Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 178 Daming Printing Workshop
Continuing to deal with the affairs of the General Administration Department, Zhu Youjian asked Lu Tunan:

“What’s the problem with printing?”

"How do private newspapers such as the Beijing News solve the problem?"

“Why not learn from them and print with the technology they use?”

After being interfered with by Meng Shaoyu and discovering that the emperor was not completely ignorant, Lu Tunan knew that he could no longer prevaricate, so he told him bit by bit what he had learned in the past few months:

"Although newspapers such as the Beijing News are printed in large quantities, they are mainly sold in the capital and occasionally spread to other places."

"Compared with the "Monthly Journal of the General Affairs Department of the Ming Dynasty", it is very difficult to print and distribute it in two capitals and thirteen provinces."

"If engraving is used, each craftsman can engrave about fifty figures a day. If time is not urgent, they can each engrave one page."

"There are as many engraving craftsmen as there are pages in the monthly magazine."

"After it is sent to the place, it will also require so many engraving craftsmen to carve out the engravings."

“You also need to purchase wood, ink, and paper for printing by other craftsmen.”

“Printing monthly magazines consumes too much money and food.”

Hearing that engraving was so troublesome, Zhu Youjian couldn't help but be speechless and asked:

"The cost of engraving is so high, why not use movable type?"

Movable type printing is famous, but it is not practical. Lu Tunan explained:
“Moveable type costs more!”

"If copper movable type is used, a set of typefaces will require at least tens of thousands of words, and as many as hundreds of thousands of words, and cost hundreds of thousands of taels."

"And when typesetting, at least one person is required to sing the version, one person to pick the words, and one person to type. These must be done by literate people, which require more salary."

"Copper movable type is also easy to lose and be stolen and sold. Once the type molds are lost or are not used enough, they need to be cast separately."

"It's just too expensive and difficult to maintain."

Hearing that the cost of copper movable type was so high and that it was easy to be stolen, Zhu Youjian gave up the idea of ​​using copper movable type and asked:

"Where are the wood type, clay type, and lead type?"

"Have these been used a long time ago?"

Lu Tunan replied:
“Wooden movable type and clay movable type are easy to wear, and the handwriting will not be clear if there is too much printing, so it needs to be re-engraved.”

"I have only heard of movable lead type, but I don't know how much it costs."

Knowing that printing is the future, Zhu Youjian immediately ordered:

"The technology of collecting movable lead type will be developed in the future."

He asked again:

“What other printing technologies are there among the private sector?”

"Especially the tabloids, how are they printed?"

Lu Tunan has understood it quite clearly in the past few months and replied:
“There are those who use engraving, those who use movable type, and those who use wax plates.”

“The techniques vary and the quality is generally very poor.”

It doesn’t matter if the quality is a little bit off, as long as it can spread information, Zhu Youjian asked:
“What is stencil printing?”

"How does it compare to the cost of engraving and movable type?"

Lu Tunan explained:

"The wax plate is made of a mixture of beeswax and rosin, instead of the more expensive pear wood, and is directly carved on it and then used for printing."

"The wax plate used is not preserved after printing. The wax can be scraped off the plate and reused."

"This way, the cost is much lower than engraving and movable type, and the engraving speed is fast, and the printing is very fast."

"In the former Song Dynasty, after the list of Jinshi was announced, tabloids quickly printed the list and sold it all over Tokyo."

"But the quality of the wax plate is poor. It is usually damaged after printing a few hundred copies, resulting in unclear handwriting."

"If wax plates are used, it will be detrimental to the court's dignity."

Zhu Youjian didn't care much about anything decent or dishonorable. In his opinion, the most important thing is to disseminate information, and quality will be discussed later.

As long as there is such a demand, craftsmen will naturally improve it. The Ming Dynasty had such a large population and there were many capable talents.

Moreover, the technology of wax plate sounds like the mimeograph of later generations. Zhu Youjian feels that it is very promising and will be useful for a long time. So he decided to use the wax version for the time being and ordered:

"Wax plates can be used by the people, and the imperial court can also use them."

"The monthly magazine will use wax plates for the time being, and the quality will gradually improve in the future."

"Start with wax plates, ink, paper, etc., and use more advanced technology to improve printing quality while ensuring costs."

Lu Tunan was relieved now, knowing that with the emperor's words, the wax plate could be used. It doesn't matter if the printing quality is poor, since the emperor's instructions are there anyway.

As for improving in the future, that is a matter for the future. He will probably be transferred by then, so why bother about that.

But what he didn't expect was that after Zhu Youjian decided to use wax plates, he immediately promoted the development of technology and continued to ask him:

"After the beeswax is heated, will it become softer? Can I use engraving to print writing on it?"

Lu Tunan only knew about the technologies currently used, but he didn't know about such more specific problems.

Seeing that he couldn't answer, Xue Fengxiang, Minister of Industry, seized the opportunity and said:
"Beeswax has a soft texture. Most of the utensils used by ancient people were cast by the lost wax method. Use wax to cast a model, then wrap it with plaster, melt the wax and leak out, and use the plaster model to cast the metal utensils."

"Beeswax will become harder when combined with rosin, but it will also become softer after heating. If the hardness is moderate, it should be able to print with engraving."

It would be nice if it could be printed with engravings, but when Zhu Youjian heard the lost wax method mentioned by Xue Fengxiang, his eyes suddenly lit up. Thinking about the lead printing technology of later generations, he said: "If you use the lost wax method and use the wax plate as a model, Can you cast a metal version?”

"For example, casting a lead plate, or a copper plate?"

"Then printed using a lead or copper plate."

Xue Fengxiang's eyes lit up and he felt that this was a good idea. But he didn't dare to guarantee it and said:
“The printed characters are not large and the strokes are spaced even smaller.”

"I am not sure whether a suitable lead or copper plate can be cast. I can let the craftsmen try it."

Zhu Youjian immediately ordered:

"Then let the craftsmen try it. Whoever can make it will be rewarded heavily."

"In addition to wax plates, you can also try making clay tablets and then reprinting them from lead."

Clay plate printing is a type of printing, and the other type is paper printing. Zhu Youjian said:
"You don't need to engrave all the wax blocks. You can try melting the wax to a moderate level and printing directly with the engraving block."

"If writing can be printed on wax, then this wax plate can be used for printing newspapers and periodicals."

"The engraving plate is used as a base plate and is only used for wax printing. According to the quantity and content required by each province, the corresponding wax plates are sent to them, and they are asked to prepare paper and ink for direct printing."

In this way, the provinces would not need engravers, but only printers. The cost can be saved a lot, and the wax plate is also convenient to transport.

Xue Fengxiang's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he knew that the method proposed by the emperor was very feasible, and it was simpler than using wax or clay tablets to cast lead plates.

The only problem is that the engraving on the engraving block is in Yang characters, and when printed on the wax plate, it becomes Yin characters. The handwriting printed in this way is also in Chinese.

So he suggested:
"I think we should use Yin characters to engrave blocks, print Yang characters out of wax blocks, and then use them for printing."

Zhu Youjian just said one step less in order to make the officials understand. However, he still admired Xue Fengxiang's initiative and said to him:
"Try the method you said!"

"You can also use some special paper to imprint paper models with engravings. Use this paper pattern with inscriptions to cast inscription wax plates, clay tablets, and lead plates."

"In this way, the engraving only needs to touch the paper pattern, so it can be maintained better and more copies can be printed."

"You can use a combination of wax, clay, and lead to see which method is most suitable, with the best printing quality and the most cost-saving."

This method is based on the paper-mold reprinting of lead printing in later generations, which is also a type of lead printing.

Just because Ming Dynasty was better at using wax, Zhu Youjian added wax as a material and tried to combine it with paper molds and stereotypes.

A papier-mâché can be said to be a paper template. After making a plate with movable type, it is covered with special paper, pressed into a paper template for inscriptions, and then cast into a lead plate.

The process of casting lead plates can be called casting plates. It is more similar to engraving. It's just cast, so it doesn't require an engraving craftsman to carve it bit by bit, making it faster and more convenient.

It can be said that this kind of lead printing is a mixture of movable type printing and engraving printing, not direct printing with lead type.

Zhu Youjian's idea was to imitate this kind of lead seal, use engraving plates instead of movable type plates, and then use paper molds, clay plates, or wax plates to cast lead plates, wax plates, or clay plates for final printing.

He didn't know if this method could be used, but in theory there was no problem. Try any of these combinations, one will always suit you. No matter how difficult it was for Ming Dynasty to make money and food, there was still no problem in experimenting with these things.

However, in his mind, the most suitable combination was the combination of papier-mâché and cliché. This was proved by later generations to be the most suitable material.

But although Zhu Youjian had seen the word paper model in many works of the Republic of China, he didn't know how it was made or what special paper was used. We can only let the Ministry of Industry and Commerce explore and try which paper is suitable.

As the place where paper was invented, China has thousands of years of experience in using paper, and there are countless types of paper. Zhu Youjian was still confident about this and ordered:

"Whoever can solve the problem of papier-mâché will be named a hundred households."

"I will reward craftsmen who solve the problem of engraving, wax printing and paper-type mixed printing."

A reward was directly offered for people from the Ministry of Industry to test.

A title held by a hundred households, and it was not hereditary. Most officials in the court did not care much about it.

Only Xue Fengxiang was very excited, knowing that the emperor really had thoughts about the Ministry of Industry.

That's not all, Zhu Youjian said again:
“The materials required for printing such as engraving, wax plates, clay plates, lead plates, papier-mâché, as well as paper, ink, etc., all need to be considered comprehensively.”

"Divide the craftsmen into several groups. Whichever group does a better job and can print with better quality at the lowest cost, I will give you a heavy reward."

"The Ministry of Industry wants to integrate all the printing agencies of the imperial court and establish the Ming Dynasty Printing Workshop."

"Among them, the Baochao Workshop belongs to the Ministry of Household Affairs, and the Newspaper Workshop belongs to the General Affairs Department."

“But technologies need to communicate, promote each other, and learn from each other.”

Add an organization to the Ministry of Industry and begin the first step of adjustments.

The Daming Printing Workshop was another unit established by Zhu Youjian after the Daming News Agency. It could be said to be a workshop directly under the imperial court, similar to the central and state-owned enterprises of later generations.

After Xue Fengxiang heard this, he was even more sure that the emperor had ideas about the Ministry of Industry. The idea of ​​taking refuge in the emperor came to mind again.

It's just that this matter has too much to do, and he hasn't thought about it yet. It was decided to set up the Ming Dynasty Printing Workshop first to let the emperor see his ability.

He decided to gather craftsmen from the Ministry of Industry, especially the Wensi Academy, to specifically solve this problem.

There are more than 3,000 craftsmen and officials in Wensi Academy. I don’t believe there is no talent.

　Letterpress printing includes lead movable type printing, clay reprinting with lead movable type as the master, paper mold recasting, and photographic copper-zinc printing.

　　Xinhua Daily celebrates its 80th anniversary in the era of type printing. This is how Xinhua Daily was created:
　　The newspaper printing factory is divided into multiple workshops such as type casting, typesetting, casting, wheel printing, and photographic plate making.

　　After the layout is put together, a review sample will be sent out to the editor and duty leader for review. At the same time, the proofreader will be asked to proofread it. After all the problems are solved, we can issue proofs and deliver samples. Nowadays, with electronic typesetting, everything is basically fine once the type is delivered. In the past, this was not possible, and the next step was to press the paper pattern and cast the lead plate.

　　Casting lead plates is both technical and physical work. The lead water is melted first, and the temperature of the lead pot is as high as three to four hundred degrees. If you are not careful, your body will be burned. The cardboard used for the paper pressing type is a specially made imported material, which is resistant to high temperatures and not easily deformed.

　　After the lead type rolls out the uneven fonts on the cardboard, the casting master loads the cardboard into a semi-circular plate casting machine. Lead water with a high temperature of 300 to 400 degrees is injected into the machine at the same time. It interlocks with the paper shape and becomes an arch after cooling. The lead plate is then handed over to the printer and installed on the rotary machine, and then printing begins.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)