History of Printing in East Asia

choi

history of printing in East Asia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing_in_East_Asia
("Printing in East Asia originated from the Han dynasty (220 BCE – 206 CE) in China, evolving from ink rubbings made on paper or cloth from texts on stone tables used during the Han. Printing is considered one of the Four Great Inventions of China that spread throughout the world. * * * The earliest specimen of woodblock printing on paper, whereby individual sheets of paper were pressed into wooden blocks with the text and illustrations carved into them, was discovered in 1974 in an excavation of Xi'an (then called Chang'an, the capital of Tang China), Shaanxi, China.[9] It is a dharani sutra printed on hemp paper and dated to 650 to 670 CE")
(a) To the right of the text is a photo of that piece of paper.

However, the online accounts or photos (an intact square), none of which authoritative, of the 1974 find (现藏西安市文管会, short for 文物管理委员会) are vastly different from this photo.
(b) Footnote 9 is Pan Jixing 潘吉星, On the Origin of Printing in the Light of New Archaeological Discoveries. Chinese Science Bulletin (1997) 42: 976.

The publisher was Springer, which places the English-language article behind paywall.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02882611
(c) Try as I may, I fail to find the source of the photo mentioned in (a) above.

I try harder, and at last find 北京伍伦国际拍卖有限公司 (2013- ): "梵文《大随求陀罗尼经咒》印本  楮皮纸  直径25厘米."

伍伦梵文《大随求陀罗尼经咒》印本，世上已知最早雕版印刷品之一. 苏州弘化社 發表于新闻, Apr 2, 2019.
https://kknews.cc/zh-sg/news/x2rm53q.html

English (romanization of Sanskrit): Mahāpratisarā / Sanskrit महाप्रतिसरा/ both Chinese and kanji (in Japan; pronunciation: daizuiku (occasionally daizuigu, where gu is Chinese pronunciation of kanji 求) 大随求菩薩
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/大随求菩薩
(female with eight arms)
(d)
(i) 宿白：佛画雕印在北宋时期的重大变化. 今日头条, Aug 5, 2022
https://www.toutiao.com/article/7128070341095588366/
https://m.thepaper.cn/rss_newsDetail_6735946
("文章节选自《唐宋时期的雕版印刷》（宿白 著 三联书店2020-1）")

photo caption: "《金刚般若波罗蜜经》
唐咸通九年（868 年）刊印。1906—1908 年,英人斯坦因劫自甘肃敦煌莫高窟藏经洞。现藏英国伦敦不列颠博物馆 [sic; should be Library]。"

photo caption: "梵文《陀罗尼咒经》
1967年，陕西西安西郊张家坡西安造纸网厂工地唐墓出土。现藏西安市文管会。"
(ii) 宿白
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/宿白
(1922 (born in 沈阳)—2018; 汉族; 北京大学考古系首任系主任
(e)
(i) Printed copy of the Diamond Sutra. British Library, undated
https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-diamond-sutra
("is the world's earliest dated, printed book. It was produced on the 11 May 868, according to the Western calendar. * * * It was found in a holy site called the Mogao (or 'Peerless') Caves or the 'Caves of a Thousand Buddhas' ")

Heed "book."
(ii) This copy of Diamond Sutra is made by woodblock printing: "末尾有一行题记，记有 '咸通九年四月十五日王玠为二亲敬造普施' 等字样": from the Web.
(iii) 咸通
https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hans/咸通
("咸通（860年十一月—874年十一月）是唐懿宗李漼的年号，共计15年。  咸通十四年七月唐僖宗李儇即位沿用[一年]")
(f) As for Jikji, it is the earliest print with movable metal (specifically copper). See Jikji Memory of the World Prize. UNESCO, undated
https://www.unesco.org/en/prizes/jikji
("UNESCO's Executive Board approved the establishment of the UNESCO/Jikji Memory of the World Prize in April 2004.   The purpose of the UNESCO/Jikji Memory of the World Prize is to commemorate the inscription of the Buljo jikji simche yojeol, the oldest existing book of movable metal print in the world, on the Memory of the World Register")