It has to be said that metal movable type printing and laser illumination technology are two major revolutions in information dissemination, among which Wuxi people participate.
Dangkou Ancient Town
In 1450, the German goldsmith Gutenberg invented lead-tin alloy movable type printing and printed 180 Bibles, which became a watershed in Europe from the Middle Ages to modern society. Prior to this, the Bible was copied word by word on parchment by the monks, and it was said that a Bible cost 300 pieces of sheepskin, and ordinary Europeans knew about God by the priest's explanation; after that, Europeans could read the Bible in the living room and talk directly to God. Different ways of disseminating information, what is felt is two different "worlds". Thus, the religious revolution took place, the Christian world began to collapse, and Descartes discovered "I think, therefore I am"...
Gutenberg's printing workshop
Gutenberg, however, did not make a fortune from this. At that time, the creditor who lent him money for development quickly came to the door, and not only lost the lawsuit and confiscated the printing equipment, but also almost ran out of food, and could only rely on the relief of the local master. And the printing press was immediately distributed to the major cities in Europe, and from then on, the world was complicated...
Ming Dynasty copper movable type printing archives
The East at the same time was a different story. Chinese have long had paper books, especially the examination system that absorbs talents regardless of class, so that the demand for reading is completely different from That in European society.
Books at this time were mainly printed with engraving. From the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, the engraving and printing industry in Wuxi County has been booming. One of the most famous printing giants is the Tan family in Xiao Lou Lane, that is, the Tan family that gave birth to the "Ming Concubine Female Doctor Tan Yunxian", which opened printing workshops such as "Menopause Hall" and "Yan Jia Zhai", and engraved a large number of books, which were sold in various printing shops such as "Yiwen Zhai", "Wenyuan Pavilion", and "Da Wen Zhai".
Stills from "The Legend of the Female Doctor Mingfei"
In 1439, in the town of Dangkou between Wuxi and Suzhou, a "talent" was born: Hua Flint. From a young age, he liked to read the history of the Bible, and his family had thousands of acres of land, and then one day, he set up a few houses in his home and opened a printing workshop. However, instead of engraving and printing, he groped out the "copper movable type" printing technique himself...
Dangkou "Huitongguan"
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Ye Dehui said in the "Shulin Qing Dialect": "The movable type printing in the Ming Dynasty was so extensive, and it was all in Wuxi Yiyi." In 1925, the American scholar Carter said in the book "The Invention of Chinese Printing and Its Western Transmission" that "at the end of the fifteenth century, wuxi printer Hua Flint was first printed in copper movable type".
Of course, Hua Fu is not a printer, he is the owner of the "Huitongguan". Then, Hua Fu's nephew opened the "Lan Xue Hall", and Hua Fu's cousin opened the "Gui Po Hall"... The printed books are not only the Four Books and Five Classics, but also "Baichuan Xuehai", "Rong Zhai Essays", "Song Zhuchen Song Discussion", "Wenyuan Yinghua Dialectic", "Bai's Changqing Collection", "Spring and Autumn Dew"... Many have survived to this day.
However, copper movable type printing has not become mainstream in China. There are too many Chinese characters, and the cost and workload of Chinese character movable type printing are actually quite large! The reason why Hua Flint can dare to do copper movable type printing is related to his personal preferences, he is a reader himself and likes to note; second, it is related to market demand. Southern Jiangsu is a place of reverence for literature and religion, and there is a natural demand for books that produce so many elements. In fact, not many years after Hua Flint, Wuxi became famous because there were too many readers, and a large number of scholars gathered in Donglin, "family affairs, state affairs, world affairs, everything is concerned"...
However, the Chinese character publishing industry was eventually replaced by lead printing from the West. By the 1920s, 14 printing companies in Wuxi alone had adopted electric printing presses, and the largest employed more than 100 workers. By the end of the 20th century, Hua Flint's hometown of Dangkou had become the largest color printing base in China...
Wang Xuan
In 1979, Wang Xuan, a descendant of the Wang family in XiaolouXiang, invented the "Chinese character laser illumination technology". Since then, Chinese books, periodicals, newspapers and publications no longer need pencil typesetters, and China's newspaper industry can say goodbye to "paper and pencil". In order to commemorate this contemporary Bi Sheng, Wuxi established the Wang Xuan Deeds Exhibition Hall next door to Donglin Academy, which was originally the ancestral residence of the Wang family...
Since ancient times, the Wang family has a family motto: "Filial piety is the field, honesty and shame are the foundation, and reading is the first righteousness." In modern times, the Hua family has produced a famous mathematician, translator and educator Hua Xiangfang; Tan's family has not only produced female doctors, but also has produced 9 jinshi...
It's a magical place. Although it has remained a county-level administrative unit for more than two thousand years since the Western Han Dynasty, "culture" and "industry" have influenced and promoted each other, embarked on a refined development path, and made extraordinary achievements in economic, cultural, artistic, scientific and technological and social fields.
(The pictures in the text are taken from the network)