Woodblock printing
Although there is no exact date known, between 618 and 907 CE—The period of the Tang Dynasty—the first printing of books started in China. The oldest extant printed book is a work of the "Diamond Sutra" and dates back to 868 CE, during the Tang Dynasty. The "Diamond Sutra" was printed by method of woodblock printing, a strenuous method in which the text to be printed would be carved into a woodblock's surface, essentially to be used to stamp the words onto the writing surface medium. Woodblock printing was a common process for the reproduction of already handwritten texts during the earliest stages of book printing. This process was incredibly time-consuming.