Seance 2 - 鑄 (Cast)

Hong Kong Type #14

鑄（cast）

Character spirits, let’s talk about Dyer.

Sure, let’s talk about our father.

That's a bit cheesy, calling him the creator is better.

Either way, we were forged by Mr. Dyer.

Actually, there are many types of Chinese movable type.

Right, there are Paris Type, Berlin Type, and later Shanghai Type.

I know, Paris Type and Berlin Type are composite type. Their creators might not even understand Chinese.

Composite types have bad reputation because they are not good looking.

Judging the type by its looks?

If not by looks, then by what?

We are the first lead type made in China by missionaries who understood Chinese, complete and beautiful.

Dyer was a very special person. He was clearly a learned man, but he had chosen to do the work of a craftsman.

The earliest missionaries of the London Missionary Society, such as Morrison, Milne, and Medhurst, were all craftsmen or laborers. The initial idea was that if one wanted to be the pioneer in a strange land, it would be best to know some practical skills.

Very few well-educated upper-middle-class young men were willing to give up their comfortable and prosperous life at home to risk their lives preaching abroad.

It wasn’t until Dyer that highly educated, even scholarly, missionaries began to appear.

Dyer comes from a distinguished background: his father was the Secretary-General of the British Navy Headquarters, and both his elder brother and brother-in-law were naval captains.

Talented as he was, Dyer studied law at Trinity College, Cambridge, trained also in classical literature and mathematics.

When he read phrases such as “All for Christ and the Good of Souls” and “they love not their lives unto the death” in the missionary pamphlets, his spirit was immediately shaken. He decided to abandon his legal profession and become a missionary.

But why was his heart tied to China?

During Dyer’s time at the missionary college, he encountered Morrison returning to England for his duties. He attended the Chinese class taught by Morrison himself, was inspired by his senior, and developed the ambition to go East.

It’s not just ambition, it’s a vision.

Did Dyer, like Hong Xiuquan, dream visions?

It is the vision of evangelism, a vocation inspired by God.

It is the vision of the living word.

That is also you.

The consensus is that Chinese printing is fundamental to missionary work. Morrison had long advocated for the creation of Western-style Chinese movable type to replace wood carving, a strategy for the long term.

In England, Dyer already showed foresight by learning carving techniques from a font master.

Imagine this gentle, elegant, and scholarly man, picking up a file to do delicate crafting work, the image is quite amusing.

It shows his will is as strong as metal, even stronger than metal perhaps.

Using metal to cast the words of God, to break through stubborn superstitions and to rescue the soul of China.

Starting from the creation of punches, positive relief characters are carved on steel, then the hard punches are pressed on softer copper sheets to create negative regular character copper matrices. The type alloy made of lead, tin, and antimony is then poured into these matrices, and when solidified, it becomes movable type with positive relief characters.

This process truly embodies the concepts of yin and yang, and the interaction between positivity and negativity.

It sounds quite complex and time-consuming, doesn’t it?

However, it’s a one-time effort that reaps benefits forever. With the character punches and matrices, typefaces can be reproduced ceaselessly.

This is the far-sightedness of Dyer.

In August 1827, Dyer and his newlywed wife, Maria, arrived at the Penang Island in the Malay Peninsula, where they established missionary stations and schools, and began experimenting with movable type casting.

Besides mastering the casting technique, he also commenced statistical analysis of the actual usage of Chinese characters.

He selected fourteen Chinese books, counted all the characters within them, and produced a list of commonly used characters by the frequency of their appearance, and calculated the quantity of movable type needed. The results of his research were compiled into a book entitled A Selection of Three Thousand Characters, which is a solid foundation for the development of moveable type in Chinese.

What are the fourteen books he used?

They are: Analects, Three Kingdoms, Gospel According to Matthew, Zhu Zi, The National Language, Square and Compassed, Names of People and Places in the Bible, Book of Rites, Journey to the West, Admonishments of the World, Verses of the Soul, Discussions Between Zhang Yuan and His Friend, New Bible Verse Interpretation, Explanation of the Ten Commandments.

At that time, there were no computers or calculators, all calculations were done by hand, and it took more than two years to complete.

What was the result?

The frequently used Chinese characters are 3,240, the most commonly used are 1,200, plus the frequency of use of each character, the total number of movable type is between 12,000 and 13,000.

 The frequency of appearance of the most commonly used words are: 之 683, 亞 308, 不 295,子 278, 也 248, 而 242, 人 234, 為 234, 者 233, 其 224, 曰 224, 爾 220, 道 192, 以 188, 是 178, 罪 174, 神——

Alright, numbers, that’s enough!

It’s rare to have an opportunity to take the stage, yet you’re not letting others speak!

Okay, okay, there will be a chance to speak later. Let’s first talk about the scene of Dyer casting type.

Dyer set up a simple rain shelter outside his residence in Penang Island, which served as a type foundry. He personally put each carved punch into the furnace for forging, closely inspected the imprint of each type matrix, and even the lead alloy for type casting was personally mixed by him.

Under the tropical sun, he was sweating like rain, and his fair skin turned red.

A sudden gust of wind and heavy rain could not extinguish the flame of the type furnace.

He strictly appraised the quality of the movable type, demanding to meet the aesthetic requirements of Chinese scholars.

Casting type is like forging a sword; it must be hammered and refined repeatedly.

The test print samples were beautiful, balanced, and elegant, bearing a true Chinese style, and were highly praised by all. Critics unanimously believed that Dyer’s type was superior compared to the composite movable type produced by Legrand in Paris and Beyerhaus in Berlin.

At the end of 1835, Dyer moved from Penang to the Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca, where he met Liang Fa, taking refuge in the South, and they began to collaborate. The engraver and the type caster, working hand in hand.

I always feel that in the later movable type, there is the handcrafting of Liang Fa.

The first large movable type cast by Dyer was based on the large character version of The New Testament of Our Savior Jesus Christ from the Anglo-Chinese College. Liang Fa, who had been working in Malacca before this, is highly likely to have been involved in the engraving of this book.

So, you have one more father!

We’ve said that we are the great achievement of both the past and the present, domestically or internationally.

In addition to the original large movable type, Dyer began to cast small movable type.

In 1843, when Dyer left Singapore, he had completed 1540 large characters and 305 small ones, totaling 1845.

The fruits of ten years of hard work were truly a labor of love.

In 1839, the first Opium War broke out between China and Britain.

In 1841, the British forces seized Hong Kong, a small island located east of the Pearl River Estuary in southern China.

In 1842, the Treaty of Nanjing was signed. John Robert Morrison, the eldest son of Robert Morrison, served as the British representative for negotiations and drafted the treaty.

Finally, the door to China was opened. The London Missionary Society resolved to close the Malacca and Batavia mission stations and move them all to China.

The following year, John Robert Morrison died suddenly while serving as the acting Colonial Secretary in Hong Kong. He was only 29 years old.

It’s a real pity, I had a good impression of this young man.

Indeed, John Robert Morrison was extraordinarily talented. He was born in Macau, returned to England for his education at the age of six, then came back to the East at twelve and studied at the Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca. At fourteen, he joined his father in Macau to assist in the printing work. When Robert Morrison died, John Robert Morrison took over his father’s job as a translator officer at the age of nineteen, becoming the European with the best Chinese proficiency in China. During the Opium War, he was responsible for all negotiations with Chinese officials and played a pivotal role. He was considered a thorn in the eye by the Qing court.

As a person, he was practical, clear-headed, thoughtful and responsible, and had an excellent reputation among the British. If he had not died early, his future would have been boundless.

In September 1843, all missionaries of the London Society gathered in Hong Kong to discuss the establishment of preaching stations at newly opened trading ports and collaborated with five other major missionary organizations to coordinate the revision of the Chinese Bible.

Dyer served as the secretary of the conference, undoubtedly full of aspiration and ready to embark on his missionary work in China.

However, no one can comprehend God’s will.

After the meeting, Dyer went to Guangzhou. It was September 8, 1843, exactly thirty-six years and two days after Robert Morrison first arrived in Guangzhou.

Dyer finally arrived at the land of his dreams, but unfortunately contracted a fever and stayed at Dr. Parker’s house for a month. Later, he went south to Macau, hoping to board a ship back to Singapore, but his condition worsened again.

On October 24, Dyer died at the home of his American coworker, Samuel Wells Williams, at the age of thirty-nine. Before his death, he had a high fever and was delirious, repeatedly praising Lord Jesus with his last breath.

Love not one’s life unto the death.

Who does not cherish life? Is it a person? Or a god?

Life is once again terminated when it’s filled with anticipation.

Death is not an accident, but a norm in the missionary life.

Not only the missionaries themselves, but also their wives and children, have to face the threat of death at any time.

At the beginning of its opening, Hong Kong was a city of death. The sanitary conditions were poor, fevers raged, the mortality rate in the military was as high as 24%, and for European residents, it was 10%.

According to the statistics of Samuel Wells Williams, since Robert Morrison came to China in 1807 till 1855, there had been a total of 188 Protestant missionaries. Among them, the death rate for male missionaries was 17%, while female missionaries was 23%. Out of 132 couples, 37 wives died. Among the 32 male missionaries who died, deducting the 5 who lived exceptionally long, the remaining 27 died on average within four years after arrival, of which two to three years were spent learning Chinese.

As for their children?

There are no statistical numbers. If you’ve read the biographies of the missionaries, you should have an impression. The mortality rate for young children is probably around 30% to 40%.

Therefore, everyone who set off must be prepared for death.

As for Dyer, it could be said he fulfilled his mission.

His great work of typecasting is continued by the Stronach brothers in Singapore.

In 1846, punches, matrices, movable type, and all equipment were moved from Singapore to Hong Kong along with the Anglo-Chinese College.

In 1847, the Hong Kong Printing Office of Anglo-Chinese College hired a professional printer, Richard Cole, to speed up the construction of movable type.

In 1851, the construction of the typefaces and templates was completed, casting a total of 4,700 movable types of various sizes, and gradually expanded, reaching 6,000 each ten years later, ready to be used.

Including the frequency of each word’s appearance, the total number of movable types exceeds 200,000!

It seems like the number brothers are very happy!

They’re happy indeed, but the evaluation must be fair.

Who isn’t being fair?

We believe Cole’s contribution has been underestimated.

While working at the Ningbo Chinese and American Sacred Classic Book Establishment, he had a dispute over treatment issues with American Presbyterian missionaries and was accused of having a mental problem. However, after coming to Hong Kong, his performance was professional and competent. The successful completion of the Hong Kong Type was largely due to his efforts. Unfortunately, he eventually caused troubles due to his unsuccessful demand for a pay increase and subsequently returned to the United States.

In that sense, Cole could be considered your half-father, couldn't he?

He’s a stepfather.

His contributions should be recorded in history.

At the time, Samuel Wells Williams, the editor of The Chinese Repository, wrote an article praising Hong Kong Type as the most beautiful among contemporary Chinese movable type.

There was a large character sample in the article that read:

My father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom arrives, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Grant us the daily food we need. Forgive us of our debts, as we forgive others. Do not put us to the test and deliver us from evil. Yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever, and it is what we hope for.

The fonts were solemn and elegant, truly a masterpiece of craftsmanship.

As they were made and produced in Hong Kong, the Anglo-Chinese College movable type is also known as Hong Kong Type.

Can it be said that, the birth of Hong Kong Type synchronizes with Hong Kong’s history?

The story of Hong Kong Type is the story of Hong Kong.

Characters = stories.

Characters = the world.

The symbol brother is also unwilling to be outdone.

\（﹥︶․）/

This is called polyphony.

It is the true meaning of the character spirit.