Chinese characters allow to "compress" information, at least compared to alphabetic writing systems. That made them relatively transportable. A good example of

Chinese characters allow to "compress" information, at least compared to alphabetic writing systems. That made them relatively transportable. A good example of how a library might look like at that time can be found here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3cnH5-nMbM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3cnH5-nMbM Those rolls of slips around characters are books.