Typography in the prototype

In the history of any technology, especially the invention of a major process technology such as “printing,” there was a process of development from conception, budding, to prototype, and perfection. Among them, the idea and the budding belong to the preparation stage; the embryonic form and the perfection are in the period of invention. Like a chicken, eggs are used for hatching because people need it. During incubation, eggs are an essential material basis. Under the temperature and technical conditions provided by the people, eggs are slowly turned into chickens and shelled out from the shells. After a happy start, it grows and grows. process. This is a fidgety one, we call it a chicken, and the chicks whose shape has been, and are about to break out, are not chickens. The invention of printing is quite similar to this. The engraved and printed books appearing in the Sui and Tang dynasties were just like those chickens who happily leaped; the “metal printing” and “fabric printing” that appeared earlier than the engraving and printing of books had not been regarded as printing in the printing history field. But it does seem to be that only the fledgling, embryonic, and hatching chicks have all the elements of the printing definition, which is essentially a veritable printing technique. In order to distinguish it from the more perfect printing techniques used in book printing in the Sui and Tang dynasties, we regard it as a type of typography. There is no doubt about it.

The first section of fabric production and development

Fabrics have a generalized and narrowly defined two solutions. The generalized fabric is a general term for woven fabrics, knitted fabrics, and woven fabrics; narrowly defined fabrics specifically refer to woven fabrics. Woven fabrics are not only the most widely used fabrics from ancient times, but also the printing-related fabrics used as substrates for printing.

Woven fabrics are made up of two sets of yarns, ie, warp and weft yarns, which are machine or tool looms. The original looms were made up of only a few wooden sticks. Although simple, they were clever. As far as 6,000 years ago in the Neolithic period, our ancestors had used this original loom to weave it (Figure 5-1).

In 1972, archaeologists unearthed three pieces of Gobbut in the Neolithic site of Caoshan Mountain in Wu County, Jiangsu Province 6,000 years ago. The three pieces of cloth fabric are double-strand warp rib fabrics. The diameter of the double strands is 0.45-0.90 mm; the twisting direction is S拈; the density of the warp is 10  cm, the density of the weft: the depth of the ground is 13-14  cm, and the ribs are 26-28  cm. The excavated pieces of these three pieces of grabbing 6,000 years ago and the half-cut silkworm cocoon found in the site of the Neolithic period in Xiyin Village, Shanxi Province in 1926, were unearthed in the ruins of the Neolithic period of Qianshan Mountain in Wuxing, Zhejiang Province in 1958. The silk fabrics dating back 4,700 years ago indicate that China had already had a certain level of weaving technology 5,000 years ago. Especially the silk fabrics that have gradually developed with their lightness, smoothness, transparency, and luster are favored by the merchants of many countries in the East and the West. They did not hesitate to dabble in waters and mountains and went through hardships and dangers. They came to China to buy or exchange money, and they took out Changan in China. (From Xi'an today) and other places as the starting point, through West Asia, North Africa, to Europe's "Silk Road", to China's invention of paper, printing and gunpowder, compass of the West, and even promote the Chinese and Western cultural exchanges and the cause of human civilization Development has made important contributions.

Textile printing under the printing industry is gradually formed and matured during the long-term development and evolution of textile printing and dyeing technology. The development of textile printing and dyeing is based on the development of woven technology. Woven technology, after the original hand-weaving of 6,000 years ago, has reached a very high level after thousands of years of development in the Spring, Autumn, and Warring States period with the pursuit of beauty and the development of social and cultural undertakings. During the Spring, Autumn and Warring States period, the spinning wheel used for the spinning line replaced the original spinning wheel; the diagonal weaving machine used for weaving quickly replaced the old one. After the diagonal weaving machine is changed to foot lifting, it is greatly convenient for the weft insertion and the beating to be performed faster by hand, which improves the quality and efficiency of the woven fabric. According to Records of the Historian, at that time, as many as 200,000 inhabitants of the Qi State capital copied the city, the shops in the city were comparable, and the shelves were covered with cloths and clothes. The fabric trade was quite prosperous. In the Qin and Han dynasties, the establishment of a large-scale feudal empire greatly promoted the cultural exchanges between China and the West and the development of the Chinese weaving industry. At this time, woven fabrics and dyed fabrics have large output, many varieties, and advanced technology, and enjoy a high reputation in the world. As a result, many countries have called China China's "silk country," writing China as Serica, which was transformed from Serge, and Sersser as the Chinese. History of Chinese Dyeing and Weaving, Tian Zibing and Wu Shusheng, Shanghai People's Publishing House, 1986 edition.

The second section of printing and dyeing in the printing and printing

Textile printing and dyeing are necessary for human life, so its origins are ancient. It is this early origin and wide application. In the textile printing and dyeing necessary for the beautification of human life, bred and derived fabric printing has become the first application field of printing technology, and has made important contributions to the improvement of printing technology.

I. Engraved engraving

Fabric printing in fabric printing and dyeing, seen in historical records and evidence of unearthed cultural relics, appeared in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. In 1983, there were two pieces of copper printing relief in the unearthed relics of the Nanyue Tomb in Guangzhou, and some printed silk fabrics were also unearthed. One of the printing relief plates is a flat thin plate. The front pattern is similar to the pine tree shape, with a vortex-shaped flaming pattern bulge. The plate thickness is only about 0.15 mm, and the wear marks due to use are visible on the plate. A silk fabric with only a white flame pattern was also unearthed in the same tomb, and its shape was exactly matched with the pattern of the pine tree (Fig. 5-2).

Wu Shusheng and Tian Zibing wrote “History of Chinese dyeing and weaving,” when they talked about fabric printing, they said: “The letterpress printing technology developed during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, and it has reached a very high level in the Western Han Dynasty.” This is the Mawangdui in Changsha. Unearthed relief print artifacts are proof. In the Western Han Dynasty unearthed in Mawangdui, Changsha, there are several pieces of printed color yarns and gold and silver printed yarns, among which there is a combination of letterpress printing and painting techniques. Among them, there is a color printing yarn, with cinnabar, lead white, sericite and carbon black as the pigment, the vine pattern on the screen is clear, and the lines are smooth and powerful, which fully shows the good effect of letterpress printing. Some of the holes in the fabric were clogged, indicating that the paint had been prepared using a dry fluid with certain fluidity as the adhesive. The unearthing of these printed color yarns is enough to prove that as early as in the Western Han Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago, China had already mastered multi-color printing techniques (Figure 5-3).

The gold and silver printed yarn unearthed in Mawangdui was processed by three relief printing. In some places, due to the inaccurate positioning during printing, there are phenomena of overlap and unevenness in density between prints. But on the whole, positioning technology is still quite good. This was a remarkable achievement in the Western Han Dynasty two thousand years ago.

What deserves special attention is that the patterns of gold and silver printed yarns unearthed from the Western Han Dynasty Tombs of Mawangdui are similar to the patterns on the bronze printed copper plates unearthed at the above-mentioned tombs of the South Vietnamese kings, reflecting the wide application of this technique at that time.

Mawangdui gold and silver printing yarn adopts three sets of color engraving and relief printing process. The printing process is roughly divided into three steps: the first step is to print the "" shape network with the silver-white pigment, the so-called "turtle back skeleton"; The step is to overprint the silver-gray curve pattern in the printed shape network, and finally overprint the golden dots. The exquisite craftsmanship and exquisite color paste reflect the high level of technology that copperplate embossing and multicolor printing have achieved at the time.

Second, engraving printing

At the turn of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there was also a carved version of what was known as the "type version" in the application.

Pattern printing refers to the hollowing out of a pattern on a different quality material, which is carved into an empty stencil. The stencil is placed on the substrate—fabric or a wall—using a squeegee or a brush. The printing method of printing ink (dye) belongs to the category of stencil printing, which is the predecessor of screen printing and the earliest printing technology used today.

Between 1978 and 1979, archaeologists unearthed more than 200 artifacts in the Chunqiu and Warring States period in Xianyan, Guitang County, Guixi County, Jiangxi Province. Among them were several deep-brown ramie printed with silver and white patterns. Cloth is printed with a stencil. At the same time, two squeegee blades were also unearthed. The squeegee is a flat rectangular (25 x 20 cm), thin plate, short shank, wedge-shaped cross-section. This is the earliest type of printed artifact found in the world.

The unearthed relics from the Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha and the color patterns printed on the fabric in the second Han dynasty in the 2nd century BC. These printed fabrics are of exquisite texture and are printed with thick and delicate colors. Some tricolor overprints are already exquisitely crafted. Well-printed typed prints. For China, there was another physical evidence of stencil printing before the Western Han Dynasty. This type of stencil printing plate is hand-sculpted, first used for printing on fabrics called "clips". Since the Western Han Dynasty, it has been used in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Northern Jin Dynasty, the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and the Sui and Tang Dynasties. The process method is: "In accordance with the design of the pattern, on the wood or oil-impregnated hard paper (press: the early version of the leaking plate used when the wooden board or leather, silk after dipping the paint made) Engraved hollow made of leaked version, then