Etched in Time

More than a century ago， Yang Renshan founded Jinling Sutra Printing House in hopes of spreading Buddhism in modern China. However， with the development of modern printing technology， traditional block printing is hardly practical anymore. Will the printing studio survive the invasion of modernity？ Whatever the answer， its staff of four insists on continuing their etching and printing craft using traditional methods.

In 1862， 26-year-old Yang acquired a copy of Diamond Sutra by chance， which ignited his passion for Buddhism. Later， he realized that the Bible was widely available in China， supplied by Western churches， yet Buddhist sutras were rare even in temples. He became determined to disseminate Buddhist doctrine through printing Buddhist scriptures.

In 1866， Yang established Jinling Sutra Printing House， considered contemporary China’s first private institution to integrate block etching， printing， publication， circulation， and study of Buddhist sutras. Over the following decades， he discovered more than 300 rare editions of Buddhist classics in Japan and Korea dating back to the Sui（581-618） and Tang （618-907） dynasties， and selected some to reproduce and spread. His printing studio moved four times until finally settling in 1897 on today’s Huaihai Road in Nanjing， capital of Jiangsu Province.

Most of the structures in the studio are simple bungalows except for a modern two-story building used to store printing plates. Its 125，000 unique pieces are tidily shelved in rows， with some using iron rivets to mend breaks.

Every slab is made of precious birchleaved pear wood. A regular piece costs more than 1，000 yuan and can carry 800 Chinese characters across both sides. Etching such a plate takes an experienced carver at least 15 days.

Currently， the studio employs two plate carvers： Ma Mengqing and his student Deng Qingzhi. It takes years or even decades for anto perfect the technique. Ma lost his hearing ability when he was young and became an apprentice in the studio in 1981. At first， he practiced carving square grids on wooden plates. He didn’t begin to etch characters until he could carve every grid the exact same size. He wasn’t allowed to carve plates until he could ably etch characters because any carelessness or error would ruin the entire plate. Many apprentices gave up due to the job’s intolerable tedium and rigor， but Ma persevered. Perhaps the silence brought by his hearing disability helped him focus on carving.

His student Deng Qingzhi joined the studio in 1992. She has been fond of calligraphy since childhood. Upon hearing her initial job was transcribing Buddhist sutras to grid paper， she was delighted， but she quickly realized how different the job was from what she imagined. A calligrapher can write with considerable freedom， but a transcriber must construct every character as neatly as possible. “Calligraphy advocates uniqueness， but copying sutras is the opposite，” Deng concedes. After persistent practice， she finally grasped the craft. Deng is the only member of the sixth generation to continue working in the studio.

Today， Ma Mengqing has become an iconic figure at Jinling Sutra Printing House. Despite his remarkable accomplishments in sutra block printing， Ma is far from satisfied because at his age， his own teacher had many students. But he has been left with only a single student to inherit his craft.

In February 2012， two children of the 1990s joined the studio. “They’re well educated and show great passion for sutra block printing，” remarked Ma. “I hope they stay until they master the plate carving craft and can transcribe sutra as well as Deng， so the studio can survive.” With the participation of the two young potential inheritors， the studio now has a staff of four， giving Ma optimism for its future.