What are the ancient Chinese creations and inventions with names

One of the four great inventions of ancient China. The use of magnets in the earth's magnetic field in the north and south finger polarity and made a pointing instrument, there are a variety of forms. During the Warring States period, the phenomenon of magnetism has been found to absorb iron, and natural magnets to make "Sinan's spoon", "its handle guide". Thereafter, after a long period of practice, the method of artificial magnetization was discovered, resulting in a higher level of magnetic pointing instruments. Song Dynasty scientist Shen Kuo first recorded the geomagnetic declination, said with natural magnets friction steel needle, magnetized into a magnetic needle, you can guide, and often slightly east, and introduced four ways to support the hanging magnetic needle: one is floating on the surface of the water, the second is placed on the nails, the third is placed on the rim of the bowl, and the fourth is the thread hanging (see colorful drawings of strand hanging method of compass according to Shen Kuo records reproduction model). Song army equipped with guide fish, is a thin iron leaf cut into fish-shaped and magnetized, for cloudy days and dark nights to determine the direction of march. Later on, it was developed into a compass, which was a combination of a magnetic needle and an azimuthal disk. Zeng three different in the "YinYuLu" recorded at that time there is "ground conch", "or have zi wu positive needle, or with zi wu, c non between the sewing needle". The ground Luo or a water compass. At that time, the yin and yang family to use the ground Luo to see the feng shui. In the clearing of land and judgment land litigation, also use the ground Luo. According to "pingzhou can talk", "xuanhe envoy gaoliath map scripture", "all tomatoes" and "dream sorghum record" records, as late as in the late Northern Song Dynasty, compass has been used for navigation, the Southern Song Dynasty, the use of "needle plate" navigation. This needle plate also use "floating needle", which for the development of maritime transportation, Chinese and foreign economic and cultural exchanges, played a great role.

The earliest "compass" The Warring States period, our people used magnets to create a directional tool, called "Sinan". The name "Sinan" means "compass".

The shape of the Sinan was completely different from that of today's compasses. It was based on the shape of the ancient Chinese spoon, much like the spoons we use today.

How was Sinan made? There is a lack of detailed records in ancient books and no physical objects left behind, so we have no way to know its exact shape. According to experts, Sinan was made by taking a whole natural magnet, gently faceting it into the shape of a spoon, and faceting its S-pole into a long handle so that the center of gravity would fall in the middle of the round, smooth bottom.

After the Sinan is done, a smooth chassis has to be made. When you use it, put the chassis flat, then put the Sinan in the center of the chassis, and pivot it by hand to make it turn. When the Sinan comes to a stop, its long handle points south and the mouth of the spoon points north.

The sinan's chassis was made of bronze, and some was a lacquered wooden disk; both bronze and lacquer were smoother, with less resistance to friction, and the sinan rotated flexibly. This kind of chassis is round inside and square outside, surrounded by a grid line and text that indicates the orientation. Now the unearthed artifacts, there are such a copper disk and lacquered wooden disk; there is also a stone carving of the Eastern Han Dynasty, engraved with a small spoon on a small square table, some people believe that this is the Sinan.

Sinan is the world's earliest "compass". During the Warring States period, some people went to collect jade, fearing that they would get lost in the barren mountains, so they took Sinan with them.

Sinan had to be placed on a smooth chassis to rotate, and the chassis had to be leveled, otherwise it would affect its guiding effect, and even make it slide down from the chassis. Therefore, after the invention of the Sinan, people continued to research and improve the tools of the guide.

The Sinan was invented in the late 19th century, but it has been used since then.

Guidefish In 960 A.D., Emperor Taizu of the Song Dynasty established the Song Dynasty, ending the feudalism of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. During the Northern Song Dynasty, there were new developments in agriculture, handicrafts and commerce. On this basis, China's science and technology gained brilliant achievements. During the Song Dynasty, China made great development in the manufacture of compasses, just like the paper-making method and printing.

Around the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, China created another kind of guiding tool, the guiding fish.

There was a famous military work called "The General Essentials of Martial Arts", which said that when marching, if it is dark and cloudy and you can't tell where you are going, you should either let an old horse lead the way, or use a guide car and a guide fish to tell where you are going. This book was written before the fourth year of the Qinglian reign of Emperor Renzong of the Northern Song Dynasty (104 A.D.). This means that at that time, China already had guide fish and applied it to the military.

The guide fish was made of a thin piece of steel, shaped much like a fish. It was two inches long and five minutes wide, and the belly part of the fish was concave some so that it could float on the water surface like a small boat.

The fish made of steel has no magnetism, so it has no function as a guide. If you want it to guide, you have to use artificial magnetization again, so that it becomes a magnet and has magnetic properties.

About how to carry out artificial magnetization, "Wu Jing Zhuan Yao" did not understand the record, but it pointed out that the guide fish to use "secret equipment to collect", that is to say, to take a sealed hinge to hide. According to this, the artificial magnetization method at that time was about like this: put the fish made of steel and the natural magnet in the same sealed hinge, so that they are in contact, and after a long time, the fish made of steel will also have magnetic properties, and become a magnet.

Originally, every molecule in magnetized or non-magnetized steel is a "small magnet". Unmagnetized steel bar, its molecules are arranged in no order, "small magnets" of the magnetic properties of each other canceled out. Magnetized steel bar, all the "small magnets" are neatly arranged, homogeneous poles in one direction, needless to say, the entire bar has magnetic properties. If you take a magnet and rub it tightly against an unmagnetized steel bar, always moving from one end to the other, then, due to the magnet's suction, the molecules in the ordinary steel bar are all aligned in one direction, and in this way, the work of "transmitting magnetism" is completed. The "secret weapon to collect" mentioned in the "General Summary of Martial Arts" may refer to this artificial magnetization method.

The invention of using artificial magnets to make guide fish by our people is a great progress. This shows that our people already had quite rich knowledge of magnets more than 900 years ago.

The use of guide fish is more convenient than the use of Sinan, it does not need to make a smooth copper disk, as long as there is a bowl of water. The bowl holding the water, even if it is placed unevenly, will not affect the function of the guide, because the water in the bowl is flat. Moreover, it was more sensitive and accurate than the Sinan because the liquid had less friction than the solid and was more flexible to turn.

There were not only guide fish made of steel, but also guide fish and guide turtles made of wood. The Song Dynasty, "the matter Lin Guangji" recorded the use of wood to do the method of the guide fish: a piece of wood carved into the fish, like a finger as big as the fish's mouth to dig a hole, take a magnet placed in the inside, so that it's S level outward, and then use wax to seal the mouth. Also use a pin to insert it through the mouth of the fish, and the chambered south fish is ready. Put the guide fish on the water and the needle in the fish's mouth points south.

The Guide Turtle is also carved out of wood, and the magnet is put in the same way as the wooden guide fish, inserted in the tail. The guiding turtle is not put in the water, people dig a hole under its belly and mount it on top of a smooth bamboo nail to make it easy to rotate freely, and the needle in its tail, too, will automatically point to the south.

This kind of wooden guiding fish and guiding tortoise were probably created by some magicians who knew the magic of the square, and after they were made, they were only used to perform magic tricks. That's why the author of "The Story of the Forest" took them as "The Illusion of the Immortals".

The invention of gunpowder

One of the four great inventions of ancient China. When ancient alchemists were making medicine, they 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 Tianxu years (904 ~ 906), in the war began to appear gunpowder arrows, but also appeared "hair machine flying fire" records, that is, using a stone-throwing machine throwing gunpowder packets, as a combustible weapon. Song dynasty Tokyo Kaifengfu (now Kaifeng, Henan Province) set up a wide range of prepared to attack the city, which has the production of gunpowder department. The book "Wujing General Essentials" recorded three formulas of gunpowder, the production of gunpowder has reached a considerable scale. Despite the strict confidentiality of the production technology, still into the Liao dynasty, so a large number of imports of sulfur from Japan at the same time, but also strictly prohibit the export of sulfur and flame nitrate to the Liao. Song god zong zhao xu time, the border guards have been equipped with a large number of gunpowder bow and arrow, gunpowder artillery arrows and other weapons. Liao Daozong time, also in Nanjing, analyzing the Jinfu (today's Beijing), "the daily parade of artillery". Southern Song Dynasty, the navy is also equipped with thunderbolt, artillery, rockets and other weapons, in Jiankang Province (now Nanjing, Jiangsu Province), Jiangling Province (now Jiangling, Hubei Province) and other cities are equipped with gunpowder weapons manufacturing industry. Early gunpowder weapons had limited power and could not replace cold weapons. But since the middle of the Southern Song Dynasty, gunpowder weapons in the proportion of weapons increased significantly (see color chart rocket (model) will gunpowder cartridge tied to the front of the arrow, the use of gunpowder combustion generated by the back thrust driven arrows to move forward, one of the gunpowder weapons equipped with the Song Dynasty army). Jin Dynasty gunpowder manufacturing technology from the Liao, Jin army attacked the beginning of the Song Dynasty, has used artillery. Since then, in the war between Song, Jin and Yuan, the use of gunpowder is more and more frequent. At the end of the Jin Dynasty, when fighting against the Mongolian army, they used firearms such as the Shocking Thunder and the Flying Fire Gun. Song dynasty appeared similar to modern artillery shells of iron artillery, but still use the stone throwing machine projectile; and invented the sudden fire gun, with a huge bamboo for the tube, launching the "son of the arena", similar to the later generation of guns, but has not yet used the metal launch tube. This is the Liao, Song, Jin Dynasty gunpowder weaponry progress limit, but has decided the direction of the development of gunpowder weaponry. In short, the Liao, Song and Jin Dynasties can be regarded as the foundation period of the use of gunpowder. To the Yuan, Ming and discovered the copper and iron casting tube firearms - cannon and cannon.

Firearms In the Southern Song Dynasty, the use of gunpowder became more and more common, and firearms were further developed. In order to defend themselves against the Jin soldiers, Southern Song militarists were constantly thinking of improving their weapons. At the beginning of the Southern Song Dynasty, in the second year of the Shaoxing reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty (A.D. 1322), a military scientist named Chen Gui invented a tubular fire

tool, the musket, which was a major advance in the history of firearms.

This musket was made of long bamboo poles, and the bamboo tubes were filled with gunpowder. When fighting a war, it was held by two men who lit a fire and fired it, burning the enemy with it.

This is the earliest tube-shaped firearm in China. Putting gunpowder in a bamboo tube to make a musket was a marvelous advance in the application of gunpowder. It was not easy to hit the target accurately when firing gunpowder with a stone-throwing machine; with the tube-shaped firearm, people could fire it more accurately and manipulate the detonation of gunpowder appropriately.

After the invention of the musket, after continuous improvement, to the Southern Song Dynasty did not year, and someone invented the sudden gun. The sudden fire gun is made of thick bamboo tube, bamboo tube with gunpowder, but also put a kind of thing called "ZiKuo". After the gunpowder was lit by fire, it initially emitted a flame, and then the "areole" was shot out and made a sound like a cannon.

This kind of "son of the areole", in fact, what is it? It is likely to be one of the earliest bullets, but unfortunately the ancient books do not explain.

The role of musket is only in burning people, but the sudden musket can send out the son of the areole to hit people, than the musket is another step forward.

The musket and the sudden fire gun, both are the primitive tube firearms made of bamboo tubes, not very powerful, but they are the ancestors of modern guns. Modern guns are slowly developed from them.

The invention of papermaking

In the Yuanxingyuan year (105) of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cai Lun reformed and popularized the papermaking technique on the basis of his predecessor. The new papermaking technique transformed the old inconvenient writing hemp paper into a good paper craft whose general structure remains unchanged to this day.

Before the emergence of Cai Lun's papermaking, in China, the Shang Dynasty used oracle bones, the Western Zhou Dynasty used bronze, and the Spring and Autumn Period used bamboo slips, wooden documents, thick waterproof silk and silk as the materials for keeping records. During the Han Dynasty, agriculture was developed, the economy flourished, the country was strong, and culture flourished. Bulky bamboo and thick silk has been unable to meet the needs of the people, looking for new writing materials has become the trend of the times, papermaking came into being.

According to the mid-20th century in Xinjiang, Shaanxi, Gansu and other places unearthed hemp paper, experts confirmed for the Western Han dynasty hemp paper sheet fiber material, that papermaking may appear before Cai Lun, and may be related to the process of textile hemp people. But these Western Han hemp ancient paper are not found on the recognizable writing text, coupled with different interpretations of the results of the laboratory analysis, the Western Han Dynasty has appeared in the papermaking art in the world of art is still very controversial. Flash this "Hou Han Shu - Cai Lun biography" of Cai Lun invention of papermaking, is so far the time and character of the earliest record of accurate records of papermaking, widely recognized.

Cai Lun (62-121), the word Jingzhong, Guiyang (now Chenzhou, Hunan Province) people, Ming Emperor Yongping eighteen years (75) into the palace as a eunuch. In the first year of Emperor Zhanghe's reign (87), he was appointed as a magistrate in charge of the palace workshops. In the first year of Emperor He's Yuanxing reign (105), he invented papermaking. In the first year of Emperor An's Yuanchu (114), he was appointed Marquis of Longting. He died in the first year of Emperor An's reign (121) and was buried in his fiefdom.

The Book of the Later Han Dynasty - Cai Lun's biography" records: Cai Lun paper making before, the writing of paper is actually silk fabric (thick silk), Cai Lun with bark, hemp, rags, fish nets, after thwarting, pounding, copying, baking and so on a series of craft processing, the manufacture of plant fiber paper, a kind of roughly the structure of the good paper has not changed so far, and also is the true meaning of the paper. 105, Cai Lun to the Emperor of the Han Dynasty and Emperor paper, and was praised by the Emperor of the He Dynasty. The paper-making art was then widely known throughout the world. The art of papermaking became widely known, and the paper made by Cai Lun became known as "Caihou paper"; the year 105 is generally recognized as the date of the invention of papermaking.

Cai Lun's reform and popularization of papermaking made the use of paper more and more popular after the Eastern Han Dynasty. From the archaeological excavations of the Eastern Han Dynasty ancient paper, there have been a number of writing fonts, and the quality has improved significantly. These ancient paper of the Eastern Han Dynasty, or poetry copy, or letters, or the remnants of the book, are the product of the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, accurate should be Yongchu four years (110) around. Scientists of Gansu Wuwei dry beach slope in 1974, the late Eastern Han Dynasty tomb unearthed in the ancient paper left with the handwriting of the meticulous scientific analysis, found that the ancient paper has a certain degree of strength and flexibility, the thickness of the modern mechanism of the original manuscript paper is comparable to the raw materials such as hemp fibers for hemp, fiber junction of fine uniform and close, and there is a one-sided coated with the processing, indicating that the papermaking process has been quite fine, the papermaking technology has reached a certain level.

The use of paper in the Eastern Han Dynasty, there are many manuscripts documented. Such as "Houhan Book - Deng Huang Huangji" said the tribute paper and "Houhan Book - Hundred Officials Zhi" said the court specializing in paper and ink of the Shaofu Shougong order and Shangshu order right, indicating that the paper has been widely used in the court. After the Han Book - Yan Duc Liezhuan "contained in the paper and writing paper and paper and" Beitang book copy "contained in the letter paper, it shows that the general officials and scholars also have the use of paper writing.

The invention of papermaking is one of the greatest inventions of ancient China and one of the most outstanding achievements in the history of human civilization. The emergence of paper was the foundation of human civilization, and its pioneering appearance in China as a new carrier of information enabled the Chinese Han Dynasty to flourish beyond other civilizations. It was only around the eighth century A.D. that the Arabs began to make paper using Chinese techniques and equipment.

The emergence and spread of paper led to a whole new aspect of cultural life after the Han. The quality of paper became better and better. In the second year of the Han Dynasty (185), Zuo Bo (Zi Yi), a master papermaker from Shandong, produced "Zuo Bo Paper", which was called "Zi Yi's Paper, Yan Miaohui Guang" in history. From the 2nd to the 5th century A.D., Zuo Bo paper, Zhang Zhi pen and Weidan ink used to be the favorite items of literati. But throughout the Han Dynasty, the writing material is still the main position of the briefcase and thick silk. Until after the Jin Dynasty, economic development, papermaking spread to the Yangtze River Valley and the southern part of the Yangtze River, papermaking materials are abundant, only appeared more good paper. Jin Dynasty prevailed in the reading, copying and book collecting style are thanks to the popularization and promotion of paper. The fever of copying scriptures, the fever of book-collecting and the expensive Luoyang paper that appeared because of the copying of Zuo Si's "San Du Fu" were unprecedented landscapes that appeared after the popularization of paper.

The Invention of Printing

Since the availability of paper, with the development of economy and culture, there were more people reading, and the need for books increased greatly.

In the early years of the Jin Dynasty, the government had 29,995 volumes of books. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Emperor Yuan of Liang had more than 70,000 volumes of books in Jiangling, and there were 370,000 volumes of books in the Jiazhe Temple of Sui Dynasty, which was the highest collection of books recorded in China's ancient national libraries.

In addition to the official collection of books, private collections of books are also growing. Guo Tai of the Jin Dynasty, for example, had 5,000 volumes of books; when Zhang Hua moved his house, he used thirty cars just to carry the books.

Before the invention of printing, only the government and rich people like Guo Tai and Zhang Hua could have such a large collection of books, and it was not easy for the general public to get one or two books, because all the books were hand-copied at that time. How much labor must be spent on copying so many handwritten books? If this situation does not change, how can it meet the needs of society?

It is often the case in history that a scientific invention, as long as there is an urgent need for it in society, and at the same time there are the material conditions for its production, then it will emerge very quickly. Such was the case with the advent of engraving and printing.

Before the appearance of engraving and printing, the society has been widely used seals and topographic tablets.

There are two kinds of seals, yang and yin, with yang engraved characters being raised and yin engraved characters being concave. "If you use a yangwen seal, printed on paper is black characters on a white background, very eye-catching. But the seals are usually small, and the number of characters printed is limited after all.

Carving monuments generally use the yin text, topography out of the black background is white characters, not eye-catching enough. And the process of topography is more complicated, used to print books is also not convenient. However, there is a great advantage of topography, that is, the stone tablet area is relatively large, you can topography many words at a time.

What if we cut the long and make up for the short, the top of the tablet and the seal of the respective characteristics of the combination? The situation is certainly different.

China's working people in the top and seal of the two methods of inspiration, the invention of engraved printing.

The method of engraved printing is this: the wood sawed into a board, the words to be printed on thin paper, reverse paste on the board, and then according to the strokes of each word, with a knife one stroke carved into the Yangwen, so that the strokes of each word protrudes on the board. After the board is carved, the book can be printed. Print the book, first with a brush dipped in ink, in the carved board brush, and then, with the paper from the board, and take a clean brush in the back of the paper gently brush, take the paper down, a page of the book is printed. After a page by page printing, binding, a book will be successful. This printing method, is carved on the board and then printed, so we call it "engraved printing".

China's engraved printing was invented at what time? Historians have not yet reached a unanimous opinion on this question, but most people believe that it was invented during the Tang Dynasty.

In the late Sui and early Tang dynasties, due to large-scale peasant uprisings, promote the development of social production, cultural undertakings also followed the prosperity, objectively generate the urgent need for engraving and printing.

According to the Ming Dynasty, Shao Jingbang "Hongjian Lu" book records: Tang Taizong's Empress Changsun collected the stories of typical women in feudal society. She wrote a book called "Women's Rules". When Empress Changsun died in the 10th year of the Zhenguan reign, someone in the palace sent the book to Emperor Tang Taizong. When he saw it, he ordered it to be printed with engraved plates.

The tenth year of Zhenguan was six-three-sixth year of the reign of Emperor Tang Taizong. The date of the printing of the "Rules for Women" may be this year, or it may be a little later. This is the earliest engraving mentioned in our literature. From this information to analyze. It is possible that at that time the folk had already started to use engraving to print books, so Tang Taizong thought of printing out the Women's Rules. The age of the invention of engraved printing must be earlier than the age of the publication of the Women's Rules.

By the time of the ninth century, it was quite common in China to use engraving to print books.

During the Tang Dynasty, there was an outstanding poet named Bai Juyi. He compiled his own poems into a collection of poems - "Bai's Changqing Collection" Changqing four years on December 10 (A.D. 8255 January 2), Bai Juyi's friend Yuan Zhen wrote a preface to the "Bai's Changqing Collection", the preface said: At that time, people Bai Juyi's poems "repairing and writing molds and leathers", selling them on the street. " and sold them on the streets, everywhere.

Once upon a time, people called the engraved stone "mold le", to the Tang Dynasty, also called the engraved plate "mold le". The word "mold" here means engraved printing.

The Old Book of the Tang Dynasty also has a record that in December of the ninth year of the Daho era (835 AD), Emperor Wenzong of the Tang Dynasty ordered all places to refrain from printing calendars privately by engraving. What is this all about? According to the records of some other ancient books, the situation was like this: at that time, the people of Jiannan, the two rivers and the Huainan Road. They all printed calendars with engraved plates and sold them on the streets. Every year, the management of the calendar of the Siantai has not yet requested the issuance of a new calendar, the people printed the new calendar has been everywhere. The promulgation of the calendar is the prerogative of the feudal emperors, the Dongchuan Festival Minister Feng Su in order to maintain the prestige of the court, it is prohibited to privately publish calendars. Calendars are related to agricultural production, farmers need it very much, how can an order ban it? Although Emperor Wenzong of the Tang Dynasty issued this order, the private printing of calendars was still popular everywhere. It is in the same area, the folk printing calendar is more than one.

When Huang Chao revolted, Emperor Xizong fled to Sichuan in a panic. The emperor also fled, and of course there was no one to manage the ban on the printing of calendars. Therefore, the people of Jiangdong made up their own calendars and sold them. In the first year of Emperor Xizong's reign (881 A.D.), there was a dispute between two people whose calendars differed by one day in terms of the size of the month. When a magistrate found out about it, he said, "We are all doing business with each other, so what does it matter if they differ by one day and half a day?" How can the calendars differ by one day? The magistrate's argument really made people laugh their teeth out. This incident, however, tells us that in Jiangdong alone, there were at least two or more printed calendars.

Liu Bi, who fled to Sichuan with Emperor Tang Xi Zong, also said in the preface to his "Family Training" that he saw a lot of books about yin and yang, miscellany, and dream divination in the bookstore in Chengdu. Most of these books were engraved and printed. It can be seen that the printing industry in Chengdu at that time was more developed, not only printing almanacs, but also other kinds of books.

The books engraved and printed in the Tang Dynasty, now preserved only one engraved and printed in the ninth year of the reign of the Diamond Sutra. The ninth year of the reign was eight hundred and sixty-eight AD, which is more than a thousand years ago. This thousand years ago the print, how is it preserved? Here is another story.

Southeast of Dunhuang, Gansu Province, there is the Mingsha Mountain, as early as the Jin Dynasty, there are some Buddhists in the cave, carving Buddha, building temples. Cave continues to increase, the Buddha also followed the increase, people called this place "thousands of Buddha hole". In 1900, when repairing the cave, a Wang Taoist priest inadvertently discovered a closed dark room, opened it, which was filled with bundles of paper scrolls, of which a considerable number of scrolls were books copied in the Tang Dynasty, and one was the "Diamond Sutra" engraved and printed in the Tang Dynasty.

This "Diamond Sutra" is about one zhang six feet long and one foot high, and is a roll made of seven printed sheets glued together. At the top of the scroll is a painting of a mythical story of Shakyamuni speaking to his disciples in a vivid manner, followed by the full text of the Diamond Sutra. Volume without a line of text, indicating that it is the Xian Tong nine years of engraving and printing.

This book is the world's earliest surviving engraved books. The drawings are also engraved on a full-page plate, perhaps the earliest prints in the world.

By the time of the Five Dynasties, there was a feudal bureaucrat named Feng Dao. He was a despicable and shameless fellow who had been a great official in four of the five short dynasties. When he saw that the people of Jiangsu and Sichuan were selling printed books of all kinds, with no Confucian classics alone, he suggested to the emperor in the third year of the Changxing era of the Later Tang Dynasty that the Confucian classics be engraved and printed.

Then *** printed nine kinds of scriptures, through four dynasties, until the latter Zhou Guangshun three years, successively took twenty-two years, before all engraved.

Because of the impact of this engraving is relatively large, there are people who believe that printing was invented by Feng Dao in the Five Dynasties, which is of course wrong.

To the Song Dynasty, the printing industry is more developed, everywhere in the country are engraved books. In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, Chengdu printed the Da Zang Jing (Great Collection of Sutras) with 130,000 engraved plates; and the Guozijian, the central educational institution of the Northern Song government, printed books on history and the classics with more than 100,000 engraved plates. From these two figures, it can be seen that the printing industry at that time on a large scale. Song dynasty engraved plate printing books, now know there are more than seven hundred kinds, and the font neat and simple, beautiful and generous, and later has been for our people to see.

Song dynasty engraved plate printing, generally more wood engraving, but there are people with copper engraving. Shanghai Museum collection of the Northern Song Dynasty "Jinan Liu family Kung Fu needle store" printing advertisements used by the copper plate, it can be seen at that time also mastered the technology of engraving copper plate.

When it comes to printing books, engraving is indeed a great creation. A kind of book can be printed in many parts with only one engraved plate, which is many times faster than writing by hand.

But with this method, the printing of a kind of book will have to carve a wooden board, the cost of labor is still a lot, can not quickly, a large number of books printed, some books have a lot of words, and often have to be carved for many years to carve, in case the book printed once and never reprinted, that, the carving of the wooden boards will be completely useless.

What can be done to improve it?

By the middle of the 11th century (during the Qingli years of Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty), an inventor named Bi Sheng finally invented an even more advanced method of printing -- movable type printing -- which greatly improved China's printing technology by one step.

Bi Sheng used cement to make a four-square long column, one side engraved with a single character, and then burned hard with fire, which is one by one the movable type. Printing the book, the first to prepare a piece of iron plate, iron plate on top of rosin and wax and other things, iron plate surrounded by an iron frame, in the iron frame densely filled with living words, full of an iron frame for a version, and then baked with fire under the iron plate, so that the rosin and wax and other melting. In addition to a flat plate in the row of letters above the pressure, the words flattened, a letter version of the row of good. Like the engraved plate, it is ready for printing as soon as ink is applied to the characters.

In order to improve efficiency, he prepared two iron plates, and organized two people to work simultaneously, one plate printing, the other lining up the characters; by the time the first plate was finished printing, the second plate was already ready. The two iron plates were used alternately with each other and printed very quickly.

Bi Sheng to each single word are carved several; commonly used words carved more than 20 encountered no preparation of cold and remote characters, the temporary carving, with a fire on it, very convenient. After printing, put the iron plate on the fire again hot, so that rosin and wax and other melting, the living word removed, the next time you can still use.

This was the earliest invention of movable type printing. This kind of glue movable character, called mud movable character, Bisheng invented the method of printing books II compared with today's, although it is very primitive, but the three main steps of movable-type printing technology a manufacture of movable characters, typesetting and printing, have been available. Therefore, Bi Sheng's contribution in printing is very remarkable. Shen Kuo, a famous scientist in the Northern Song Dynasty, specially recorded Bi Sheng's invention of movable type printing in his book "Mengxi Bianan".

After Bisheng's invention of movable type printing, the Korean people began to print books with clay movable type and other methods, and later with wooden movable type. In the 13th century, they first invented copper movable type printing. The use of copper movable type in China was a little later than that in Korea. The Korean people also created lead movable type, iron movable type and so on.

In the late sixteenth century, Japan invaded Korea and took away a lot of Korean copper movable type and wooden movable type. Thus, the Japanese also learned movable type printing.

China's printing art also spread to Vietnam. In the fifteenth century, Vietnam began to print books by the method of engraving. In the early eighteenth century, they also began to print books with wooden movable type.

The creation of printing in Europe was also y influenced by our printing.

During the Yuan Dynasty, many Europeans came to China. They saw that the paper money printed by the Yuan government could be used instead of gold and silver and found it very novel. In their travelogues, they wrote detailed accounts of Chinese paper money.

Many of the Europeans who came to China at that time lived in Hangzhou and other places. Hangzhou had a very large number of bookshops, and the engravers were very skillful. Some of the Europeans had lived there for years, so it was natural for them to bring printing back to Europe.