Although it is close to the end of the year, it is logical that this time is the slowest time for the giant machine of Daqin to operate. But at this time, a government residence in Xianyang City is preparing in full swing.

"Daqin Cultural Office." This seems to be an official residence, but in fact it is more like a public-private joint venture business, similar to a state-owned enterprise in later generations.

This place is mainly responsible for the sales of paper, the printing and sales of books. While preparing for the construction of the official residence, Li Chen is also preparing a newspaper belonging to Daqin.

Controlling public opinion and guiding people's wisdom are extremely important for the future Great Qin Dynasty.

Of course, if newspapers are to be popularized to thousands of households, it will definitely be unrealistic to rely solely on copying.

Nowadays, the main method of disseminating culture in the Qin Dynasty is hand-copying. Hand-copying is not only time-consuming and trouble-free, but also easy to copy and copy. This most primitive method makes books more precious. But inheritance is always in the hands of various schools of thought. If you cannot enter the sect of your master, you will have no chance of knowledge.

First, papermaking, and then printing, which was originally in Li Chen's plan. These two inventions with the same status are also one of the four great inventions of the Chinese nation.

Since mentioning the nine-year compulsory education to the First Emperor, Li Chen had planned to produce papermaking and printing.

Otherwise, just talking about the massive textbooks for compulsory education, if bamboo slips are used to copy, the textbooks used by only one person may be a big cart. And the literate Confucian scholars required to copy books are probably not as many as possible in the entire Qin Dynasty.

Only by combining papermaking and printing can this kind of thing called books be the future of the Qin Dynasty.

The history of the development of ancient Chinese printing technology should be from woodblock printing to movable type printing.

Traditional woodblock printing has always dominated the printing market. Woodblock printing first appeared in the Sui Dynasty.

First, flatten the wooden board, then apply a layer of paste on the wooden board, and then flip the written document on the page, and the engraving worker carves out the words one by one.

When printing, apply the ink on the prepared text sheet, cover it with white paper, and gently brush it flat with a brush, and the text will be printed on the paper.

Woodblock printing is much more convenient than hand-copying, and plays a very important role in the early cultural dissemination of our country.

However, with the continuous development of society.

The shortcomings of woodblock printing are becoming more and more obvious. It is not only clumsy and laborious, but also wastes materials. Each version can only be used once, and it is also inconvenient to store. If there is a typo, it is extremely difficult to change.

Under such conditions, until the Song Dynasty, a man named Bi Go invented the movable type printing technique.

Bi Bao was a person who had been engaged in printing in the Song Dynasty for a long time, and he felt that the shortcomings of woodblock printing urgently needed improvement.

He carefully summarized the experiences of his predecessors and his work, and repeatedly pondered, trying to find more advanced methods, but he never made any breakthroughs.

It was not until one day that he saw a group of children playing with mud at his doorstep that he suddenly realized. The children used mud to pinch various animals, trees, houses, chairs and other things, and then arranged these things as they pleased and composed different stories.

As Bi looked at it, he had a flash of inspiration and thought: If you use mud to make words and then arrange them into sentences, wouldn’t it be possible to greatly improve the printing efficiency?

After thinking of this method, Bi immediately started to practice it. After continuous experiments and repeated explorations, he finally decided to use mud. The difference is that he added some gum into the mud.

In this way, it is easy to carve and not bad. He first cuts the mud into small squares, carves the characters on it, burns hard and cools it, and then arranges the engraved characters according to the rhyme.

In order to search. When printing, find the movable type according to the article, arrange it on the iron plate, and fix it with iron frames around it.

In addition, he also pre-painted a layer of paper ash, a binder mixed with rosin and wax on the iron plate.

Then, put the movable type plate on the fire and roast it. When the adhesive is melted, use a flat plate to flatten the single word firmly. After cooling, each movable type plate becomes a solid whole. Next, just brush ink on the plate, apply paper, and press it gently. After printing, heat the iron plate with fire. After the adhesive is melted, you can take out the movable type plate and store it for the next time. In order to improve efficiency, Bizhao uses two iron plates, one plate to print and one plate to arrange the characters. Use alternately to greatly improve the printing speed.

The clay movable type printing technique invented by Bi Bao has five major steps, namely, making movable type, typography, printing, dismantling and returning to the rhyme. Compared with woodblock printing, this method of plate making is quick, printing quality is high, and can be reused, saving materials and shortening the printing cycle, which can be called an epoch-making breakthrough in printing history.

Whether it is woodblock printing or movable type printing, there is no technical obstacle for the current Daqin.

In comparison, Li Chen chose movable type printing. movable type printing and woodblock printing are just different in thinking and there are no technical barriers.

In contrast, woodblock printing is troublesome, time-consuming, low efficiency, small quantity, easy to copy and miss. The carved versions need to be carefully stored and occupy a large number of houses. If typos are found, the whole version needs to be re-carved.

The printing technology of movable type has the ability to turn dead characters into movable characters and dead characters into movable types, which is economical, time-saving, labor-saving, and money-saving printing.

Xianyang City will be the Shaofu

"I dare to ask the marquis, is this font printed into positive or negative text?" asked the leading craftsman.

The so-called Yangwen Zimiao is protruding, while the Yinwen is concave. But the effect of these two characters being printed on paper is opposite. The font of the Yangwen Zimiao is reversed on paper, while the Yinwen Zimiao is correct when it is printed on paper.

"Inscriptions." Li Chen said, the inverted positive text templates printed are more used on the seal.

"Your Majesty has an order that the young mansion can temporarily put down the rest of the affairs in his hands. This matter is the most important matter in the world."

"All the craftsmen are all here. In three days, I will take the font model, and the more it will be better." Li Chen ordered the officials of the generals of all sizes around him.

Three days rushed

Under the guidance of Li Chen, the craftsmen in Shaofu burned out the first batch of font molds. This square font mold is much simpler than firing utensils.

One by one, bronze-colored fonts scattered in front of Li Chen, and there are almost all the fonts commonly used in Daqin.

When used, the literate scholar picked out the required movable type and put it in a wooden frame made of gum, wax, wood ash, etc.

When the font mold is filled with a frame, it becomes a plate. Then bake it with fire. When the potion melts slightly, use a flat plate to flatten the literal surface. After the potion is cooled and solidified, it becomes a pattern. When printing, just brush ink on the pattern, cover it with paper, and add a certain pressure. In order to be able to print continuously, use two iron plates, one sheet is added with brush, and the other sheet is used alternately.

In order to prevent individual characters from being lost or lost, Li Chen has created five sets of craftsmen.
Chapter completed!