Original title: The Wuwei Branch of the China Printing Museum opened
Xixia clay movable type was "resurrected"
The Wuwei Branch of the China Printing Museum was officially completed and opened
The production process of Xixia clay movable type: printing
The discovery and "resurrection" of Xixia clay movable type fills the gap in China's mud movable type version, provides strong physical evidence for the establishment of the invention right of Chinese clay movable type printing in the international community, and strives for the right to speak for "movable type printing, originating from China". On August 31, the Wuwei Branch of the China Printing Museum was officially completed and opened, providing a window and platform for people to display and carry forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture. On September 5, the reporter conducted an interview.
a
Xixia clay movable type fills the gap in relevant research in China
The Wuwei Branch of the China Printing Museum is located in the "Crown of longyouxue palace" - the Temple of Literature, which has a Zhuangyuan Bridge in front and a Confucius Temple in the back, and the Wuwei Movable Type Printing Thematic Exhibition Hall is on the east and west sides of the place where the literati and inkers of the past worship Confucius. The museum not only traces the history of printing in China, but also details the production process of Xixia clay movable type: mud making, ding-making, engraving, burning, typesetting, and printing.
One day in September 1987, Sun Shouling, then deputy director of the Wuwei City Museum, and his colleagues were cleaning up the remaining cultural relics at the site of Haimudong Temple when they discovered the Western Xia Buddhist scripture "Vimalaya Sutra" (volume II). Later, it was found that the Vimalaya Sutra has the unique characteristics of movable type prints such as "unright line spacing, deformed strokes, uneven inking, and occasional broken pens", which are obviously different from engraved prints. After countless days and nights of comparison and analysis, Sun Shouling judged that the Sutra Spoken by Vimalakirti is not only a movable type print, but also a clay movable type print. In order to prove that his views were correct, Sun Shouling used the method described in the "Mengxi Pen Talk", repeatedly explored and experimented, and after more than 3 years, he finally successfully fired the clay movable type and restored the mud movable type print with more than 6400 words, "The Sutra of Vimalaya" (the second volume). Sun Shouling's research achievements have been highly praised by domestic and foreign cultural relics experts and Experts on Western Xia culture. The domestic academic community first affirmed that the Vimalaya Sutra (volume II) is a clay movable type version, and UNESCO also fully affirmed Sun Shouling's research results. Shi Jinbo, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, called Sun Shouling "the first person in modern Western Xia Wen mud movable type." In June 2007, Sun Shouling's "Production Method of Clay Movable Type" won the national invention patent.
b
"Movable Type Printing, Originated in China"
The reporter saw the complete printed version, projection and excavated original of the Vimalaya Sutra (volume 2) in the exhibition hall. According to the introduction, the Buddhist sutra "Vimalaya Sutra" (the second volume) is a version of the Wuwei Xixia Mud Movable Type, which is a folded long scroll with a total of 54 faces. The face is 28 cm long and 12 cm wide, with 7 lines on each side and 17 characters, totaling more than 6400 words. Xixia is a country established in the northwest region of China with the Dangxiang nationality as the main body, and in the more than 190 years since its founding, it has created its own ethnic script, which is called "Xixiawen" by posterity. According to expert research, Xixia is the printing date of the clay movable type Buddhist scriptures. In order to quickly promote the cultural language created by their own people, the Western Xia people adopted and absorbed the movable type printing technology invented by Bi Sheng of the Northern Song Dynasty, which accelerated the spread of the language and culture created by their own ethnic groups. Therefore, the discovery of the Western Xia Wen Mud Movable Type Version of the Vimalaki Sutra (volume II) is a historical witness of the Western Xia nation's use of movable type printing Buddhism in its own national language, a precious physical material for studying the history of science and technology of ethnic minorities, and a first-hand physical historical material for the early movable type printing in China.
c
The Wuwei Branch of the China Printing Museum opened to welcome guests
In the Wuwei Branch of the China Printing Museum, the reporter saw the following text: "Ancient Chinese printing technology is the pearl in the long river of human civilization ... From seals to stone engraving rubbings, to the invention of engraving, the emergence of movable type printing, the continuous trial and use of various printing materials such as mud, wood, stone, metal... Ancient Chinese printing technology has been continuously enriched, improved and improved in practice, and the pace of human civilization has been accelerated and sublimated in successive changes. "The clay movable writing invented by Bi Sheng in the Northern Song Dynasty was limited to documentary records, and there was no corresponding physical proof, and for a time, people questioned whether there was a historical fact of clay movable type. In 1987, the advent of the wuwei Haimudong Xixia Wen clay movable type printed text indisputably proved the historical fact that Bi Sheng invented clay movable type in China. ”
Perhaps, this is the real meaning of the establishment of the Wuwei Branch of the China Printing Museum.
Wuwei is the capital of China's tourism symbols and a national historical and cultural city, and contains rich historical and cultural relics. The Wuwei Branch of the China Printing Museum opened a museum to invite visitors, in order to display the world's earliest existing clay movable type print - The historical and cultural treasure of Xixia clay movable type printing, deepening the study of printing culture to build a better window and platform, it defends the right to invent the printing technology of the motherland at the same time, but also in the form of "historical memory" to retain the "root" and "soul" of Chinese clay movable type.