The stages of the development of Chinese printing to the Song and Yuan Dynasties.

I, the prevalence of engraved printing

In the Tang Dynasty invented the engraved printing, Song and Yuan period of greater development, tends to flourish. 971 years in Chengdu, began printing all the version of the "Great Collection of Sutras" counted 1,076, ****5048 volumes. It took 12 years to complete the carving and printing, as many as 130,000 pieces of carved plates. 1132 in Huzhou in the publication of 5400 volumes of the Buddha's collection, completed within a year. Song dynasty carving plate good workers gathered in Hangzhou, engraved and printed a large number of scriptures, history, children's books, medical books, arithmetic books, as well as anthologies, etc.. The center of engraving and printing in the Jin Dynasty was in Pingshui (present-day Linfen, Shanxi Province). The engraving and printing centers of the Yuan Dynasty were in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province and Jianyang, Fujian Province, which endured for a long time.

Second, movable-type printing

Just when the development of engraving tended to flourish, there was a major breakthrough in ancient Chinese printing technology. Shen Kuo's "Dream Stream Brush Tales" Volume 16 records that during the Qingli period of the Song Dynasty (1041 - 1048), the civilian Bi Sheng (?) invented the printing technique of movable type. --- about 1051) invented movable-type printing, the basic principle of which was exactly the same as that of the lead-type printing method prevalent in modern times. He made clay movable type out of rubber clay, and carved one character out of one grain of rubber clay, which was hardened by fire, and prepared a piece of iron plate in advance, on which an iron frame was added, and inside of which a layer of mixed rosin and wax as well as paper ash was put. After the frame is full of words, it is placed on the fire to heat, rosin, wax, paper ash melted by the heat, after cooling a version of the mud on the words stick together. When it cools down, a flat plate is used to flatten the clay characters. A version of the printing is completed, the iron plate on the fire to heat, you can remove the clay lettering, in order to prepare for reuse. To improve efficiency, two iron plates could be used alternately. Bisheng's invention of movable type printing was a great invention that saved time and labor, and was economical and convenient. It is a great invention in the history of printing technology in China and the world.