Dyeing is supposed to be one sub-topic under the Volume 5 of “Science and Civilisation in China”, which is about the chemistry and the chemical technology in Joseph Needham's original plan. Unfortunately, Joseph Needham passed away before he completed this book and this sub-topic. However, there are other scholars helping him to finish the book and establish that the rest of the chapters. Although the publishing work of the series of book is still processing, a group of Chinese scholars leaded by Lu Jiaxi had the book translated into Chinese in 2006 and put additional information, including the dye technology of the ancient Chinese into the Chinese version. Therefore, the detailed information about the herbal dyeing of clothes in China can only be found in the Chinese version.

Having said that, dyeing of other material could be found in “Science and Civilisation in China”. In the first part of volume 5 which is about paper making, the dyeing of paper was mentioned. There is a section discussing the ink-making which also involves the process of extraction of pigments from the plants, giving a hint to the chapter of dye technology that should have appeared in the upcoming chapter.