From the Qin dynasty (221-206BC), Chinese characters developed rapidly. A book titled Shuowen Jiezi that was written in the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220)contained 9,353 characters; and a book titled Yu Pian that was written in the Northern and Southern Dynasties (386-589) contained more than 22,000 characters. With the development of Confucianism, Taoism, and various other scholars' thoughts, more and more works appeared.

China's population grew rapidly; at the end of the Western Han Dynasty (206BC-24AD), the population had reached nearly 60 million, spurring a great demand by people for books to read. Therefore, a need for new technology (for making books) became urgent.

The paper 's invention provided a kind of high- quality and cheap writing material for the society, which promoted the books' development to a certain degree. But the method of writing books by hands was not suitable for large books, thereby leading to a gap in cultural dissemination.

Under those situations, Chinese people invented the printing technology, offering humanity's development a generous gift in the process.