Movable type printing is actually more suitable for phonetic writing, as just a few dozen letters can be combined back and forth. The hieroglyphic character library is too large, and each character is a block.
It is impossible to count the number of Chinese characters, but "Yupian" written by Sun Qiangzeng of the Tang Dynasty has 22,561 characters.
One set of character blocks is definitely not enough, at least three or five sets are enough. However, the demand for commonly used characters is large, and more character blocks need to be cast.
For example, some words are used very frequently and can appear ten or eight times on a page, so more word blocks need to be cast separately.
Chen Jingke has calculated that for the normal operation of movable type printing, almost 200,000 character blocks are needed.
The Kangxi court made copper movable type, and it was necessary to have more than 250,000 character blocks for normal printing. Considering that the total number of Chinese characters in the two dynasties was different, and excluding some rare characters, 200,000 character blocks should be a more reliable number.
Chen Jingke was engaged in lead movable type. He asked about the prices of the two metals. Lead was one-sixth of copper. And there was no way to spend lead directly as money, so there was no need to worry about someone stealing it.
Even so, 200,000 blocks are worth a lot of money, and no one except the imperial court and the rich and willful can afford it.
Moreover, the production of block printing is more difficult than engraving. The fewer books printed, the higher the cost. It is not as cost-effective as directly using engraving printing.
The copper movable type produced by the Kangxi court turned a good thing into a bad thing that wasted people and money because they only printed one set of books and then shelved them.
Finally, the copper movable type that was painstakingly cast was melted down and cast into copper coins.
Just imagine, if the Kangxi Dynasty was not so short-sighted and used this set of copper movable types to print more books, would the cost sharing be different?
Unfortunately, there is no if in the world.
Chen Jingke naturally would not make such a mistake. He had a longer-term plan and would print more books in the future to ensure that this set of movable type would not go to waste.
But the 200,000-word block created another problem. In this era of scarcity of metals, where could he find so much lead alloy?
Fortunately, we can ask for help from outside.
I ran directly to Li Shimin and explained the principles of movable type printing, and the materials came.
Li Shimin liked this kind of technological innovation very much. For him, it was a kind of literary merit. He even assigned many craftsmen to Chen Jingke to speed up the production of word blocks.
Solving the material does not mean that all problems are solved, such as indexing.
The 200,000-word block index is also a big problem. It cannot be piled together. It would be nonsense to turn it over one by one when using it.
So we must find a way to solve the index problem.
This is not difficult for Chen Jingke, because of the pinyin arrangements.
Pinyin is not a modern idea. The Han Dynasty had already invented the Zhiyin and Fanqie literacy methods. The Sui Dynasty already had a relatively complete phonetic system, and the middle and late Tang Dynasty even summarized the initial consonants and finals.
However, these methods are not as convenient as the modern pinyin, so Chen Jingke directly copied the pinyin from his previous life.
Considering that the accent of the Tang Dynasty is different from that of modern times, Chen Jingke did not apply mechanically, but learned and applied it flexibly.
Based on the experience of our predecessors and sages, this job is not particularly difficult, but it is rather cumbersome and requires some assistants.
Instead of looking for help from other scholars, he found six literate and clever people from Zixiaoguan. In order to make up the number of people, the two sisters Yilian and Yihe were also added.
I found a room as a studio and started editing directly.
Chen Jingke first said a few words of encouragement as usual: "Annotate all the words. I believe you can understand the meaning of this matter without me saying it."
"I will not deny your contribution. When this work is completed, all of your names will be written in the editing column at the beginning. We will enjoy this honor together."
Everyone was very excited. This was a different kind of statement. The two sisters Yihe and Yilian were the most excited. This was something they had never dared to think about before.
Seeing that everyone's enthusiasm was mobilized, Chen Jingke did not say any more unnecessary words, took out two sets of thick books and said:
"These are the "Yupian" and "Qieyun" written by the previous dynasty. What we have to do is to notate each character according to the method I taught based on these two books."
"If you have any questions, come to me and ask me. Every other hour we will summarize and exchange experiences."
"Yupian" is a dictionary compiled during the Southern Dynasties, and it was also the first dictionary compiled with radicals. Scholars in subsequent dynasties continued to add new characters to it, making it the dictionary with the widest coverage at present.
"Qie Yun" is a book compiled by the Sui Dynasty. As the name suggests, it is a book that determines pronunciation. It also proposed a complete phonetic system. After the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, this book was determined as the official rhyme.
Chen Jingke and the others don't need to make too many changes. They can just use the pinyin letters he 'invented' to phonetize each character on the basis of "Yupian" and "Qie Yun".
The work didn't go very smoothly at the beginning, mainly because everyone was unfamiliar with Pinyin and needed his constant guidance. Every time he checked and exchanged experiences, a lot of mistakes would appear.
But as the work progressed, everyone became more and more familiar with the Pinyin alphabet, and there were fewer and fewer mistakes. In the end, Chen Jingke only had to do the final review.
However, he was not idle. The production of movable lead type at the printing house also required him to do a final inspection. Those that passed the test were kept, and those that failed were melted down and recast.
The most troublesome thing was the production of hydraulic machinery. Although he knew the general structure, the specific production was very difficult.
For example, bearings, as mentioned before, bearings made of substandard steel are of poor quality and easily damaged, so the quality of the steel needs to be improved.
But he really didn't know much about this thing. The few relevant knowledge he had was the Song Dynasty steel-frying method that he had seen in history books.
By frying pig iron and wrought iron juice together, you can obtain steel in batches.
Compared with the Tang Dynasty, this steelmaking technology has made great progress across the ages, but it still cannot meet the needs of bearings.
There was no way to improve the quality of steel, so he had to think of ways to improve the bearings. In the end, his experience in his previous life provided him with inspiration.
Since steel balls are not enough, what about using steel columns? By increasing the contact area, will it increase the bearing capacity of the bearing?
Then we invited craftsmen to study together and came up with cylindrical bearings, and the durability was indeed improved qualitatively.
Later, gears, connecting rods and other equipment were developed... In fact, gears, vernier calipers and other "modern" tools have already existed in ancient times.
If you pay attention to archeology, you will find many things that refresh your understanding.
In short, after nearly a month of research, a set of simple yet technologically advanced hydraulic machinery was officially completed.
Everyone exclaimed when they saw that the hydraulic saw cut the waist-thick tree into wooden boards in less than a cup of tea.
You must know that if this tree uses human power, it will take two people almost a day to break it down into wooden boards.
The efficiency of hydraulic saws has increased countless times.
The same is true for the grinder at the back. Trees, weeds and the like are thrown in and all they spit out are debris.
The hydraulic stamping machine directly presses the thin iron plate into the desired shape.
The craftsmen didn't understand its meaning, but Chen Jingke knew that the use of a stamping machine was countless times greater than that of a crusher, mixer, or hydraulic saw.
Li Shimin looked at the report in his hand and couldn't calm down for a long time.
It's not because of the successful development of hydraulic machinery, but because of Chen Jingke's performance.
