How are ancient books printed?

What I hope will help you is basically the process of movable type printing and block printing:

(Bi Sheng's method is this: make a blank with the same specification from clay, engrave a reflexive character at one end, the height of the character is as high as the thickness of the copper coin edge, and then harden it with fire to become a single clay movable type. In order to meet the needs of typesetting, when repeated in the same version, there are usually several or even dozens of commonly used words for use. If you encounter uncommon words, you can use them with the system if you are not prepared in advance. In order to facilitate the choice of words, the clay type is put in the wooden lattice according to rhyme, and a note is attached to indicate it. When typesetting, an iron plate with a frame is used as the base, and a layer of medicine made of turpentine, wax and paper scraps is coated on it, and then the required clay movable type is picked out one by one and arranged in the frame. After a frame is filled in, it becomes a version, and then it is baked with fire. When the medicine melts slightly, flatten the words with a flat plate, and after the medicine cools and solidifies, it becomes a version. When printing, just brush the ink on the plate, cover it with paper, and add some pressure. For continuous printing, two iron plates are used, one with a writing brush and the other with typesetting, and the two plates are used alternately. After printing, burn it with a torch, shake it gently with your hand, and the movable type will fall off the iron plate, and then put it back in the original wooden box according to the rhyme, and use it next time. Bi Sheng has also experimented with wood movable type printing, but it is not used in Bi Sheng because of uneven wood texture, difficult carving, deformation of wood movable type when it meets water and difficult to separate from chemicals. Bi Sheng's method of printing books in clay type will not be easy if only two or three books are printed. If you print hundreds of copies, the work efficiency will be extremely considerable, which will not only save a lot of manpower and material resources, but also greatly improve the printing speed and quality, which is much superior to block printing. Although modern letterpress printing is incomparable to movable type printing in Bi Sheng in Song Dynasty in terms of equipment and technical conditions, the basic principles and methods are exactly the same. The invention of movable type printing has made great contributions to human culture. Among them, the contribution of Bi Sheng, a civilian inventor in China, is indelible. However, we know nothing about Bi Sheng's life story. Because Bi Sheng invented movable type printing, it was completely recorded in the famous book Meng Qian Bi Tan by Shen Kuo, a famous scientist in the Northern Song Dynasty. However, except for a few Buddhist scriptures in Xixia characters, it is speculated that they are printed with movable type, and there is no Chinese printed matter printed with movable type in the Central Plains! Block printing: (1) sample writing. Draw straight squares on the tissue paper of the copied sample, and draw a line with a dotted line in the middle in each straight square, commonly known as; Plaid; . Please ask people who are good at writing to copy the sample manuscripts in Liu, Yan and Ou's handwriting on thin paper. After copying, proofread carefully. Cut the wrong place with a knife, put a piece of white paper on it, and copy it again correctly.

(2) the last edition. The last edition is also called a sample. The usual practice is to brush a thin layer of paste on a smooth wooden board, with the printed side of the sample facing down, and brush the sample horizontally and vertically on the wooden board with a flat brown brush (Figure 7-80a).

(3) carving. Before engraving, dip your fingertips in a little water, gently rub the back of the sample and wipe off the fibers on the back of the paper, so that the words written on the sample are as clear as those written directly on the board, and you can engrave.

Engraving is to carve the blank part of the page down to a certain depth with a sharp carving knife and remove it, so that the words or lines with ink on the page protrude upward into relief, which is called modern; Letterpress printing; . There are as many as 20 ~ 30 kinds of carving tools, each with different functions, and the fist knife is the most commonly used. Boxing knives, also known as jaw knives, machetes, bird knives and pick knives, are the most important tools for printing and carving (Figure 7-8 1a, b). Boxing knives may be named after their grip, while machetes and finches may be named after their blades are bent into bird's mouths. Its main function is to carve out the parts of the board that don't need to be printed, so that the words or lines that need to be printed are raised.

The basic method of carving is: hold the fist knife in your right hand, tilt the handle outward by 40 degrees, and exert force downward and inward. Hold the cutter head with the first joint of the thumb with the left hand, and control the speed and direction of cutter transportation to prevent the cutter from slipping (Figure 7-80b). Generally, the first knife forcibly pulls out a notch with a depth of about 2-3 mm from the outside to the inside along the periphery of the ink line to be engraved, which is called; Hair knife; . Then rotate the board horizontally to 180 degrees, draw a notch with a blade near the ink line at an inclination angle of about 40 degrees, and intersect with the bottom of the notch of the hair clipper to appear on the cross section; Five; Glyph, holding a knife with your fist; Five; Pick out the sawdust in the serrated groove. Then turn the board horizontally to 180 degrees, on the other side of the same ink line; Hair knife; After that, rotate the board horizontally 180 degrees, draw a notch with a blade close to the ink line and remove it; Five; Wood chips in serrated grooves. At this point, a positive ink line is highlighted. In actual printing and engraving, in order to improve efficiency, all or part of the characters in the whole block are often printed completely; Hair knife; Then, close to the chalk line, cut all the words. Engraving is one of the key processes of engraving printing. In order to ensure the printing quality, it is necessary to carve slowly and steadily, hold the knife accurately, and ensure that each stroke is completed according to the ink line.

(4) empty. In a way called. Bend chisel; (Figure 7-8 1c.d) Chisel off the part of the page without ink lines. Bend chisel, also called in ancient times; Hey; The shape is similar to the circular chisel used by carpenters, but the cutting edge is quite different. When hollowing out, hold the chisel with your left hand to aim the chisel at the part to be removed, and tap the back of the chisel with your right hand (Figure 7-8 1e) to move the chisel forward and remove the unnecessary part (Figure 7-80c). Daqu chisel is used to chisel away a large area of blank parts, while Xiaoqu chisel is used to repair fine parts and can also be used to carve circular circles. Be careful when you hit the empty space, don't push too hard, and don't rush for success. If you damage the printed words or lines, all your efforts will be wasted.

(5) stay. Carve the branched straight lines and the surrounding edges on the page with a carving knife. Pull wire; . In order to ensure the linearity of lines, the ruler is usually pressed by the left hand and the engraving knife is held by the right hand for printing and engraving (Figure 7-80d).

(6) modification. For the engraving that has been printed hollowed out, first print several proofs with a blue brush. If an error is detected, it should be chiseled off with a flat chisel and a groove should be chiseled down. A wooden board with the same size as the chiseled part should be embedded in the groove, and then the modified content should be printed on the embedded wooden board.

4. Carving and printing

(1) fixed version. Monochrome engraving printing plates usually do not need to be fixed on the printing table. Sometimes, in order to prevent the engraving movement from affecting the printing operation, nails can be nailed on the printing table along the periphery of the engraving, or rubber plates made of beeswax and rosin can be stuck on the printing table. Monochrome engraving printing can use ordinary square table instead of special printing table. As long as the square table is firm and does not shake when printing, it will not affect the operation and will not reduce the quality of printed matter.

(2) brush ink. Before formal inking, brush the layout twice with clear water, and then print with ink after the engraving is wet. When brushing ink, dip a little ink from the big ink basin with a small brush and put it in the porcelain plate. Then use the brown handle (Figure 7-8 1f) to rotate in a circle in the porcelain plate to make the brown handle ink evenly. Then circle the lettering clockwise with a brown handle and brush the ink evenly on the lettering board. The requirement of ink brushing is that the ink color of the whole page is uniform, and there can be no accumulated ink in the depression, otherwise the printed paper will be uneven and unclear.

(3) cover paper. Monochrome engraving printing paper generally does not need to be fixed. When covering the paper, put the paper end flat on the printed page with both hands.

Paper is generally made of bamboo Taishilian and Maobian paper, which is smooth and even, and absorbs ink properly, while rattan paper, leather paper and rice paper are mostly used for printing exquisite works. Some unqualified paper can also be used for printing after being polished and waxed.

(4) printing. Before formal printing, several proofs need to be printed. Proofread it again and you can print a lot of printed matter. If there are any mistakes, please correct them before printing. When printing, the left hand holds the paper and the right hand holds the rake (Figure 7-8 1g) to print on the back of the paper. When printing, the force should be even to ensure that every word on the engraving can be transferred to the paper completely and clearly.

(5) dry. After wiping, lift the printing paper from the engraving and put it aside to dry. After printing one block, replace it with another block and continue to repeat the above operation process until all blocks are printed.