Lanling Printing on Antique Thread-Bound Books

China's bookmaking began very early. Before thread binding came scroll, whirlwind, accordion, butterfly and wrapped-back binding, and only then thread binding; even earlier were bamboo slips and silk books. Thread binding is the most common binding for transmitted ancient books (appearing in the Southern Song, popular after the Ming Jiajing era, dominant until the Republic, and still used today). It uses a front and back cover with punched holes and threaded cords, solving the page-loss problem of butterfly/wrapped-back binding and allowing easy repair and rebinding. A thread-bound book comprises cover, title slip, spine, head, root, flyleaf and title page. Covers are cloth or paper, commonly chestnut-coloured Mao-bian paper or blue Lianshi paper; silk is used for fine editions, and yellow silk for imperial Ming-Qing books. Threads are double; cheap editions use grass cord, fine editions white cord, usually four or six holes. The spine is the corded side (like a modern book back); the head is the top, the root the bottom, where the title and volume number are often written. The flyleaf sits after the endpaper, and the title page carries the book's name.