VI
The Chinese Method of Printing.
Antiquity of Printing among the Chinese…Statement of Du Halde…Its Perversion…First Chinese Method, the Gouging of Letters…Didot's Hypothesis…Second Method, of Xylography…Third Method, a Combination of Xylography and Typography…A Peculiarly Chinese Invention…Method now used…Its Advantages over Types…Chinese Paper…Performance of Pressmen…Curious Method of Binding…Expense of Engraving no hindrance to Chinese Printing…The Xylographic Method necessary…Chinese Practice in Typography…Cheapness of Chinese Books…Similarity between the Chinese and the European Methods of Block-Printing…The Hypothesis of its Transmission to Europe through Marco Polo, or other Venetian Travelers.
Many eminent authors are of the opinion that we are indebted to China not only for playing cards, but for the means of making them. They tell us that playing cards could not have been popular, as they were at the beginning of the fifteenth century, if they had not been made by a cheaper process than drawing by hand. The inference attempted is that block-printing and playing cards were brought to Europe together. The reasons presented in support of this opinion are far from conclusive, but they are based on many curious facts which deserve consideration.
The Chinese claims for priority in the practice of block printing have been disallowed by some critics, chiefly because they have been presented in the form of perverted translations. That oriental people practised printing before this art was applied to any useful purpose in Europe is admitted by all who have studied their history. Du Halde, a learned Jesuit father, who traveled in China during the earlier part of the
