Chapter 19 1. The invention of movable type printing and the prosperity of engraved books in Song and Yuan Dynasties

The Song and Yuan Dynasties were the prosperous era of my country's engraving and printing industry, and the book engraving industry was very developed.In the long-term practice, the working people of our country summed up their experience and finally invented movable type printing.Movable type printing was invented by Bi Sheng in the middle of the 11th century AD, more than 400 years earlier than the movable type printing invented by German Gutenberg. According to Shen Kuo's "Mengxi Bi Tan", Bi Sheng invented clay movable type.This is the earliest method of movable type printing, and its principles and links are the same as modern printing.But Bi Sheng's invention was not popularized. At that time, woodblock printing was still the main method of printing books.

Even so, after Bi Sheng, the working people of our country actively tried and explored movable type printing.In the early Yuan Dynasty, Yang Gu imitated Bi Sheng's method to print "Xiao Xiao" and other books according to Shen Kuo's records; Four Kinds of Cases of Menjinshi".Later, Wang Zhen of the Yuan Dynasty invented wooden movable type.Wang Zhen was a well-known agronomist in my country in the Yuan Dynasty. During his long-term agricultural research and practice, he accumulated a wealth of knowledge and wrote the 37 volumes of "Nongshu" with great scientific value.In order to print this book, he designed it himself, and spent two years asking craftsmen to carve more than 30,000 woodwork. "Jingde County Chronicle" was a success.For this purpose, he wrote an article "Calligraphy of Making Movable Type", which was attached to "Nong Shu" to introduce this convenient printing method.In the Ming Dynasty, book printing with wooden movable type was quite common. Later, before the introduction of modern Western printing, books were printed with copper movable type, tin movable type and lead movable type.

During the Song and Yuan dynasties, with the improvement and development of printing, a large number of printed books appeared. As early as the founding of the Song Dynasty, Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin ordered Zhang Congxin to go to Chengdu to engrave the Tripitaka in the fourth year of Kaibao (971).There are a total of 5,048 volumes in the collection, 1,076 volumes, and 480 letters.It was not completed until the eighth year of Taiping Xingguo (983).This is the first engraved collection of Buddhist collections in the history of our country, and also the first engraved tome series. The Song and Yuan Dynasties inherited the tradition of engraving books of the Five Dynasties, and the engraving business still followed the three major systems of official engraving, private engraving, and workshop engraving.

The institutions for engraving books by officials in the Song Dynasty can be divided into central and local.In the early Song Dynasty, the book engraving industry was monopolized by the government. The central engraving agency was mainly Guozijian, and the books engraved by Guozijian were called Jianben.The famous four major categories of books in the Song Dynasty, "Taiping Yulan", "Taiping Guangji", "Wenyuan Yinghua" and "Cefu Yuangui", were all engraved by the Imperial College and circulated throughout the country.In addition to emphasizing the compilation and printing of new books, the Song Dynasty also paid attention to the school journals of ancient classics, history, and medical books.In the Taizong era, Guozijian was ordered to revise and engrave the "Nine Classics" and "Four Histories", and engrave "Shuowen Jiezi" and other books.During Renzong's reign, medical books such as "Huangdi Neijing" and "Treatise on Febrile Diseases" were engraved.During Shenzong's time, ten kinds of ancient calculation scriptures such as "Nine Chapters of the Yellow Emperor" and "Zhou Bi Suan Jing" were published.During Zhezong's reign, Sima Guang's historical masterpiece was published.In this way, the scope of engraved books of Guozijian is expanding day by day.

In addition to Guozijian engraving books, central institutions such as Chongwen Academy, Secretary Supervisor, Sitianjian and Correction Medical Book Bureau also engraved books. After the Jingkang disaster, the Song Dynasty went south.Song Gaozong Zhao Gou established the Southern Song Dynasty in Hangzhou.The original Kaifeng Guozijian book editions were all destroyed by the war, and the newly established Guozijian in Hangzhou in the Southern Song Dynasty received the engraved editions and new engraving editions from the local government office to start re-engraving classics and history.Throughout the two Song Dynasties, in the Northern Song Dynasty, the official engravings of the Song Dynasty were mostly in the central government, but in the Southern Song Dynasty, due to the weakness of the engraving and supervision of the Guozijian, it was more local.

The local official engraving institutions in the Southern Song Dynasty had ministers' libraries.The so-called minister's warehouse is equivalent to the current guest house.There is a book printing office in the library, which specializes in printing books.Books engraved with the money of the local government's minister's library are collectively called "Minister's Library".According to Ye Dehui's "Shu Lin Qing Hua", there were as many as ten famous envoys in the Song Dynasty, all of which had engraved books.Such as Suzhou Minister's Bank, Jizhou Minister's Bank, Fuzhou Minister's Bank, etc.The "Zheng Zhuli Ji" engraved by Fuzhou Minister Ku is the most famous, and there is still a copy.Various local government offices in the Southern Song Dynasty, such as the Department of Tea and Salt, the Department of Cao, the Department of Lianyun, the Department of Jitai, and the Department of Tiding, as well as the schools of various states, military schools, counties, and counties also had engraved books.Academies in the Song Dynasty also engaged in book engraving, such as Lize Academy in Wuzhou, West Lake Academy in Hangzhou, and Jian’an Academy in Jianning Prefecture.

The engraved books of the Jin Dynasty, which was at the same time as the Southern Song Dynasty, were centered on Pingyang (now Linfen, Shanxi).In addition, there is also the gold engraved edition of "Zhao Cheng Zang", which is a tome with more than 4,330 volumes. The engraving agencies of the central government in the Yuan Dynasty included the Xingwen Office of the Secretary Supervision, the Guangcheng Bureau of the Art and Culture Supervision, the Printing and Calendar Bureau of the Taishi Academy, and the Guanghui Bureau or Medical Promotion Department of the Imperial Hospital.Among the official printed editions, those of the Xingwen Office are the most famous, and the earliest and best printed edition is "Hu Sanxing Zhuzizhi Tongjian" engraved in the 27th year of the Zhiyuan Dynasty (1290).The Yiwenjian is in charge of the Mongolian translation of Confucian classics, but few engraved books have been handed down.The Tai Hospital is engraved with the medical book "Shengji Zonglu" and so on.The ten "official histories" engraved by the local government office are famous for the ten "official histories" engraved on the ten roads (equivalent to the special area).In the local engraved books of the Yuan Dynasty, the engraved editions of the academies were more influential. Since the academies in various places had rich income from the school fields as funds for engraving books, most of the "mountain chiefs" who presided over the academies were educated people.The three hundred and forty-eight volumes of Ma Duanlin's "Benwen Tongkao" engraved in the first year of Taiding (1340) of West Lake Academy in Hangzhou. The engraving is excellent and the font is beautiful. It is a masterpiece of Yuan Dynasty academy engraving.

In the Southern Song Dynasty, private engraved books flourished.Since the book engraver puts his own reputation first (because the engraver's name is often published in the book), he can fine-tune the book, or choose an excellent rare book as the base for engraving, so the quality of private engraved editions is generally higher.Private editions are often marked with words such as "a certain family school", "a certain hall", "a certain studio", "a certain house" and "a certain mansion".In the Southern Song Dynasty, there were seven famous private engravers of Zhao, Han, Chen, Yue, Liao, Yu and Wang.The "Nine Classics" engraved by Yue Ke Xiangtai's family school was regarded as a rare book by later generations.Han Yu's "Mr. Changli Collection" and Liu Zongyuan's "Hedong Mr. Collection" engraved by Liao Ying Zhongshi Caitang, as well as "Historical Records", "Han Shu" and "Hou Han Shu" engraved by Huang Shanfu are also famous in later generations.

The private engraving of books in the Yuan Dynasty was not inferior to that in the Song Dynasty.According to "Shu Lin Qing Hua" only, there are more than forty private engravings.Yue's Jingshufang carved books were an important force in the book publishing industry in the Song and Yuan Dynasties.It is widely distributed and influential, and has made great achievements in the history of book development in our country.The so-called Fang Ke refers to Shufang engraved books.Bookstore is an ancient shop that sells and engraves books. It is a private publishing unit with commercial nature. .Books engraved by the bookstore are called Fangban, Shufangben or Shusheben.

Book workshops in the Song Dynasty carved books almost all over the country.Chengdu in Sichuan, Hangzhou in Zhejiang, and Jianyang in Fujian are the three largest centers, from the Northern Song Dynasty to the Southern Song Dynasty.Shu engravings were the most prosperous in the early Northern Song Dynasty, which was inherited from the Tang and Five Dynasties.In the late Northern Song Dynasty, Zhejiang carvings were the most exquisite.In the Southern Song Dynasty, the number of Fujian carvings ranked first in the country.In addition to the three centers, Bianliang, Jiankang, Tanzhou, Huizhou, Chaozhou and other places had more engraved books in the Song Dynasty.The contents of the engraved books in the bookstore are very extensive. There are not only primary school books, classics and historical anthologies necessary for literati, but also agricultural and mulberry medical calculations and handbooks for common people's daily use.Poems, novels, commentaries and other folk and popular literature works have high literary and historical value."Da Tang Sanzang Qujing Shihua" published by Zhangjia Bookstore in Wazi Street, Hangzhou is the earliest printed version of Pinghua novels in the Song Dynasty.

Square engravings in the Yuan Dynasty were larger in scale than official engravings.In the Yuan Dynasty, Jianyang County, Fujian Province followed the tradition of engraving books in the Song Dynasty, and it was still a place where bookshops lived together, with the most engraved books.However, Yu’s Qinyoutang, Liu’s Nanjian Shutang, and Liu Jinwen’s Rixintang all have a long history, and most of the existing engraved books in the Yuan Dynasty are the engraved editions of these houses.