kingnovel Chapter 368: Printing House Encounters Difficulties
Chapter 368: Printing House Encounters Difficulties
The printing house had just started operating and was still at the stage where Yu Shizhang was writing the inscriptions and the engravers were carving the positive text.
As the name suggests, a carver is someone who uses a small carving knife to carve words on clay.
Shen Zheng felt a little embarrassed when talking about this.
——There were two carvers in total, one of whom was an experienced calligrapher brought by Yu Shizhang from Liuyang Prefecture. His name was Bai Song, also known as Bai Gong, and he had a great hand at calligraphy.
Shen Zheng saw him carving words once. He took such a small piece of clay in his hand and spun it twice. Before she could see clearly, the words on the paper were clearly "imprinted" on the clay. The words on the clay were almost identical to those written by Yu Shizhang.
This surprised Shen Zheng greatly. She once again realized that everyone around Yu Shizhang had many abilities.
As for the other person...he was from Tongan County and became Bai Gong's apprentice.
This man's name was Niu Chu, a fellow villager of Li Hongmao. He could only read a few words. As for why he was chosen, it was because he was a stele carver before and had great strength in his hands.
At that time, Shen Zheng asked foolishly: "What monument?"
Yu Shizhang rolled his eyes at her and said, "What other monument could there be? A monument for doing business with the dead and making money from the living."
Good fellow! Shen Zheng exclaimed that the great way is simple.
She asked again: "Why choose him?"
Yu Shizhang's answer was still pure: "He can carve characters, but he can't read or write."
Shen Zheng asked back, "If he can't read, wouldn't it be a lot more troublesome to carve the blank? And if there are too many words, I'm afraid he will get confused."
Yu Shizhang thought of all these, but he still said: "Bai Song said that he is very talented in engraving. He can't read, but as long as he is willing to remember the words he has engraved, he can remember them. And the most important point is that he can't write."
Shen Zheng was puzzled: "Is it a good thing to not be able to write?"
Yu Shizhang laughed, "For most people, this is not a good thing. But for Niu Chu, it is a good thing."
"He can't write, so he doesn't understand the strokes and strength of calligraphy. When carving the blank, he carved it exactly as Ben Bo wrote, without adding any personal writing habits."
Shen Zheng understood: "You mean, he is very adaptable, maybe he will be your professional engraver in the future?"
Yu Shizhang blew his beard and said, "Don't make me sound so arbitrary. But if he understands the essence of my writing, even if I am gone, he can still imitate my handwriting and continue to carve words."
gone?
Shen Zheng remembered that she was stunned for a moment when she heard that. Yu Shizhang laughed and said bluntly:
"It's just what you think. What if Uncle Ben dies?"
Shen Zheng looked at him steadily. In his words, life and death were as casual as eating and sleeping.
Yes, Yu Shizhang is not young anymore, but Shen Zheng has never thought that he would die. It is hard for Shen Zheng to accept that such a good elder will pass away one day.
She lowered her eyes, not wanting to discuss the matter anymore.
On the contrary, Yu Shizhang disagreed and said as he wrote the inscription:
"I have lived a life of integrity. If I die, I will be buried in a formal mausoleum. But I don't want to be buried with those old men after I die. How boring."
He changed the subject, as if jokingly: "If you had stayed in Tongan County, I would have wanted to bury you here."
Shen Zheng felt a lump in her throat when she heard this and changed the subject stiffly.
......
Now Shen Zheng was standing in front of the gate of the courtyard, recalling Yu Shizhang's words that day in her mind, and she did not reach out to push the door for a long time.
"Squeak--" the gate of the courtyard opened from the inside, it was Bai Gong.
As soon as he opened the door, he came face to face with Shen Zheng and was startled.
"Sir Shen." He patted his chest with his muddy hands, "I was just about to look for you, and here you are. Are you here to look for my uncle?"
Shen Zheng nodded and glanced towards the courtyard.
There was a desk under a tree on one side of the courtyard, on which were placed writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstone, as well as a lot of rice paper scattered about. On each piece of paper there were Yu Shizhang's handwriting, some large and some small.
On the other side of the courtyard is a temporary earthen kiln used to burn clay embryos for paper seals - positive-positive clay embryos, meaning positive fonts, with each character's strokes running from left to right.
However, it is impossible to print words on the positive-relief clay. The words printed on the positive-relief clay are mirror images, which are called negative-relief.
Therefore, after firing the positive clay embryo, there is one more process, which is to reverse print the negative clay embryo and then fire it. In this way, the ink characters printed with the negative clay embryo are positive characters.
But the small courtyard at the moment is stumped by this step.
Shen Zheng stepped in, and Yu Shizhang waved at her with a sad face: "I'm asking Bai Song to look for you, come and have a look. I really have no other choice, and the three of us combined can't figure out why."
It seems that they are really facing difficulties.
Shen Zheng adjusted her mood, took three or two steps forward, and squatted beside the earthen kiln with them.
The fire in the earthen kiln was burning brightly. As soon as she approached, she felt enveloped by the heat, and even the air she could breathe was taken away.
Yu Shizhang picked up a wooden stick from the ground and poked the mud on the edge of the earthen kiln. He said with experience: "Well... we have to wait a while. The embryo is not hard yet. Let it sit for a while after the fire goes out."
No matter how anxious he was, he could not get any result. He could only call Shen Zheng to sit down at the stone table. He wiped his muddy hands on his clothes casually and poured Shen Zheng a cup of tea.
Shen Zheng didn't despise him, she took a sip of tea and asked him:
"My Lord, what trouble have you encountered?"
Yu Shizhang looked at the steaming earthen kiln and sighed:
"Last time, Bai Song worked day and night to carve a hundred negative characters and put them into the kiln for firing."
He also took a sip of tea and added, "One hundred were burned at once, and then something went wrong."
Shen Zheng frowned, "All 100 of them had problems? Maybe the fire wasn't heated enough, or the kiln wasn't sealed tightly, so air got in?"
“No.” Yu Shizhang shook his head. “One hundred were fired together, but they were clearly made from the same batch of clay and fired at the same time. However, a small number of them cracked soon after leaving the kiln, while the others were fine.”
This was the first time Shen Zheng had heard of such a situation. She asked:
"Did Master ask Bai Gong to recall what different experiences this batch of embryos had from working the clay to carving the embryos?"
"No."
Yu Shizhang answered confidently, "Moreover, there is no pattern to the cracked inscriptions. Some were carved in the afternoon, and some were carved at night. Some were the first time the clay was kneaded, and some were the second or third time."
Shen Zheng frowned even more when he heard this.
If there is no pattern at all, it may be an disordered probabilistic event, and probabilistic events are the most difficult to avoid.
She tried hard to recall the movable type printing tutorials she had seen before, which basically explained the process but rarely explained how to deal with problems.
Her fingers tapped unconsciously on the table, but after a moment of anxiety, she calmed down and turned to comfort Yu Shizhang:
"Don't worry, uncle. There are many experts in firing clay embryos. Let's wait until the kiln embryo comes out and see what the situation is. If we can't solve it, we will go find someone to take a look."