The invention and development of movable type printing 2

The third section of movable type printing technology

First, the production of muddy characters and printing technology

(a) Song Shengsheng live type

Clay movable type printing is a great invention in the history of science and technology in China. According to the "Mengxi Bibi", BI Shengniu has the following characteristics: First, directly on the mud on the letter, without having to first write on the paper and then paste the anti-post; Second, the thickness of the mud word thin as money Lips, which are quite different from the existing wooden characters in the literature and related literature; the third is to discharge the movable type in the iron mold containing rosin, beeswax, paper dust and other materials, and then iron scales. Put it on a flat fire to melt the binder made of rosin, beeswax, and paper gray, and stick the clay to the iron plate.

An analysis of the above characteristics shows that: First, as far as printing technology is concerned, it is the simplest and most basic condition for a carving work to engrave a character that has been affixed to a printed version on an engraved or movable type. If you can write reverse characters directly on engravings or movable type blanks, the power has been unusual. If you can directly use the knife to engrave the anti-body text on the carved or movable type blank, you must familiarize yourself with the book and engrave the two techniques. Bi Sheng can directly engage in carving the anti-body text on the mud billet, as a master skilled in printing techniques. Second, the dry mud cake is brittle and brittle. No matter how sharp the cutting knife is, the knife is splashed with mud, and the edge of the font is damaged very sharply. After the edge of the jagged writing is burned, if An appreciation of the art of engraving may be quite characteristic, but if the marginal, stroke-like characters printed into a book, it is difficult for readers to accept. Experiments have shown that when the moisture content of the mud billet is about 30%, the lower knife is not sticky or astringent, and it is very easy to engrave the characters with neat edges. Therefore, Bi Sheng directly engraved with a clay slab with a certain degree of humidity. Third, whether it is wet mud or dried mud, in the publication can not be fixed with a printing bed, otherwise the mud or deformed or broken, can only be placed on the desktop or platform for engraving. In order to keep the parison stable and easy to print, the shape of the parison should be flat. The description of Bi Shengmu's movable characters in the literature, "Thin as money lips," is a very graphic description of the shape of the mud. The "money lip" refers to the thicker inner edge of the coin plane, with a width of about 4 mm. The clay slab with such a thickness can be easily carved, dried quickly, and easily heated evenly during firing. Fourth, using rosin, beeswax, and paper ash eutectic as binders, the type of slush is fixed in the iron van for printing, which seems to be the first of its kind. This method is very different from the method used by the later generations of Wang Jie to use the boundary line and the wooden pin to fix wooden movable type. The reason for this is estimated to be that Bishengmu is flat and can't be squeezed and fixed with border lines, wooden pins, etc. Bonding is the easiest and most practical method.

In summary, the production process and printing method of BI Shengniu can be roughly inferred as follows:

1. Making mud

The mud that can be directly engraved on a knife is very delicate. The finer the mud, the better the stickiness, so Shen Kuo was recorded as "rubber." Judging from the point of view of the technique of making materials from the mud, a very delicate "mastic" is the so-called "solid mud." China has a long history of using solid mud to make bricks and "slim mud." According to Song Su’s brief remarks: “The site of the Wei-Qin-Taiwan site is characterized by people’s frequent occurrence of its ancient tilework, and its uselessness as an eel. It is hard work, and the water storage is not dry for a few days. ???? Filtering, plus Walnut oil, Fang Yuzhi, it is different from the public tile. "Su Yi-Jian, four-room text, Siku Quanshu No. 843, Shanghai Ancient Publishing House 1987 photocopy. The Cheng-cheng process in the Tang Dynasty is also very developed. From the unearthed Tang Dynasty loach in the Tang Dynasty, the mud-preparation and firing techniques were already quite mature. The application of the pure clay in the Song Dynasty was not only extensive but the production process of the slush mud was almost at its peak. Therefore, it was logical for Bi Sheng to use solid mud as the raw material for the production of mud type.

There are many traditional methods for solidifying mud, which are usually “into the water with mud.” They are stored in oysters, and then do not store the water with a rake.俟 俟 俟 至 细 " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " ". The usual practice is to choose a clay of good quality, sun-dried in the sun, crushed a little, sieve out the sundries and other debris, put it into a large tank, and add water to stir it into a slurry. After the gravel with large particles in the mud sinks into the bottom layer, the turf and debris floating on the surface are skimmed, and the mud is poured into another cylinder for sedimentation. After the mud is clarified, pour out the upper clear water and cut off the rough mud from the lower layer. After taking the middle layer of fine mud to dry, it will be the fine pure mud. Alternatively, the selected material can be placed in a sandwich bag. The cloth bag can be placed in a large tank filled with clean water. The cloth bag can be continuously squeezed by hand to allow the fine mud to be filtered out of the pores of the cloth bag. Discard it. After the mud in the tank is clarified, the supernatant is decanted and the coarse mud containing the sand grains is cut off. After the middle mud is dried, a very fine pure mud can be obtained. The method of drying sludge can be exposed to sunlight, or it can be suspended in a cloth bag to allow the water to seep out of the cloth bag, or the cloth bag containing the pure mud can be placed in the dry grass ash so that the wood ash can absorb moisture to dry the mud. The mud used for lettering is generally dry to a humidity that is easy to squeeze. Too much water, mud sticky, sticky hands stick knife, inconvenient operation; water too little, easy to crack when extruding, not easy to operate.

2. Make word

After the mud is repeatedly beaten with a wooden stick and cooked, it is sliced ​​into thin slices and cut into rectangular clay slabs with the same thickness and thickness. When making the blanks, take into consideration the drying rate and the shrinkage rate generated during sintering. Otherwise, the blanks will be reduced and deformed after firing. This is not desirable. Muzi blanks can be written with a brush before the engraving and then engraved with the anti-body characters. It is also possible to directly use the cutter to engrave the anti-body text on the mud. Every single word has more than a few moments. Words such as "Zhi" and "Ye" can be engraved to more than 20 to use when there is the same word in the same plate. After the mud characters are engraved, they generally need to be dried first, and then put into the kiln for firing. When urgently used, they can be directly fired on the grass fire.

Burned clay characters can be placed in rhyme categories. The characters in each rhyme are copied on paper and attached to wooden plaids that store movable characters.

3. Typesetting

Take a piece of iron with a frame around it -- "Iron Fan". The size of the iron frame is slightly larger than the layout. Iron tussle, beeswax and paper ash binders are placed inside the iron range. Pick muddy movable characters and place them on the adhesive in the iron frame. After the iron van is full, place the iron linings that are well-placed and placed on flat fire and bake it until the adhesive is melted. Use a flat iron plate or wood board to press on the surface of the layout full of muddy type, so that the entire layout becomes very smooth. Then remove the iron van etc. from the flat fire and wait until the adhesive in the iron vane hardens and the mud sticks firmly.

Usually two iron vans are prepared, and two are in turn engaged in printing and typesetting so that one can be used for printing and the other has already begun to typeset. After the first edition is printed, the other edition is ready. This cycle will greatly increase the printing speed.

4. Select paper

Because muddy characters are made by firing with pure mud, the ink absorption and ink release properties are poor compared to wood type or engraving, so choosing a paper with a low water absorption rate and a smooth surface is ideal for printing. It can also be applied to certain papers in advance. Waxing light. The size of the printed sheets will be based on the popular style and the specific requirements of the customer.

5. Fixed edition

The muddy type printing can be carried out on an ordinary square table or a long table, and the printing plate (Iron Van) can be printed directly on the plate without fixing. However, it is better to use a special printing table to fix the printing plate (iron foil) on the printing table with nails, adhesive glue or the like, and the printing paper is fixed on the other end of the printing table. In this way, the position of the paper and the plate is relatively fixed during the entire printing process, which is not only favorable to the operation but also can improve the working efficiency.

6. Brush ink

Before the printing of the movable type in the mud, first brush the water or the diluted ink on the surface of the plate twice, and wait until the clay plate inhales a certain amount of ink before formal ink printing. The method of brushing ink in the mud is the same as the ordinary engraving printing operation technique. First, a small brush is used to hold a bit of ink from the large ink basin on the porcelain plate. The brown ink is used to make the ink uniform in the circle of the porcelain plate, and then the brown ink is used. Circle the ink on the mud typeface. Since the ink-absorbing and ink-releasing properties of the mud type are not as good as the engraving, the key to controlling the printing quality lies in the amount and uniformity of the brushing.

Practice has proved that a person who has never been exposed to traditional printing can easily print a high-quality painting on a wood engraving; however, even a person who has engaged in engraving printing can hardly grasp the mud in a short time. The movable type printing technology cannot even print a decent work in a short period of time. It can be said that mud type printing is an amazing invention, but it is also a difficult process to master. The reason why Bi Sheng's mud type printing is difficult to promote is that it is estimated that in addition to cultural and other reasons, it is difficult to master the operating skills. I am afraid it is also one of the reasons.

7. Cover paper

For unfixed paper, the paper can be lifted and the flat ends of the two hands are placed on the inked plate. For the paper fixed on the printing table, the right hand is used to lift the paper to the left hand, then the left hand pulls the end of the paper to cover the brushed ink on the printing surface.

8. Brush

Hold or hold a part of the paper with your left hand and brush it with your right hand on the back of the paper so that the ink on the letterpress type is transferred to the paper. The force should be uniform when rubbing, so as to ensure that each word in the movable type can be completely and clearly transferred. Before formal printing, several proofs are usually printed first. After correct proofreading, they can be printed in large quantities.

9. Dry

After the brush is printed, lift the paper from the plate by hand. If it is an unfixed paper, set it aside to dry it; if it is a paper fixed on the printing table, put it into the middle of the printing table with both hands. At the gap, the paper droops naturally to dry.

After a plate is printed, replace it with another plate that has already been laid out, replace it with white paper, and repeat the above-mentioned brush printing process until all printing plates have been printed. Finally, the printed paper can be folded, cut, and stapled in order.

10. Dismantling

After a piece of printing plate is printed, it is transferred together with Tiefan to a flat fire and baked. After the adhesive glue of rosin, beeswax and paper eutectic melting is melted by heat, the clay movable character in the iron range is gently hand-pulled. The type of mud will come down, and the mud characters will not be stained with glue. Then the mud characters will be grouped into the corresponding characters and stored for the next use.

(II) Qingjian Jinsheng mud type

After Bisheng, mud type printing was popular with Shen Kuo's "Meng Xi Bi Tan". Xixia, which coexisted with Song, printed sutras with muddy characters. "The Kublai Khan line