四堡雕版印刷旧址

六、四堡雕版印刷旧址

各位团友，很高兴在这个阳光灿烂的日子见到大家。我是来自中国旅行社的导游小谢，在我身边的这位是我们具有多年驾驶经验的老张师傅。首先，我代表闽西人民热烈欢迎大家的到来。我想借此机会先祝大家在连城度过一个愉快的旅程。今天，我们游览的是四堡雕版印刷文化古迹。

四堡镇是明清时期中国著名的雕版印刷基地。四堡是我国目前仅存的雕版印刷基地，并且见证了中国古代雕版印刷的辉煌时刻，因此它成为了福建乃至中国的重要文化古迹。这里保存有大量的古雕版、古书籍以及古印刷工具，因而有“雕版印刷古堡”的美名。在这里，随处可见造型独特、结构精美的古书坊。这些古书坊建筑群被列为全国重点文物保护单位。近年来，众多专家学者、政府官员前来探索四堡镇辉煌的历史与文化。

四堡位于连城、长汀、清流与宁化的交界处，曾经是重要的文化与商业中心。丰富的森林资源为雕版印刷的发展提供了肥沃的土壤。据历史记载，四堡雕版在明朝万历八年，即公元1580年，拉开发展的序幕。一位名叫邹学圣的官员辞官回到四堡，把外面的印刷技术带回故里，雕版印刷从此在四堡迅速发展，历经数百年，在清朝初期达到鼎盛。另据史料记载，到18世纪末，四堡从事书籍雕刻的家庭书坊达到100余家，其中以周姓家族与马姓家族产量最多，总计印出超过1000本书籍。

古书坊宏伟、高大，大多为砖木结构，布局清楚，错落有致，兼具家居与作坊功用:靠近大厅的房间一般用于起居，远离大厅的则用于印刷。

接下来，我将带大家参观四堡雕版印刷展览中心。为了保护文化遗产，当地政府在2000年出资兴建此馆。展览中心馆藏丰富，收藏了800多的雕版印刷作品，内容囊括各个领域，其中很多作品都是传世经典，比如《三国演义》《梁祝》《四书》《五经》《三字经》等。大家仔细观察会发现，有些书籍是颇具特色的。比如把《三国演义》与《水浒传》合刊印刷，即分为上下两半。书籍的上半部分印刷《三国演义》，下半部分印《水浒传》。这种印刷方法在世界印刷史上是史无前例的，因为在同一本书可读两部小说。在展览中心陈列着一本《康熙字典》。在这么一个偏僻的小山村能够印出如此浩然巨著，真的是让人叹为观止。请大家转过身去，架子上有本长7.5厘米，宽5厘米的袖珍书，这是一本《论语》。让人惊讶的是，这么小的书上，最多的一页刻有260多字，每字每句还是清晰可见。据说当时这种袖珍书大受欢迎，因为很多人可以把它带入考场作弊。除了各式各样的书籍，我们还可以看到很多有趣的印刷设备，比如墨缸、切书架、订书锥等。

四堡雕版印刷业的繁荣已成历史;如今，作为重要的文化古迹，它将为中国印刷文化的研究做出应有的贡献。各位团友，我们的四堡之旅就到此为止。希望大家在四堡度过了一个愉快的文化之旅。再会!

Sibao Woodblock Printing Base

Ladies and Gentlemen，glad to meet you on such a sunny day.I am Xiao Xie，your tour guide from China Travel Agency.Right beside me is our experienced driver Lao Zhang.Firstly，On behalf of the local people，I would like to extend our sincere welcome of your visit.May you have a very good journey in Liancheng.Today，our destination is the Sibao Block Printing Base.

Sibao Town is where the famous Chinese woodblock printing base of the Ming and Qing Dynasties was located.It has become an important cultural heritage site because it is the only surviving block printing base and bears witness to the glorious days of ancient woodblock printing.The printing base houses a magnificent collection of ancient printing blocks，ancient printing tools，and ancient books，winning Sibao a reputation as“the ancient town of block printing”.Many ancient printing workshops with architectural complexity can be found here.The printing workshops have been listed as a Key National Cultural Heritage Site.In recent years，many scholars and government officials visited here to explore the glorious history and culture of this town.

Located at the junction of Liancheng，Changting，Qingliu，and Ninghua，Sibao Town used to be an important cultural and business center.Its rich wood resources provided a fertile soil for the block printing industry to grow and develop in this land.According to historical data，the woodblock printing in Sibao appeared in 1588 during the reign of Emperor Wanli in the Ming Dynasty.A retired government official named Zou Xuesheng brought the printing technology back to his hometown Sibao.Since then，woodblock printing boomed here and reached its heyday in the Qing Dynasty after hundreds of years of development.According to historical statistics，the number of households that produced and sold books had reached 100 by the late 1700s，among which the Zhou and Ma families’presses produced the most books with over 1000 books in total.

The printing workshops are magnificent and huge，which were built in functional wood and brick structure，presenting a clear and well－proportioned layout.It served as both the living and printing house for the local folks at that time.Normally，those rooms close to the hall were used as living rooms，but those rooms afar as printing rooms.

Next，I will show you around Sibao Woodblock Printing Exhibition Centre，which was setup in 2000 by the local government to protect the cultural relic.The Center showcases more than 800 items of woodblock printed works in various fields，which were handed down from ancestors，like Romance of the Three Kingdoms，The Butterfly Lovers，The Four Books，Five Classics，Three Character Primer，etc.Ladies and gentlemen，as you might have noticed，some of the printed works are of very unique style.The Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin are printed in the same script，with its upper half page printed the story of Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the lower half page printed the story of Water Margin.This kind of page setup was unprecedentedly unique in the history of printing.In this Exhibition Centre，Emperor Kangxi’s Dictionary is also on display，which is beyond our imagination that in a small and remote area like this，such a huge dictionary could be printed.If you turn around，you will find the“mini book”lying on the shelf.This mini book is 7.5 cmlong and 5 cmwide，giving a description of The Analects of Confucius.What surprises us is that in some pages there are as many as 260 words typed.Despite this，the words are very clear to see.It is believed that people at that time used this tiny book to cheat in the exams.Apart from the printed works here，we could also find some printing equipment used at that time，including the stone tanks for containing ink，shelves used for cutting books，and awls for stapling books.

Gone are the glorious days in Sibao when the printing industry boomed.Now serving as a cultural relic，the woodblock printings have changed their roles and will definitely make a great contribution to the research of woodblock printing in China.Okay，ladies and gentlemen，let us finish our journey in Sibao printing base.I hope you had a very pleasant cultural journey here in Sibao and see you next time.

Vocabulary:

complexity　　　n.复杂性，错综复杂的状态

junction　　　n.连接，接合;会合点

fertile　　　adj.肥沃的;可繁殖的

heyday　　　n.盛世，全盛期;壮年

well－proportioned　　　adj.比例恰当的;错落有致

Layout　　　n.布局，安排，设计

woodblock　　　n.木板，木版;版画;木刻版

script　　　n.脚本，手迹

unprecedentedly　　　adv.前所未有地，无前例地

Analects　　　n.文选，论集

staple　　　vt.用钉书钉钉住