The invention and development of movable type printing 1

The first invention of movable type printing

The engraving and printing business, which was promoted and applied from the Tang Dynasty to general development in the Song Dynasty, greatly enriched the people’s cultural life and played an important role in promoting and carrying forward the Chinese academic tradition.

Compared with the previous method of handwriting transmission, lithograph printing does not know how much manpower and time it will save. It is indeed a huge revolution for the production of books and the dissemination of knowledge. However, engraving and printing must be done one page at a time, and it is difficult to correct the mistakes. If you engrave a large book, it takes a lot of time and wood, which is not only expensive, but also saves a lot of places in the storage of the plates, and it also has certain difficulties in management. . The movable typesetting printing technique invented on the basis of engraving can solve these contradictions and further improve the efficiency of printing.

The movable type printing technique is to prefabricate a single type of movable type, and then according to the printed manuscript, the required characters are printed, and the printing method is arranged in a single version. With movable type printing, after the book is printed, the version can be folded, and the word can still be used to arrange other books. This method has been one of the methods for producing books, newspapers, and magazines in the world.

Nowadays, movable type printing has developed into a highly mechanized stage and is a major pillar of modern culture. Some scholars in Europe and the United States generally described the invention of movable type printing as the contribution of German Gutenberg in the middle of the fifteenth century (1440-1450) and equated movable type printing with printing. Riegu Tengbao is the conclusion of the "inventor of printing", which is obviously not in conformity with the facts. First of all, book printing cannot be limited to movable type printing, and lithography is also a major method. Moveable type printing is based on engraving printing. The fact that the Chinese people first invented engraving and printing was an irrefutable fact. Therefore, Gutenberg is not "inventor of printing" there is no doubt. Second, although movable type printing has a more significant meaning for Europeans, although Gutenberg was the first person in Europe to apply this method, the fact that it is true tells us that type printing was first invented by the Chinese. And it is spread directly or indirectly by China to all parts of the world. We have every reason to believe that Gutenberg (or anyone else) was able to create the movable type printing of Latin script under this influence.

In the middle of the eleventh century, movable type printing was invented by the talented workers of the Chinese Northern Song Dynasty (1041-1048) and was invented by Bisheng. It was first made of wood and then mud. This is the earliest type of living type in the world. It is more than 400 years earlier than the type used by Gutenberg.

One of the most critical issues in movable type printing technology is the selection of movable type production materials and the manufacturing process. The working people in ancient China have used clay, wood, copper, tin, lead and other raw materials to conduct various tests and have achieved success. Bi Sheng first successfully produced movable type using clay as a raw material.

In ancient China, movable type can be divided into two categories based on different materials. The first type is non-metallic movable type, such as movable type made of mud, wood, and magnetic. The second is metal type, such as: tin type, copper type, lead type, etc.

According to historical records, Bi Sheng first made a single word using mastic, and then used fire to become a living type, and used this type of movable type to try and produce printed books. Afterwards, the Western Xia regime used sutras to print Buddhist scriptures and it was actually transmitted to the present. In the Yuan Dynasty, some people continued to use this method to print muddy movable books. Unfortunately, there were no physical transmissions. The muddy movable type books in the Yuan Dynasty could not be searched; during the Qing Dynasty , Li Yao and Jin Jinsheng succeeded in using Bi Sheng's method of self-made mud type printing, and they have been retained so far.

As early as the Song Dynasty, during the period of ascension, some people experimented with making wood as a raw material. Because wood characters swelled with water, the effect was unsatisfactory. Without success, Bi Shengcai changed wood to produce muddy characters for mud. Not long afterwards, the development and promotion of the wooden type printing was successful. The unearthing of the wooden movable type and the Uyghur-Wen wooden type in the Xixia texts such as "The good fortune and the sequel to this renewal" provided the physical evidence for this purpose. Wang Yuan, an agronomist of the Yuan Dynasty, succeeded in making wooden movable type and runner typesetting racks. In the Daedian Year, he printed the “Qide County Records” in wooden movable type, but it has also been lost. After the Ming Dynasty, wood type printing gradually developed.

Until the Qing Dynasty wood type printing was widely spread and popular. The government and the people mostly use wood type printing books. In particular, the Emperor Qianlong printed 138 kinds of “Muying Dian Poly Edition Books” in wood type, which is the most famous. The proponent and the organizer of this event, Jin Jian, wrote the book "Wu Ying Dian Ju Treasure Edition," a book devoted to describing and fully describing Wu Yingdian's production of wooden movable type, typesetting, and printing processes. Powerfully promoted the wide application of the wooden type printing in the Qing Dynasty

The tin live characters that appeared in the Southern Song Dynasty are the earliest metallic type in the world. The rise of copper movable type printing in the Ming Dynasty was most famous for Wuxi Hua'an and An's household copper movable type printing. The earliest type of copper movable type printing is the Song Dynasty printed by the Huaxun Association for the three years of the Ming Dynasty (1490). Various Ministers

During the Qing Dynasty, from the Kangxi period, the government used copper movable characters to print books. The largest one was the large-scale book "Ancient and Modern Book Integration" that was printed during the Tsou administration year. Private and workshops also have the application of copper movable type printing

The printing techniques (including engraving and movable type) invented by the Chinese people have always been based on traditional manual methods. Compared with modern printing, they are naturally based. However, the basic principles of modern printing, the basic process of word formation (engraving or casting), typesetting, and printing, are well established in China's Song Dynasty.

The second section of the development of movable type printing

One, mud type printing

In the 1940s of the 11th century AD, China's Song Dynasty Qing Dynasty (1041-1048) invented the printing of muddy movable type.

Regarding this invention, the Song Dynasty scientist Shen Kuo wrote "Meng Xi Bi Tan" Volume 18 "Arts and Crafts" made the following records:

"Seal books, the Tang people have not yet Sheng Shengzhi, since Feng Yi Wang was in India five classics, later books are all on the board. In the calendar, there are commoner clothes and then raised to live. His method is written in clay, thin as money lips. Each word is In India, the fire is strong, and an iron plate is first set up, whereon pine wax, paper dust and the like are taken.If it is to be printed, an iron plate is placed on the iron plate, and it is printed in dense cloth, and the iron plate is full. If you hold a drug on the fire, it will be flat and flat on the surface. If you stop the printing of 32 copies, it is not easy. If you print tens of thousands of copies, you will be extremely quick. Iron plate, one board printing, one board has been clothed. After this printer is finished, the second board is already. More interoperable, instantaneously. Each word has a digital seal, such as ""," "also "Written words, each word has more than 20 stamps, in case there is a repeater on the board. If not, stick it with paper. Each rhyme is a stick, and the wooden lattice stores it. If there are strange characters, prepare Burning the grass, it can be instantaneous. If it is not for the sake of wood, the arts and science are dense, and the water is high and uneven. It is also sticky with the medicine and is not desirable. It is not as good as the earth, and it can be used again to make the medicine melt. Handcuffs Which India since the fall, is no foul. Liter death, which is printed to the group from the resulting so far Treasure. "

This is the first historical record of the printing technology with detailed records of texts after the invention of printing technology.

Since Shen Kuo and Bi Sheng are contemporary people, the information he has recorded is reliable.

According to the records of Shen Shi, we learned about its creation and use procedures:

1 Lettering with clay, should be pure mud, fine texture and firm, then burn hard in the fire.

2 Arrange according to the rhyme and store it in the grid.

3 When used, typeset by rhyme word, solidified and fixed by rosin wax and other drugs.

4 Ink printing: After the first edition is printed, the plate is baked on fire, the drug melts, the hands touch, and it does not stain.

Except for the records in "Meng Xi Bi Tan", other historical documents did not mention Bi Sheng's invention of muddy characters. Therefore, the details of his life cannot be further examined. Shen's note: "If you stop printing thirty-two copies, it is not easy. If you print dozens of thousands of copies, you will be extremely quick." Obviously, Bi Sheng’s muddy characters have been type-printed and printed well, but what kind of book has been printed? What style? Neither the biography nor the recording, and no further research is available.

However, there was no shortage of people who later copied this book. Song Guangzong and Shao Xie (1193) Zhou Bida used the method of Shen Kuo in Tanzhou (now Changsha, Hunan Province) to print what he had written on clay. Yu Tang Notes. In Zhou Bida's "Wenzhongji" volume 198 to Cheng Yuancheng's letter, he mentioned: "In the near future, Shen Chuan's method was used to replace muddy copper with the muddy copper plate. Nowadays, it is known as the Yutang Miscellany." It is Shen Kuo's word. Its law refers to the type of clay on the copper plate, and then it is printed on paper. In the early years of the Yuan dynasty, Kublai's counsellor Yao Shu, the teaching student Yang Kuo and Shen Kuo's book Bi Shengmu's living method were printed as "Near Thoughts," "Primary School," "The History of History," and other books.

Unfortunately, books printed in mud type were rarely passed down. In 1965, in the white elephant pagoda in the suburbs of Wenzhou, Zhejiang, there was a piece of printed matter in the Buddhist scriptures "The Buddha said that the concept of lifeless sutras." With a width of 13 cm and a residual height of 8.5-10.5 cm, the paper is yellow, but the texture is tough and soft, and the scriptures are arranged in a convolution. Compared with the Song Dynasty book, the specificity of the book is much, but it has the characters of movable type, such as the font is smaller than the Song edition, the technique is poor, and the length and size are not equal, the scripture appears missed word, the ink color is uneven, and the word is roundabout. There are inversions, etc. (Figure 8-1). According to the textual research of the Northern Song Dynasty unearthed in the same tower, it was tentatively identified as a Song Mu movable type printing product. What was most inspiring was the discovery in recent years and by archaeological experts that it was confirmed as the excavation of “The Verse of the Mounted Vimalakirti” that was created by Xia Xiuwen, a type of clay that was created by Bi Sheng invented in the Western Xia era. This is the oldest type of muddy printed script in the world. Its unearthing is of great significance for studying the invention and application of movable type printing.

Figure 8-1 The song of the Song Dynasty inscription on the type of scroll

Xixia “The Verse of Vimalakirti” (lowest volume) is Wuwei, Gansu