There is no date, within a margin even of half a century either way, at which we can say that printing was invented.

The germ is perhaps to be found in the engraving of seals, which have been used by the Chinese as far back as we can go with anything like historical certainty, and also of stone tablets from which rubbings were taken, the most important of these being the forty-six tablets on which five of the sacred books of Confucianism were engraved about A.D.170, and of which portions still remain.

However this may be, it was during the sixth century A.D.that the idea of taking impressions on paper from wooden blocks seems to have arisen, chiefly in connexion with religious pictures and tracts.

It was not widely applied to the production of books in general until A.D.

932, when the Confucian Canon was so printed for the first time; from which point onwards the extension of the art moved with rapid strides.
It is very noticeable that the Chinese, who are extraordinarily averse to novelties, and can hardly be induced to consider any innovations, when once convinced of their real utility, waste no further time in securing to themselves all the advantages which may accrue.