Chapter 20 2. Features of the Song and Yuan editions

The Song and Yuan Dynasties were the heyday of engraving and printing in my country. Books in the Song and Yuan editions were known as "Song and Yuan Old Trees" because of their excellent engraving, and have always been respected as rare books. In particular, the engraved books in the Song Dynasty are the source of book art for later generations. . Books engraved in the Song Dynasty had their own unique style. From the perspective of fonts, the engraved books in the early Northern Song Dynasty mostly used Ouyang Xun's European style.The European style characters are thin, beautiful, slightly long, and the turning strokes are thin and angular.Later, Yan Zhenqing's face gradually became popular, with fat fonts, majestic and simple, and open frames.After the Southern Song Dynasty, Liu Gongquan's Liu style characters increased day by day.The willow body is slightly thinner than the Yan body, the strokes are straight and powerful, the strokes rise and fall, the strokes are slightly thinner, and the strokes are light and heavy vertically.The fonts used in different engraving regions are slightly different. Among them, the Bianliang and Zhejiang scripts mostly use European fonts, the Shu scripts mostly use Yan fonts, the Fujian scripts mostly use Liu fonts, and the Jiangxi engraved editions use both European fonts and Liu fonts.

Judging from the ink color and knife technique of the engraving board, the ink used in the Song edition books is excellent, and the colors are as thick as lacquer. Although it is wet, there is no drift.Song engraved books require exquisite and serious engraving and knife techniques, meticulous calligraphy and painting, without losing the air of the original book.Its paper is smooth and tough, mostly yellow and white, the thin ones are like cicada wings, and the thick ones can be printed on both sides. Among them, Zhejiang block editions and Shu block editions mostly use leather paper, and Fujian block editions mostly use bamboo paper as thin as cicada wings.The Song version of the book has a saying that "the paper is fragrant and the ink is moist, elegant and ancient", and it is the best product among printed books.

From the layout point of view, most of the engraved books in the early Song Dynasty had a single column around the four sides, and later gradually evolved into double columns on the left and right, and a single column on the top and bottom.The Song version has wide lines, sparse characters, white mouth, single fish tail, and thick ink.Most of the engraver's name and word count are on the center of the plate.In some Song edition books, the small topic is at the top and the big topic is at the bottom.There are usually inscriptions engraved on the end of the book, and there are "book ears" engraved on the upper corners outside the left and right columns.Song books also have a common feature, that is, although the number of words in each line is the same, the spacing of the words is mostly irregular when viewed horizontally.The binding of the Song edition books is mainly in butterfly binding, and a few books are in whirlwind binding and folded binding.

Another feature of the Song version of the book is that due to the proliferation of the taboo system in the Song Dynasty, not only the names of the reigning emperors, but also the names of the emperor's ancestors must be avoided, and even the words that have the same pronunciation as their names must also be avoided.This situation is reflected in the Song edition books, especially the official engraved editions, where many taboo words will appear.The way to avoid the taboo is to avoid it by engraving the name of the current emperor in small characters; After the Yuan Dynasty established its political power, in order to consolidate its political rule, it also attached great importance to the development of cultural undertakings. Block-printed books in the Yuan Dynasty were generally well-made, and their quality was not inferior to that of Song editions.Yuan edition books also have their own characteristics and styles.There are three outstanding features in the fonts of the engraved editions of the Yuan Dynasty. One is that Zhao Mengfu's fonts are mostly used in engraved books.At the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, the fonts of engraved scripts were inherited from the legacy of the Song and Jin Dynasties. Since Zhao Mengfu took office in the Yuan government, his calligraphy has had a great influence on society.Since then, the engravings of the Yuan Dynasty, regardless of official engravings or private engravings, basically use Zhao style characters, which has been influential until the early Ming Dynasty.The second is to use words without taboo.The rulers of the Yuan Dynasty came from ethnic minorities, and their concept of etiquette was very light, and taboos were not strictly avoided, so there is almost no trace of taboo characters in the Yuan block edition.The third is to use simplified characters and vulgar characters more.Yuan block editions use simplified characters and vulgar characters. There are more in square block editions, but less in official and private engravings. There are more in novels and fewer in classics and history anthologies.Since the Yuan government determined the new Mongolian characters as common national characters, the requirements for writing and engraving Chinese characters were not strict. In the bookstore, the pictures were fast and simple, and the engraving was labor-saving. It is very common to use "Pang" as "Pang" and "Shuang" as "Shuang".However, more simplified characters are used in the Jianben "Ancient and Modern Calligraphy Collection" and "Five Kinds of Quanxiang Pinghua" in Yu's Wubentang.

Judging from the layout of the Yuan edition, it is close to the Song edition at the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty.Changes occurred in the mid-Yuan Dynasty. In order to save paper, the square-cut editions gradually became denser, and the fonts changed, from the left and right sides to the surrounding sides. The catalog and the titles of the texts are often engraved with fish tails. , Pisces tail, the thin line has also become a thick black line.Most of the fish tails are flower fish tails.There are many inscriptions, especially in private workshops, most of which have inscriptions, which is helpful for the approval of editions.

Binding of Yuan edition books is popular.Fujian paper was mostly used for block-printed editions in the Yuan Dynasty, and its paper quality was relatively rough, and some were brown in color.In the Yuan Dynasty, the most engraved editions were from Jianyang Shufang.