Book #263

Multi-fascicle Chinese Binding

Today's book is another Chinese binding. As I mentioned yesterday, the paper twist binding was often used as a temporary binding and one situation that required temporary bindings, was when a written text was divided into multiple sections, or fascicles. Each fascicle could be bound using a paper twist binding until all the sections were ready. My example is made from four sections, each bound separately with a paper twist binding. The beginning of each section is marked with a small piece of yellow paper. The fascicles are stacked and bound together using a traditional Chinese stab binding. Chinese books with soft paper covers were stored lying flat on the shelf, in stacks, so the title of the text was often written on the edge of the textblock so it could be read more easily on the shelf.