清代内府铜活字考论

A Study on Imperial Bronze Type in the Qing Dynasty

清代内府铜活字是中国活字印刷史的经典论题,但限于文献档案及实物资料的阙失,目前学界仍对清代内府铜活字的诸多问题聚讼不已,成为一桩重要的学术公案。文章借助新发现的第一手资料证明:康熙五十五年(1716),为编纂、刷印万卷的《古今图书集成》,康熙帝应陈梦雷的请求在武英殿设立铜字馆,制作了大小铜活字总计达100余万个。乾隆九年(1744),乾隆帝准允和亲王弘昼奏请,将有字铜子1 015 433个全部熔化,用以铸造雍和宫三世佛,而非用于铸钱。除此之外,仍有大小无字铜子188 404个被用以铸造铜炉、铜狮等铜陈设。无字铜子的存在,不仅证明了内府制作了大量的备用铜子,同时揭示了内府铜活字的制作工序系先铸造成无字铜子,再从无字铜子上镌刻成字。

The imperial bronze type in Qing Dynasty is a classic topic in the history of typogra- phy in China. Due to the lack of documents, archives and material objects, however, the academic circles are still quite confused about it,which has become a much discussed issue. Aided by the new- ly found first-hand archives, this paper proves that in 1716,in order to compile and print Gujin tushu ficheng （Collection of Books Ancient and Modern） , Emperor Kangxi granted Chen Menglei＇s request to set up the Institute of Bronze Typography in Wuying Hall. And then Chen and his partners made more than one million bronze types in both big and small sizes. In 1744, Emperor Qianlong approved Prince Hongzhou to melt the 1,015,433 bronze types to cast the Buddhas of Three Periods in the Yonghegong Lama Temple but not to cast coins as commonly believed. Besides, there were 188,404 bronze types without words were melt to cast bronze furnaces and bronze lions for furnishing. Howev- er, the existence of bronze types without words not only proves that there were still huge amounts of reserved bronze types but also reveals that the production of the imperial bronze types in the Qing Dy- nasty included two steps： cast bronze types without words firstly and then carve on them .