The so-called Tripitaka, equal to a modern large-scale series, are Buddhist canons of scriptures which are a huge collection of all the Buddhist classics organized in a systematic manner. Therein, the first category, the “Vinaya Pitaka,” is the code of ethics. The second category, the “Sutr a Pitaka” consists primarily of accounts of the Buddha’s teachings. The third category is the “Abhidharma Pitaka.” Tripitaka is also known as “Sanzangjing” or “Yiqiejing.” “Zang” in Sanskrit is Pitaka, and it initially referred to a bamboo basket, containing the meaning of the collection. Moreover, Tripitaka is always very extensive, usually over 5,000 volumes. With as many as over 100,000 type plates, thousands of people were involved in writing, proofreading, type carving, printing and circulation. It took more than 10 years— and sometimes sever al decades or a centur y to complete the work.
Taoism is a native religion in China. With specific compilation efforts, collections and organizational structure, Daozang is a large series of Taoist classics. In addition, the book also contains hundreds of schools of thought and many ancient works of science and technology, including medicine, health, alchemy, astronomy, astrology and other topics.
Compilation of Daozang began during the Northern Zhou Dynasty (557–581). During the Zhenghe period of the Song Dynasty (1111–1118), the first printed version of Daozang, Wanshou Daozang, whose printing was presided over by the emperor, came out in 5,481 volumes. It was distributed to temples across the nation. With a total of 5,305 volumes, the extant copies of ancient China’s Dacang are “the orthodox Daozang” printed in the Ming Dynasty (1445).
From Bamboo Strips to Stitched Binding: The Ancient Art of Bookbinding and Layout
Taking the invention of papermaking and printing as the demarcation point, the history of books in China can be divided into three phases with a corresponding book system. Bamboo strips and silk manuscripts coexisted before the invention of paper during the Han Dynasty. Scroll roll binding in the paper book period between the Han and Tang dynasties. And the album leaf system popular in the era of printed text after the invention of printing in the Tang Dynasty. Obviously there is some overlapping of these systems.
Jiandu (bamboo and wooden strips)
Before the invention of paper, most Chinese books were written on bamboo or wooden strips. One bamboo strip was called “Jian,” and many of them were bound to form a complete document which was known as “Ce.” “Jian” and “Ce” were called “Jiance.” Processed wooden strips with no characters written on there were called “Ban.” Those with characters were called “Du” and thin ones were named “Mujian.”
Books made of wooden strips were called “Bandu.” For the convenience of reading and collecting books, Many “Jian” were bound with hemp fiber or hide rope and bound “Jian” could be folded with the last piece as the scroll, marking a volume of a book which could be unfolded from the first piece while reading. This was known as the Jiandu system, which was the earliest form of bookbinding and was used for thousands of years.
In the 5th century, with the wide application of paper and the appearance of paper texts, Jiandu was replaced by paper texts.
The scroll system
The scroll system evolved from the volume system and took its final shape during the time of silk manuscripts. It was further used in the era of paper texts and a complete system was formed that was used to mount books or paintings in modern China.
The procedure was as follows. A piece of wood working as a scroll was stuck on the end of the paper roll, and papers were rolled onto the scroll. Characters written directly onto silk sheets or, in the case of paper texts, pieces of paper with characters were stuck onto the scroll in proper order. A piece of paper or silk with no characters was named “Piao.” Solid and resilient, it was attached to the beginning of the books with a scroll roll for the purpose of protection. A string was tied in the top of the “Piao” to bind the scroll. To mark the content of the books and make retrieval easier, a small tablet called “Qian” was often hung on the scroll and some were attached on the end of string, which was fixed after binding.
While reading, the scroll was open and unfolded. After reading, the scroll was rolled, tied by a string and put flat with one end of the scroll facing the outside on a bookshelf. Readers needed to just take them out as needed and insert them back on the shelf later. This system was called “Chajia.”
Transition from scroll to album leaf
Accordion binding
Palm sutras in “fanjiazhuang” were introduced from India to China from the 7th to 9th century and gave Chinese scholars inspiration. Rather than folding a long roll, they could be folded back and forth into a rectangular shape. A hard board was used at the front and back to protect the folds into a concertina binding. These scroll folded into concertina eliminated the need to unroll half a scroll to see a passage in the middle.
Whirlwind binding
Whirlwind binding evolved from scroll rolls. It is shaped like a scroll and based on a long paper on which the first page is stuck. The second page is stuck on the base with a paper scrip from the right side with no characters and other pages are stuck under the last page from the left side. With pages collected together, the whirlwind binding edition of a book is read from the right side to the left side page after page, and is rolled from the end of the book.