Middle AgesTechnology Woodblock printing c. 700 CETurning point Chinese printers carve whole pages into wood, making mass-produced texts possible. ▲ MattersSaveShareTrace roots Longest chain: The Big Bang → First stars ignite → Supernovae seed heavy elements → The Sun forms → Earth forms → First oceans → First life → Photosynthesis evolves → Great Oxidation Event → Complex cells (eukaryotes) → Multicellular life → First animals → Cambrian Explosion → First vertebrates → Jawed fish → Fish walk onto land → The amniotic egg → The Great Dying → Dinosaurs appear → Asteroid ends the dinosaurs → Early primates → Apes split from monkeys → Human line splits from chimpanzees → Walking upright → First stone tools → Genus Homo appears → Homo erectus → Control of fire → First fired clay figures → First pottery → Copper smelting → Bronze Age begins → Shang dynasty → Zhou dynasty and the Mandate of Heaven → Spring and Autumn period → Legalism (Shang Yang) → Qin unifies China → Han dynasty → Paper → Woodblock printing Community notesLoading notes… Learn more ranked by votesDocumentmetmuseum.orgThe Printed Image in China, 8th to 21st century (Met Museum) ↗Editor's pickBookTsien Tsuen-HsuinPaper and Printing (Science and Civilisation in China, Vol. 5 Part 1) ↗Editor's pickBookThomas Francis CarterThe Invention of Printing in China and Its Spread Westward ↗Editor's pickVideoSearch on YouTubeChinese woodblock printing Diamond Sutra ↗Editor's pick