Wang Zhen

Wang Zhen (, 1290–1333) was a Chinese agronomist, inventor, mechanical engineer, politician, and writer of the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368). He was one of the early innovators of the wooden movable type printing technology. His illustrated agricultural treatise was also one of the most advanced of its day, covering a wide range of equipment and technologies available in the late 13th and early 14th century.

Life and works Wang Zhen was born in Shandong province, and spent many years as an official of both Anhui and Jiangxi provinces. From 1290 to 1301, he was a magistrate for Jingde, Anhui province, where he was a pioneer of the use of wooden movable type printing. Although the previous Song dynasty was a period of high Chinese culture and relative economic and agricultural stability, the Yuan dynasty thoroughly damaged the economic and agricultural base of China during the Song–Yuan transition.

Technological innovations Water-powered bellows

An illustration of furnace bellows operated by waterwheels, from the Nong Shu, by Wang Zhen, 1313, during the Mongol Yuan dynasty.

The Chinese, during the Han dynasty (202 BC – AD 220), were the first to apply hydraulic power (i.e. a waterwheel) in working the inflatable bellows of the blast furnace in creating cast iron. This was recorded in AD 31, an innovation of the engineer Du Shi, Prefect of Nanyang. After Du Shi, Chinese in subsequent dynastic periods continued the use of water power to operate the bellows of the blast furnace. In the 5th century text of the Wu Chang Ji, its author Pi Ling wrote that a planned, artificial lake had been constructed in the Yuan-Jia reign period (424–429) for the sole purpose of powering water wheels aiding the smelting and casting processes of the Chinese iron industry. The 5th-century text Shui Jing Zhu mentions the use of rushing river water to power waterwheels, as does the Tang dynasty geography text of the Yuan-he Jun Xian Tu Chi, written in 814.

Although Du Shi was the first to apply water power to bellows in metallurgy, the first drawn and printed illustration of its operation with water power came in 1313, with Wang Zhen's Nong Shu. Wang explained the methods used for the water-powered blast-furnace in previous times and in his era of the 14th century:

Another method is also used. At the end of the wooden (piston-)rod, about 3 ft long, which comes out from the front of the bellows, there is set up right a curved piece of wood shaped like the crescent of the new moon, and (all) this is suspended from above by a rope like those of a swing. Then in front of the bellows there are strong bamboo (springs) connected with it by ropes; this is what controls the motion of the fan of the bellows. Then in accordance with the turning of the (vertical) water-wheel, the lug fixed on the driving-shaft automatically presses upon and pushes the curved board (attached to the piston-rod), which correspondingly moves back (lit. inwards). When the lug has finally come down, the bamboo (springs) act on the bellows and restore it to its original position. In like manner, using one main drive it is possible to actuate several bellows (by lugs on the shaft), on the same principle as the water trip-hammers. This is also very convenient and quick...

Wang's movable type printing In improving movable type printing, Wang mentioned an alternative method of baking porcelain printing type with earthenware frame in order to make whole blocks. Wang is best known for his usage of wooden movable type while he was a magistrate of Jingde in Anhui province from 1290 to 1301. His main contribution was improving the speed of typesetting with simple mechanical devices, along with the complex, systematic arrangement of wooden movable types. Wang summarized the process of making wooden movable type as described in the passage below:

A revolving table typecase with individual movable type characters arranged primarily by rhyming scheme, from Wang Zhen's Nong Shu, published 1313. Wooden movable type had been used and experimented with by Bi Sheng in the 11th century, Wang improved the earlier experimented process by adding the methods of specific type cutting and finishing, making the type case and revolving table that made the process more efficient. In Wang's system, all the Chinese writing characters were organized by five different tones and according to rhyming, using a standard official book of Chinese rhymes. In the Nong Shu, Wang wrote:

In more recent times [late 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. The Chinese Diamond Sutra (868), the oldest existent woodblock printed book in the world. Although Wang's Nong Shu was mostly printed by use of woodblock printing, his innovation of wooden movable type soon became popularly used in the region of Anhui. After that point, the European printing press machine first pioneered by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century became the mainstay and standard in China and for the most part the global community until the advent of digital printing and the modern computer printer.

With movable type printing during the Ming dynasty of the 14th to 16th centuries, however, it was known to be used by local academies, local government offices, by wealthy local patrons of printing, and the large Chinese commercial printers located in the cities of Nanjing, Suzhou, Changzhou, Hangzhou, Wenzhou, and Fuzhou. There were many books from a wide variety of subjects published in wooden movable type during the Ming period, including novels, art, science and technology, family registers, and local gazettes. In 1541, two different significant publications using wooden movable type were made under the sponsorship of two different princes; the Prince of Shu printing the large literary collection of the earlier Song dynasty poet Su Che, and the Prince of Yi printing a book written as a rebuttal against superstitions written by a Yuan dynasty era author. For setting type, Wang employed a method of revolving tables where the type came to the workers, whereas Jin developed a system where the workers went to the organized type. Furthermore, Wang incorporated a systematic usage of illustrated pictures in his book to accompany every piece of farming equipment described. Wang also created an agricultural calendrical diagram in the form of a circle, which included the Heavenly Stems, the Earthly Branches, the four seasons, twelve months, twenty-four solar terms, seventy-two five-day periods, with each sequence of agricultural tasks and the natural phenomena which signal for their necessity, stellar configurations, phenology, and the sequence of agricultural production.

Amongst the various contemporary agricultural practices mentioned in the Nong Shu, Wang listed and described the use of ploughing, sowing, irrigation, cultivation of mulberries, etc. Of great interest to sinologist historians, Wang also outlined the difference between the agricultural technology of Northern China and that of Southern China.

Nong Shu chapters

Chapters 1–6 Comprehensive prescriptions for agriculture and sericulture

Chapters 7–10 Treatise on the Hundred Grains Cereals (including legumes, hemp, and sesame) Cucurbits and green vegetables Fruits Bamboos and miscellaneous (including ramie, cotton, tea, dye plants, etc.)

Chapters 11–22 Illustrated Treatise on Agricultural Implements Field systems Agricultural tools Wicker and basket ware Food-processing equipment and grain storage Ceremonial vessels, transport Irrigation equipment, water-powered mills, etc. Special implements for wheat Sericulture and textile production