Samuel Dyer 台約爾 (20 February 1804 – 24 October 1843), was a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
Protestant
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and the Son of God.The term "Christian" is also used adjectivally to...
missionaryA missionary is a member of a religion who works to convert those who do not share the missionary's faith; someone who proselytizes. The word "mission" is derived from the Latin missioninimus A missionary is a member of a religion who works to convert those who do not share the missionary's faith;...
to
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
in the
Congregationalist traditionCongregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....
, who worked among the Chinese in
MalaysiaMalaysia is a country in Southeast Asia that consists of thirteen states and three Federal Territories, with a total landmass of . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. The population stands at over 28 million inhabitants...
. He arrived in
PenangPenang is a state in Malaysia, located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia by the Strait of Malacca. Penang is the second smallest state in Malaysia after Perlis, and the eighth most populous...
in 1827. Dyer, his wife Maria, and their family lived in
MalaccaMalacca is the third smallest Malaysian state, after Perlis and Penang. It is located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, on the Straits of Malacca. It borders Negeri Sembilan to the north and the state of Johor to the south. The capital is Malacca Town...
and then finally in
SingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island city-state located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, lying north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands. At , Singapore is a microstate and the smallest nation in Southeast...
. He was known as a typographer for creating a steel
typefaceIn typography, a typeface is a set of one or more fonts, in one or more sizes, designed with stylistic unity, each comprising a coordinated set of glyphs. A typeface usually comprises an alphabet of letters, numerals, and punctuation marks; it may also include ideograms and symbols, or consist...
of Chinese characters for
printingPrinting is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing.-History:...
to replace traditional wood blocks. Dyer's type was accurate, aesthetically pleasing, durable and practical.
Life in England
Samuel Dyer was born at the Royal Greenwich Hospital (London),
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to John Dyer and Eliza (Seager). He was the fifth of the eight Dyer children. His father was a secretary of the Royal Hospital for Seaman, and later became Chief clerk of the
AdmiraltyThe Admiralty was formerly the authority in the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy. Originally exercised by a single person, the office of Lord High Admiral was from the 18th century onward almost invariably put "in commission", and was exercised by a Board of Admiralty.In...
in 1820. John was also an acquaintance of Robert Morrison, who was soon to become the first Protestant missionary to China, a connection that would have enormous implications in the life of his son, Samuel. Morrison and his Chinese tutor Yong Sam-tek visited the Dyer home in Greenwich during Morrison’s period of study in medicine and astronomy between 1805-1806.
Dyer was schooled at home until he was 12, and then educated in a boarding school at
WoolwichWoolwich is a suburb in south-east London, England in the London Borough of Greenwich, on the south side of the River Thames, though the tiny exclave of North Woolwich is on the north side of the river. Woolwich formed part of Kent until 1889 when the County of London was created...
, in south east London from 1816, superintended by the Rev. John Bickerdike, a minister with the
English DissentersEnglish Dissenters were English Christians who separated from the Church of England. They opposed State interference in religious matters, and founded their own communities in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries...
.
In 1820 He experienced a conversion to Christ at
Thomas Wilson'sThomas Wilson was a Congregationalist benefactor of chapels and educational institutions and founder member of the Council of University College London from 1825....
Paddington Chapel, in
PaddingtonPaddington is an area of the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Formerly a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965...
, Northwest London, under ministry of the Rev. James Stratten and soon Dyer began teaching Sunday school there. In 1822 he was formally admitted into membership.
Dyer later wrote about his time, there:
He studied
lawLaw is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a primary social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading on derivatives markets...
and
mathematicsMathematics is the science and study of quantity, structure, space, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns, formulate new conjectures, and establish truth by rigorous deduction from appropriately chosen axioms and definitions....
at Cambridge University, but in 1823 he withdrew from University in 5th term, refusing for conscience sake to declare himself a member of
Church of EnglandThe Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the oldest among the communion's thirty-eight independent national and regional churches...
in order to graduate
. While studying law, he read a pamphlet from his father’s study, the ‘’Memoir of Mrs. Charles Mead of the London Missionary Society in Tranvancore, Kerala, India’’, which afterwards turned his thoughts to missionary service that would occupy the rest of his life. The pamphlet consisted of sermon preached at Mrs. Mead’s funeral, ‘’All for Christ and the Good of Souls’’, the text of which is taken from Rev. 12:11, “and they loved not their lives unto the death.”
In ‘’A Sketch of Mr. Dyer’s Life and Character’’, his wife Maria would later write, “The reading of the pamphlet, “Memoir of Mrs. Mead” so powerfully impressed his mind with the importance of consecrating himself to missionary work, that when he began to study again, on Monday morning, he found he could not proceed; and every time he read this Memoir it had the same effect: so that at last he determined to give up the Bar, and devote himself to the work of Christ among the heathen.”
Dyer soon had opportunity to study the
ChineseChinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of languages mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
under Robert Morrison, who had returned on furlough. It was there that he met two aspiring female missionaries
Mary Ann AlderseyMary Ann Aldersey 艾迪綏 , the first Christian missionary woman to serve in China. She founded a school for girls in Ningbo, Zhejiang. Her pioneering the field of mission work for single women in China was the most remarkable outcome of her life.Aldersey was a native of London from a wealthy...
(the first female missionary to China), and
Maria TarnMaria Dyer , was a British Protestant Christian missionary to the Chinese in the Congregationalist tradition, who worked among the Chinese in Malaysia. She arrived in Penang in 1827 with her husband, Samuel Dyer. She was the eldest daughter of Joseph Tarn, Director of London Missionary Society...
, whom he later married.
In 1824 Dyer applied to the
London Missionary SocietyThe London Missionary Society was a non-denominational missionary society formed in England in 1795 by evangelical Anglicans and Nonconformists, largely Congregationalist in outlook, with missions in the islands of the South Pacific and Africa...
. Then he joined the LMS seminary at
GosportGosport is a town, district and borough in Hampshire with around 79,000 resident inhabitants, with a further 5-10,000 during the summer months, situated on the south coast of England...
,
HampshireHampshire , sometimes historically Southamptonshire, Hamptonshire, , or the County of Southampton, is a county on the south coast of England. The county borders , Dorset, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Surrey and West Sussex...
to study theology under Dr.
David BogueDavid Bogue was a British nonconformist leader.He was born in the parish of Coldingham, Berwickshire, Scotland....
. His health began to suffer because of his intense regimen of study at Gosport, walking long distances to preach in villages on Sunday, and his habits of self-denial. He travelled to
IslingtonIslington is the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is an inner-city district in London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
to recuperate, study theology, Chinese and the art of printing,
punchcuttingIn traditional typography, punchcutting is the craft of cutting letter punches in steel from which matrices were made in copper for type founding in the letterpress era. Cutting punches and casting type was the first step of traditional typesetting. The cutting of letter punches was a highly...
and type-founding .
Dyer also studied under John Pye Smith at
HomertonHomerton is a place in the London Borough of Hackney. It is bordered to the west by Hackney Central, to the north by Lower Clapton, in the east by Hackney Wick, Leyton and by South Hackney to the south.-Origins:...
. Smith combined missionary, philological, and scientific interests.
Dyer then entered the London Missionary Society training center at
HoxtonHoxton is an area in the London Borough of Hackney, immediately north of the financial district of the City of London. The area of Hoxton is bordered by Regents Canal on the north side, Wharf Road and City Road on the west, Old Street on the south, and Kingsland Road on the east.-Origins:'Hogesdon'...
where his chief attention was given to the Chinese language, reading the Chinese Bible for devotions. In 1827 Samuel Dyer was ordained at Paddington Chapel where he preached, taught and was commissioned as a missionary of the Gospel.
He was married to Maria Tarn, eldest daughter of Joseph Tarn, Director of London Missionary Society, in London in 1827 and shortly afterward the newly wed couple set sail for what was then considered "Ultra-Ganges"
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
with the Ultra-Ganges Mission, where the only way to live and work among native Chinese could be obtained. Now it is in an area of
MalaysiaMalaysia is a country in Southeast Asia that consists of thirteen states and three Federal Territories, with a total landmass of . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. The population stands at over 28 million inhabitants...
. It was also known as the "British Straits Settlement". Dyer had been ordained and commissioned on 20 February 1827 at Paddington Chapel, London.
The inscription in remembrance of Samuel Dyer at Paddington Chapel read:
Missionary life
Samuel and Maria had five children while overseas. Maria Dyer (born and died at Penang 1829-1831), Samuel Dyer, Jr. (born at Penang 1833-1898), Burella Hunter Dyer (born at Penang, died in
ShanghaiShanghai is the largest city in China, and one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, with over 20 million people. Located on China's central eastern coast at the mouth of the Yangtze River, the city is administered as a municipality of the People's Republic of China with province-level...
1835-1858),
Maria Jane DyerMaria Jane Dyer was a British Protestant Christian missionary to China, and "Mother" of the China Inland Mission with her husband, founder James Hudson Taylor. She was a pioneer missionary and educator there for 12 years . In 1858, she married Taylor and was an invaluable assistant and influence...
(born at Malacca, died at
ZhenjiangZhenjiang is a prefecture-level city in the southwestern Jiangsu province, People's Republic of China. Sitting on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, it borders the provincial capital of Nanjing to the west, Changzhou to the east, and Yangzhou across the river to the north.Once known as...
1837-1870), and Ebenezer Dyer (born and died at Singapore 1842-aft. Oct. 1843)
Samuel Dyer and his wife left England on 10 March 1827 and they arrived at Penang, in the Straits of Malacca on 8 August 1827. The Dyers were to have gone on to
Anglo-Chinese CollegeAnglo-Chinese College may refer to:* Ying Wa College, Hong Kong * Anglo-Chinese College , Fuzhou, China...
in Malacca but a lack of workers lead them to stay in Penang and settle in Chinese sector of town. They both began studying the
Min nanThe Southern Min language, or Min Nan , is a family of Chinese languages which are spoken in southern Fujian and neighboring areas, and by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora. In common parlance, Southern Min usually refers to the Hokkien, in particular the Amoy and Taiwanese...
Dialect (Hokkien) spoken by the local population.
After gaining some knowledge of the language, Dyer faced the challenge of producing
movable metallic typesMovable type is the system of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document . The first known movable type system was invented in China by Bi Sheng out of ceramic between 1041 and 1048. Metal movable type was first invented in Korea during the Goryeo...
for the thousands of Chinese characters. He started with a systematic analysis of characters and strokes. At first, using wood reliefs to create the clay molds from which
typeTypesetting involves the presentation of textual material in graphic form on paper or some other medium. Before the advent of desktop publishing, typesetting of printed material was produced in print shops by compositors or typesetters working by hand, and later with machines.The general principle...
could be cast, he soon moved to steel punches and copper
matrixesIn hot metal typesetting, a matrix is a mould for casting the letters known as sorts used in letterpress printing....
. Dyer's linguistic abilities, meticulous planning, and painstaking attention to detail resulted in Chinese fonts of high quality. They were later passed on to the
American Presbyterian MissionAmerican Presbyterian Mission was an American Presbyterian missionary society, operated by the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, that was involved in sending workers to countries such as China during the late Qing Dynasty....
PressA printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a medium , thereby transferring an image. The mechanical systems involved were first assembled in Germany by the goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg around 1440, based on existing screw-presses used to press...
in China and played a significant part in its development.
Maria opened school for girls with 23 students, but she was forced to close it later in the year. By 1828 Samuel was preaching in Chinese only 5 months after their arrival. He grew committed to the production of Christian literature in Chinese, printing Bibles, tracts, and books with the moveable, metal-cast type with a controlled vocabulary that he developed.
In 1829 they had their first daughter, named Maria who died about two years later. The same year, in 1831, Samuel visited Malacca, the headquarters of the London Missionary Society’s Chinese ministries.
In 1833 the childless Dyers had a boy named Samuel. About this same time some in the Chinese community requested a school. During this period Samuel was hard at work on a revision of the translation of Matthew’s Gospel in Chinese. The amount of work that still was left to be done prompted him to write to England in the following year, appealing for more workers to be sent out. Robert Morrison died at
GuangzhouGuangzhou , in English formerly known as Canton and also known as Kwangchow, is a sub-provincial city and the capital of Guangdong Province in the southern part of the People's Republic of China.It is a port on the Pearl River,...
in 1834.
1835 brought another daughter, Burella Hunter to the Dyer family at Penang. Samuel then took his family to Malacca to join the London Missionary Society China Mission headquarters. The Dyers established 2 schools with the curriculum including: reading, writing,
sewingSewing or stitching or Tailoring is the fastening of cloth, leather, furs, bark, or other flexible materials, using needle and thread. Its use is nearly universal among human populations and dates back to Paleolithic times...
and
embroideryEmbroidery is the art or handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads, quills, and sequins....
. There Samuel worked with
Liang FaLiang Fa was the first Chinese Protestant minister and evangelist. He was ordained by Robert Morrison, the first Protestant missionary to China....
(who had been baptized by
William MilneWilliam Milne was the second Protestant missionary to China, after his colleague, Robert Morrison.-Scottish roots:Milne was born near Huntly, in the rural parish of Kennethmont in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. His father died when he was only six years old, and his mother taught him at home...
in 1819).
Dyer soon recognized the strategic importance of his metal-type printing and proceeded with the revision of the Chinese Bible at Malacca .
Another daughter, Maria Jane Dyer was born in 1837 at Malacca.
Furlough and return to Asia
Samuel and Maria had been at the LMS Penang station from 1827-1835. They were at the Melacca station from 1835-1839. The Dyers went on furlough from 1839-1842. It was the first time that their children had seen England.
On 19 September 1839 the Dyer family arrived in England. Maria, his wife was ill with what was thought to be a liver problem. The Dyers remained in England until 1841 when they left again for the Ultra-Ganges Mission, this time to Singapore. A single woman named Buckland accompanied them and helped Maria with the three children. They arrived in Singapore in 1842 and rented the mission-house of the
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign MissionsThe American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was the first American Christian foreign mission agency. It was proposed in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College and officially chartered in 1812. In 1961 it merged with other societies to form the United Church Board for World...
, there.
Samuel began work with
John StronachJohn Stronach was a Protestant Christian missionary who served with the London Missionary Society during the late Qing Dynasty China....
of the LMS and learning (
ChaozhouChaozhou , also widely known by its Postal map spelling Teochew, is a prefecture-level city in eastern Guangdong province, People's Republic of China. It borders Shantou to the south, Jieyang to the southwest, Meizhou to the northwest, the province of Fujian to the east, and the South China Sea to...
) Teochew dialect. He also worked on a revision of the Chinese Bible, , translations, preparation of books, type-casting, printing , and compiled a comparative vocabulary of Chinese language .
Dyer printed ‘’Two Friends’’ by William Milne, a ‘’Commentary on 10 Commandments’’ by
Walter Henry MedhurstWalter Henry Medhurst , was an English Congregationalist missionary to China, born in London and educated at St Paul's School, was one of the early translators of the Bible into Chinese language editions.-Early life:...
, and the ‘’Miracles of Christ’’. He also helped Chaozhou, a Christian teacher compile the ‘’Life of Christ’’.
During this busy period, Dyer conducted religious services through the week, visited house-to-house, preached in the bazaars; and visited Chinese
junk (ship)A junk is a Chinese sailboat design dating from ancient times and still in use today. Junks were originally developed during the Han Dynasty and were used as ocean going vessels as early as the 2nd century AD. They were further evolved in the later dynasties, and were built and used throughout...
s in the harbor to reach the Chinese there with the gospel message.
Maria established a Chinese Girls’ Boarding School with 20 students in their home (at the presnt-day site of
Raffles HotelRaffles Hotel is a colonial-style hotel in Singapore, dating from 1887, and named after Singapore's founder Sir Stamford Raffles. Managed by Raffles International, it is known for its luxurious accommodation and superb restaurants...
, the school later became called
St. Margaret's Primary SchoolSt. Margaret's Primary School is a government-aided girls' primary school in Singapore. It is the oldest girls' school in Singapore and East Asia, founded in 1842.-Crest:...
).
Dyer moved the LMS press from Malacca to Singapore on
James LeggeJames Legge was a noted Scottish sinologist, a Scottish Congregationalist, representative of the London Missionary Society in Malacca and Hong Kong , and first professor of Chinese at Oxford University...
’s suggestion before the end of 1842.
1842 brought another son, Ebenezer Dyer.
The
Treaty of NankingThe Treaty of Nanking or Treaty of Nanjing, signed 29 August 1842, was the unequal treaty which marked the end of the First Opium War between the British and Qing Empires of 1839–42...
was signed, raising hopes that missionary work could soon begin in mainland China.
Dyer preached the first sermon at the
Malay Chapel in Prinsep StreetThe Prinsep Street Presbyterian Church is a Presbyterian church in Singapore. It is located at Prinsep Street in the Rochor Planning Area, within the Central Area in Singapore's central business district....
opened by Benjamin Peach Keasberry in 1843. That summer he left with John Stronach for the LMS conference in Hong Kong. His family would never see him again.
Final days
Dyer was able to finally reach China on 7 August 1843 at Hongkong. At the LMS general conference he was appointed as Conference Secretary. The Dyers were appointed to go to
Fuzhou' is the capital and the largest municipality of Fujian province, People's Republic of China.The city is also referred to as Rongcheng ' ' onMouseout='HidePop("71263")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Fujian">Fujian
' is a province on the southeast coast of China. Fujian borders Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...
to open missionary work there.
Samuel visited
GuangzhouGuangzhou , in English formerly known as Canton and also known as Kwangchow, is a sub-provincial city and the capital of Guangdong Province in the southern part of the People's Republic of China.It is a port on the Pearl River,...
where he had a severe attack of fever and was cared for by Peter Parker, M.D.. He was taken to Macau and died in there on 21 October 1843 before being able to live in China itself at his newly assigned designation of
Fuzhou' is the capital and the largest municipality of Fujian province, People's Republic of China.The city is also referred to as Rongcheng ' ' onMouseout='HidePop("5375")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/John_Robert_Morrison">John Robert Morrison
John Robert Morrison was the second son from Robert Morrison's first marriage with Mary Morton. He was a translator, diplomat and missionary in China and the Far East, most closely associated with Canton City and Hong Kong...
at Guangzhou.
Dyer was buried next to the graves of Robert and Mary Morrison at the
Old Protestant Cemetery in MacauThe Old Protestant Cemetery , located close to the Casa Garden, was established by the British East India Company in 1821 in Macau in response to a lack of burial sites for Protestants in the Roman Catholic Portuguese colony. It is the last resting place of the artist George Chinnery, missionaries...
.
Dyer had once written: Maria Dyer died only three years later at Penang, leaving 3 orphaned children in the care of her second husband, Johann Georg Bausum. Fellow missionary to Penang,
Evan DaviesEvan Davies was a Welsh Protestant Christian missionary in the Congregationalist tradition. He served with the London Missionary Society and worked among the Chinese in Malaysia in Penang....
, wrote a memoir of Samuel Dyer and a volume of Samuel's letters to his children in 1846.
The Chinese RepositoryThe Chinese Repository was a periodical published at Canton, May 1832-1851, for the use of Protestant missionaries working in southeast Asia. The Repository was the brainchild of Elijah Coleman Bridgman, the first American Protestant missionary appointed to China. Bridgman served as its editor...
recorded his obituary and mentioned that,
The type that came to be known as Dyer's Penang font became the standard in Chinese printing until the 1850s when it was replaced by William Gamble's font in 1859.
All three of the Dyers' surviving children became involved in work to spread the
GospelA gospel is a writing that describes the life of Jesus. The word is primarily used to refer to the four canonical texts: the Gospel of Matthew, Gospel of Mark, Gospel of Luke and Gospel of John, probably written between AD 65 and 80...
in China, fulfilling their father's prayers. The Dyers' daughters, returned to China as teenagers and worked with
Mary Ann AlderseyMary Ann Aldersey 艾迪綏 , the first Christian missionary woman to serve in China. She founded a school for girls in Ningbo, Zhejiang. Her pioneering the field of mission work for single women in China was the most remarkable outcome of her life.Aldersey was a native of London from a wealthy...
at her school for Chinese girls in
NingboNingbo is a seaport with sub-provincial administrative status. The city has a population of 2,201,000 and is situated in northeastern Zhejiang province, China...
,
ZhejiangZhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...
.
Maria Jane DyerMaria Jane Dyer was a British Protestant Christian missionary to China, and "Mother" of the China Inland Mission with her husband, founder James Hudson Taylor. She was a pioneer missionary and educator there for 12 years . In 1858, she married Taylor and was an invaluable assistant and influence...
eventually married James Hudson Taylor, who went on to found the
China Inland MissionOMF International is an interdenominational Protestant Christian missionary society, founded in Britain by Hudson Taylor on 25 June, 1865.-Overview:...
. She had a strong influence in the beginnings of that agency. Burella Dyer had married a year earlier to
John Shaw BurdonJohn Shaw Burdon was a British Protestant Christian missionary to China with the Church Mission Society. He opposed Britain's part in the Opium Wars in China...
, but had died in Shanghai very soon after they were married. Samuel Dyer, Junior succeeded Alexander Wylie with the
British and Foreign Bible SocietyThe British and Foreign Bible Society, often known in England and Wales as simply as Bible Society, is a non-denominational Christian charity formed on 4 March 1804.It exists to bring the Bible's life-changing message to those who still wait for it....
as their agent in China in the 1870s.
Epitaph in Macau
His tombstone inscription reads:
Published works
- Vocabulary of the Hokkien Dialect (1838)
- A Selection of Three Thousand Characters Being the Most Important in the Chinese Language for the Purpose of Facilitating the Cutting of Punches and Casting Metal type in Chinese (1834)
- Aesop's Fables
Aesop's Fables or Aesopica refers to a collection of fables credited to a slave and story-teller who lived in Ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BC. They are widely considered to have been transmitted translations of Jataka Tales, Ancient Indian tales - transmitted from India to the Middle East and...
(in Hokkien, 1843)
See also
- History of typography in East Asia
The Chinese invention of paper and the advent of woodblock printing produced the world's first print culture. As the print scholar A. Hyatt Mayor noted, "it was the Chinese who really discovered the means of communication that was to dominate until our age." Another scholar, the prominent American...