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Taiwan’s publishing industry had a very close connection with the preaching of religious books and scriptures in the early days. Here are the wooden engraved plates and their water mark copies.

In July 1997, when the Dehua Shrine, a third-class historic building of Tainan City, was going to start its renovation, 12 cases containing printing plates of scriptures and traditional threaded binding books were discovered in a spider-net-scattered attic of the main hall's right flank. Those books were produced by the first private printing bookstore of Taiwan, Songyunxuan printing workshop. The workshop was founded by Lu Chongyu, a rank six employee of Taiwan prefectural government. Its major business was printing scriptures and other religious teaching books. However, the workshop’s building was destroyed by bombing in 1945 in World War II; it is very fortunate that we can still see those printing plates and books, very powerful evidence of the traditional woodblock printing and publishing history of Taiwan.

L:23.00 cm X W:32.50 cm X H:1.50 cm

Woodcarving

Song Yun Xuan

Taiwan

清咸豐 6年(西元 1856年)

De Hua Tang