Changes

Beginning in the 970s, the [[Song Dynasty]] Imperial court organized the establishment of government workshops dedicated to the production of dictionaries, encyclopedias, official histories, literary anthologies, and copies of the [[Confucian classics]]. One particularly notable project was the publication of an official and complete copy of the Buddhist canon, 1,076 volumes in total, completed in [[983]]; the project completed over the course of a twelve-year period, involved the production of 130,000 woodblocks.

Beginning in the 970s, the [[Song Dynasty]] Imperial court organized the establishment of government workshops dedicated to the production of dictionaries, encyclopedias, official histories, literary anthologies, and copies of the [[Confucian classics]]. One particularly notable project was the publication of an official and complete copy of the Buddhist canon, 1,076 volumes in total, completed in [[983]]; the project completed over the course of a twelve-year period, involved the production of 130,000 woodblocks.

Moveable type was developed in China in the 11th century,<ref>Traditionally said to have been developed by a man named Bi Sheng around [[1045]]. Gallery labels, Royal Ontario Museum.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/48532571242/sizes/l/]</ref> but never caught on, largely it is said due to the vast number of different characters for which one would need to maintain type blocks.

Moveable type was developed in China in the 11th century,<ref>Traditionally said to have been developed by a man named Bi Sheng around [[1045]]. Gallery labels, Royal Ontario Museum.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/48532571242/sizes/l/]</ref> but never caught on, largely it is said due to the vast number of different characters for which one would need to maintain type blocks. The first metal moveable type in the world was then developed in the early 13th century in Korea.<ref>Gallery labels, Royal Ontario Museum.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/48532572882/sizes/l/]</ref>

From that time until sometime in the 12th century, publishing in China was dominated by the Court. Government workshops produced books of laws, statutes and procedures; literary anthologies, classics and histories; and works on astronomy, natural history, and medicine, donating the works to state-sponsored schools, or selling them through private booksellers. In the 12th century, the volume of publications produced by private publishers, and by private academies, surpassed that of the government. Private publishers published a great variety of relatively inexpensive, and popularly available, works aimed at helping students prepare for the [[Chinese imperial examinations|civil examinations]], ranging from copies of the classics to essays by famous scholars, dictionaries, writing manuals, and cheat sheets called "kerchief albums," which could be snuck into the exams themselves. Other works published commercially at this time included works of fiction, poetry and essays, as well as works on medicine and divination.

From that time until sometime in the 12th century, publishing in China was dominated by the Court. Government workshops produced books of laws, statutes and procedures; literary anthologies, classics and histories; and works on astronomy, natural history, and medicine, donating the works to state-sponsored schools, or selling them through private booksellers. In the 12th century, the volume of publications produced by private publishers, and by private academies, surpassed that of the government. Private publishers published a great variety of relatively inexpensive, and popularly available, works aimed at helping students prepare for the [[Chinese imperial examinations|civil examinations]], ranging from copies of the classics to essays by famous scholars, dictionaries, writing manuals, and cheat sheets called "kerchief albums," which could be snuck into the exams themselves. Other works published commercially at this time included works of fiction, poetry and essays, as well as works on medicine and divination.