Because of the nature of the characters, Chinese was not suited to movable-type printing, whereas English, with only twenty-six letters, or languages such as Spanish and Italian, were better suited to it.
It was also the revolution in printing that created a new audience and fostered the rise of public opinion.
The Church preached through Mass, but it could not control this medium. Courts, Parliament, academies, and universities became platforms for debate.
Although the Church banned certain "forbidden books," secret presses still printed them. Not all of these books were good. Many printers were illiterate; they recognized the letters but did not know what they meant when put together. In any case, they were only there to work and earn money.
Some of these books were written by scholars, while others were pamphlets produced by witch-hunting organizations to promote the idea that wizards caused disasters. They flowed endlessly into society, driving people nearly mad.
Europe's rational philosophy excluded all mysterious forces that science could not explain, limited divine intervention to natural laws and mathematical formulas, denied supernatural phenomena in the development of nature, eliminated any theoretical basis for demonic powers, and used medical, sociological, or psychological arguments to curb "witch mania" or belief in wizards. Unfortunately, it had never succeeded.
"Curiosity is what drives humanity forward." There were always stupid children playing Divination with Ouija boards. China had something similar, though they called it the Dish Immortal. Playing with such things could get people into trouble, but no one ever listened to warnings.
China had always valued education. Ancient China's illiteracy rate was probably among the lowest in the world. In the 1860s, missionaries conducted a survey in Hunan, and found that the illiteracy rate was only sixty percent, even in ordinary county towns and mountainous regions. In cities, it