Trace the history of print in China.
Or
How did China remain a major producer of printed materials for a long time ?
Or
The imperial state in China, was the major producer of printed material.' Support this statement. [CBSE 2014]
(i) Hand Printing : The earliest kind of print technology was developed in China, Japan and Korea. This was a system of hand printing. From AD 594 onwards, books in China were printed by rubbing paper – also invented there- against the inked surface of woodblocks. As both sides of the thin, porous sheet could not be printed, the traditional Chinese ‘accordion book' was folded and stitched at the side. Superbly skilled craftsmen could duplicate, with remarkable accuracy, the beauty of calligraphy.
(ii) Major producer : The imperial state in China was, for a very long time, the major producer of printed material. China possessed a huge bureaucratic system which recruited its personnel through civil service examinations. Textbooks for this examination were printed in vast numbers under the sponsorship of the imperial state. From the sixteenth century, the number of examination candidates went up and that increased the volume of print.
(iii) Printing in the 17th century : By the seventeenth century, as urban culture bloomed in China, the uses of print diversified. Print was no longer used just by scholar officials. Merchants used print in their everyday life, as they collected trade information. Reading increasingly became a leisure activity. The new readership preferred fictional narratives, poetry, autobiographies, anthologies of literary masterpieces, and romantic plays. Rich women began to read, and many women began publishing their poetry and plays. Wives of scholar-officials published their works and courtesans wrote about their lives.
(iv) Printing in the 19th century : This new reading culture was accompanied by a new technology. Western printing techniques and mechanical presses were imported in the fate nineteenth century as Western powers established their outposts in China. Shanghai became the hub of the new print culture, catering to the Western-style schools. From hand printing there was now a gradual shift to mechanical printing.
Name the printing presses which published numerous religious texts in vernaculars from the 1880s.
Explain the main features of the first printed Bible. [CBSE Sept. 2010]
Or
Describe any three main features of the first printed Bible. [CBSE 2014]
How did printing press create a new- reading public ? Explain. [CBSF. Sept. 2013]
Or
"There was a virtual reading mania in European countries in the 18th century". Explain the factors responsible for this virtual reading mania.
Print popularised the ideas of the Enlightenment thinkers.' Explain. [CBSE 2014]
Or
How did ideas about science, reason and rationality find their way into popular literature in the 18th century Europe ? [CBSE Sept. 2010]
Trace the growth and development of print technology.
Or
How had the earliest print technology developed in the world ? Explain.
Explain how the print culture assisted the growth of nationalism in India. [CBSE Sept. 2010, 2011]
Study the given paragraph and answer the following questions that follow :
Liberty of speech…. liberty of the press freedom of association. The government of India is now seeking to crush the three powerful vehicles of expressing and cultivating public opinion. The fight for Swaraj, for Khilafat …. means a fight for this threatened freedom before all else ….'
(i) Who said these words ?
(ii) Name the freedoms he is talking about.
Why were the printed books popular even among illiterate people ? [CBSE Sept. 2010, 2012]
The shift from handprinting to mechanical printing led to the print revolution.’ Explain.
State any three points of importance of penny chapbooks. [CBSE Sept. 2010.2011]
Or
Describe some of the new printed books which were sold by the pedlars in villages in the eighteenth century Europe. [CBSE-2012, 2014]
Name an Act which was passed by the British government to keep a regular track of the vernacular newspapers.
Write about the different innovations in the printing technology during the 19th century ? [CBSE Sept. 2010]
How did Gutenberg personalise the printed hooks suiting to the tastes and requirement of others ? [CBSE 2012]
Print not only stimulate the publication of conflicting opinions amongst communities, but it also connected communities and people in different parts of India.' Explain. [CBSE 2008 (O), 2009 (D), Sept. 2011]
Or
How did print help connect communities and people in different parts of India ? Explain with examples. [CBSE Sept. 2010, 2011]
Who was the major producer of printed material in China ? For what purpose this material was used ?