 to 0.03 tael per hundred characters carved, and could carve 100 to 150 characters a day. |title=Publishing, Culture, and Power in Early Modern China |author=Kai-Wing Chow |year=2004 |publisher=Stanford University Press |page=36}} they were even ''preferred'' by elite scholars and collectors. The age of printing gave the act of copying by hand a new dimension of cultural reverence. Those who considered themselves real scholars and true connoisseurs of the book did not consider imprints to be real books. Under the elitist attitudes of the time, "printed books were for those who did not truly care about books".{{sfn|Chia|2011|p=41}}