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Four great inventions in ancient China

The important position of the four great inventions in the history of human civilization. Printing, compass, gunpowder and papermaking are four great inventions in ancient China, and they are one of the symbols that China has become an ancient civilization. In ancient times, China's science and technology were in the forefront of the world in many aspects. Thousands of years after the 5th century, Europe was in a feudal society. In this long period, China's science and technology has been developing, while Europe's science and technology has stagnated. Only in 15 and 6th centuries, due to the disintegration of feudal system and the gradual formation of capitalist system, modern natural science in Europe was born.

China's four great inventions were introduced to the west one after another before the emergence of modern European civilization, which became "the necessary prerequisite for the development of the bourgeoisie" (the complete works of Marx and Engels), providing a material basis for the bourgeoisie to step onto the political stage: the appearance of printing changed the situation that only monks could study and receive higher education, which facilitated the spread of culture; The use of gunpowder and firearms destroyed feudal castles and helped the bourgeoisie defeat feudal nobles; The arrival of the compass in the hands of European navigators made it possible for them to discover America and sail around the world, which laid the foundation for the bourgeois world trade and the development of workshop handicrafts. In a word, the four great inventions of ancient China left a brilliant page in the history of human science and culture. These great inventions have influenced and benefited the whole world and promoted the progress of human history.

The invention of the compass

One of four great inventions of ancient china. Pointers made by using the north-south finger polarity of magnets in the earth's magnetic field have many shapes. During the Warring States period, magnets were found to attract iron, and natural magnets were used to make "SiNa spoon" and "its handle guide". After a long period of practice, it was found that the method of artificial magnetization led to a higher level of magnetic director. Shen Kuo, a scientist in the Song Dynasty, first recorded the geomagnetic declination, saying that rubbing a steel needle with a natural magnet to magnetize it into a magnetic needle can be used as a guide, but it is often slightly to the east, and introduced four methods of supporting and hanging the magnetic needle: one is floating on the water, the other is hanging on a nail, the third is hanging on the edge of a bowl, and the fourth is hanging with a line (see the compass replication model recorded by Shen Kuo). Song Jun is equipped with a kind of guide fish, which judges the direction of cloudy days and nights by cutting thin iron leaves into the shape of fish and magnetizing them. Later, it developed into a compass with a magnetic needle and an azimuth disk, that is, a compass. Zeng Sanyi recorded in Records of Yin Hua that there were "ground snails", "or meridian needles, or a needle was sewn between meridian and Bingren". This kind of land is also a water compass. At that time, Yin and Yang used Luo to watch Feng Shui. Land is also used to clear fields and adjudicate land litigation. According to the records of Ke Tan, Xuan He Tu Jing, Zhu Fanzhi and Lu, compass navigation was used in the late Northern Song Dynasty at the latest, and "dial" navigation was used in the Southern Song Dynasty. This dial also uses "floating needle", which has played a great role in the development of maritime traffic and economic and cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries.

The earliest "compass" During the Warring States period, our people used magnets to create a tool to indicate the direction, called "compass". "Sina" means guide.

The shape of Sina is completely different from the current compass. It is made according to the shape of an ancient spoon in China, much like the spoon we use now.

How did Sina make it? There is a lack of detailed records in ancient books, and there is no physical object left, so we can't know its exact shape. According to experts' research, Sina will polish the whole natural magnet into a spoon shape, and polish its S pole into a long handle, so that the center of gravity falls in the middle of the round and smooth bottom.

When Sina is finished, she will make a smooth chassis. When in use, first put the chassis flat, then put Sina in the middle of the chassis, and move its handle by hand to make it rotate. When Sina stopped, its long handle pointed south and its spoon mouth pointed north.

SiNa chassis is made of bronze, have a plenty of a painted board, bronze and lacquerware are very smooth, friction resistance is very small, SiNa rotation is very flexible. This kind of chassis has an inner ring and an outer ring, and the periphery is also engraved with grid lines and characters indicating orientation. Among the unearthed cultural relics, there are such bronze plates and painted wooden plates; There is also a stone carving of the Eastern Han Dynasty, carved on a small square platform with a small spoon. Some people think this is Sina.

Sina is the earliest "compass" in the world. During the Warring States period, some people went to collect jade, and they were afraid of getting lost in the barren hills, so they took Sina with them.

Sina must rotate on a smooth chassis, and the chassis must be flat, otherwise it will affect its guiding role and even make it slide off the chassis. Therefore, after people invented Sina, they continued to study it.

Investigate tools to improve the guide.

In 960, Song Taizu established the Song Dynasty, ending the feudal regime in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. During the Northern Song Dynasty, agriculture, handicrafts and commerce all made new progress. On this basis, China has made brilliant scientific and technological achievements. During the Song Dynasty, China made great progress in making compasses, just like papermaking and printing.

About the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, China also created a guiding tool-guiding blind fish.

At that time, there was a famous military work called "General Theory of Wu Jing", which said: When marching, if it is cloudy and dark and you can't tell the direction, you should let the old horse lead the way, or use a compass and compass to tell the direction. Wu Jing Zong Yao was written in the fourth year of Renzong in the Northern Song Dynasty (A.D. 1044). In other words, at that time, there were already guide fish in China and they were applied to the military.

The compass is made of a thin piece of steel, which looks like a fish. It is two inches long and five minutes wide, and the belly of the fish is partially sunken, so that it can float on the water like a boat.

Fish made of steel sheet is not magnetic, so it has no guiding function. If you want it to be a guide, you must also use artificial magnetic transfer to make it a magnetic magnet.

The Wu Jing Tong Jian does not clearly record how to transmit magnetism manually, but points out that it is necessary to collect guide fish with a "secret device", that is, to hide a sealed zygote. According to this view, the artificial magnetic transmission method at that time was probably like this: fish made of steel sheet and natural magnet were placed in the same sealed fertilized egg and let them contact. After a long time, fish made of steel will also be magnetic and become magnets.

It turns out that every molecule in magnetized or unmagnetized steel is a "small magnet". Without magnetization, the molecular arrangement of steel bars is disordered, and the magnetism of "small magnets" cancels each other out. Magnetized steel bar, all the "small magnets" are arranged neatly, and the same magnetic poles face one direction. Needless to say, the whole steel bar is magnetic. If you take a magnet and rub it tightly against an unmagnetized steel bar, it always moves from one end to the other, then, due to the attraction of the magnet, the molecules in the ordinary steel bar are also arranged in one direction, thus completing the work of "magnetic transfer". The "secret collection" mentioned in Wu Yao may refer to this method of artificial magnetic transmission.

Our people invented artificial magnets to make guide fish, which is a great progress. This shows that our people had quite rich knowledge of magnets more than 900 years ago.

It is more convenient to use guide fish than Sina. You don't need to make a smooth copper plate, just a bowl of water. Even if the water in the bowl is put unevenly, it will not affect the function of the guide, because the water in the bowl is flat. Moreover, because the friction of liquid is smaller than that of solid, it is more flexible to rotate, so it is more sensitive and accurate than Sina.

At that time, there were not only compass fish made of steel, but also compass fish and guide turtles made of wood. The Song Dynasty's "Stone Forest Guang Ji" recorded the method of making a guide fish out of wood: carve a piece of wood into the shape of a fish, the size of a finger, dig a hole in the fish's mouth, put a magnet in it, make it S-class, and then seal the mouth with wax. In addition, insert a needle into the fish mouth, and the fish in the south of the room will be fine. Put the guide fish on the water, and the needle in the fish's mouth points south.

Guide turtles are also carved from wood, and magnets are placed in the tail like wooden guide fish. The tortoise was not put in the water. People dig a hole under its belly and put it on a smooth bamboo nail to let it rotate freely. The pointer on its tail will automatically point south.

This kind of wooden guide fish and turtle was probably created by some alchemists who knew magic, and then it was only used for magic. Therefore, the author of Shilin Guangji regards them as "the illusion of the gods".

The invention of gunpowder

One of four great inventions of ancient china. When making drugs, ancient alchemists gradually discovered that the mixture of sulfur (S), flame nitrate (KN□) and charcoal (C) had the ability to burn and explode. At the end of the Tang Dynasty (904 ~ 906), gunpowder arrows began to appear in the war, and there was also a record that "Fei Huo was the starting soldier", that is, a trebuchet was used to throw gunpowder bags as combustible weapons. In the Song Dynasty, Kaifeng Prefecture in Tokyo (now Kaifeng, Henan Province) set up a wide range of siege fortifications, including the department that made gunpowder. Wu Yao recorded three formulations of gunpowder, and the production of gunpowder has reached a considerable scale. Although the production technology was strictly confidential, it was introduced into Liao Dynasty. Therefore, while importing a large amount of sulfur from Japan, it is forbidden to export sulfur and mirabilite to Liaoning. When Zhao Zhuan was in Song Shenzong, a large number of border guards were equipped with gunpowder bows and arrows, gunpowder artillery arrows and other weapons. During Liao Daozong's reign, he also analyzed the Japanese artillery in Tianjin (now Beijing) in Nanjing. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the water army was also equipped with thunderbolt guns, artillery, rockets and other weapons, and set up gunpowder weapons manufacturing industries in Jiankangfu (now Nanjing, Jiangsu), Jiangling (now Jiangling, Hubei) and other cities. Early gunpowder weapons had limited power and could not replace cold weapons. However, since the mid-Southern Song Dynasty, the proportion of gunpowder weapons in weapons has obviously increased (see colorful arrow (model), which is one of the gunpowder weapons equipped by the army in the Song Dynasty by tying the gunpowder barrel to the front end of the arrow and using the back thrust generated by gunpowder combustion to push the arrow forward). The gunpowder manufacturing technology in the Jin Dynasty originated from the Liao Dynasty, and the Jin army used artillery at the beginning of attacking the Song Dynasty. Since then, gunpowder has been used more and more frequently in the wars of Song, Jin and Yuan Dynasties. At the end of the Jin dynasty, when fighting against the Mongolian army, firearms such as thunderbolt and flying hair gun were used. Iron cannons similar to modern artillery shells appeared in the Song Dynasty, but they were still projected by trebuchets. He also invented a musket, which used giant bamboo as the barrel to launch a "sub-nest", similar to later guns, but did not use a metal launch tube. This is the limit of the progress of gunpowder weapons in Liao, Song and Jin Dynasties, but it determines the development direction of gunpowder weapons in later generations. In a word, the Liao, Song and Jin Dynasties can be regarded as the foundation period of human use of gunpowder. In the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, tubular firearms made of copper and iron-spears and cannons-were found.

During the Southern Song Dynasty, the use of gunpowder became more and more common, and firearms were further developed. In order to resist the invasion of Jin Bing in the Southern Song Dynasty, the military strategists constantly tried to improve their weapons. In the early Southern Song Dynasty, in the second year of Shaoxing, Song Gaozong (A.D. 1 132), the military strategist Tao Jing invented the tubular fire.

Weapon-musket, which is a great progress in the history of firearms.

This musket is made of a long bamboo pole, which is filled with gunpowder. In a war, two people hold it, light it, shoot it, and burn the enemy with it.

This is the earliest tubular firearm in China. Putting gunpowder in a bamboo tube to make a musket is a great progress in the application of gunpowder. It is not easy to hit the target accurately by firing gunpowder with trebuchet; With tubular firearms, people can fire more accurately and properly handle the initiation of arson drugs.

After the invention of musket, after continuous improvement, it was not until the Southern Song Dynasty that someone invented musket. The musket is made of thick bamboo tube, which contains gunpowder and something called "Zizhen". After the gunpowder is ignited with a torch, it first emits a flame, and then the "bullet" is ejected, making a sound like a gun.

What exactly is this "sub-nest"? Probably one of the earliest bullets, but unfortunately it is not explained in ancient books.

The function of musket is only to burn people, but the sudden musket can hit people, which is a step further than musket.

Musketeers and muskets are primitive tubular firearms made of bamboo tubes, which are not powerful, but they are the ancestors of modern firearms. Modern guns developed slowly from them.

The invention of papermaking

In the first year of Yuan Xing in the Eastern Han Dynasty (105), Cai Lun reformed and popularized papermaking technology on the basis of predecessors' papermaking technology. The new papermaking technology has changed the old hemp paper that is inconvenient to write into a good paper technology with the same general structure.

Before Cai Lun papermaking appeared, in China, Oracle Bone Inscriptions was used in Shang Dynasty, bronze ware was used in Western Zhou Dynasty, and bamboo slips, wooden slips and silks were used in Spring and Autumn Period. In the Han Dynasty, agriculture was developed, economy was prosperous, national strength was strong, and cultural undertakings were prosperous. Thick bamboo slips and expensive silk can no longer meet people's needs, and seeking new writing materials has become the general trend, so papermaking came into being.

According to the ancient hemp paper unearthed in Xinjiang, Shaanxi, Gansu and other places since the middle of the 20th century, experts confirmed that it was the flake fiber of hemp paper in the Western Han Dynasty, indicating that papermaking may have appeared before Cai Lun, which may be related to people's treatment of textile hemp. However, no recognizable characters were found in these ancient magu papers in the Western Han Dynasty, and the interpretation of laboratory analysis results was not the same. Whether there was a paper industry in the Western Han Dynasty is still controversial. The record of Cai Lun Biography of the Later Han Dynasty about Cai Lun's invention of papermaking is the earliest accurate record of time and words so far, which has been widely recognized by people.

Cai Lun (62 ~ 12 1), a native of Guiyang (now Chenzhou, Hunan), entered the palace as an official in the eighteenth year of Yongping, Ming Di (75). In the first year of Zhang He (87), he became Shang Fangling, in charge of the palace handicraft workshop. He invented papermaking in the first year of Yuan Xing (105). In the first year of Yuan Dynasty (1 14), Long Ting was sealed. Andy died in the first year of Jianguang (12 1) and was buried in the fief.

The Biography of Cai Lun in the later Han Dynasty records that before Cai Lun made paper, the paper for writing notes was actually silk, while Cai Lun made plant fiber paper from bark, hemp, rags and fishing nets through a series of technological processes, such as crushing, ramming, copying and baking. It is a kind of good paper with the same structure and is also a real paper. 105, Cai Lun presented paper to Emperor Han Xian, which was praised by the Emperor. Papermaking is well known all over the world, and the paper made by Cai Lun is called "Cai Hou Paper"; 105 is generally considered as the invention era of papermaking.

Cai Lun's reform and popularization of papermaking made the use of paper more and more after the Eastern Han Dynasty. From the archaeological excavations in ancient paper in the Eastern Han Dynasty, it can be seen that many of them have written fonts, and the quality has been obviously improved. These ancient paper in the Eastern Han Dynasty, or the remains of poems, letters or letters, are the products of the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, which should be exactly around the fourth year of Yongchuan (1 10). Scientists have made a detailed scientific analysis of 1974 ancient paper with handwriting unearthed from the tombs of the late Eastern Han Dynasty in Wuwei, Gansu. It is found that ancient paper has certain strength and flexibility, and its thickness is equivalent to that of modern machine-made manuscript paper. The raw material is hemp fiber, such as hemp, which is closely knotted and tightly wrapped on one side, indicating that the papermaking technology at that time was quite fine and the papermaking technology had reached a certain level.

The use of paper in the Eastern Han Dynasty was recorded in many manuscripts and documents. For example, the tribute paper mentioned in the biography of Deng in the later Han Dynasty and the imperial palace guards and ministers' orders in charge of paper and ink recorded in the book of Guan Baizhi in the later Han Dynasty all show that paper has been widely used in the court. However, the notes, writing paper in the Biography of Yan Dou in the Later Han Dynasty and the letterhead in the Book of Bei Tang show that ordinary officials and scholars also write on paper.

The invention of papermaking is one of the greatest inventions in ancient China and the most outstanding achievement in the history of human civilization. The emergence of paper is the foundation of human civilization. As a new information carrier, it first appeared in China, making the civilization of Han Dynasty in China more prosperous than other civilizations. Around the 8th century, Arabs began to use China's technology and equipment to make paper.

The appearance and popularization of paper brought a brand-new look to the cultural life after the Han Dynasty. The quality of paper is getting better and better. In the second year of Pingping in Hanzhong (185), Zuo Bo, an expert in paper making in Shandong, made Zuo Bo paper, which was called "paper in the instrument is brilliant" in history. From the 2nd century to the 5th century, Zuo Bo's paper, Zhang Zhi's pen and Dan Wei's ink were once literati's favorite stationery. However, bamboo slips and silk books are still the main writing materials in the Han Dynasty. Until the Jin Dynasty, with the development of economy, papermaking spread to the Yangtze River valley and the south of the Yangtze River. There were abundant raw materials for papermaking, and more and better papers appeared. The prevalence of reading, copying books and collecting books in Jin Dynasty benefited from the popularization and promotion of paper. The fever of copying classics, the fever of collecting books, and Luoyang paper, which is expensive because of copying Zuo Si's Sandu Fu, are all unprecedented landscapes after the popularization of paper.

The invention of printing

Since the advent of paper, with the development of economy and culture, more and more people are reading books, and the demand for books has greatly increased.

In the early years of the Jin Dynasty, there were 29,945 books in the government. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Emperor Liang Yuan collected more than 70,000 books in Jiangling, and the Sui Dynasty collected 370,000 books in Jiazetang, which is the highest collection record of the ancient National Library of China.

Besides official books, there are more and more private books. For example, Mrs. Guo of the Jin Dynasty has a collection of 5,000 volumes; When Zhang Hua moved, one person used thirty cars to transport books.

Before the invention of printing, only the government and the rich like Mrs. Guo and Zhang Hua could have so many books, and it was not easy for ordinary people to get one or two, because all the books at that time were manuscripts. How much manpower it takes to copy so many manuscripts! If this situation does not change, how can we meet the needs of society?

It is often the case in history that a scientific invention will appear as long as it is urgently needed by society and has material conditions for production. This is the emergence of block printing.

Before block printing appeared, seals and rubbings were widely used in society.

There are two kinds of seals: Yang Wen and Yin Wen. The words engraved in Yang Wen are convex, while those engraved in Yin Wen are concave. "If you use a seal in Yang Wen, it will be printed on black paper with a white background, which is very eye-catching. However, seals are generally small and the number of words printed is limited.

Inscriptions are generally written in female, and the development is white on a black background, which is not eye-catching. Moreover, the rubbing process is complicated and it is not convenient to print books. But rubbings have a great advantage, that is, the area of stone tablets is relatively large, and many words can be rubbings at a time.

What if we learn from each other's strengths and combine the characteristics of rubbing? Of course the situation is different.

Inspired by the two methods of rubbing, the working people in our country invented block printing.

The method of block printing is as follows: saw the wood into pieces of boards, write the words to be printed on thin paper and stick them on the boards, and then carve Yang Wen one by one with a knife according to the strokes of each word, so that the strokes of each word stand out on the boards. After the board is carved, you can print books. When printing a book, first dip the brush in ink, brush it on the carved board, then cover it with self-paper, brush it gently on the back of the paper with a clean brush, and then take off the paper, and a page of the book will be printed. After page-by-page printing and binding, the book is a success. This printing method is lettering printing on wooden boards, so everyone calls it "block printing".

When did China invent woodblock printing? Historians have not yet reached an agreement on this issue, but most people think it was invented in the Tang Dynasty.

At the end of Sui Dynasty and the beginning of Tang Dynasty, the large-scale peasant uprising promoted the development of social production and the vigorous development of cultural undertakings, which objectively produced an urgent demand for block printing.

According to Shao Jingbang's book Hong, the Empress Stone of Emperor Taizong collected the stories of typical women in feudal society. I wrote a book called "Women's Rules". After ten years of Zhenguan, the eldest grandson of the earth died, and someone in the palace gave this book to Emperor Taizong. After reading it, Emperor Taizong ordered it to be printed by block printing.

The tenth year of Zhenguan was 636 AD. The publication date of the women's rules may be this year or later. This is the earliest print mentioned in China literature. Analyze from these data. Perhaps at that time, people had begun to print books with block printing, so Emperor Taizong thought of printing women's rules. The invention of block printing certainly predates the publication of Women's Rules.

By the ninth century, it was quite common for China to print books by block printing.

There was an outstanding poet named Bai Juyi in the Tang Dynasty. He compiled his poems into a collection of poems-Bai Changqing Collection, which was held on December 10th in the 4th year of Changqing (AD 825 1 2nd). Bai Juyi's friend Yuan Zhen wrote a preface for Bai Juyi's Changqing Collection, saying that Bai Juyi's poems were "copied" and sold everywhere.

In the past, people called the carved stone "mole", but in the Tang Dynasty, the carved stone was also called "mole". The word "Moller" here means block printing.

There is such a record in the Book of Old Tang Dynasty. In December of the ninth year of Daiwa (AD 835), Tang Wenzong ordered all localities not to engrave almanac privately. What's going on here? According to other ancient books, it is like this: people in Jiannan, Liangchuan and Huainan Road at that time. Almanac is printed by block printing and sold on the street. Every year, Si Tiantai, who is in charge of calendars, has never called a new calendar, but new calendars printed by the people are everywhere. It was the privilege of feudal emperors to issue calendars. Su Feng, our envoy to Dongchuan, called for banning private publication of almanac in order to safeguard the prestige of the imperial court. Almanac is related to agricultural production and farmers need it very much. How to ban orders? Although Tang Wenzong gave this order, the almanac engraved by the people is still popular everywhere. Even in the same area, there is more than one kind of folk printed almanac.

During the Huang Chao Uprising, Tang Xizong fled to Sichuan in panic. The emperor also escaped, and of course no one came to take care of the prohibition of printing almanac. So the local people in Jiangdong made up their own almanac and sold it. In the first year of Zhonghe in Tang Xizong (AD 88 1 year), two people printed an almanac, which was one day later than the sun and the moon, and there was an argument. A local official said, "We are all in the same business. What's the difference between a day and a half? " How can an almanac be one day worse? What the local officials said really made people laugh. This tells us that there are at least two printed almanac in Jiangdong alone.

Liu Pi, who fled to Sichuan with Tang Xizong at that time, also said in the preface of family instruction that he had seen many books about Yin and Yang, miscellaneous notes and dreamers in the bookstore in Chengdu. Most of these books are woodcut. It can be seen that the printing industry in Chengdu was relatively developed at that time, not only printing almanac, but also printing various other books.

There is only one book, The Diamond Sutra, which was carved in the Tang Dynasty by Xian Tong in nine years. Xian Tong was nine years in 868, and it has been more than one thousand years since now. How did this printed matter 1000 years ago survive? This is another story.

There is Mingsha Mountain in the southeast of Dunhuang, Gansu. As early as the Jin Dynasty, some Buddhists made holes here, carved Buddha statues and built temples. With more and more caves, the number of Buddha statues is also increasing, so people call it "Thousand Buddha Cave". /kloc-in 0/900, when Taoist Wang was repairing a cave, he came across a closed darkroom. He opened it and found bundles of paper rolls, many of which were copied in the Tang Dynasty, and one was the Diamond Sutra carved in the Tang Dynasty.

The Diamond Sutra is about one foot long and one foot high. This is a piece of paper made of seven printed sheets. There is a painting in front of the scroll, which depicts the immortal story of Sakyamuni's statement to his disciples, and the expression is vivid, followed by the full text of the Diamond Sutra. There is not a word in the volume, which means that it was engraved by Xian Tong in nine years.

This book is the earliest woodcut printed book in the world. This painting is also engraved on a whole page, which may be the earliest printed matter in the world.

During the Five Dynasties, there was a feudal bureaucrat named Feng Dao. He was a big official in the short five dynasties and four dynasties, and he was a despicable guy. He saw all kinds of printed books sold by people in Jiangsu, Sichuan and other places, except Confucian classics, and suggested to the emperor that Confucian classics should be printed by block printing in Changxing three years in the late Tang Dynasty.

At that time, * * * printed nine kinds of scriptures, which took four dynasties, and it took 22 years to engrave them all until the last three years of Zhou.

Because this kind of engraving had a great influence, it was of course wrong to think that printing was invented by Feng Dao in the Five Dynasties.

In the Song Dynasty, the printing industry was more developed, and books were carved all over the country. In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, Chengdu printed the Tripitaka, with 130,000 pieces of rigidity; Imperial academy, the central educational institution of the Northern Song government, has more than100000 books on Indian history. From these two figures, we can see the scale of printing industry at that time. There are more than 700 kinds of books printed by block printing in Song Dynasty, with neat and simple fonts and elegant appearance, which have been consulted by Chinese people ever since.

Woodcarving was widely used in the Song Dynasty, but some people carved it with copper plates. The Shanghai Museum has the copperplate used in the printing advertisement of "Liu Jinan Jiagongfu Needle Shop" in the Northern Song Dynasty, which shows that the technology of carving copperplate was mastered at that time.

When it comes to printing books, block printing is indeed a great creation. A book can be printed in many copies as long as it is engraved once, which is many times faster than handwriting.

But in this case, you have to carve a board once to print a book, and it still takes a lot of manpower, and it is impossible to print a large number of books quickly. Some books have a lot of words, and it often takes years to engrave them. In case the book is printed once and not reprinted, no matter how well carved the board is, it is completely useless.

Is there any way to improve it?

By the middle of 1 1 century (during the Qing Dynasty in Song Renzong), an inventor named Bi Sheng in China finally invented a more progressive printing method-movable type printing, which greatly improved the printing technology in China.

Bi Sheng made a long rectangular column out of clay, engraved with words and hardened with fire. This is a movable type. When printing books, prepare an iron plate, put rosin and wax on it, and there is an iron frame around the iron plate. Iron shelves are all movable type, and an iron shelf is a version. Then bake it under the iron plate with fire to melt the rosin and wax. In addition, a movable type board is arranged by pressing the arranged movable type with a flat plate and flattening the words. Like engraving, it can be printed as long as the words are inked.

In order to improve efficiency, he prepared two iron plates and organized two people to work at the same time, one for printing and the other for typesetting; When one board is printed, the second board is ready. The two iron plates are used alternately, and the printing speed is fast.

Bi Sheng carved a few words every word; It is very convenient to carve more than 20 unfamiliar words in Chinese characters, then carve them temporarily and burn them with fire. After printing, heat the iron plate on the fire to melt the rosin and wax, and then the movable type can be removed for next use.

This is the earliest invention of movable type printing. This type of clay is called clay type. Compared with Printing 2 invented by Bi Sheng today, it is primitive, but the three main steps of movable type printing-making movable type, typesetting and printing-are already available. So Bi Sheng's contribution to printing is very remarkable. Shen Kuo, a famous scientist in the Northern Song Dynasty, recorded the movable type printing invented by Bi Sheng in Meng Qian Bi Tan.

After Bi Sheng invented movable type printing, the Korean people began to print books with clay type, and later printed books with wood type. /kloc-In the 3rd century, they first invented printing books with copper movable type. China printed books with copper movable type later than North Korea. The Korean people also created lead movable type and iron movable type.

/kloc-At the end of 0/6th century, Japan invaded Korea and took away a lot of Korean copper movable type and wooden movable type. As a result, the Japanese also learned movable type printing.

Printing in China also spread to Vietnam. /kloc-In the 5th century, Vietnam began to print books with block printing. In the early 18th century, they also began to print books with wooden movable type.

The appearance of European printing was also deeply influenced by China printing.

During the Yuan Dynasty, many Europeans came to China. They were very surprised to see that the paper money printed by the Yuan government could be used instead of gold and silver. In their travel notes, China's banknotes were recorded in great detail.

Many Europeans who came to China at that time lived in Hangzhou and other places. There are many bookstores in Hangzhou, and the sculptors are also very skilled. Some Europeans have lived there for several years, so naturally they brought printing back to Europe.