Liu Muzhi was a little surprised, and his eyes that were originally narrowed opened wide: "I know rubbings are used by many people to learn calligraphy now, but what is printing?"
Liu Yu smiled slightly: "Let's talk about rubbings first. Since ancient times, if you want to copy these texts in large quantities, you usually rely on people to copy the books. This wastes manpower and material resources and is prone to errors. The older the ancient books, the more Preservation is difficult because the cost of dissemination is extremely high, and it is often impossible for the country and the court to continuously invest manpower and material resources in this area."
Liu Muzhi nodded: "Yes, so the preservation of ancient books is mostly ancestral collections of some cultural families. The main reason why they are unwilling to sell these collections is because they are afraid of damage. When they let their nephews study these books, , that is, asking them to copy and copy these books, but many people have some ideas of their own when they see some ancient remarks. When copying, they sometimes substitute their own words or add annotations. This lasts for a long time. The same ancient book often has many different versions. Since the early Han Dynasty, the difference between the so-called modern classics and ancient classics lies in this."
Liu Yu said seriously: "Yes, this kind of copying for future generations and passing it on to future generations is the modern classics, and the original ancient texts found in some ancient tombs are the ancient classics. Even Confucius may have an understanding of ancient times. There will also be some modifications to the classics, which resulted in the dispute between modern text and ancient classics that lasted for hundreds of years in the Han Dynasty. It has to be said that in the end, the decline of Confucian classics and the rise of Taoist metaphysics were related to the two schools of modern text and ancient classics. This infighting has a lot to do with it.”
Liu Muzhi said with a smile: "Yes, this kind of academic sectarian dispute is just about the academic itself at first, and then it will attack the other party for fraud, and then use political power to attack it. Just like Confucian classics, there used to be the Guliang sect, the leftist , Gongyang School and many other sects. Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty established Taixue, they have used Confucian classics as the founding theory of the country and set up a certain number of Ph.D.s. Each school is allocated a certain quota, and these quotas will be allocated to some fixed families. , it can be said that this kind of family has the power to define and interpret the country's main consciousness and ideas by mastering the number of doctors in Taixue. Dynasties may change, but this theory of governing the country can be passed down for eternity. Therefore, in this aspect, The competition will be extremely fierce.”
Liu Yu sighed: "Actually, this is a struggle for power. For these Confucian classics masters, obtaining the status of a doctorate in Taixue recognized by the state means that they can recruit disciples and spread their branches. In turn, if the disciples The more disciples, especially the more disciples who are officials and have power, the more they can consolidate the position of the sect. These are the foundation. Therefore, fighting over and over again is about fighting for real benefits. In order to attack opponents, there are endless means. The best thing is to refute the opponent's classics as fake."
Liu Muzhi laughed loudly: "Jinu, jinu, I really have you. I didn't expect that even the literati's internal fighting for thousands of years can be clearly seen now. Yes, the teachings of the Confucian classics are one by one. Explanation and refutation are not as satisfying as directly saying that the other party is a forgery! Ancient texts and modern texts are separated by thousands of years or even longer. Even if they are copied from generation to generation, they will definitely be very different, just like this kind of tradition in our military. The password is passed down to a hundred people from beginning to end, and at least three to four of the ten words in a sentence are different. It is impossible to argue the authenticity of this."
Liu Yu nodded: "Yes, so the Modern Literature School says that the ancient books in the ancient tombs of the Ancient Literature School are forgeries, while the Ancient Literature School says that the classics of the Modern Literature School were privately modified by later generations. Who is right and who is wrong? It is impossible to verify, but what they want to fight for is nothing more than the spots for those Taixue doctors. In the end, the two sides fought for hundreds of years, but the result was the decline of Confucian classics and the rise of metaphysics, and they both died together."
Liu Muzhi looked at Liu Yu and blinked: "Jinnu, what you said so much is to say that only by using this rubbing technology can these articles and classics be word for word. It turns out that Keep it authentic?”
Liu Yu smiled slightly: "Yes, in order to preserve their thoughts and culture forever, ancient people would carve these words on tripods or stones, such as Le Shi Yanran, so that they can be compared to Bamboo slips are longer and have been passed down better. After all, bamboo slips will wear out after hundreds of years, while stones can withstand thousands of years of wind and frost. This is true even for epitaphs and inscriptions carved for ancestors."
Liu Muzhi smiled and said: "Yes, everyone hopes that the achievements and virtues of their ancestors can be passed down forever. The reason why calligraphy is popular, especially running script and cursive script, is not for writing official documents, but for writing inscriptions. Because in The writing on the stone is made of dragons and snakes, which makes it more powerful. Famous calligraphers also hope that their unique names can be passed down forever."
"By the way, Wang Xizhi, the calligrapher of the Langya Wang family, wrote a masterpiece, the preface to the Lanting Collection, at the calligraphy competition in Lanting. It was the result of the combination of the right time, the right place, and the people. He himself said that, let It is absolutely impossible for him to write it again. It is really a pity that such a masterpiece cannot be engraved on a stone tablet. Therefore, the authentic copy of the preface to the Lanting Collection is a priceless treasure in the world. Even if it is taken out A county, or even a county, may not be able to exchange it."
Liu Yu smiled slightly: "So, in order to preserve the essence of calligraphy or ancient classics, the rubbing technology appeared. On these stone tablets, a piece of wet paper is covered, because the engraved words will sink in, so The wet paper will also sink into these places and no longer be flat. At this time, if you apply ink pad or ink on the back of the paper, the color of the depressions with words will become different from the surrounding color. After the paper dries , the original characters will be displayed. This is rubbing technology, isn’t it?”
Liu Laozhi laughed: "It seems that you have actually studied this. I thought only those who want to learn calligraphy will delve into this. However, this rubbing technique can preserve the original work to the greatest extent. But it is not easy to copy. A piece of wet paper is attached to the surface, so that the paper sinks into the places where it is sunken. Another layer of dry rice paper must be applied to the outside to absorb water, and then put on top of the dry paper. Apply ink carefully, so that the wet paper will show two colors: black and white. The sunken part will be white, and the other normal surfaces will be black. Later, you need to remove the ink, dry it, and rub a word, but it will take a few days. , it would be faster to just copy it directly.”
Liu Yu smiled and waved his hand: "It doesn't have to be so troublesome. We can mass-produce it, just like how we used to create armor plates in the baggage industry. Do you still remember the wonderful use of the sanding method? And this is called printing!"
