Slip fascicles were books made of bamboo or wooden slips. Chinese characters were written vertically from top to bottom on one side of the slips. They were then arranged right to left and bound together with cord. The slips could then be rolled up into a fascicle. Silk, unlike the harsh slip fascicles, was a much easier material to write on. Silk books were soft, light, and portable. They were however, much more expensive than slip fascicles. Neither, it turned out were good enough for writing anything that would last long enough.
Writing paper was invented by Tsai Lun, an official of the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 A.D.). The use of paper for writing is recorded in Chinese histories at 105 A.D. Because of paper's ease and low cost, it was used for making books.
The problem of paper was solved. Chinese scribes still had to transcribe books by hand. The process was infinitely time-consuming, inconvenient, and probably painful. This lead to other inventions regarding paper. This lead to further progress. Printing was then born. They then began to use carving to engrave wooden printing blocks. Block printing, which allowed for mass production of books, first appeared in the early years of the Tang dynasty (618-907 A.D.). By the time the Sung dynasty (960-1280 A.D.) came around, they had changed the publishing industry.
Then, between 1041 A.D. and 1048 A.D., a Chinese craftsman named Pi Sheng invented movable type as a way to speed up the printing process. This helped with the invention of polychromatic printing towards the end of the Yuan dynasty (1280-1368 A.D.). It created other inventions.
Chinese binding was the next obvious leap. There were many styles used to begin. The scroll style, the sutra style, the butterfly style, the wrapped back style, and the stitched thread style.
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