![Removeable type book](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Removeable_type_book.jpg)
Hua Sui (; 1439–1513 AD) was a Chinese scholar, engineer, inventor, and
printer
Printer may refer to:
Technology
* Printer (publishing), a person or a company
* Printer (computing), a hardware device
* Optical printer for motion picture films
People
* Nariman Printer (fl. c. 1940), Indian journalist and activist
* James ...
of
Wuxi
Wuxi (, ) is a city in southern Jiangsu province, eastern China, by car to the northwest of downtown Shanghai, between Changzhou and Suzhou. In 2017 it had a population of 3,542,319, with 6,553,000 living in the entire prefecture-level city ar ...
,
Jiangsu
Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...
province during the
Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
(1368–1644 AD). He belonged to the wealthy Hua family that was renowned throughout the region. Hua Sui is best known for creating China's first
metal
A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...
movable type
Movable type (US English; moveable type in British English) is the system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual alphanumeric characters or punctuatio ...
printing
Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ea ...
in 1490 AD.
[Needham, Volume 5, Part 1, 215.]
Metal movable type printing
Metal movable type printing had been invented in
Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
during the earlier 13th century, but there is no concrete evidence that suggests Hua Sui's metal type print was influenced by Korean printing.
Earlier wooden and ceramic types
![Jingangjing](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Jingangjing.jpg)
Movable type was invented and improved in China centuries before Hua Sui. As written by the polymath Chinese scientist
Shen Kuo
Shen Kuo (; 1031–1095) or Shen Gua, courtesy name Cunzhong (存中) and pseudonym Mengqi (now usually given as Mengxi) Weng (夢溪翁),Yao (2003), 544. was a Chinese polymathic scientist and statesman of the Song dynasty (960–1279). Shen wa ...
(1031–1095) of the
Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
(960–1279 AD), the commoner and artisan
Bi Sheng
Bi Sheng (; 972–1051 AD) was a Chinese artisan, engineer, and inventor of the world's first movable type technology, with printing being one of the Four Great Inventions. Bi Sheng's system was made of Chinese porcelain and was invented betwee ...
(990–1051) was the first to invent movable type, with his ceramic type invented in the
Qingli period (1041–1048).
[Needham, Volume 5, Part 1, 201.] During the
Yuan dynasty
The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fifth ...
(1279–1368 AD), the governmental
magistrate
The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...
and scholar
Wang Zhen (
fl. 1290–1333) was an early innovator of
wood
Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...
en
movable type
Movable type (US English; moveable type in British English) is the system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual alphanumeric characters or punctuatio ...
, as his process improved the speed of typesetting as well.
[Needham, Volume 5, Part 1, 206–208.] Much like Bi Sheng experimenting with wooden movable type in the 11th century but finding it unsatisfactory, Wang Zhen also experimented with metal type printing using
tin
Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal.
Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...
.
Wang Zhen wrote in the book of the ''Nong Shu'' (1313 AD):
In more recent times ate 13th century type has also been made of tin by casting. It is strung on an iron wire, and thus made fast in the columns of the form, in order to print books with it. But none of this type took ink readily, and it made untidy printing in most cases. For that reason they were not used long.
Thus, Chinese metal type of the 13th century using tin was unsuccessful because it was incompatible with the
ink
Ink is a gel, sol, or solution that contains at least one colorant, such as a dye or pigment, and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing or writing with a pen, brush, reed pen, or quill. Thicker ...
ing process. Although unsuccessful in Wang Zhen's time, the bronze metal type of Hua Sui in the late 15th century would be used for centuries in China, up until the late 19th century.
Furthermore, a font of tin movable type was successfully employed by a Mr. Tong of
Guangdong
Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...
in the 19th century, who figured out how to make it more compatible with the inking process.
Metal type of the Ming period
![Jiao zi](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Jiao_zi.jpg)
Hua Sui, who did not become a scholar until about the age of fifty, became interested in printing books.
[Needham, Volume 5, Part 1, 212.] He had accumulated a sizable fortune, and desired to use that fortune in order to establish the reputation as a printer in the region.
Hua Sui became the first of his familial clan to use his resources in establishing bronze-type printing in 1490. The first book printed in bronze-type in China was the ''Zhu Chen Zou Yi'' of that year (housed now in the National Central Library of
Taipei
Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...
,
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
), a simple collection of
memorial
A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of a ...
s printed in two editions.
The books printed by Hua Sui contain the signature ''Hui Tong Guan'' (Studio of Mastery and Comprehension), meaning he had mastered the process of metal movable type printing.
Including the ''Zhu Chen Zou Yi'', published 15 titles using metal type, in a span of about 20 years.
Family relatives of Hua Sui caught on and engaged in metal type printing as well. Hua Cheng (1438–1514 AD), a distant relative of Sui, an
antiquarian
An antiquarian or antiquary () is an fan (person), aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifact (archaeology), artifac ...
, and book-collector, began his own printing studio known as ''Shang Gu Zhai'' (Studio for Esteeming Antiquities).
[Needham, Volume 5, Part 1, 212–213.] He printed the ''Bai Chuan Xue Hai'' of 1501 using metal type, and printed many rare books he obtained in a rapid process thanks to the speed of metal typesetting.
[Needham, Volume 5, Part 1, 213.] Hua Qian (fl. 1513–1516), a nephew of Hua Sui, was yet another bronze-type printer of the Hua family. His studio signature was ''Lan Xue Tang'' (Hall of Orchid and Snow), and his largest printing project was reprinting the old
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
encyclopedia
An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...
of the ''Yi Wen Lei Ju'' (1515).
In addition, various members of the Hua family contributed to metal movable type printing, as about 24 book titles using metal type were published between 1490 and 1516.
There was another prestigious family of Wuxi, Jiangsu province, who engaged in metal type printing. This was the An family, most notably that of An Guo (1481–1534).
However, the An family's printed works came shortly after the Hua family, the latter of whom were supposedly inspired by Shen Kuo's description of Bi Sheng's movable type in the ''Meng Xi Bi Tan'' (
Dream Pool Essays
''The Dream Pool Essays'' (or ''Dream Torrent Essays'') was an extensive book written by the Chinese polymath and statesman Shen Kuo (1031–1095), published in 1088 during the Song dynasty (960–1279) of China. Shen compiled this encycloped ...
) of 1088 AD. Yet the process of earthenware movable type and metal movable type are different, as metal movable type required many more complex technical processes of engraving, casting, type-setting, inking, and printing.
![Pen ts'ao, woodblock book 1249-ce](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Pen_ts%27ao%2C_woodblock_book_1249-ce.png)
Bronze type publications were soon after made in the cities of
Changzhou
Changzhou ( Changzhounese: ''Zaon Tsei'', ) is a prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu province, China. It was previously known as Yanling, Lanling and Jinling. Located on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, Changzhou borders the provin ...
,
Suzhou
Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trade ...
, and
Nanjing
Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...
during the 16th century.
Yet the sponsors of printing weren't all described as the works of simply the area's wealthiest local family, as the bronze-type books in
Fujian
Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...
province were developed by truly commercial enterprises.
Chinese writing fonts of different sizes and scope could be jointly owned and invested in by more than one printer in the region.
In addition to bronze, there were also other metal types used for movable type printing.
Lu Shen (1477–1544 AD) once reported in the early 16th century that printers of Changzhou used bronze and lead movable type printing, which could have been separate materials or an
alloy
An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductility, ...
mixture of the two.
The Qing period
During the
Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
(1644–1911), the imperial court had made wooden movable type the official printing method, overseen by the official Jin Jian (d. 1794) who had 253,000 wooden movable type font characters made in 1733.
[Needham, Volume 5, Part 1, 209.] However, the Qing government also sponsored bronze-type printing, as they crafted 250,000 bronze characters earlier in 1725 to print the ''
Gujin Tushu Jicheng
The ''Gujin Tushu Jicheng'' (), also known as the ''Imperial Encyclopaedia'', is a vast encyclopedic work written in China during the reigns of the Qing dynasty emperors Kangxi and Yongzheng. It was begun in 1700 and completed in 1725. The wor ...
'' (古今圖書集成, ''Complete Collection of Illustrations and Writings from the Earliest to Current Times'').
The encyclopedia encompassed 5020 volumes in length, as sixty six copies of the encyclopedia were made.
[Needham, Volume 5, Part 1, 216.] Although the bronze characters were kept safe and deposited in the Wuying Palace, they were all melted down in 1744 in order to forge coin currency.
Beyond the imperial court, there were many small private industries and individual sponsors of printing during the Qing period.
[Needham, Volume 5, Part 1, 216–217.] Chui-Li-Ge of
Changshu
Changshu (; Suzhounese: /d͡ʐan¹³ ʐoʔ²³/) is a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Suzhou, Jiangsu province, and is part of the Yangtze River Delta. It borders the prefecture-level city of Nantong to the northeast across the Yangt ...
was known to have printed a large literary collection of his in 1686 AD.
The Manchu military officer Wu-Long-A printed a collection of imperial edicts while stationed in Taiwan in the year 1807.
The Chinese character font of some 400,000 bronze characters made by Lin Chun Qi took twenty one years to make, from 1825 until 1846.
[Needham, Volume 5, Part 1, 217.] The total cost for the endeavor was 200,000 silver teals.
These characters were used to print a variety of different books, including treatises on
phonology
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
,
medicine
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...
, and
military strategy
Military strategy is a set of ideas implemented by military organizations to pursue desired strategic goals. Derived from the Greek word '' strategos'', the term strategy, when it appeared in use during the 18th century, was seen in its narrow s ...
, and it is possible his same character font was used by the later Wu Chongjun of Hangzhou when he printed two other works in 1852.
Process and methods
![Chinese movable type 1313-ce](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Chinese_movable_type_1313-ce.png)
For creating movable type font characters, the Chinese employed both methods of either casting moulds or individually engraving characters.
[Needham, Volume 5, Part 1, 217–219.] Casting was favored over the long and laborious process of cutting individual characters of bronze, which may have been a simple task with the material of wood, but not as economically feasible with metal that could be simply cast instead.
[Needham, Volume 5, Part 1, 218–219] However, for traditional Chinese metal movable type printing, some records of the 18th century indicate that individual engraving and cutting was used as well.
While creating new books using movable type, ink was applied to a plate and rubbed with paper as seen in
woodblock printing
Woodblock printing or block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. Each page or image is create ...
.
[Needham, Volume 5, Part 1, 219.] Then there was the process of assembling and setting the type, and ultimately distributing it, which necessitated at least a small level of division of labor.
In fact, there are books printed in the Ming and Qing periods that designated the lists of workers who contributed to the printing, publication, and distribution of the books themselves.
The bronze-type edition of the
Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
encyclopedia ''Tai Ping Yu Lan'' printed in 1547 AD, in the city of
Jianyang, described how two persons were responsible for typesetting while two others were in charge of the actual printing.
For books that do not indicate in the initial pages whether they were printed using movable type instead of woodblock printing, there are definite signs that can be examined to deduce which method was used. Misprints, misalignment of characters, and uneven spacing are the distinct mark of many movable type editions from the time of Hua Sui.
However, as time progressed and the works of printers such as Hua Jian, An Guo, and others were made, steps were made to perfect the process and thus making it harder to differentiate between woodblock printing editions and movable type editions (unless noted in the text).
[Needham, Volume 5, Part 1, 220]
See also
*
List of Chinese inventions
China has been the source of many innovations, scientific discoveries and inventions. This includes the '' Four Great Inventions'': papermaking, the compass, gunpowder, and printing (both woodblock and movable type). The list below contains th ...
*
History of typography in East Asia
Printing in East Asia originated from the Han dynasty (220 BCE – 206 CE) in China, evolving from ink rubbings made on paper or cloth from texts on stone tables used during the Han. Printing is considered one of the Four Great Inventions of Chin ...
.
*
Technology of the Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; 960–1279 CE) invented some technological advances in Chinese history, many of which came from talented statesmen drafted by the government through imperial examinations.
The ingenuity of advanced mechanical engineeri ...
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
; Works cited
* Needham, Joseph (1986). ''Science and Civilization in China: Volume 5, Part 1''. Taipei: Caves Books Ltd.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hua, Sui
1439 births
1513 deaths
Chinese inventors
Ming dynasty scholars
People from Wuxi