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Bi Sheng's Movable Type Printing

Type Object Region China Time c. 1001–1048

Bi Sheng of the Northern Song created clay movable type, replacing full-block carving with interchangeable individual characters to greatly improve r…

Timeline

  1. 1001–1010Bianjing Directorate of Education and commercial printing centers · BianjingIn the early Northern Song, woodblock printing flourished in Bianjing, Sichuan, and Hangzhou, with official and commercial publishing running in parallel, accumulating paper, ink, and typesetting experience for later movable type.
  2. c. 1041–1048Hangzhou printing workshops · Liangzhe CircuitBi Sheng carved characters in clay, fired them hard into individual types, and fixed them in a frame with a mixture of pine resin, wax, and paper ash, allowing repeated disassembly and reuse, greatly shortening revision cycles compared to woodblock.

Sources