section_path: History/Woodblock printing/In East Asia
section_name: In East Asia
paragraph_text: In East Asia
  
  The earliest examples of ink-squeeze rubbings and potential stone printing blocks appear in the mid-sixth century in China. A type of printing called mechanical woodblock printing on paper started during the 7th century in the Tang dynasty, and subsequently spread throughout East Asia. Nara Japan printed the Hyakumantō Darani en masse around 770, and distributed them to temples throughout Japan. In Korea, an example of woodblock printing from the eighth century was discovered in 1966. A copy of the Buddhist Dharani Sutra called the Pure Light Dharani Sutra (Korean: 무구정광대다라니경; Hanja: 無垢淨光大陀羅尼經; RR: Mugu jeonggwang dae darani-gyeong), discovered in Gyeongju, in a Silla dynasty pagoda that was repaired in 751, was undated but must have been created sometime before the reconstruction of the Shakyamuni Pagoda of Bulguk Temple, Kyongju Province in 751. The document is estimated to have been created no later than 704.
  
  By the ninth century, printing on paper had taken off, and the first completely surviving printed book is the Diamond Sutra (British Library) of 868, uncovered from Dunhuang. By the tenth century, 400,000 copies of some sutras and pictures were printed, and the Confucian classics were in print. A skilled printer could print up to 2,000 double-page sheets per day.
  
  Printing spread early to Korea and Japan, which also used Chinese logograms, but the technique was also used in Turpan and Vietnam using a number of other scripts. This technique then spread to Persia and Russia. This technique was transmitted to Europe by around 1400 and was used on paper for old master prints and playing cards.