printing was invented. The germ is perhaps to be found in the engraving
of seals, which have been used by the Chinese as far back as we can go
with anything like historical certainty, and also of stone tablets
from which rubbings were taken, the most important of these being the
forty-six tablets on which five of the sacred books of Confucianism were
engraved about A.D. 170, and of which portions still remain. However
this may be, it was during the sixth century A.D. that the idea of
taking impressions on paper from wooden blocks seems to have arisen,
chiefly in connexion with religious pictures and tracts. It was not
widely applied to the production of books in general until A.D. 932,
when the Confucian Canon was so printed for the first time; from which
point onwards the extension of the art moved with rapid strides.

It is very noticeable that the Chinese, who are extraordinarily averse
to novelties, and can hardly be induced to consider any innovations,
when once convinced of their real utility, waste no further time in
securing to themselves all the advantages which may accrue. This was
forcibly illustrated in regard to the introduction of the telegraph,
against which the Chinese had set their faces, partly because of the
disturbance of geomantic influences caused by the tall telegraph poles,
and partly because they sincerely doubted that the wires could achieve
the results claimed. But when it was discovered that some wily Cantonese
had learnt over the telegraph the names of the three highest graduates
at the Peking triennial examination, weeks before the names could be
known in Canton by the usual route, and had enriched himself by buying
up the tickets bearing those names in the great lotteries which are
always held in connexion with this event, Chinese opposition went down
like a house of cards; and the only question with many of the literati
was whether, at some remote date, the Chinese had not invented
telegraphy themselves.