Chapter 514: Papermaking and Movable Type Printing
Zhao Mu raised his head and looked at the portrait of Confucius hanging above.
Confucius is indeed one of the most famous enlightenment thinkers in China. He founded Confucianism and influenced China for thousands of years. Even in later generations, these famous quotes he said are also teaching future generations!
Many people say that this Confucianism has misled me for hundreds of years.
In fact, what I said is a bit too unfair.
Including the words that later generations heard Confucianism say, many of them were not actually said by Confucius.
It is the so-called castrated version that has been castrated by later generations.
For example, a sentence that makes people feel criticized is repaying evil with kindness.
In fact, according to what Master Confucius really said, the so-called repaying evil with kindness is just the first thing they said.
There are corresponding words later but no one mentioned it.
Little do they know what Confucius agreed with, how to repay kindness? Repay evil with straightness and repay kindness with kindness.
You should treat others how they treat you. You don't need to wrong yourself to be kind to those who hurt you.
However, these words will be passed down to future generations and castrated through this generation.
Many of them were originally well-intentioned and would be useful in later generations, but in the end they became demonized.
Including the Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism of the Song and Ming dynasties, after generations of castration, it has only become an ideological prison used by the ruling class to rule the people.
Therefore, this also led to the decline of Daxia, and it may even take some time, hoping that the wave of Confucianism can be eliminated.
If you don’t believe it, look at today’s Tang Dynasty and today’s Confucianism.
This woman can lead soldiers in battle, and the entire social atmosphere is very open-minded.
In the end, it all depends on people.
"Come, grandson-in-law, look here, look here, these are all the various books I have collected."
While talking, Confucius stepped forward, took all these books, and placed them in front of Zhao Mu.
Holding the book in his hand, he proudly introduced it to him.
These books were won by winning competitions with other old guys at that time.
These were earned from previous studies in the academy.
And these, and these, are obtained through this way and that way.
I remember every book clearly.
Thinking of this, I couldn't help but burst out laughing.
Not to mention the large collection of books here, which even Zhao Mu felt praised repeatedly.
I have gained so many things because of the system, the existence of buffs, and the fact that I can keep checking in every day.
But this is a real background for others, but it is completely different from mine.
"Grandson-in-law, I won't introduce you to the rest of the collection.
These books were all obtained from you, and after being copied and excerpted by my staff, they were all finally arranged for me.
It's just a pity, I also want to arrange more manpower to copy these books.
However, the paper is limited after all, and the manpower is also limited, so it is necessary to arrange manpower to write.
I thought about printing it directly before, but there was no way. Before engraving, I printed two copies. Unexpectedly, when printing the third copy, bad characters appeared.
In the end, there was no choice but to let it go.
Speaking of these, Confucius was also very helpless.
"Confucius, what is your greatest ideal?"
"Hahaha, my biggest ideal is of course to spread this knowledge throughout our country, the Tang Dynasty, and throughout our entire Central Plains.
Let more and more people learn this.
In this way, I can realize the true teaching of my ancestors."
There is no impurity in his eyes.
It is the most simple feeling that truly hopes that more and more students can learn from it.
After hearing what he said, Zhao Mu thought for a moment.
"Master, after hearing what you said today, I can give you two good things.
You can make this wish come true."
He is doing it for the people of the world, and truly hopes to spread his knowledge to the world.
Hearing this, Zhao Mu did not hide anything and said these words directly.
Hearing these words from his grandson-in-law, Confucius' eyes widened and he asked with an uncertain look.
"Grandson-in-law, what do you mean by this?
What good things are you going to give me?"
When I heard this, my face burst into laughter.
Because he believed that the things his grandson-in-law gave him must be good stuff.
"I decided to give you the Kong family, a set of papermaking skills, and a set of printing skills."
Uh-huh.
After hearing this, Confucius smiled awkwardly in his heart.
This time I thought wrongly, thinking that my grandson-in-law was going to give him something good, but it turned out to be this.
But whatever, since it was my grandson-in-law’s heartfelt wish, I replied with a smile.
"Master, you don't think that the papermaking technology I mentioned is the papermaking technology of the Tang Dynasty, do you?
What I am talking about is papermaking technology, which is several times better than the papermaking technology of the Tang Dynasty.
What do you think of the paper you used in my village?"
The paper is as white as snow, which makes people fall in love with it just by looking at it.
So in the end, I went to Zhaojiazhuang from time to time to get some for writing.
Of course, every time I take it, I will tell others.
If you just go and get it without telling me, that's called stealing, and it's not polite.
"Ah, son-in-law, is what you just said true?
You want to tell me how your Zhuangzi paper is made?"
When I thought about it, the paper looked as white as snow. I guess the price must be very expensive, right?
"That's right, those are the papers from my Zhuangzi.
Although it looks much better than the papers in Datang today.
However, his craft is very simple and not complicated.
As long as I teach you, you can also make such cheap, high-quality paper.
In this way, with these things, we can also arrange for manpower to copy these books on a large scale.
I want students all over the world to be able to learn knowledge."
After Zhao Mu finished speaking, Confucius sighed helplessly.
It is possible to have these papers, but it cannot be printed on a large scale.
Because this woodblock printing is not very practical, otherwise he would not have deployed a large number of people to copy.
It can only be regarded as the original version.
If it was possible to print on a large scale, it would have been arranged for the Confucius family and its own academy.
"Hahaha, Master, I'm talking about the second method.
The second type, what I want to teach is printing, but this printing is not what you call printing.
It’s called movable type printing.”
Movable type printing, how come this word is still alive as we talk about it?
For a while, I didn't quite understand it and didn't understand what it meant.
The biggest difference between the so-called movable type printing and woodblock printing is that the movable type can come alive.
The reason why engraving printing happens like this.
It is because after we have engraved the entire board, we may be a little careless during the printing process.
If there is a problem with one word, the entire board will be completely useless.
In addition to this, if the craftsman is carving, there will be a whole board.
If there is just one word that is not careful, it means that the entire board will be wasted.
Confucius heard this and nodded.
They were aware of this situation, but they had no choice but to do so. The conditions were such that they were unable to develop further.
Speaking of these, I feel helpless and helpless.
"So Master, since this situation arises, why don't we think about how to deal with this situation?
Since this happens to his engraving printing, there will be a problem with a certain font, which will lead to printing failure.
If you think about it, if this happens during printing.
We can remove the damaged font and reinstall the new font.
In this way, can it be used continuously?
You don’t have to worry about a certain font being damaged and the entire section being unusable!”
"Grandson-in-law, actually we have thought about this thing you mentioned before, but failed.
Unless the font is removed and printed, then someone can fill it in."
"If we use the porcelain method to arrange all these fonts.
Let him bake every word so that it is evenly placed on the board.
In this way, can it replace engraving printing and become a new printing method?
Every word is an independent entity.
If a certain character is damaged, you can remove it and replace it with a new font.
Is this more convenient?
Moreover, these fonts are constantly being replaced. When you want to use which ones, new text can be arranged through this arrangement and combination.
In this way, we have produced all kinds of fonts."
Confucius stood dumbly after hearing this and looked at Zhao Mu with a shocked look.
"Grandson-in-law, are what you said true?
Is this movable type printing really capable of this?"
I originally wanted to bring him here because I wanted to see my study.
Who knew that while we were chatting, they arranged two such large gifts for me?
And if these two gifts can really become real.
The so-called education without discrimination by my ancestors may really be realized in the Tang Dynasty.
And my Confucianism, Confucianism, can also be spread throughout the world.
Thinking of these, how could Confucius not be excited?
"Come on, come on, grandson-in-law, sit down quickly and tell me, what is the principle of movable type printing?
What's going on? How to do it? Let me listen carefully."