2, from the song dynasty Shen Kuo's "trap".
Printed books were not popular in the Tang Dynasty. The Five Classics were printed in the Five Dynasties, and later classics were printed.
There is a cloth in the celebration calendar, which is also a trap. Its method: carved with mud, as thin as the lips of money, every word is printed, and fire makes it strong. First, an iron plate is erected, on which rosin, wax and paper ash are exposed. If you want to print, put an iron fan on the iron plate with words printed on it. If you use an iron fan as a plate, the iron fan will catch fire. If the medicine melts slightly, press a flat plate on its surface, and the words will be as flat as a stone. It is not easy to stop printing three or two books; If you print hundreds of thousands of copies, it will be very fast. I often make two iron plates, one printed and the other printed by myself. Only when this printer is finished, the second edition is already available, which is more interoperable and can be used instantly. Each word has several seals, such as the words "Zhi" and "Ye", and each word has more than 20 seals, in case of duplication on one board. If you don't use it, stick it on paper, one for each rhyme, and store it in a wooden lattice. People with strange shapes can be carved in an instant without preparation. Those who don't take wood as the object, those who are dense in arts and sciences, and those who touch water, are uneven and stick to medicine, which is not desirable; If you don't burn the soil, melt the medicine after use and brush it with your hand, and its seal will automatically fall down without being polluted.
_ Death, whose seal is from the group, has been preserved to this day.
3. Translation:
Printing books with block printing was not completed on a large scale in the Tang Dynasty. It was only in the Five Dynasties that the Five Classics (woodblock printing) began to be printed, and then the classic literature was woodblock printing.
During the Song and Qing Dynasties, a civilian named Bi invented movable type printing. Its method is: carve words with clay, and the font is as thin as the edge of copper coins. Each word is carved with a font and burned hard. Put an iron plate first, and spread it with turpentine, wax mixed paper ash and the like. If you want to print, you put an iron frame on the iron plate, so you densely arrange the type in the iron frame. When it is filled with the iron frame, it becomes a printing plate and is baked on the fire. When the medicine on the iron plate melts slightly, press it on the font with a flat plate, and the font will be as flat as a millstone. If only two or three copies are printed, it will not be easy; If you print dozens or even hundreds of copies, it will be extremely fast. Usually two iron plates are made, one is printing and the other is typesetting. When this printing is finished, the second plate is finished. The alternate use of two plates can be completed in a short time. Each word has several impressions, such as "Zhi" and "Ye", and each word has more than 20 impressions, which are used to prepare repeated words in the same edition. When not in use, mark it with paper, label each rhyme and store it in a wooden lattice. When you encounter uncommon words that you don't usually prepare, you can immediately carve them and bake them with grass, which will soon be successful. The reason why wood is not used as font is because the texture of wood is sparse and dense, and it will become uneven when it meets water. In addition, the woodcut characters will stick to the medicine, so they can't be taken off (when the board is removed). Unlike the fonts fired by pottery clay, they are baked with fire after printing, so that the medicine will melt, and those fonts will fall off by themselves with a gentle brush, and they will not be contaminated by drugs at all.
After Bi died, his handwriting was acquired by my cousins and nephews, and it is still treasured today.