Wood movable type printing technology

Chinese national intangible cultural heritage Name: Wood movable type printing technology

Applicant: Ruian City, Zhejiang Province

Item No.: 918

Project No.: VIII - 135

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: traditional art

Region: Zhejiang Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Ruian City, Zhejiang Province

Protection unit: Ruian movable type printing association

Introduction to wood movable type printing technology:

Applicant: Ruian City, Zhejiang Province

Dongyuan village is located in the southwest of Ruian City, Zhejiang Province. According to the local records of Wang's genealogy of Taiyuan Prefecture, Wang Famao, who lived in Anxi County, Fujian Province in the early Yuan Dynasty, began to introduce wood movable type printing technology into the compilation of genealogy. As a result, the art of "ziji" (making use of wood movable type printing technology to compile genealogy) came out, which has been inherited through the ages. During the Zhengde period of Ming Dynasty, some descendants of Wang Famao moved from Fujian to Pingyang, Zhejiang Province. In the first year of Qianlong (1736) of Qing Dynasty, Wang Yingzhong, the fifth grandson of Wang Famao, led his descendants to move from Pingyang to Dongyuan. The art of "ziji" took root in Dongyuan and has been handed down to this day.

Dongyuan wood movable type printing technology has a history of more than 800 years. It is the only wood movable type printing technology still in use in China, and can be called the "living fossil" of printing technology in the world. The production process of Dongyuan wood movable type printing technology includes 20 processes, including lettering, checking, typesetting, proofreading, printing, circling, drawing, filling, spectrum dividing, drafting, spectrum cutting and thread binding. It completely reproduces the operation scene of ancient movable type printing, and is the best physical proof of the origin of wood movable type printing technology in China.

With the rapid development of mechanized printing, dongyuanmu movable type printing technology has few inheritors, such as engraving, printing and other skills, which are on the verge of extinction and need to be protected.