The Investiture of the Gods with Added Images and Complete Illustrations Year: 1916 Call Number: RTC-WHC057 Printing technology developed rapidly in the late Song Dynasty. Illustrations in the early years only existed in religious books, but they began to appear in large numbers in many types of books, especially in vernacular novels and dramas. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, illustrated books had been widely circulated. The application of lithographic printing technology in the late Qing Dynasty further promoted the popularity of vernacular reading materials such as comic strips and picture books. The Investiture of the Gods with Added Images and Complete Illustrations is a masterpiece of this type of chapter-based illustrated novel. “Added images” is also called “delicate images” or “engraved images”, which refers to the character portraits at the beginning of the book. “Complete illustrations” means that each story in the book is accompanied by images that illustrate specific plot points. 263 50
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