During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, woodblock printing, an early form of printing, was invented, and pirated books were closely related to the development of the private printing industry. In the Tang Dynasty, the people were prosperous and the country was strong, and printing also developed rapidly among the people. For example, during Dezong's reign (780 to 804), printed matter "printing paper" appeared on the market that could be used as a voucher for merchants' transactions. The earliest extant printed volume of the Diamond Sutra in China is said to have been published at the expense of a man named Wang Jie in the ninth year of Xiantong (868). From the Dunhuang scrolls discovered by later generations, we can see the medical writings printed by the Li family in Beijing in Dongshi, the almanac printed by the Fan family in Chengdu, etc. In the Turpan area, many Buddhist scriptures such as the "Miaoho Lotus Sutra" printed in the Wu Zhou period (690 to 705) were also unearthed (now in the Japanese Calligraphy Museum).
(Anonymous "Zai Chun Recreation and Joyful Pictures" in the Qing Dynasty) Pirated books are directly related to a market trend that emerged in the Tang Dynasty. Historical data shows that based on the development of printing, "almanacs" gradually became popular in printed form during the Tang Dynasty. This kind of book is similar to various current "calendars". It is published once a year and marks the year, month, day, etc., but it also contains reminders for farmers about farming in the four seasons, daily life, and other aspects, which are urgently needed by ordinary people for their home life. This kind of thing should have been released by Si Tianjian first, and then printed and supplied by the government. However, due to the vast market, the official printing industry was unable to cover it for a while, and the supply was seriously in short supply. As a result, many private printing owners took advantage of the situation and pirated a large number of privately printed "almanacs".
(Qing Dynasty? Chen Shu's "Beautiful Scenery of the Years")
In the ninth year of Emperor Wenzong's reign (835), Feng Su, the governor of Dongchuan, reported to the court that he was in Jiannan In areas such as East and West Sichuan and Huainan Road, a large number of privately printed almanacs and calendars were found in the market, flooding the market. Even before Si Tianjian issued and promulgated them every year, privately printed New Year's almanacs were issued. Already full of the world? It can be seen that at this time, pirated books have become rampant. There are also historical data that reflect that at that time, pirated books among the people often had problems due to their limited technical level. Volume 7 of "Tang Yulin" records a case. At that time, the capital was in turmoil and the emperor fled to the Jiannan area. Officially printed almanacs could not be popularized, which led to the proliferation of privately printed almanacs in the Jiangdong area. However, the printing of these "almanacs" was poor, and the big and small moons marked on the "almanacs" printed by different printers actually contradicted each other. People and neighbors had different opinions, and even disputes occurred. Due to the serious consequences, the imperial court ordered many times to ban private printing of almanacs, but with no obvious effect.
According to the preface written by Yuan Zhen for Bai Juyi's collection of poems, his poems had already been compiled by others before Bai Juyi compiled the collection himself, and were printed into volumes and sold everywhere in the market. Whenever envoys from Japan and other countries come to China, the most important task is to go to the market to buy poetry collections by famous poets such as Bai Juyi and Liu Yuxi. These collections of poems that were printed and published privately without the author's consent should be considered a more serious form of "piracy". However, there was no concept of intellectual property rights at that time. When the poets saw this situation, instead of taking it to court, they found themselves I am proud of the popularity of my works. From the perspective of cultural inheritance, although this behavior was considered piracy at the time, it still made a certain contribution to the preservation of original materials.