How is printing perfected and passed down?

After Bi A invented movable type printing in the Northern Song Dynasty, through the efforts of past dynasties, movable type materials continued to expand, production technology continued to improve, and printed matter became increasingly rich.

With the rapid development of modern science and technology, printing technology has also changed its face rapidly. In this process, Yangzhou has a unique inheritance of traditional printing.

Wang Zhen was an agronomist in the early Yuan Dynasty. Combined with Bi A's experience in wooden movable type in Northern Song Dynasty, craftsmen were invited to carve wooden movable type in Jingde, Anhui Province, and finally more than 30,000 pieces were carved.

1298, Wang Zhen tried to print his own "Dade Jingdezhen County Records" with wooden movable type. It took less than a month to print 100 copies, which shows the high efficiency. This is the first local chronicle to record the printing of wood movable type.

The wooden movable type created by Wang Zhen was recorded by him in a book "Agricultural Book" which summarized the experience of ancient agricultural production. The book records the methods of carving, editing, word selection, typesetting and printing of wood movable type.

Wang Zhen's other contribution to printing technology was the invention of the rotary typesetting disk. Because in the original printing process, tens of thousands of movable types are lined up in one line, it is very inconvenient for workers to shuttle to get words. So he designed a wheeled typesetting tray, which created conditions for improving the efficiency of word picking and reducing the labor intensity.

Wang Zhen made a big wheel from light wood, with a diameter of about 7 feet and a shaft height of 3 feet. Roulette roulette wheel can rotate freely on the axle.

The dial is disc-shaped and divided into several grids. There is a vertical shaft below, which is fixed on the base. According to the classification of ancient rhyme, put wooden movable type into the grid in the plate respectively.

When typesetting, two people cooperate, one reads the manuscript and the other turns the dial, so that the required fonts can be conveniently taken out and discharged into the plate. After printing, restore fonts one by one in the grid. This is what Wang Zhen said: "People take words as the foundation, and words take rhyme."

This not only improves the typesetting efficiency, but also reduces the physical labor of typesetters, which is a pioneering work of typesetting technology.

At the beginning of Yuan Dynasty, Yao Shu, an important official and famous Neo-Confucianism, advocated movable type printing. He taught his son, Yang Gu, to print books with movable type, which became Zhu's primary school and Jin's History of Donglai Classics.

However, Yanggu clay type was improved by Song people after Bi A, not Bi A's original technology.

There were many wooden movable types in the Ming Dynasty, most of which adopted the traditional techniques of the Song and Yuan Dynasties. 1586' s Tang poetry garden, a record of the World Temple, and the clear water and heroes in Jiajing period are all printed in wooden movable type.

In the Qing Dynasty, with the support of the government, the technology of wooden movable type got unprecedented development. During the reign of Kangxi, wooden movable type became popular, and the large-scale printing of wooden movable type books began with the publication of the Yingwudian Juzhen Edition Series in the reign of Qianlong.

A total of 253,500 movable types, large and small, were carved in this book. Printed into "Yingwudian Juzhen Edition Series" 134 kinds, 2389 volumes. This is the largest printing of wooden movable-type books in the ancient history of China.

Xu Yu, the creator of magnetic plate printing in Qing Dynasty, made pottery movable type in 17 18 and printed the Book of Changes. He calcined the soil and made it into movable type, which was used for typesetting and printing books, and still followed the method used by Biya.

Zhai Jinsheng, a painter in the Qing Dynasty, came up with the idea of printing books with clay type after reading the Bi A clay type technique described in Shen Kuo's Dream Story. Thirty years later, he produced 65438+ ten thousand clay movable types. 1844, printed as "first edition of mud printing trial printing". Since then, Zhai Jinsheng has printed many books.

Later, researchers found thousands of clay characters made by Zhai Jinsheng in Jingxian County. These movable types come in five sizes. Zhai Jinsheng proved with his own practice that it is feasible for Bi A to invent clay type, which broke some people's doubts about the feasibility of clay type.

Copper movable type printing entered a new climax in Qing Dynasty. The biggest project is the integration of printing 10,000 ancient and modern books. It is estimated that the number of copper movable type used is 1 10,000 to 2 million.

With the rapid development of science and technology, the traditional printing in ancient China took on a different look. Among them, Yangzhou has a unique inheritance of traditional printing.

Yangzhou paper-cut inheritors, Yangzhou jade carving inheritors Jiang Chunyuan and Gu Yongjun, and Yangzhou lacquer painting inheritors Zhang Yu and Zhao are the "living fossils" of Yangzhou folk culture and the inheritors and creators of national culture. Among them, Chen Yishi, the third generation descendant of Yangzhou block printing "Hangji lettering workshop", is famous.

Hangji Town is the most famous hometown of block printing in Yangzhou. As early as the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, his grandfather Chen opened the largest engraving workshop in Hangji Town at that time, with as many as 30 skilled artists at that time.

Later, Chen Yishi's father, Chen Zhengshun, took the fist knife and carved a number of famous ancient books in Yangzhou history, such as Siming Series, Yangzhou Series and Warm Red Room, which once again made the brand of "Hangji lettering workshop" of the Chen family sound.

Chen Yishi began to learn sculpture with his father at the age of 13. At that time, the Chen family opened a lettering workshop in Hangji, and Chen's father was a famous engraver. Their family has repaired famous ancient books such as Siming Series, Yangzhou Congke and Warm Red Room.

Before he died, Chen's father called him to the bed and said to him, "We must pass on our ancestral woodcut skills." Chen Yishi promised tearfully.

Chen Yishi later came to Guangling Ancient Books Engraving Society, specializing in engraving and lettering. A desk lamp, a clock, a table, a chair, a meat cleaver and a shovel are all that Chen Yishi has done. After his skillful hand carving, many ancient books came back to life.

Chen Yishi has been dealing with woodcuts all his life. He felt the infinite charm of China's writing art in his brushstrokes and paintings.

As a contemporary woodcut master in China and the only national woodcut artist in China, Chen Yishi is confident that this "brilliant flower" will bloom in the cultural garden.