风景秀丽的瑞安市平阳坑镇，有一个村庄完整地保留了中国古代活字印刷的传统工艺，木活字印刷宗谱方法，延续至今已有800年的历史，亦是世界印刷术的活化石。这个村庄叫东源村，木活字传承人以王姓最为杰出。
In the beautiful Pingyangkeng County of Ryan City hides a village where fully keeps the integrity of the traditional Chinese movable-type printing craft and the wooden movable-type technique to print genealogy which is the living fossil of the world with a history of 800 years. The village is called Dongyuan, and the most prominent inheritors of wooden movable-type printing are mainly surnamed Wang.
古老的木活字印刷术经历了千年沧桑，之所以能够在东源村保存得如此完好并得以延续，有两个原因。首先，这里的乡间村落依然保持着修订族谱的习俗。其次，在其工艺上采用不易开裂、质地细腻、附着墨汁性能好的上等棠梨树木材做字模。
The antique wooden movable-type printing has been through thousands of years. Two reasons allow this small village to keep and inherite this craft: the custom of revising pedigrees is still alive; the material of the finest birchleaf pear wood is smooth with good ink adhesive force and free of crack.
1971年出生的王志仁，是木活字印刷省级传承人，在他家底楼工作室的长条工作台上，摆放了7万多个木活字。王志仁说，他做的这一行人们称为“谱师”，专门替人编修宗谱。
Wang Zhiren, born in 1971, is the provincial-level inheritor of the wooden movable-type printing. There lie more than 7 million wooden movable-type charactors in his workshop. He said that people of this career are called as “Pushi” who revise the pedigrees for others.
宗谱，记载了一个以血缘关系为主体的家族世系繁衍和重要人物事迹，详细到生辰八字、官衔职务、婚姻及子女状况、何时去世又葬于何处。讲究的宗族，还要求领班谱师能撰写谱序，记录家规家训，甚至绘制遗像、墓志墓图。这项技艺是中国特有的文化遗产，同时也体现了中国古代的宗法制。
A pedigree records stories of important figures centered by the blood relationship, whose details will reach to one’s time of birth, career, marrige, children conditions, death time and buried place. The cultured clans would ask the captain to write family pedigree to record the family precepts and even map portraits and tomb epitaphs. This inherited craft is unique in the world which also represents the antient China’s patriarchy.
修编宗谱可是个辛苦活，一套木活字印刷需备足2万字模以上，一个大户人家的家谱需要印上两三个月才能完成，再大一点的世家则需要十几年的时间来不断地修订，每15年还需要重新修订一次。
Revising pedigree is of great hardship that a set of wooden movable-type printing needs 20 thousand matrixes which will cost two or three months’ effort, while if it’s a wealthier family then more than 10 years’ continuous revise will be needed and then to be revised every 15 years.
王志仁做的木活字印刷字体是采用的老宋体，这种字体盛行于明代，是明朝的官方字体，横细竖粗的字形古朴端庄，用它印在宣纸上显得美观大气。工具有雕刀、雕盘、印板、上手刷（棕刷）、下手刷、白蜡等。整个做谱工艺流程有15道工序，除开丁（登记）、誊清（理稿）等文稿环节外，印刷环节有字模、捡字、排版、校对、印刷、切谱（裁边）、装订等。
Wang Zhiren uses the Old Sung Style as its craft font which boomed in Ming Dynasty as an official typeface then. The thin horizontal and thick vertical glyph is of great elegance appearing on the Chinese paper. Tools are scorper, carved plate, board, right-hand brush (brown brush), left-hand brush, ash and so on. The 15 processes are checking in, editing, matrxing, checking, composing, printing, trimming, bookbinding, etc.
虽然王志仁的长台桌上有7万个活字，但是每次印刷，只需要使用其中的一部分。因此，每当有宗谱需要修订，他需要根据内容来检字排版。7万字的数量虽然不小，但是他有一套捡字口诀可以让他快速找到需要的字。“君王立殿堂，朝辅尽纯良。庶民如律礼，平大净封张”等158个字的祖传歌诀，平仄有韵，很像一首诗，既方便检字，同时又包含着千年汉字文化的品格与训诫。
There are 70 thousand movable-type charactors on his work table, but it only needs some of them for one printing. Therefore, he needs to compose them according to the different genealogies. The number of 70 thousand is not small. However, he has a 158-charactor Chinese formula passed from the antient to handle it: the emperor sitting in front of the palace hall where the ministers are pure and loyal. The mass follow the law and the society stays united and stable, which is like a poetry with morals and warnings of the thousand-year Chinese characters.
王志仁的印刷桌上放着清水、墨汁、刷子、木尺等工具，最引人瞩目的是那些早已排好版的字盘，上面密密麻麻地排列着一个个字模。这些字模经过墨汁的长久浸润，如黑炭一般。这时，王志仁拿起一张洁白的宣纸覆盖上面，拿起棕刷在纸上轻轻拓印，一张工整的老宋体印刷品便呈现在眼前。
Clear water, ink, brushes, wooden rulers are lying on his table, while among them the composed case attracts people most. The matrixes on the case are as dark as carbon infiltrated in the ink for long time. Just then Wang Zhiren puts a piece of Chinese art paper on it and brushes it slightly, then there comes a finished work in front of your eyes.
2008年6月14日，木活字印刷被国务院确定为国家级非物质文化遗产，而在2010年11月15日，又被联合国教科文组织列入《急需保护的非物质文化遗产名录》。由此可见，木活字印刷术仍是一项濒临灭绝的技艺，除了东源地区延续修订族谱的习俗，在中国，大部分地区已经没有这项习俗。
The wooden movable-type printing technique was listed in the national intangible cultural heritage on June 14, 2008. And then it was listed into the Non-material Cultural Heritage list Which are Badly in need of Protection by the UNESCO. We can see that this technique is endangered that only the Dongyuan district keeps the custom of revising pedigrees in China.
所幸的是，据《瑞安县志》记载，瑞安自古是个典型的移民城市，200多个姓氏分别在不同年代，从各地迁入。因此，家家户户怀着一种延续宗脉、缅怀先祖的移民情节，特别重视宗谱的修订，木活字印刷术才得以传承、千年不息。
Luckily, it is reported by the Ryan Countythat Ryan is a typical immigrante city in history that more than 200 surnames immigrated there from different cities of different times. As a result, each family has a problem with blood spreading to revise their pedigrees, so that the wooden movable-type printing technique is able to be inherited for long.
撰稿：心尘
译者：尚小桦