Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 284

1850.

Movable Metallic Types in Chinese.

251

In the Encyclopedia intituled Chi-pau-tso-chái, vol. X, is the reprint of a small work in two books, in which are most minutely described all the ancient inscriptions, and all the autographs of the most celebrated men, which were printed in this manner (that is to say in white on a black ground) from the year A.D. 1143, to A. D. 1243. – I have had the honor to present to the Academy a funeral inscription thus printed on stone, and which, for the elegance and perfection of its characters, does not yield to the most beautiful editions printed with plates of wood.

Impressions of Movable Types between A.D. 1041 and 1049.

R

In the Mung-ki-peh-tan,

vol. XVIII. p. 81, we read the memoirs of Chink woh, who received his Doctor's degree A.D. 1056 (Bibliothèque Royale. Fourmont's property, No. 394, vol. 24) :-

“They printed with engraved plates of wood at a period when the Táng dynasty [founded A. D. 618) had not yet lost its splendor (ulluding to the employment of stereotype plates of wood under the preceding dynasty). After Fung Ying-wang had commenced printing the Wà King, or canonical books, it became an established custom to publish by the same process all the books of law, as well as historical works. In the period Kingyú (between A. D. 1041 and 1949), one of the commou class of people named Pi Shing, by trade a smith, invented another mode of print- ing by menus of plates called ho-pan or movable plates [í. s. formed of types), which ex- pression is still employed to this day to designate the plates used at the Imperial printing establishment in the Wú-ying tien palace at Peking. The following is the description of his process :------

• He took some very fins plustice clay, of which he made regularly formed plates, about the thickness of the pieces of money called taien or carh, and upon these he engraved the characters in most frequent use For each character he made a separate seal or type, and afterwards baked them in the fire to harden them. He then placed on the table an iron plate, which he covered with some very fusible cement, composed of resin, wax, and lime.

“When be wished to print, he took a frame of iron, divided within longitudinally from top to bottom {for the Chinese write from above, downwards), by bands of the same metal, and them laying it upou the iron plate already covered with cement, he arranged the types in it, placing them towards the right, oue against the other. Each case, filled with types thus arranged, formed oue plate. This plate was now plased near the fire so as to melt the cement a little, and then with a plate of wood well planed (un taqueir] be pressed strongly upon the collection of types which, being sunk into the cement by this means, became level and oven as a whetstone. Were it only to print two or three copies of the same work, this method would neither be convenient nor expeditious; but when it was required to print tens, hundreds, and thousands of copies, the operation proceeded with very great rapidity. They generally prepared two iron plates and two frames or forme, no that whilst priating with one of the two plates, the other might be supplied with its proper composition, and the printing from the former being finished, the latter, already prepared, replaced it immediately. They thus alternately made use of the two plates, and the printing of each leaf was effected in the twinkling of an eye.

**For each character they had always many similar types, and as many as 20 proofs [å, s. 90 duplicate types) of the most frequently used characters so as to be able to reproduce such words se might be found many times repeated in the same plate. When not making use of these duplicates they preserved them wrapped up in paper. The characters or types were classifed according to their tones, and all those of the same tone were disposed in one particular case. If by chance be met with a rare character which had not been prepared beforehand, be engraved it immediate- ly, baked it with a straw fire, and could thus make use of it in a minute. The reason which deterred the inventor from making use of wooden types was, that the tissue of wood, being sometimes porous, sometimes hard, if once impermeated with water, would have been uneven; moreover, the types would have stuck to the cement in auch a manner that they could not have been moved again so as to serve for a new combination. It was much better therefore to make use of types of baked earthenware. When he had completed the printing of one place, he heated it again to melt the cement, and then with the hand cleared away the types, which separated of themselves without retaining the smallest particle of cement or dirt. When P1 Shing died, his friends inherited his types, and still preserve them most carefully,”

We see by this last sentence, that the inventor of movable types in China had no immediate successor, and that printing was continued as formerly, with engraved wooden plates. This very natural return of the Chinese to their ancient mode of printing was certainly not owing to the imperfection of Pí Shing's process, but to the nature of the Chinese language, which, being destitute of an alphabet (consisting of but a small number of signs [characters] with which one could compose every kind of book), put the printer to the necessity of engraving very many more types than there were different words, and of having (according to the division of sounds into 106 classes) 106 separate cases, each filled with an enormous number of types many times repeated, the search for which, their setting up in forms, and their distribution again after printing, necessarily required a considerable time. It was therefore more easy and expeditious to write, or cause to be written, as is now done, the text one