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The Woman Who Discovered Printing

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This work has gone outside the traditional Chinese studies sources to search for the beginning of printing. The author painstakingly collects and analyses information from western, middle eastern as well as Indian examples which could possibly lead to the discovery of printing.in the meatime, he also uses Chinese sources deftly, avoiding the use of hard to pronounce personal and geographic names which might impede reading for non-Chinese readers.Although he has not proven beyond doubt that Wu Zetian discovered printing he has persuaded us to accept his arguments toward it.

I admit I haven't yet read the book, but I wanted to point out that one of the promotional questions is answered in the next sentence! Why isn't Chinese printing acknowledged even though it predated Gutenberg by centuries? Because it didn't have an impact like printing did in Europe. The nature of the Chinese alphabet and I suppose the economic situation at the time did not result in technology that was viable, and it did not spread like it did in Europe.

The other question about why the religious aspect of all early printing is overlooked is an intriguing one. I suspect it has something to do with the humanistic, secular nature of recent historical research.