Wentang

Chapter 668: Movable Type Printing

Longshou Mountain Printing House is the property of Yueshan.

Zhang Dachun was one of the earliest craftsmen, Yue Shan promoted him to be a steward when he saw that he was a man with outstanding skills, and also let his children study in Longshoushan Academy, so he was very loyal to Yue Shan.

Letting the children of craftsmen and outstanding employees go to Longshoushan Academy is the only way for Yueshan to buy people's hearts.

The phrase "reading can change destiny" is not unique to modern times, and Chinese people have been aware of this since ancient times.

Especially for the ancients, knowledge is a priceless treasure, and it is more important than anything else to let their children study, and it is also Longshoushan Academy with countless famous teachers and scholars.

Many children from rich and powerful families have to queue up to send them in. If their children can go in to study, they are willing to work for Yueshan even if they don’t get paid, not to mention that Yueshan’s wages for them are higher than those of other families.

Many workshops coveted the technology of Yueshan's workshops, and secretly recruited people, but no matter how much they paid, they still couldn't recruit core members.

Knowing that Yue Shan was coming, Zhang Dachun hurried over to greet him: "Boss, you are here."

"Well, how is Guanshi Zhang's bookstore doing recently?" Yue Shan asked.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you. Two more libraries have been built in Beijing recently. Their printing skills are no worse than ours, and they have taken away a lot of our business." Zhang Dachun said shamelessly.

Yue Shan had expected this situation.

Firstly, the technical content of engraving and printing is not high. Originally, the late Tang Dynasty and the early Tang Dynasty were the mature period of this technology.

Yue Shan had come up with mature engraving printing technology in advance, and other printing houses could reproduce the technology with a little care.

In the past few years, there have been hundreds of printing houses in Datang, and the technology is no worse than theirs.And the number is still increasing at a rate of dozens or hundreds every year.

While further lowering the price of books, it also intensified the competition in the book printing business.In this competition, Longshoushan Printing House is not very competitive.

Secondly, Zhang Dachun is good at managing the workshop, and basically has no sales ability.At the beginning, you can take advantage of the technology and enjoy a wave of dividends. When other companies also understand the technology, you can only watch the market being robbed day by day.

So he didn't blame Zhang Dachun.

The dividends from the Royal Commercial Bank are enough for him to last for hundreds of lifetimes, and he doesn't like the hard-earned money of the printing house.The reason why I still keep it is purely for my own convenience.

Seeing Zhang Dachun's guilty look, he comforted him: "It's okay, I didn't think about making money from our book printing house, it's mainly for my own convenience."

"On the other hand, it is to print a few more copies of those rare books so that they will not be lost. You have done a good job in the past few years, and you have saved a lot of rare books. This is more meaningful than how much money you make. By the way, now a total of How many sets of engravings are there?"

Hearing this, Zhang Dachun looked much better, and said excitedly: "A total of 450 engravings of eight books have been made, and two sets are under production. If the craftsmen were not borrowed by Wang Yuanzheng, these two sets have already been made It's over."

Wang Ji on the side didn't react at all, as if what others said was not him.

"Haha... Not bad, this makes me happier than making money. In this way, you will assign some people to be responsible for printing books, and print all the books that are made into engravings, and each book will print [-] copies."

"Ah?" Zhang Dachun said in surprise, "[-] sets of each one are printed? This...is too much, it's not easy to sell."

Wang Ji also looked at Yue Shan in surprise, wondering why he had to print so many books.

Yue Shan smiled and said, "I don't intend to sell it. The Guozijian education system has gradually been completed, and every state and county has a government school."

"It's just that these academies are too weak in their initial foundation. In some places, it is difficult for students to get access to other books besides textbooks, and they cannot expand their knowledge and horizons. This is a big flaw."

"I'm going to donate to each government academy to build a library, and these books are used to donate to the academy."

Both Wang Ji and Zhang Dachun showed expressions of disbelief, donating a library to every government college in the world?Want to donate books?The answer was something they couldn't think of.

"This... this..." Zhang Dachun was so shocked that he couldn't even speak.

The first thing Wang Ji did after waking up was to bow to Yueshan solemnly, and said in admiration: "I thought I knew Cuilan's ideals very well, but today I have a new understanding again. I am very grateful, and also for the world Student thank you."

"Hehe... What is Brother Wugong doing? It's too outlandish to say this in terms of our relationship." Yue Shan chuckled lightly.

"Haha... I'm too hypocritical." Wang Ji stood up and laughed heartily.Sure enough, he did not misunderstand the person, and it was not in vain that he had been cheering for Yue Shan for so many years.

Yue Shan was naturally very happy to get the approval of his friends. After laughing, he said to Zhang Dachun: "These books are donated to the academy, and I tell everyone to imprint them with heart."

Zhang Dachun finally came to his senses, and said excitedly: "Please rest assured, Master, this is a matter of great merit, we will not let you down."

After dealing with these matters, Yue Shan began to talk about the real purpose of coming here today.

Zhang Dachun himself is the best engraving craftsman in the book printing workshop, just listening to Yue Shan's description, he understands what movable type printing is all about, and also understands how great technological progress it will be if it can be realized.

The soul of the craftsman erupted instantly, and he didn't care about the etiquette and impoliteness, so he immediately called a few assistants to start the experiment.

First, calculate various data, such as the size of the chassis, the size of the blocks used for each character, and so on.

After the data is calculated, someone makes the chassis, someone makes small wooden blocks, someone does carving, and someone finds candles for ready use.

Several people worked together, and soon the "character model" included in the first chapter of the Analects of Confucius was produced.Swing it inside the chassis, the proportion is just right.

Then melt the candles and lay them flat on the base plate, and arrange the 'font models' according to the order of the first chapter of the Analects.

There were a lot of problems in this step. Some fonts were high and some were low. It took a long time to put all the fonts on the same level.

After the wax oil solidified, a layer of ink was painted on the template, a piece of white paper was laid on it, and a flat wooden board was scraped on it twice.

Under everyone's gaze, Zhang Dachun opened the piece of paper with trembling hands.

"Oh..." In the next moment, there were enthusiastic cheers in the workshop.

I saw the first chapter of the Analects clearly appearing on this paper, and movable type printing was a success.

This thing doesn't look as difficult as it says in the history books. Didn't it succeed once?Was the history book wrong, or was it my luck that I somehow solved the mystery?Yue Shan thought suspiciously.

"Boss, please have a look." Zhang Dachun held the paper and handed it to Yue Shan respectfully.

Yue Shan stopped his thoughts, took the paper and examined it carefully.

At first glance, it is indeed very clear, and it is no different from the woodblock printing, but if you look closely, you can find the difference.

The ranks are not as neat as engraving, some characters are spaced too large or too small, some characters are skewed, and some characters are out of line up or down...

The reason can be known after a little thought. After all, it is a hand-made font, and it is normal for there to be slight differences in size.

The characters on the font are also carved one by one. There is no front and rear characters as a reference, so it may not be exactly carved in the center.

Firstly, there is a difference in the size of the fonts, and then there will be differences in the engraving on these fonts, and there will be errors in the naked eye when photographing the fonts on the chassis.

These small differences add up to a big problem.

This is only the first chapter of the Analects of Confucius. If it is a tome like Shiji, the workload will increase and the error will also increase...Plus there may be other shortcomings that have not been exposed. No wonder the original movable type printing in history did not Not very tasty.

In comparison, everyone definitely prefers books printed with exquisite and clear engravings.

"Look at it too." Yue Shan passed the paper to Wang Ji.

Wang Ji picked it up and looked it over carefully, and also found these problems.However, unlike Yue Shan, he couldn't figure out the reasons for these problems all at once, so he could only ask Yue Shan for advice.

Yue Shan didn't hide anything, and explained all the problems in detail.

Only then did he understand what was going on, and at the same time, he also knew why Yue Shan had been saying that there was a problem with this printing technique, which was indeed a big problem.

Zhang Dachun nodded again and again, just now he was also thinking about why such a problem occurred, and he had a general judgment in his heart, but it was not as comprehensive as Yue Shan said.

Listening to Yue Shan's explanation at this time, my heart is suddenly enlightened.But then I fell into deep thought again, how to solve these problems?

But soon his thinking was interrupted by Wang Ji: "Guan Zhang, I wonder if you can make the typeface smaller. It's best to make it about the same size as the wax printing font."

"It's similar to wax printing?" Zhang Dachun scratched his head and said, "It's very difficult, I can let someone try it."

"It's troublesome, I have great use, please try it as soon as possible, if it doesn't work, try it and see how small the font can be made." Wang Ji said.

"Okay, I'll let someone experiment." Zhang Dachun immediately arranged for several craftsmen to try to make the smallest font.

After they discussed it, Yue Shan asked: "Are you sure you want to use movable type printing?"

Wang Ji said affirmatively: "Yeah, there are indeed problems with movable type printing for book printing, but these flaws are completely tolerable for newspapers."

"If we really make a suitable typeface, we can shorten the release time of each issue to ten days or one week, or even shorter."

"Even if other competitors appear at that time, we will be able to defeat them with lower cost and denser journals."

Yue Shan nodded in agreement, Wang Ji had indeed grasped the essence of the newspaper, the newspaper is first and foremost new and fast, but the content is second—at least at this stage.

What the intellectuals of the Tang Dynasty lack the most is such a channel, a newer and faster channel for them to understand the outside world and express their views.Whoever publishes the journal more frequently and faster wins.

My cost is lower, and I can publish an issue in three days.Your cost is higher, and it takes ten days to publish one issue.Who will everyone choose?Your newspaper is printed with engraving, it is more exquisite, what's the use?

The flaws of movable type were not a big problem for newspapers.

After that, it was to test how many times a prepared movable type template could be used. After hundreds of continuous printings, problems occurred again.

The typefaces on the edge were brushed back and forth, separated from the underlying wax and became wobbly.

They had to stop and re-melt the wax to arrange the type, and finally inserted thin wood chips into the gap between the chassis and the type to completely reinforce it.

But the result of this is that some words are more crooked and wrong, but overall it doesn't seem to affect reading.

After several times of experiments like this, most of the problems were solved, and it was possible to print more than a thousand times without any problems.

The experiment here was successful, and the font engraving team over there also made new achievements.

The soybean-sized typeface requested by Wang Ji was actually made for them.

It's just that the production of this kind of font is very difficult, and only some craftsmen with high craftsmanship can carve it.Moreover, the typeface is also relatively fragile, and it will be broken if it is not used properly.

But these problems are not a problem for Wang Ji. If there is a shortage of craftsmen, he will train them, hire them, and go to other places to dig people, as long as they can make suitable fonts.

The initial investment may be a bit large and troublesome, but when enough fonts are produced, the Weishui Journal will really take off.

Yue Shan didn't care about these things, he did everything he could, and the rest was Wang Ji's business.

After that, Wang Ji went to work on movable type printing, while Yue Shan stared at the Weishui Journal and asked them to print Li Yuan's personal biography.

Of course, this cannot be printed with movable type. First, there is too little time, and second, the quality is not good.Printing ordinary newspapers is fine, but printing Li Yuan's biography is courting death.

Only engraving can be used.

However, the people in the newspaper office were not stupid enough to engrave all the words on one engraving block.They divided a newspaper into eight parts, and after the layout was arranged, eight engraving blocks could be produced at the same time, which increased the speed by eight times.

This biography has more than [-] words, which just happens to fill up a newspaper, which is very convenient.

But considering that the Weishui Journal has a circulation of 20 to [-] copies, this biography of Li Yuan is estimated to have a higher circulation, and Yue Shan is rushing to get [-] copies.Only one set of block printing would be slow.

For this reason, Yue Shan called all the artisans from his own book printing workshop, dozens of artisans started working at the same time, and made twenty sets of templates in one go.

Then the printing workers rushed to work non-stop, and 20 copies of the Weishui Journal were printed a week later.

Yue Shan was not in a hurry to issue it, but took the newspaper to the court during an early court, and presented the newspaper to Li Shimin in front of all his courtiers.

Acting in a full set, he naturally wouldn't say, "The newspaper we agreed upon has been printed, and you can see if it can be distributed."

The rhetoric he used was: In gratitude for the kindness of the Supreme Emperor, he wrote a biography of the Supreme Emperor and planned to publish it in the Weishui Journal. Please forgive him for his disrespect.This is a sample report specially presented to the saint to read.

Li Shimin also pretended to know about this matter just now, and pretended to check it.

Then, on the grounds that seeing this biography aroused his father-son affection for the Supreme Emperor, so that it was impossible to judge whether it was acceptable or not, he asked the officials to review the biography for him.

No one is a fool, everyone knows that this is Yue Shan and the emperor singing a double reed, and the so-called asking the officials to help with the review is just a formality.

But no one dared to expose it, and no one dared to really hold the newspaper for a long time, and they all just glanced at it symbolically before passing it to the next person.It didn't take long for the newspaper to go around the court and return to Li Shimin's hands.

Naturally, the result was not unexpected. All the ministers praised Yue Shan for his good writing, and they had no objections.

In this way, the last resistance to the distribution of this newspaper in the world also disappeared.

Under the direct order of Hou Yueshan, this issue of the newspaper will be distributed throughout the country for free.

(End of this chapter)