Chapter 522: Choose What the World Needs

Ten days later, at the temporary palace in Linzi, under the watch of fully armed Qin soldiers, several ox-carts entered through the east gate. Their wagons carried something, but it was covered by hemp cloth, so no one could tell what it was. Escorted by over a hundred Qin troops, this convoy of ox-carts arrived at a house beside the abandoned garden of the Central Hall Platform.

The Mohist Cheng Shang jumped down from an ox-cart and shouted to the craftsmen behind him:

"Get moving! Unload the implements from the carts. Everything must be set up within one shichen. The Governor of Jiaodong and His Majesty may come to inspect at any moment!"

Cheng Shang was an old friend of Heifu. Back in Guanzhong, at Heifu's suggestion and with the Mohist school acting on his behalf, Cheng Shang had helped him build water mills, water-powered bellows, and other devices, and had also worked out a complete set of papermaking techniques. For this, he had been granted the noble rank of Grand Master.

But as the court's governance had grown increasingly harsh in recent years, diverging ever further from the Mohist ideals, Cheng Shang had become somewhat disheartened. He resigned his official post and devoted himself solely to studying techniques and implements, hoping that with his own meager strength he could contribute something to this harsh world.

In the summer of this year, Heifu had already invited the Agriculturalists to Jimo, and he had also written to Cheng Shang, saying that Jiaodong was full of neglected tasks awaiting revival—they needed to reopen the salt fields and also mine gold. He said they urgently needed the Mohists' help and invited him to come to Jiaodong.

Only after arriving in Jiaodong did Cheng Shang discover that, besides salt and gold, Heifu was also preparing a grand project: woodblock printing.

What was loaded on their ox-carts were the several hundred carved woodblocks that Heifu had produced over the past few months after recruiting printing craftsmen from across the entire commandery...

The craftsmen dared not be negligent. They unloaded the woodblocks one by one and moved them into the house, arranging them according to their different contents. The place for printing was set on the large stone table in the flower garden. Cheng Shang also arranged for others to prepare and mix the lampblack ink specially used for printing, so it would be ready for use.

Once everything was ready, half a shichen had passed. Cheng Shang had only just managed to catch his breath when he heard a burst of drumbeats—the imperial carriage had arrived!

The Gentlemen Guards filed in, surrounding this abandoned garden so tightly that not a drop of water could leak through. The Jiaodong craftsmen were all somewhat nervous. The Gentlemen Guards ordered all idle personnel to leave, keeping only Cheng Shang and a few others who could operate the printing. They were even searched thoroughly. Only after the guards went out and reported that everything was in order did the Emperor, accompanied by his crowd of ministers, stroll over.

Leading the way in front were Heifu and the big fatty Zhang Cang. Heifu bowed with clasped hands to Cheng Shang and said, "You have worked hard."

Zhang Cang patted him on the shoulder and said with profound meaning, "Ziyin, you have come at just the right time. You have saved the scholars of the realm, and you have also saved the Mohist school..."

"Ah?"

Cheng Shang was dumbfounded. The proposal to burn books that had occurred in the Qi Palace at Linzi was a secret and had not yet spread. Outsiders only knew that a few Confucian scholars had been imprisoned for slandering the court.

Zhang Cang knew that the Emperor had been hesitating for days over the "book burning" proposal precisely because he wanted to see whether the "printing technique" Heifu spoke of was true or false.

"No." Zhang Cang looked at the imperial carriage behind him and said, as if struck by sudden understanding, "It is not that His Majesty wants to see it for himself, but that he wants to show it to the assembled ministers, to the Chancellor and the others..."

Cheng Shang, however, was somewhat baffled, but there was no time to ask, because Qin Shi Huang's tall and imposing figure had already appeared before their eyes.

"So this is the printing you spoke of?"

Qin Shi Huang walked over to the large stone table, reached out and touched the wooden board carved with characters in relief. "It truly does resemble a seal, only with more characters than a seal."

Without further ado, he gestured with his hand and ordered, "Print a few sheets for me to see!"

Heifu acknowledged the order and, without standing on ceremony, personally assisted Cheng Shang, holding a woodblock steady for him. Cheng Shang picked up a bristle brush, dipped it into the lampblack ink made from hempseed oil mixed with soot, and brushed it back and forth over the woodblock. Once he confirmed it was even, he took a sheet of pale yellow bark paper from Zhang Cang's hands, carefully laid it over the woodblock, and gently wiped the back of the paper with a handheld roller to ensure full contact. A moment later, he lifted the paper off, gently blew it dry, and presented it before Qin Shi Huang...

Qin Shi Huang fixed his eyes upon it. In just a short while, the previously spotless bark paper was now densely packed with printed clerical script characters.

Qin Shi Huang finished reading it and passed it around for the ministers to see. After everyone had handled it, he swept his gaze over them and said, "My lords, does anyone still doubt this matter?"

The Fifth Rank Grand Master Wang Wu, who had previously questioned the truth of Heifu's claims, turned red in the face and awkwardly apologized to Heifu. As for the others, Li Si remained expressionless, while Ye Teng chuckled inwardly—he had witnessed Heifu's cunning cleverness more times than he could count.

The rest praised it profusely, saying that with this woodblock printing method, one could indeed swiftly print out a legal statute, at a speed dozens or even a hundred times faster than copying by hand!

"First papermaking, now printing—both are matters of craftsmanship. The Commandery Governor could well go and serve as the Junior Supervisor of the Privy Treasury," someone joked.

Heifu said modestly, "What virtue or ability do I possess? I merely asked the Mohists and craftsmen to combine the common techniques of seal carving and pattern stamping, and thus arrived at this method."

Heifu was not lying. Just like with papermaking, he had only provided the idea; the rest of the techniques were all already in existence.

Seals were something every Qin official had one of. Heifu himself had a silver seal with a green ribbon, and every time he wrote a document, he had to stamp it once. Among the craftsmen attached to government offices, there were specialists in seal carving. They not only made seals but also inscribed bronze vessels, their seal-carving technique brought to the point of perfection.

However, imperial seals had relatively few characters and small stamping surfaces, so while they were fine for carving characters, the experience in pressing and imprinting was insufficient. Heifu then turned his attention to the government-run textile workshops. Jiaodong's mulberry and hemp industries flourished, and those splendid silk garments on the market were mostly produced in batches using relief-block printing and dyeing techniques.

By gathering the craftsmen from both sides and waiting for Cheng Shang to arrive, they could begin the work.

The Mohists were excellent engineers. Cheng Shang had collaborated with Heifu more than once or twice, and a single hint from Heifu was enough for him to grasp the whole concept. Following Heifu's description, they felled local Jiaodong pear wood, boxwood, ginkgo wood, jujube wood, and the like. After many procedures including soaking, drying, and planing, they crafted them into the shape and size of writing tablets, only thicker than ordinary ones.

Then, following the already very mature seal-making technique, they laid a thin sheet of paper filled with characters face-down onto the wood. They spent no short amount of time carving, so that the wooden tablet was densely packed with characters carved in relief and reversed—this was the so-called "woodblock." After that, the printing and dyeing craftsmen developed a special lampblack ink for printing, adjusting its thickness and the pressing time. In just over a month, a mature set of techniques was freshly produced!

With the prerequisite techniques already in place, plus the ideas he provided, the invention was simple, but its application was difficult.

Could its emergence satisfy some need of the people of this era? If it was not needed, then no matter how great a significance later generations might assign to it, it would quickly be submerged in the long river of time.

Take paper, for example. Had it not been for the Qin court's massive demand for document exchange, Heifu was certain that paper would absolutely have circulated only within small circles and lain dormant for many years.

And as for the printing technique before them now, if one wanted it to be widely used, the prerequisite was that society needed the large-scale, mass reproduction of text!

The emergence of woodblock printing in China was probably during the Tang dynasty, but initially it was not used to print books, but rather to print Buddhist scriptures. Almost everyone who believed in Buddhism needed these, and copying by hand alone simply could not meet the demand.

Europe was much the same. During the Renaissance, what Europeans initially printed in large quantities was the Bible.

Whether an invention can be widely applied does not depend on how far it surpasses its era, but on whether it is needed by its era.

This was Heifu's principle for making inventions: choose what the world needs.

He actually felt that the printing technique was quite well matched with the Qin dynasty... because in one particular matter, the Qin dynasty also needed the fast and plentiful reproduction of text.

At this moment, Cheng Shang had finished printing a second sheet. Heifu presented it with both hands. Qin Shi Huang took it and looked, revealing a smile.

"That sheet just now was printed with the 'Statutes on the Commandant's Miscellaneous Affairs,' and this one is the 'Statutes on the Internal Clerk's Miscellaneous Affairs'! Heifu, are you telling me that in the future, when the Censorate promulgates legal statutes to the commanderies and counties, there will be no need to have the petty scribes copy them by hand, and printing can be used instead?"

"Your Majesty is sagaciously wise! When your subject first had the craftsmen develop this method, it was precisely for the purpose of printing legal statutes!"

Heifu meant exactly this. The most important clause in the "Statutes on the Commandant's Miscellaneous Affairs" was that "every year, the statutes newly promulgated shall be checked against those at the Censorate," meaning that every year in the tenth month, the Commandant of Justice had to go to the Censorate to check the newly issued legal statutes.

This point was very interesting. Although Heifu's father-in-law Ye Teng was the Commandant of Justice and controlled the realm's criminal justice, he only managed judicial power; legislative power was held firmly in the hands of the Censorate. The Qin dynasty did not adhere to the idea that "the laws of the ancestors cannot be changed." Legal statutes were modified at any time according to actual circumstances, so every year the Censorate would hold a "legal amendment session" and have the Commandant of Justice send people to observe.

After the Commandant of Justice's men finished checking the newly revised laws, they would order the petty scribes to copy them and promulgate them to the legal officers of each commandery. The commandery legal officers would then notify the county legal officers to come study and copy them... This was what was written in the "Statutes on the Internal Clerk's Miscellaneous Affairs": "Each county shall inform all the capital offices located in that county to copy the laws their offices use."

The county legal officer, carrying the central and commandery-level red-headed documents, would return to the county seat and distribute them to minor clerks and village bailiffs to read and pass around. In this way, legal statutes were transmitted from the central government down to the local grassroots level.

Heifu was thoroughly familiar with the court's process from legislation to law dissemination and spoke about it with ease. In the end, somehow, he even began telling the story of the judicial officer and prison clerk named "Xi" in his hometown of Anlu, who for decades as if it were a single day had copied legal statutes...

PS: A bit short, busy going out to eat. Still only two updates today, the second chapter at 11 o'clock.

(End of chapter)