It’s said to be a new idea, but it’s not that new at all!

After all, in most time-travel novels, once the protagonist begins to improve papermaking, the emergence of printing is a matter of course. Often when wooden movable type or clay movable type comes out, relatives and friends are basically shocked first, and then

The great scholars were shocked, and in the end it was inevitable that His Majesty the Emperor would also be shocked. As for infringing on the interests of the aristocratic families, being regarded as a thorn in others' eyes, a thorn in the flesh, etc., is also a common routine...

Of course, it is impossible for Li Yuanjia to let go of this great weapon that promotes the development of civilization.

Li Yuanjia didn't care at all about those so-called threats.

Compared with those time-traveling seniors, his status as a nobleman is the best protection, and there is no need to worry about the so-called threats from aristocratic families.

and……

In fact, even if he "invented" movable type printing and displayed it openly in front of the patriarchs of the aristocratic families, Li Yuanjia did not think that they would be upset, and would even laugh at Wang for eating too much. He was really idle.

No one had done it; as for fear of arousing the emperor's jealousy, Li Yuanjia also believed that even if the movable type printing technology was placed in front of his brother Li Shimin, Tang Taizong would probably just look at him and nod.

One sentence: "It looks interesting. It took a lot of effort, right?"

The movable type printing invented by the Song Dynasty was really of no use in the Tang Dynasty.

In fact, not only was it of no use in the Tang Dynasty, even a thousand years later, until the Ming and Qing Dynasties, woodblock printing was still the mainstream. Movable type printing was not absent, but very rare! And hundreds of years later, Western ancient printing was still the mainstream.

Compared with the movable type printing technology invented by Fort, it is simply unbearable to mention.

The reason is not only because Western characters are composed of more than 20 letters, but there are tens of thousands of Chinese characters, it is also related to the printing needs of ancient China and the aesthetic taste of the literati.

In ancient China, there were too few people who could read and read.

The threshold for reading is too high, resulting in only a small number of literati being interested in buying expensive books. Moreover, when there are not many books in the first place, the extremely concise writing style also results in those classics with few words and engravings.

Printing does not cost much, and sometimes even a few engraving plates are enough for a very short one. Only a "big book" like "Book of Rites" requires thousands of engraving plates for 100,000 words, which is quite expensive. However,

If stored properly, engravings can be used for a long time, unlike movable type printing which is dismantled after one use and must be rearranged next time for printing.

Moreover, the layout of woodblock printing looks much more beautiful than that of movable type printing.

A piece of engraving is generally completed by one person, with the same style and neat arrangement, while movable type is completed by multiple craftsmen. The font size and style are not uniform. When the text is arranged, it is very easy to have horizontal characters, inverted characters, etc.

So much so that when later generations of experts judge the printing method of an ancient book, similar errors often become the reason for judging it to be printed with movable type...

In this case, literati naturally preferred the engraving-printed version.

Of course, the above are actually minutiae, and they are not the fundamental reason that hinders the popularity of movable type printing. In his previous life, when Sun Peng was curious about this issue, he did a special study and read some explanations by Mavericks, and then he discovered the real

The reason is too expensive!

Yes, movable type printing is too expensive!

The cost of wooden movable type and clay movable type is slightly lower, but it is very easy to damage. The cost of constant updating and replacement is too high. The significance of large-scale printing is actually not great. The cost of purely hand-made metal movable type is extremely high. In the Qing Dynasty, there was a

The Fujian people once spent twenty years and used more than 200,000 taels of silver to make more than 400,000 copper movable types. It is understandable that the investment was huge. And unlike the West, where people can choose movable types as long as they know the letters, in ancient times

There are tens of thousands of Chinese characters, and there are only two to three thousand of them that are commonly used. How can an ordinary craftsman know them all? Even if a literate person is allowed to do typesetting, just orderly management and selecting those metal movable types requires a whole set of character checking methods.

to cooperate.

In addition to cost issues, technical limitations also make movable type printing not so beautiful.

Movable type printing seems very simple, and those fresh videos on the Internet in later generations also make this technology look so simple. It seems that you only need to carve some words and line them up together, and use paper and ink to brush...

But after all, they only printed one page carefully. How about printing hundreds of them? How about printing a book?

"Oh, what a waste!"

Li Yuanjia felt extremely distressed when he thought that he knew that his invention would not be of great use, at least in a short period of time, and he would definitely not be able to use it on a large scale.

It was all his money that was spent!

But just as he thought when he was struggling, no matter how high the cost and how long it takes, movable type printing must still be done. Not only must it be done, Li Yuanjia also plans to skip the wooden movable type and clay movable type and go straight to it.

Metal movable type, and decided to perfect the movable type printing technology as much as possible in his lifetime!

After all, this technology has played a huge role in promoting the times.

In a sense, low-cost printing is even more important than papermaking. It is of greater significance for the promotion of knowledge and growth. Therefore, as long as it does not affect yourself, no matter how much money you spend, no matter how long your life is,

Time, Li Yuanjia also wants to get it out.

Not to mention that later generations in the West believe that Gutenberg is the originator of movable type printing. After all, compared with Bi Feng's movable type printing, the technology is indeed very different. Just so that Koreans will not use their own metal movable type printing in the future.

Speaking of things, Li Yuanjia thinks the money and time are well spent!

Besides, there are indeed a lot of difficulties before you do it, but if you really do it, who dares to say that there will be no chance?

Do you really know nothing if you are a time traveler?

The principle of movable type printing is very simple, and you can basically understand it at a glance. Even in the Tang Dynasty, it was actually nothing special, but Li Yuanjia, who had studied it before, knew more!

For example, he knows that the water-based ink used in China is not suitable for metal movable type, and it is better to use oil-based ink; for example, he knows that making movable type is very troublesome, but it is much more convenient to use the Yin and Yang mold method; for example, he knows that the cost of copper movable type is too high.

High, there may even be cases where characters are melted to cast money, but lead, tin, and antimony alloy movable type is more suitable; for another example, Li Yuanjia also knew that the key to movable type printing is not the movable type, but the plate making...

Even the typefaces that only appeared during the period of great printing development in the Ming Dynasty, Li Yuanjia could come up with in advance.

After all, he is also a calligrapher and painter!

So Han Shan brought a blacksmith and an ink maker from his house, and then looked on with pain in his face. Wang Li Yuanjia gave them two orders respectively: the blacksmith found a metal that could be easily melted, and
Chapter completed!