| Printing
in Liao, Western Xia and Jin Contemporary with the
Song Dynasties were the regimes of ethnic minorities such as the Liao, Western Xia and
Jin. The level of printing in those areas was on a par with that of Central and Southern
China.
In 1991, a nine-volume Buddhist scripture entitled Propitiousness
Has Spread to Everywhere in Kouhebenxu, which was written in Western Xia characters and
bound in butterfly format, was found in a square pagoda at Baishigou in Helan County,
Ningxia Auton-omous Region. Archaeologists and experts have determined that these volumes
were printed in the latter part of the Western Xia (second half of the 12th century) using
wooden movable type. This scripture has been taken to be the earliest extant example of
wooden movable-type printing and it occupies an important position in the history of
Chinese printing. |
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