Wang Zhen's Wooden Movable Type Printing

Timeline

1. 1331–1335Jiangnan printing workshops · JiangnanAfter Wang Zhen's Book of Agriculture was completed, its volume on 'Method of Making and Printing with Type' detailed the wooden movable type process: selecting pear and jujube wood for carving characters, pasting thin-paper proofs, trimming type, and baking type to remove grease. Workshop craftsmen experimented based on the illustrations, moving movable type printing from court trials to local applications, especially suited to printing shorter works on agricultural administration and local gazetteers.
2. 1336–1340Eastern Zhejiang printing workshops · ZhejiangWang Zhen's revolving type tray arranged type by rhyme and compartment on two wheels, with the printer seated in the middle rotating them to select characters, greatly speeding up type-picking. In this phase, Jiangnan workshops used wooden movable type to print county gazetteers and encyclopedias alongside woodblock printing; though the vast Chinese character inventory and type wear prevented it from fully replacing woodblocks, it established the operational paradigm for later movable type printing.