Eurasian Commercial Revolutions and Technological Exchanges: Paper and Printing

Development of the South China

Population trends

Tang Dynasty, 750 CE

60 million total pop.

36 million in north

24 million in south (40% of total pop.)

N. Song Dynasty, 1000 CE

100 million total pop.

38 million in north

62 million in south (62% of total pop.)

Factors Involved in Pop. Shift

1) Warfare in north

2) Development of large estates

Bound “serfs” under Song

40% of population

Mobilization of labor

Rice paddies

Irrigation canals

3) Early ripening rice varieties (Champa rice)

Double cropping

Consequences of Grain Surplus

Population growth

Urbanization (grain and cheap water transport)

Tang Dynasty, 750 CE

1 city with 1 million people (Chang’an)

N. Song, 1000 CE

Kaifeng with 500,000 people

10 cities, 100,000+ people

S. Song, 1200 CE

Hangzhou, 1 million

“Peace Reigns over the River”

Expansion of Money Economy

Coins, 3.1% of revenue in 749

Coins, 51.6% of revenue in 1065

20 times Tang maximum

String of 1000 coins=4 kg (8.8 lbs.)

*Paper money

Merchants in S.W. issued paper notes in response to coin shortage

Government paper money, 1023

Backed by 29% cash reserve

Example of surviving Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) paper money

Technological advances

Iron

Production of 125,000 tons of iron, 1078

1.4 kg (3.1 lbs.)/person

Not matched in Europe until 1700

Papermaking

What are the drawbacks to these writing materials?

Turtle plastron, ca. 1200 BCE

Silk cloth, ca. 300 BCE

Bamboo strips, ca. 300 BCE

Chinese Papermaking

Proto-paper

Wrapping material, 2nd c. BCE

Writing material, 2nd c. CE

Production

Chopping and pounding of cellulose fibers mixed with water to form pulp

Bamboo

Mulberry bark

Stalks of harvested crops

Dipping

Drying

Bonding of cellulose fibers

Light, flexible, durable

Woodblock Printing

Buddhist invention 7th c.

Books in scroll format 9th c.

Diamond Sutra printed scroll, 868 (International Dunhuang Project Website), also see Voyages, p. 234

Bookbinding

Moveable type, 1048

Spread of papermaking

Islamic Caliphates, 8th c.

Second oldest Arabic book on paper, 867

Europe, 11th c.

Via Islamic Spain and Sicily

Ream (Spanish resma from Arabic rizmah (bale))

Earlier Middle Eastern and European Writing Materials

Clay tablets, ca. 3000 BCE

Papyrus, ca. 2000 BCE

Parchment

Spread of Printing

Movable type (China or Korea), 11th c.

Europe, 14th c.

Gutenberg printing press, ca. 1450

Cross-cultural transmission of culture and technology

Long Distance trade

Silk Road

Turfan

Empires

Tang Dynasty China, 7th-8th centuries

Muslim Caliphates, 7th-12th centuries

Lecture Study Questions

1. What writing materials did we learn about earlier in the semester? Why is paper superior to these earlier writing materials? Why were the technologies of paper and printing crucial to the spread of literacy in China in the period from 100-1200 CE?

2. What roles did the Silk Road and empires play in the transmission of paper and printing technology across Eurasia from China to Western Europe?

Lecture and Reading Study Questions

Reading: Hansen, et al., 234, 338-340, 344-358

1. What role did agriculture play in encouraging population growth in South China and the rise of large cities?

2. Why did China's commercial revolution from 900 to 1300 encourage the invention of the world's first paper money?

3. Why did paper and printing technology lower the cost of books?

4. Why did paper and printing plus Song Dynasty China's civil service exams encourage an education boom from 960 to 1200 CE?

Supplementary Reading on D2L>Content:

23) “Silk Road or Paper Road?”

1. How and when did paper-making technology reach the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe?

2. Why did paper eventually replace papyrus and parchment as the main writing materials in the Middle East and Europe?

3. Why does Professor Jonathan Bloom think that the "Silk Road" should be renamed the "Paper Road"? Do you agree or disagree?