Chapter 159 Four Great Inventions: Printing
"What does father mean, sir, is not from the Qin Dynasty?" Gong Shubai asked.
"Sir, there is no doubt that he is from China." Gong Shuyang said, "I will tell you this matter when you should know about it, but when you shouldn't know about it, it's better that you don't know."
Gongshubai wanted to ask anything else, but was stopped by Gongshuyang.
"Don't pry about the teacher's affairs. Your task is to study. Whatever the teacher asks you to do, you have to do it.
Don’t ask about anything else, remember? "
"promise."
Everyone responded.
"Okay, now that you have eaten the noodles sent by Mr., we will start making Mr.'s movable type printing."
"promise."
…
yard.
"Sir, this movable type printing doesn't seem complicated at all. You can do it yourself. Why should you let Mr. Gongshu and the others do it?" Meng Yi asked.
Qin An smiled and said: "Three hundred and sixty lines, although we can do it, we can't do it as well or as fast as the professionals.
This has to be said about productivity. And productivity will lead to changes in business models. "
Ying Zheng and others shook their heads.
At this time Li Si came to the yard.
"I've met the village chief, I've met the gentleman." Li Si bowed to Ying Zheng and Qin An one by one.
Qin An showed a smile and said: "Lao Li, I haven't seen you for some days, and I'm still wondering why I didn't come with the village chief this time."
Li Si sighed and said: "I have been busy recently. When I arrived in the village, I was attracted by the changes in the village, so while my husband and the village chief were flying, I went to appreciate the situation in the village.
This village has truly undergone earth-shaking changes. Village chief, do you know that in addition to the golden field, I also saw the green field, and I even saw some vegetables that were already ripe, like lettuce. "
"Really?" Ying Zheng asked in surprise.
"That's right, village chief, do you want me to go get it picked?"
"Wait a minute." Qin An said anxiously: "We can't pick it. I'm waiting for it to leave seeds. After the seeds split in a few days, we won't have time to pick it again. Then I'll treat you to barbecue."
Ying Zheng immediately said: "Have people take care of those vegetables. You must not pick them. Even if you want to pick them, you have to ask your husband for permission."
"No." Li Si and others responded at the same time.
Li Si wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and almost picked the lettuce himself.
Fusu said: "Sir, have you taught your second brother the Three Character Classic and the Disciple Rules?"
"That's right." Qin An said, "I need them to translate it into Qin Zhuan and then have it carved."
"That's it." Fusu said, "Sir, can you let the students read these two works?"
"Of course there is no problem. I have Qin seal script and simplified Chinese characters in my room. You can read it yourself. No, you can just send it out. Anyway, after the movable type is printed, everyone can have a copy." Qin An said.
"No." Fusu responded, and then went to Qin An's room.
Meng Yi asked curiously: "Sir, I am very curious, who invented movable type printing?"
"Bi Sheng." Qin An said casually, "Who doesn't know China's four great inventions, papermaking, compass, gunpowder and printing.
Oh, by the way, I forgot that the village has been stuck in the era of the Qin Dynasty and didn't know about the four great inventions.
Then let me tell you about these four great inventions of printing.”
Ying Zheng and others pricked up their ears to listen.
Qin An smiled and didn't think they were strange, and said casually: "Speaking of printing, we have to talk about papermaking, because after paper became available, everyone stopped using bamboo slips.
After the bulky bamboo slips were eliminated, everyone copied all the contents on the bamboo slips onto paper and then customized them into books.
However, people did not know printing at all at this time, so all the books were handwritten and in the hands of nobles. How could ordinary people get a book from their homes.
Therefore, before the advent of printing, there were very few children from poor families.
But we in China have never lacked smart people. Some people got inspiration from seals and stone carvings. Finally, in the Tang Dynasty, people invented engraving printing.
That is, after writing the manuscript, stick the side with the words on the board, and then the words can be engraved.
This type of woodblock printing is very rigid. Once the wrong words are engraved, the entire board will be wasted, and the initial engraved words will be in vain.
Even if it is carved, it can only print this page. After enough printing, the engraving will be useless, which is very wasteful.
Until the Northern Song Dynasty, a man named Bi Sheng saw that engravers often wasted a day or even days of effort because of a wrong word, and even had to be fined.
So, as an engraver, Bi Sheng suddenly wondered why he couldn't engrave one word at a time and then move it around in the template at will.
Bi Sheng is a pragmatic person who does whatever comes to his mind. Because he is poor and cannot afford materials, guess what kind of engraving he uses? "
Everyone frowned slightly at Qin An's question.
If you can’t afford the materials, then just make them yourself. What’s the point?
"Use wood." Jiang Lu said.
Ying Zheng rolled his eyes at him and said, "If I ask you to talk about it with wood, sir, I won't mention it anymore."
"Sir." Li Si said, "Since this Bi Sheng is very poor, then the things he can use must be things that we can often see but don't have to spend money to buy, right?"
Qin An nodded and said with a smile: "Okay, I won't let you guess anymore, that thing is soil.
Bi Sheng used clay to make square long cylinders, engraved single characters on one side, and then hardened them with fire. These are the movable characters one by one.
When printing a book, first prepare an iron plate, put rosin and wax on it, and surround the iron plate with an iron frame. The iron frame is densely packed with movable type, and the iron frame is full of First, bake it under the iron plate with fire to melt the rosin and wax.
In addition, use a flat plate to press on the arranged movable type to flatten the words, and a movable type plate will be arranged.
It is the same as engraving. Just apply ink on the words and you can print them.
It is a pity that although Bi Sheng invented movable type printing, this was not valued by the emperor at the time. Even if Bi Sheng died, he still received no attention from the court. "
"Asshole." Ying Zheng slammed the table angrily, "There is such a short-sighted emperor in the world."
"The emperor of the Song Dynasty was good at writing and painting. Being an emperor was really feasible." Qin An said, "But the people of the Song Dynasty were also very good at doing business, and they brought out the potential of our country's businessmen."
"Since the emperor at that time didn't pay attention to it, has movable type printing been lost?" Meng Yi asked nervously.
Qin An shook his head and said: "Is that true? Bi Sheng was not a stingy person. He handed over the movable type printing technology to other engravers, so the movable type printing technology has been passed down."
