Northern Song Movable-Type Printing

Timeline

1. 1071–1074Yingshan, Hubei (Bi Sheng's hometown) · Yingshan CountyCraftsmen carved characters in clay, fired them hard, then set them on a base of pine resin, wax, and paper ash, inking and pressing paper to print. Common characters were stored in trays for reuse, and type could be reset after dismantling.
2. 1075–1078Panlou book market, Bianjing · Kaifeng CityMovable type was used in Bianjing bookshops for almanacs, medical books, and poetry anthologies with limited print runs and flexible edition needs, coexisting with woodblock printing to meet the capital market's demand for rapid re-edition.
3. 1078–1080Hangzhou bookshops · Hangzhou CityMovable-type technique traveled the canals and trade networks to Jiangnan, where woodblock centers like Hangzhou and Suzhou began experimenting with clay and wood movable type for local gazetteers, Buddhist sutras, and examination books, spreading printing in the southeast.