chinese book binding

7/21/2019 Chinese Book Binding

1/22

07/02/2007 12:14 PMIDP Education - Bookbinding

Page 1 of 22http://idp.bl.uk/education/bookbinding/bookbinding.a4d

Bookbinding

Some characteristics of the Dunhuang bookletsButterfly binding (hudie zhuang)Stitched binding (xian zhuang)The Chinese pothi (fanjia zhuang)

Whirlwind binding (xuanfeng zhuang)Concertina binding (jingzhe zhuang)Wrapped-back binding (baobei zhuang)Bibliography (selective)

Text by Colin ChinneryDiagrams by Li Yi and Colin Chinnery

DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER (PDF 2.1MB)

The history of Chinese bookbinding has alwayssuffered owing to a lack of material evidence.The various book formats discovered among

the Dunhuang document collection provide awealth of information previously out of reachto scholars. However, this resource hasremained relatively untapped, attentioninstead being focused on the textual contentof the documents. Bookbinding is just one ofmany aspects to the study of the Dunhuangcollection as physical artefacts. This site, bycombining textual descriptions with diagramsillustrating binding techniques and photographsof the actual objects, aims to give acomprehensive introduction to the differentkinds of Chinese bookbinding contained in theDunhuang collection of the British Library.

Some characteristics of theDunhuang booklets

In AD 755 a major rebellion in China forced the government to recall its troops from the western regions. Thearmies of the Tibetan empire moved in to fill the vacuum and most of the Silk Road towns, includingDunhuang, were under Tibetan control for the next century. Trade with central China was cut off and thereforepreviously imported items, such as high quality paper, were no longer available. Although Dunhuang wasretaken by local troops loyal to China in AD 851, by this time Chinese imperial power was in decline and thecontacts of the western regions with the centre were still not strong. From the quality of the paper and thecolophons to some of the texts, we know that many of the booklets found at Dunhuang date from the late-Tang and Five Dynasties period (AD 907-960). Unlike many other items in the Dunhuang collection, themajority of these booklets were not produced in central China and brought in to the region, but were madelocally in Dunhuang, often by the very people who used them.

One of the most interesting aspects of the Dunhuang booklets is the sheer variety of different formats. Notonly are there examples of both butterfly binding and thread binding, but there are also many booklets whichhave been made by combining features of different formats to create a new type of binding:


2/22



Stitched binding, butterfly binding

and 'wrapped back'

This book has been bound in the butterfly style. The folded

leaves were then stitched together at the top and bottom,

and two layers of paper were pasted to the back of the book

for protection. In the Dunhuang collection there are booklets

in all different combinations of these three forms of binding:

Stitched and butterfly binding; butterfly and 'wrapped-back';

stitched binding with 'wrapped-back'.

Or.8210/S.5556[http://idp.bl.uk/database/oo_loader.a4d?

pm=Or.8210/S.5556]

Dimensions (cm): 12 x 15 per page.

Cloth backed book

This butterfly bound book has had a layer of red cloth pastedto the outer cover. This is the only such example in the

Dunhuang collection of the British Library.


pm=Or.8210/S.5556]

Dimensions (cm): 11 x 17.3

Concertina pasted in the butterfly style

This item is a mixture of the concertina and butterfly formats.

It is also the only printed booklet in the collection. Originally

folded in the concertina style, the folded edges of the book

were pasted together like the folded leaves of the butterfly

format. This simple modification to the concertina format

would have made the book easier to carry and to turn the

pages.

Or.8210/P.11[http://idp.bl.uk/database/oo_loader.a4d?

pm=Or.8210/P.11]

Dimensions (cm): 10 x 14

Stitched gatherings in elongated concertina or

pothi shape

This stitched booklet has the dimensions of concertina or

Chinese pothi formats.


pm=Or.8210/P.11]

Dimensions (cm): 10.5 x 27


3/22



Pothi in the shape of a butterfly book

Although the shape of this book suggests the butterfly format

its pages have not been pasted together. Instead, holes have

been pierced through the middle for it to be strung together

in the pothi style. There is little indication of wear around the

edges of the holes, therefore it is unlikely that string was

ever used.


pm=Or.8210/S.5668]


Although many different methods of bookbinding are represented in this collection, no direct connection withthe bookbinding developments of central China can be proven. Moreover, unless it can be shown that aparticular bookbinding style found in this one region was practised on a larger scale, it can only be assumedthat these different formats were created by individuals according to their own ideas. This is perfectlydemonstrated by three booklets in the Dunhuang collection that were all copied and bound by a man in hiseighties, each by a slightly different method.

In a region where resources were scarce, every effort must have been made to ensure books lasted as long aspossible. Moreover, most of these booklets were made to be portable and consulted frequently, and therefore

they would have been subjected to further strain. This would have been another factor to consider when thebooklet was made. The earliest form of folded-leaf book, the butterfly book, tended to come apart easily, andit is natural that people would have thought of ways to remedy this weakness. Whether stitching or backingtechniques were developed as a result of experimentation, or through some influence from outside, is not yetknown. However, improvisation in bookbinding can be clearly seen in several examples of the Dunhuangcollection where modifications have been applied to a book that were obviously not originally intended.


4/22



This booklet has been folded in half due to the length of its

pages. After being folded it has similar dimensions as the

majority of other booklets in the Dunhuang collection.


pm=Or.8210/S.5433]

Right: The stitching of this booklet was apparently not

anticipated since the thread passes straight through the

characters near the centre of the page, forcing them into the

fold. This booklet, and a number of others like it, have been

stitched together like pieces of cloth.Or.8210/S.5678[http://idp.bl.uk/database/oo_loader.a4d?

pm=Or.8210/S.5433]

There are also many examples of booklets that have been deliberately bound in a way which combines two ormore techniques, indicating that the local bookbinding process also evolved.

There are some rare examples of such combined bookbinding that were probably produced in central China andtaken to Dunhuang. The two examples Or.8210/S.5668 [http://idp.bl.uk/database/oo_loader.a4d?

pm=Or.8210/S.5668] and Or.8210/S.5603[http://idp.bl.uk/database/oo_loader.a4d?pm=Or.8210/S.5603] quiteclearly show that the pothi style holes were a deliberate feature of two very different forms of book: One in theshape of a butterfly bound book, and the other a concertina. What these booklets demonstrate is that therewas a certain influence between different styles during the same period in central China as well as inDunhuang.

It is very unlikely that the bookbinding experimentation that took place in Dunhuang did not also take placeelsewhere in China. A Song dynasty scholar of central China recounts that he was so fed up with his butterflybook coming apart that he had it stitched. However there are no extant physical objects from central China tosupport or clarify brief textual references such as this one. The Dunhuang booklets are special because theyrepresent a process that must have also existed in central China, a process that made the evolutionary linkbetween subsequent book formats.


5/22



A copy of the Wen xin diao long, a discussion of various

kinds of literature. Compared with other booklets in theDunhuang collection the paper of this manuscript is

exceptionally smooth and fine, and the handwriting refined.

Moreover, this is not a religious text, unlike the majority of

booklets made in Dunhuang. Therefore, it is very likely that

this booklet was made in central China.


pm=Or.8210/S.5478]

Dimensions (cm): 11.7 x 16.8 per page

The recto of a folded leaf. The colophon of this manuscript

indicates that it was copied in AD 906 by an 'old man of 83'.

Or.8210/S.5451[http://idp.bl.uk/database/oo_loader.a4d?pm=Or.8210/S.5478]

Dimensions (cm): 11.5 x 14.3 per page

This photograph shows the way in which the folded leaves are

pasted together. Facing this direction is the recto of a folded

leaf.


pm=Or.8210/S.5451]

Butterfly binding (hudie zhuang)

Butterfly binding played a pivotal role in the history of Chinese bookbinding. The popularity of this form of bookin the Song dynasty (AD 960-1279) marked the end of the scroll and the beginning of the folded leaf book.

Indeed, butterfly binding was the first Chinese bookformat to depart completely from the concept of thescroll. Although both concertina and whirlwind boundbooks had characteristics of the leaf book, they wereboth strongly influenced by the scroll and still sharedmany of the its features. Butterfly binding, on theother hand, managed to break away from thisbookbinding tradition, starting on a new direction forthe making of Chinese books.

The collection of booklets in the Dunhuang collectionof the British Library has several examples of

butterfly binding. Some of these booklets date to theTang dynasty (AD 618-907), and unlike many of thescrolls in the Dunhuang collection, these bookletswere mostly locally produced.

Since Dunhuang was such a distant outpost of theChinese empire, it is very likely that the format hadalready existed for some time in central China. Theexistence of these booklets, therefore, suggests thatbutterfly binding existed at an earlier time than waspreviously thought. It is very difficult to know exactlyhow this format evolved. Perhaps the most importantinnovation of this format was the development of the

folded leaf. A butterfly bound book was made byfolding sheets of paper in half, forming four sides each. Paste would then be applied to the folded edge of thepaper, and the folded sheets would be stacked together so that the folded edges met to form the spine of the


6/22



This shows a folded leaf printed with one wood block (in the

background) to form a double page. The arrows indicate the

direction of the fold in butterfly binding. Each folded page is

only printed on one side, the other side remains blank.

The reverse side of each folded leaf is left blank.

book. The shape of the leaves and the manner in which the book opened and closed resembled the wings of abutterfly, therefore the book was given this rather descriptive name.

This simple and compact design meant that the book could hold far more text than any other format.Moreover, it was much easier to carry around than either the scroll, which was an awkward shape, or theconcertina, which did not hold together well. This was especially important for Buddhists who liked to keepsutras on their persons to recite as they moved from place to place. Also in contrast with other types of book,the butterfly format did not have a strong connection with the text it contained. Concertina and Chinese pothiformats were predominantly used by Buddhists, and whirlwind books seemed to relate mostly to referenceworks. Butterfly books were not restricted to any particular group of users. This meant, in effect, that it wasthe first book format that could replace the scroll.

By the time butterfly binding appeared, the art of wood block printing had already reached maturity. A copy ofThe Diamond Sutra in the British Library (Or.8210/P.2 [http://idp.bl.uk/database/oo_loader.a4d?pm=Or.8210/P.2] )printed in the year AD 868, is a perfect example of the refinement block printing techniques had achieved bythe ninth century. Although the earliest printed books in China were produced in the scroll format, by the Songdynasty, most books were produced in the butterfly format. Owing to the nature of the printing block,individual leaves were much more suited to printing than the continuous roll of paper of the scroll. Moreover,since the individual leaves of the butterfly format were folded in half, it meant that two consecutive pagescould be printed from one block.

This concept was a very important development of the printing block, and it stayed at the heart of Chineseprinting until the reintroduction of movable type by the West in the nineteenth century. Therefore, this special


7/22



relationship butterfly binding had with the printing block helped to make this format survive and eventuallydevelop into other forms of binding.

Ironically, the relationship with the printing block was also the greatest weakness of butterfly binding. Sincethe printing block printed two consecutive pages, only one side of each leaf could be printed on. This meantthat every second page of the book would be blank.

This was obviously a major problem that had to be resolved, so the structure of the folded leaf was changed.The result of this change of design was called wrapped-back binding. This format effectively replaced butterfly

binding during the Ming dynasty.

Despite this strong connection with printing, there are no examples of printed butterfly books in the Dunhuangcollection. This is mainly due to the relative isolation of Dunhuang during the late Tang and Five Dynastieswhich not only meant that much fewer books were brought into Dunhuang from central China, but also meantthat printing technology was slower to reach the region as well.

Due to the popularity of this format, there are more examples of butterfly binding than any other form ofbooklet in the Dunhuang collection. These include many 'hybrid' books (see Characteristics of the DunhuangBooklets[#Some characteristics of the Dunhuang booklets] ) which mixed different formats together thatapparently existed at the same time in the Dunhuang region.


8/22



Typical thread bound books with covering case.

Stitched gatherings

Each gathering consists of two or more sheets of paper which

are joined together with thread at the fold (see next

diagram).

The spines of each of the gatherings are sewn together.

All the spines of the gatherings are brought together to form

the spine of the book.

Stitched gatherings

The centre of this booklet reveals the stitching that binds the

gatherings together.


pm=Or.8210/S.5433]


Stitched binding (xian zhuang)

The stitched booklets in the Dunhuang collection canhelp us to understand more about the history ofChinese bookbinding.

Thread binding became the predominant Chinesebook format late in the Ming dynasty (AD 1368-1644), and represents the last phase in the history of

traditional Chinese bookbinding. The vast majority ofbooks handed down to us from China's imperial pastare in this format, therefore many will be familiarwith it.

Although the popular thread binding of the Ming andQing (AD 1644-1911) dynasties was inventedrelatively recently, the history of its developmentgoes back much further in time.

There are a number of booklets in the Dunhuangcollection that have been bound with thread. Themost striking aspect of these books is the fact that

they appeared at such an early period. The colophonson some of the booklets tell us that they were copiedand bound during the Tang dynasty (AD 618-907),some six hundred years before the emergence ofmature thread binding books in the Ming. What isalso surprising is that there was a whole variety ofstitching techniques already being applied. It wouldbe interesting, therefore, to have a look at some ofthese different techniques in order to understand thenature of this development in bookbinding.


9/22



Stringing together

This book has the simplest thread binding method of all the

documents in the Dunhuang collection. The folded leaves are

gathered together without being pasted and simply strung

together with a short length of thread at one corner of thespine.


pm=Or.8210/S.6983]


Stab stitching

Diagram representation of the binding of Or.8210/S.5646[http://idp.bl.uk/database/oo_loader.a4d?pm=Or.8210/S.5646]

(1) The pages are folded and brought together into gatherings.

(2) The unstitched gatherings were then piled together.

(3) A cover was placed around the back of the book, then three holes were pierced through the book near the spine.

(4) Two strings were used to pass through the three holes and bind the book at the spine.



Most of these stitched booklets in the Dunhuangcollection were bound into gatherings. This was avery new method of putting a book together for theChinese. There seems to be no form of book thateither led up to that technique or developed from itafterwards. This makes it unique in the history ofChinese bookbinding, and it certainly deserves moreinvestigation. Although it is not known exactly howthe stitched gathering book developed in China, it ispossible to imagine why this kind of book did not last.

Although printing was developed during the Tangdynasty, it only became popular during the FiveDynasties (AD 907-960) and the Song dynasty (AD960-1279). Owing to the nature of the printing block,which was designed to print two consecutive pages,butterfly binding became the predominant bindingformat until the wrapped-back book took its place.The development of wrapped-back binding was alsorelated to printing and the nature of the printingblock (see article[#Wrapped-back binding (baobeizhuang)] ). The stitched gathering format, however,differed considerably regarding its relationship withthe printing block. Because of the way the pageswere folded it is impossible to print two consecutivepages on this form of book. Therefore, it is possiblethat this incompatibility with printing techniquesprecluded the survival of the format.

The remainder of the booklets in this collection seemto have been stitched in the butterfly style. This development is much easier to understand than the stitchedgatherings. The butterfly format was the most popular method of binding leafed books until at least the end ofthe Song dynasty. However, a weakness of butterfly books is that they came apart easily, therefore, stitching


10/22



could have been applied in order to reinforce or repair a book. The scholar Wang Zhu of the Northern Songdynasty (AD 960-1127) wrote that he had exactly this problem with butterfly books, and stated that had themstitched to make them more durable.

This very simple explanation of the appearance of stitch binding during the Tang dynasty is graphicallyillustrated by some booklets which have been stitched so that the thread passes through text nearest the spineof the book.

This proves that in particular cases, the stitching must have been applied after the book had been bound, and

was not originally planned.

The thread bound books of the Ming dynasty developed out of the necessity to repair wrapped-back (baobeizhuang) books. The pages of this kind of book were held together with paper twists that were difficult toreplace once they broke. However, we have seen that the practice of stitching a book for added durability canbe traced back to the Tang dynasty. It is very likely that this practice endured, at least on a private level, upto the point when it ceased being merely a technique of book preservation and became the most popular formChinese bookbinding in imperial China.


11/22



The Chinese pothi (fanjia zhuang)

Background

Until the adoption of Western binding techniques in China this century, the Chinese pothi was the only methodof Chinese bookbinding that owed its existence to a foreign form of book - the Indian pothi.

This Indian format consisted of sheets of dried palm leaf cut into rectangular shaped pages stacked on top ofeach other. The pages were bound by string that passed through holes going through the middle of the

document. All the pages would then be sandwiched between wooden boards that not only helped keep thepages together, but also protected the document from damage.

Left: The string passes through holes made in the palm leaf pages of a pothi.

Right: The pothi is protected by wooden boards and bound by the string that passes through the leaves.

The Chinese have two names for this type of book, both of which are descriptive: Fanjia zhuang literally means'sandwiched Sanskrit binding', referring to the language used for Indian pothi and their usual storage method;and the other, beiye jing means 'palm leaf sutra', describing the material and the Buddhist nature of the texts.If we put the meanings of both of these names together, we get a very good description of this type of book:Buddhist sutras written in Sanskrit on palm leaves which are sandwiched together.

The spread of Buddhism brought this foreign format into China. After the fall of the Han dynasty in the thirdcentury AD, Buddhism started to take a foothold in China as many people saw in it a refuge from the strife and

instability of the chaos that followed. As a result, many Buddhist texts found their way to China, includingtexts written on pothi. The religious nature of the Indian pothi had a great effect on the way in which the formwould develop in China, but it also was eventually used for other kinds of book.

Characteristics

India and China had very different book forms before the invention of paper, and these forms were dictated bythe materials involved. The smooth surface of the talipot leaf used for the Indian pothi provided a good surfacefor writing, and since the leaves were thin and flat they could be stacked on top of each other. However, thesedried leaves were rather brittle, and therefore outer boards were necessary to stop the pages from breaking.Also, since the pages could not be bent or folded, it would have been out of the question to stitch the pagestogether at one side. Instead, a method was devised so that the pages could be turned without having to bendthem; consequently the pages were strung together like beads, enabling the both sides of the leaf to be read

without any danger of the pages losing their correct order. In China, however, materials like the talipot leafwere not widely available, and therefore would not have been considered as a possible writing medium. Woodand bamboo were widely available in China, and it is these materials that formed early Chinese books,antedating the Indian pothi. These materials, however, were not thin or flat, and could not possibly have beenstacked like the pothi. Instead, the wood or bamboo was cut into thin strips that each generally held only onecolumn of text. These strips were then bound together enabling the text to be read from one strip to the next.


12/22



The first form of bookbinding in China.

Many Chinese pothi had only one hole for string to pass

through. Chinese pothi were wider than the original Indian

versions.

From this we can see that Indian and Chinese booksdeveloped in completely different directions as a resultof the material available.

By the time the first Buddhist pothi books enteredChina in the third and fourth century AD, paper hadalready been in general use for two to three hundredyears. It was to take at least another three hundredyears for the Chinese to make their own pothi. The

reason for this, too, possibly related to the fact that thematerials were unsuitable for making this kind of book.Although Chinese books were no longer made of woodor bamboo, the fine paper produced in China was notmuch better for the purpose. In essence, Chinese paperwas emulating the virtues of silk, aiming to be as softand fine as possible (silk was used for book from thefirst millennium BC but it was expensive). Althoughpaper was now thin and flat, its basic properties werestill very different from palm leaves. If this earlyChinese paper used the pothi binding system, not onlywould the pages be very difficult to turn, but the stringthat passed through the holes in the middle of the

pages would also damage the paper and text. However,there is evidence to suggest that some sort of bindingtechnique similar to the pothi was being used in theseventh century, at the beginning of the Tang dynasty(AD 618-907). It could not have been a commonbinding practice, since out of all the early Tang textspassed down to us, there is not a single extant book inthis format. However, there are many Chinese

examples of pothi in the Dunhuang collection, and although the examples kept at the British Library and theNational Library of China are not dated, it is possible to tell that they probably all date from the ninth centuryonwards.

The evidence that pointed to this period is again

related to the physical material of the books, i.e. thequality of the paper.

Most of the paper of the Dunhuang books was notmade in the Dunhuang region itself, but instead wasmade in central China and imported into Dunhuang.Situated at the edge of two great deserts, Dunhuanghad a very dry climate, and as a result could notsustain the plant life needed for much paperproduction. However, from the eighth centuryonwards, as the Tang dynasty was in decline, thearea surrounding Dunhuang was subject to muchunrest, and as a result contact with central China

suffered considerably. This meant that there was nolonger an abundant supply of paper, andconsequently paper had to be produced locally.Compared with the paper made in central China, localpaper was thick and coarse, and it is thereforerelatively easy for scholars today to recognise.

The extra thickness of this local paper made it more stiff and resilient to wear, and therefore made it muchmore suitable for making Chinese pothi than earlier paper. It makes sense, then, that the local people ofDunhuang started to make Chinese pothi only after the ninth century.

These paper equivalents of the Indian pothi seemed to be very similar in concept with the original: The pages,which are stacked on top of each other, are long, rectangular, and pierced through for string. Both sides of the

paper are written on, and the text flows much in the same way from page to page as its Indian counterpart.However, among the numerous examples of Chinese pothi in the Dunhuang collections, almost none of themretain the outer protective boards or even the string. Yet we know that string had been used to keep the


13/22



documents together since there is wear and tear of the paper around the holes. We also know that outerboards were used to encase the books, since an example still exists at the National Library of China . It ispossible, therefore, that owing to the scarcity of wood in the region, the outer boards together with the stringwere removed to be used on new books when the old books were disposed of.

Left: Without either string or outer boards, pothi books are simply loose sheets of paper stacked in sequence. None of the

Chinese pothi in the Dunhuang collection of the British Library have retained either string or wooden boards.


Right: This is a Qing dynasty (AD 1644-1911) concertina book, complete with wooden covers. This is very possibly what the

Dunhuang Chinese pothi would have looked like with their protective covers.

If, as some scholars hold, Cave 17 at Qianfodong in Dunhuang was used to store 'sacred waste' (i.e. booksthat are no longer needed, but are not destroyed owing to their religious content), it would be a possibleexplanation for the missing string and covers of these books.

Religion was at the heart of the Chinese pothi. They were brought into China by Buddhists, and spreadthroughout the country through the sheer popularity of the religion. When the Chinese started making thisform of book, what interested them was more likely to be its connection with Buddhism rather than anyadditional convenience it offered in comparison with the scroll. However, this marked an important change inChina regarding the relationship between text and binding, and also the way in which people regarded books.Previously in China, most books were written on scrolls, and there was no relationship between the text andthe physical object. The arrival of the pothi in China meant that the text and the form of book were seen asseparate things, and this must have had some effect on the development of other forms of bookbinding. Theform of the pothi itself could have had an even bigger impact on the Chinese book owing to the way the pagescame together.

Throughout Chinese history, books had always been rolled up for storage. The palm leaves of the Indian pothi,however, were stacked on top of each other, introducing the idea of the page. Therefore, it is even possiblethat the Chinese word for page (ye), which originally used the character for leaf (ye), came from the palmleaves of the Indian pothi.


14/22



Whirlwind binding (xuanfeng zhuang)

Background

Whirlwind binding is probably the most unusual of all the binding formats in the evolutionary process thatultimately replaced the scroll with thread bound book. Its unique structure reveals more about its place in thehistory of bookbinding than any other format, and the textual content of the examples found so far give us anindication as to why this evolutionary process took place. But although whirlwind binding was an establishedform of binding in its own right, it was purely transitory. It was a step in the development of book forms, and

once more suitable forms were developed, whirlwind bound books were no longer needed.

By the Song dynasty (AD 960-1279), many other forms of bookbinding had evolved, and it is very possiblethat the production of whirlwind books stopped at about this time. This would explain why although there aremany surviving examples of other binding formats, very few whirlwind documents have been discovered todate.

Owing to a lack of physical evidence, for a long time scholars were only able to speculate as to what whirlwindbinding actually meant by using textual and historical sources. However, these sources were often very vague,and thus created misunderstandings which in turn meant that the few existing examples were overlooked untilrecent research brought them to light. This long search for the true identity of whirlwind binding has also madeit one of the most fascinating book formats in Chinese history.

Old Chinese accounts of whirlwind binding are very rare. However, there was a trail of clues left by a Tangdynasty (AD 618-907) rhyme dictionary called Kanmiu buque qieyun (Corrected rhymes), by Wang Renxu. TheTang dynasty calligrapher Wu Cailuan made many copies of this text which apparently became very popular,and subsequently this text was often referred to as Wu Cailuan shu Tangyun (Wu Cailuan's Tang rhymes).From the earliest accounts from the Song dynasty up to the Qing dynasty (AD 1644-1911), references towhirlwind bound books have always been connected with this text. In 1980, Li Zhizhong discovered a copy ofKanmiu buque qieyun in the Gugong Museum, Beijing, and it is the discovery of this manuscript that broughtthe literary accounts and a physical object together for the first time. However, this manuscript had beenrebound in the past, and although it is possible to have a good indication of how it was originally bound, itcannot strictly be regarded as a reliable example of whirlwind binding. Nonetheless, this important discoveryfacilitated the search for more concrete examples.

Several examples of what is believed to be whirlwind binding have now been discovered in the Dunhuang

collections of the Bibliothque nationale de France and the British Library. Most of these have not beenrebound, so it is possible to get a clear impression how these manuscripts were bound and why they werebound in this manner.

1) When a whirlwind book is rolled for storage it is indistinguishable from a scroll.

2) Whirlwind book rolled up for storage. The roller at the centre of the document is the equivalent of the spine of a leafed book,

holding all the pages in place.

3) The pages of a whirlwind bound book curl up when unfurled, suggestive of the circular movement of air in a whirlwind. This

is very possibly how this book format got its name.


Characteristics

Although it is still not known when the first whirlwind books were made, evidence suggests that it wasprobably during late Tang dynasty. The manuscript of Kanmiu buque qieyun in the Gugong Museum has a

colophon that indicates it was copied and bound AD 749. During this period, the Tang dynasty was at its peak,the state was stable and affluent and culture flourished. Arguably the most potent expression of this culturewas the writing of verse, which not only demonstrated an individual's cultural refinement, but was also a


15/22



crucial skill for high government. During the Tang dynasty poetry composition reached an elegance rarelyachieved in any other period of Chinese history. It is not surprising, therefore, that rhyming dictionaries were inmuch demand. Apart from rhyming dictionaries, many other reference books were also available. Therefore, itmust have become apparent that scrolls were cumbersome to roll and unroll in order to consult specificportions of text, so a break was made from the conventional scroll format. Bearing this in mind, it seems morethan a coincidence that all the whirlwind documents discovered to date are reference books of some kind.

It could not have been easy to break away from such a well-established method of binding books. Chinesebookbinding, binding techniques remained the same until the Tang dynasty, even though the materials used to

make the books were very different. Before the widespread use of paper, documents used to be written onwooden or bamboo strips that were bound by being tied together with string. The strips would be tied togetherin parallel, so that when the document lay flat, the vertical lines of text would lie next to each other and thusthe document could be read.

For storage, the bound strips would be rolled up. This was the first form of bookbinding in China, and thisconcept of binding as well as storage lasted for over a thousand years.

The paper scroll was simply a development on the same principals. Individual sheets would be pasted one afterthe other with no break in the text, so that the document appeared to be on one continuous sheet of paper. Itwas also rolled up for storage. However, the sheets of paper of whirlwind documents were put together in acompletely new way. Instead of being pasted in sequence like a chain, the individual sheets were stacked ontop of each other, forming individual pages or leaves that could be turned like a modern book, making it much

easier to consult a long text.

It is very difficult to know for sure what inspired this break from the accepted form of binding, and it isperhaps difficult to accept that there was no other influence at work. However, there was already another formof book in China that had been around since the fourth century AD: the pothi [#The Chinese pothi (fanjiazhuang)] . Although evidence so far indicates that the Chinese did not write texts on pothi or develop their ownform of pothi until the Tang dynasty, the existence of these books in China meant that by the time whirlwinddocuments were being made the concept of stacking pages had already been in China for centuries. It isdifficult to imagine that the pothi format had no role in influencing the idea of stacking the sheets of text inwhirlwind binding.

Although it is arguable whether or how much the pothi format influenced the development of whirlwind binding,the subject matter contained within these books remained different. Pothi were all Buddhist texts, and

whirlwind books were reference in nature. Therefore, it appears that at this early stage of the Chinesedeparture from the scroll, the subject matter of the text had an influence on the evolution of different formats.This was an important development in the history of Chinese bookbinding, marking a substantial change in theway people thought about books. The specific functionality of a book was considered as well as the contents ofthe text.

Even though whirlwind binding was an improvement on the scroll format, its greatest strength was also itsweakness, it served as a bridge between the past and future forms of Chinese books. This is not to say that allsubsequent binding methods developed from whirlwind books, it is simply an observation of its form andfunction: It has pages that are bound like a modern booklet, but it is rolled up and stored like a scroll. Thescroll format had been around for so long that it was impossible to change the concept altogether.

Description

This is a description of the only known example of whirlwind binding in the Stein collection of the BritishLibrary.Library no.:Or.8210/S.6349[http://idp.bl.uk/database/oo_loader.a4d?pm=Or.8210/S.6349]Title:Wuzhai xiongji fa (Divination of fortune and calamity).Size:Five leaves in total, all approximately 30cm high.Width:page 1, 22.5cm; page 2, 30cm; page 3, 30cm; page 4, 50cm; page 5, 68cm.

Binding method:

Successive pages were stacked on top of each other so that the shortest page was at the top and the longestpage at the bottom. Then the pages were aligned down the left hand side and pasted together at the edge. Abamboo rod which had been split in half was used to sandwich the pages together at the left hand edge, andholes were pierced through the bamboo rod and the paper for the document to be strung together.


16/22



Each sheet of paper is longer than the previous sheet.

Complete whirlwind bound book unfurled.

To store the document,it would be rolled up like a scroll, whereby the bottom page - which is longer than all

the other pages wraps around the outside of the document, forming a kind of wrapper, so that externally it isindistinguishable from a standard scroll.

The method in which this manuscript was bound is consistent with other examples discovered so far, indicatingthat whirlwind binding was indeed a standard form of bookbinding in its time.


17/22



There are many similarities between the concertina and the

Chinese pothi formats. The concertina book (top) has had

holes pierced through the pages in the style of the Indian

pothi. These holes cannot perform any practical function since

the folios are pasted together and the book cannot be read

like a pothi. However, it does display the influence pothi had

on the concertina book, especially the strong relationship

between content and form.

Modern concertina book, spread open revealing the

concertina-like folded paper.

It is possible to see from this angle that if the concertina

book was not folded it would essentially be a scroll.


pm=Or.8210/S.5603]

Dimensions (cm): 8.7 x 28.3 per fold

Concertina binding (jingzhe zhuang)

One of the most interesting features of concertina binding is that it appears to be a synthesis of the traditionalbook forms of both China and India. Moreover, it was the first type of Chinese binding that took the externalform of a booklet, making it another important format in the history of Chinese bookbinding. Despite this, notvery much is certain concerning the history of its development.

As in the case of the Chinese pothi (fanjia zhuang), Buddhism was at the heart of the concertina format, andfor this reason it was named jingzhe zhuang (folded sutra binding). By the late Tang dynasty, the concertina

format was being widely used by Buddhists around China. This suggests that its development dates back sometime earlier, possibly around the time when Chinese Buddhists started using the Chinese pothi format. Chinesepothi books, however, never became popular. This was mainly owing to the relationship between its physicalform and the materials used to make it (see article [#The Chinese pothi (fanjia zhuang)] ). The use of theconcertina book, on the other hand, became very popular indeed, and yet both of these book forms were usedalmost exclusively by Buddhists. Therefore, if we regard these two book forms as two similar styles competingfor survival in an evolutionary chain, it is possible to consider some of the possibilities concerning thetransformation from the scroll to the double leaf book.

The earliest known extant concertina books, like many other Chinese book forms, were discovered among theDunhuang collection. Judging from the shape of these examples, it appears that there was a conscious desireto imitate the Chinese pothi form. The folios of this new book were long and thin, on which the text waswritten vertically so that each column would hold many characters, but each folio could only have a few

columns each.

In this respect, the concertina was almost identical with the Chinese pothi. However, unlike Chinese pothi, theconcertina probably evolved from the Chinese scroll. This transformation was made by simply folding theunfurled scroll back and forth like the pleats of a concertina, thereby forming separate folios, and enabling thereader to flick through the text.

This meant that not only did the form resemble the Indian pothi, but it was easier to turn through the text aswell. Moreover, since there was no string passing through the middle of the document, much less damage was

caused to the paper and so the book would last longer. Using this method, existing Chinese scrolls couldsimply be converted into concertina books. Although it is not certain to what extent this was practised, thereare extant concertinas that were formerly scrolls in the Stein collection of the British Library.


18/22



This item is a mixture of the concertina and butterfly formats.

It is also the only printed booklet in the collection. Originally

The quality of this very small concertina sutra indicates that it was very possibly used by the same person who made it. Its

small size and shape made it easy to carry.Or.8210/S.5618[http://idp.bl.uk/database/oo_loader.a4d?pm=Or.8210/S.5618]

Dimensions (cm): 6 x 13.5.

This concertina booklet has been cut and folded in a coarse manner. Convenience, not appearance, was the most important

motive for making booklets in Dunhuang.


By using this simple comparison of the two formats,it is easy to see why the concertina formatsuperseded the Chinese pothi in the evolutionarychain of Chinese bookbinding, and then went on toinfluence the development of other styles.

The biggest innovation the Indian pothi introducedinto China was the stacking of leaves to formseparate pages. This made the book easier to recite,and also easier to carry. These two aspects of theformat obviously played a large part in thedevelopment of the booklet in China. This isespecially prominent in the Dunhuang area wherethere were many practising Buddhists. Most of thebooklets recovered from the Dunhuang cave library


19/22



,

were pasted together like the folded leaves of the butterfly

format. This simple modification to the concertina format

would have made the book easier to carry and to turn the

pages.

Or.8210/P.11[http://idp.bl.uk/database/oo_loader.a4d?

pm=Or.8210/P.11]

Dimensions (cm): 10 x 14 per fold

This shows a folded leaf printed with one wood block (in thebackground) to form a double page. The arrows indicate the

direction of the fold in butterfly binding. Each folded page is

only printed on one side, the other side remains blank.

Therefore, when these pages are pasted together, every two

printed pages are followed by two blank ones.

The wrapped-back and butterfly leaves are folded in oppositedirections. In both formats, the other side of the leaf remains

blank. Therefore in the wrapped-back fold, the blank sides are

folded in on each other and are never seen.

were Buddhist sutras that were almost certainlypersonal copies made to be carried on the person(see example). Consequently, it was natural for theconcertina to become a popular format.

Although the concertina book undoubtedly contributedtoward the development of other styles, it is verydifficult to say how that development took place, andjust how strong the influence was. There are some

booklets in the Stein collection of the British Librarythat appear to be a cross between the concertina and other forms of binding.

While these examples cannot be taken to represent historic evidence of a specific development, they are stillvery interesting to see in order to imagine how a particular evolutionary step might have taken place.

Wrapped-back binding (baobei zhuang)

Wrapped-back binding became widely used in the Southern Song dynasty (AD 1127-1279) and completelyreplaced the butterfly format by the Ming (AD 1368-1644). The biggest difference from butterfly binding wasthe design of the folded leaf. The folded leaf, in turn, had a strong relationship with the printing block whichprobably led to the development of this format.

The major flaw in the design of butterfly binding was that, owing to the way each leaf of the book was folded,every second page of a printed book would be blank.

Wrapped-back books solved this problem by simply folding the pages the opposite way round. Each sheet ofpaper was still only printed on one side but, after being folded, the wood block print would appear on the'outside' rather than the 'inside' of the folio.

These folios were then piled up on top of each other so that the open ends, instead of the edges, of each foliocame together to form the spine of the book.

This meant that the blank side of each folio was folded into itself and bound so that it could no longer be seen.Instead of being pasted together like butterfly books, the folios were bound together using paper twists thatpassed through the spine of the book. A cover was then attached to the book, protecting the spine and outer

pages. Wrapped-back binding evidently acquired its name through this particular feature of its design.

There are no examples in the Dunhuang collection of books with all these features. However, there are some


20/22



booklets that have had outer covers pasted around the back of the book for extra protection andreinforcement.

It is difficult to determine whether this feature alone qualifies these booklets to be categorised as earlyexamples of wrapped-back books. Nevertheless, these booklets are very interesting to examine in order toimagine the circumstances under which subsequent binding techniques could have evolved.


21/22



The pages of this modern thread bound book are folded in

the same way as the pages of wrapped-back books. The

open ends of the folded pages come together to form the

spine of the book. The folded edges are at the 'mouth' of the

book.

This butterfly bound book has had a layer of paper pasted to

the back for reinforcement. The pasted folios have become

detached near the centre of the book, but the paper cover is

keeping the book from breaking apart. This manuscript

demonstrates the weakness of butterfly binding and the

necessity of adding reinforcement.


pm=Or.8210/S.5432]

Bibliography (selective)

CHANG Bide, 'Tangdai tushu xingzhi de yanbian' Tushuguan xuebao, 1964, 6, pp. l-8.

CHEN Guoqing, Guji banben qianshuo, Erya chubanshe, Hongkong 1977.

DREGE, Jean-Pierre, 'Les cahiers des manuscrits de Touen-houang', in M. Soymi, Contributions aux tudes surTouen-houang, Genve, Droz, 1979, pp.17-28.

Jean-Pierre Ripples, 'Les accordons de Dunhuang', in M. SOYMI, Contributions aux ludes de Touen-houang,

cole franaise d'Extrme-Orient, Paris, 1984, pp. 195-204.Jean-Pierre Drge, 'Notes codicologiques sur les manuscrits de Dunhuang et de Turfan', Bulletin de V colefranaise d'Extrme-Orient, 74, 1985, pp. 485-504.

'The Dunhuang and Central Asian manuscripts and the history of books', Chinese Studies, Londres, The BritishLibrary, 1988 (Occasional Papers, 10), pp.171-174.

'Du rouleau manuscrit au livre imprim', in Roger LAUFER Le Texte et son inscription, Centre national de laRecherche scientifique, Paris, 1989, pp.43-48.

Jean-Pierre Drge, 'La lecture et l'criture en Chine et la xylographie', tudes chinoises, 10, 1-2, 1991,pp.77-111.

DU Weisheng, Whirlwind binding in Dunhuang documents, paper presented at the conference on thePreservation of Dunhuang and Central Asian Collections, Berlin 1998.

FUJIEDA Akira, 'The Tunhuang manuscripts : a general description', Part 1, Zinbun,9, 1966, pp. 1-32.

LI Jining, Dunhuang yishu de Fanjiazhuang

LI Wenqi, 'Zhongguo shuji zhuangding zhi bianqian' Tushuguanxue jikan, 3, 4, 1929 ; reprinted in

QIAO Yanguan, Zhang Jinlang, ed., Tushu yinshua fadian shi lunwenji, Wenshizhe chubanshe, Taipei 1975,pp.477-488.

LI Yaonan, 'Zhongguo shuzhuang kao', Tushuguanxue jikan 4, 2 , 1930, pp.207-216.

LI Zhizhong, 'Gushu "xuanfengzhuang" kaobian', Wenwu, 1981, 2, pp. 75-78.

Zhongguo gudai shuji shi, Wenwu chubanshe, Beijing 1985.


22/22


Wu Fangsi (WOOD, Frances), 'Gushu fanjiazhuang, xuanfeng-zhuang, hudiezhuang, baobeizhuang, xianzhuangde qiyuan yu liubian' Tushuguan-xue tongxun 1987, 2, pp.74-85.

LIU Bing, Zhongguo zhuangding jianshi, Hanhua wenhua shiye, Taipei 1969.

LIU Guojun, Zhongguo gudai shuji shihua, Zhonghua shuju, Hongkong 1972.

ZHENG Rusi, Zhongguo shushi jianbian , Shumu wenxian chubanshe, Beijing 1981.

MA Heng, 'Zhongguo shuji zhidu bianqian zhi yanjiu', Tushuguanxue jikan 1, 2, 1926, pp. 199-213; reprinted inLiu Jiabi, Zhongguo tushu shi liaoji, Longmen shudian, Hong Kong 1974, pp. 195-208.

MARTINIQUE, Edward, Chinese Traditional Bookbinding: a Study of its Evolution and Techniques, ChineseMaterials Center, San Francisco 1983.

MASPERO, Henri, Les documents chinois de la troisime expdition de Sir Aurel Stein en Asie centrale, TheTrustees of the British Museum, London 1953.

National Library of China, Historical survey of ancient Chinese books, Beijing.

QIAN Zeng, Dushu minqiu ji, Shumu wenxian chu-banshe, Beijing 1983.

QIU Ling, Shuji zhuangzheng yishu jianshi, Heilongjiang renmin chubanshe, Harbin 1984.

STEIN, Sir Aurel, Senndia, Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1921.

SU Yinghui, 'Cong zaoqi wenzi liuchuan de gongju tandao Zhongguo tushu de xingshi' Tushu-guan xuebao 7,1965, pp. 22-33

TSIEN Tsuen-hsuin, Paper and printing, NEEDHAM, Science and Civilisation in China, Vol. 5, Part 1, CambridgeUniversity Press, 1985.

WANG Yikun, Shuhua zhuanghuang yange kao, Zijincheng chubanshe, Beijing 1991.

XIAO Yanyi, 'Wu Cailuan shu Wang Renxu "Kanmiu buque Qieyun"', Gugong bowuyuan yuankan, 1981, 3, pp.80-82, 85.

YU Jiaxi, 'Shuce zhidu bukao', Yu Jiaxi lunxue zazhu, Zhonghua shuju, Beijing 1963, pp. 539-559.

ZHANG Bangji, Mozhuang manlu, Congshu jicheng edition.

chinese book binding

Documents