Bi Sheng (972–1051) was a Chinese artisan and engineer during the

Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...

(960–1279), who invented the world's first

movable type Movable type (US English; moveable type in British English) is the system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable Sort (typesetting), components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual alphanumeric charac ...

. Bi's system used fired clay tiles, one for each

Chinese character Chinese characters are logographs used to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represent the only on ...

, and was invented between 1039 and 1048.

Printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ...

was one of the Four Great Inventions. Because Bi was a commoner, not an educated person, little is known about his life besides this invention.

Movable type printing

Bi Sheng's invention was only recorded in the ''

Dream Pool Essays ''The Dream Pool Essays'' (or ''Dream Torrent Essays'') was an extensive book written by the Chinese polymath and statesman Shen Kuo (1031–1095), published in 1088 during the Song dynasty (960–1279) of China. Shen compiled this encyclopedi ...

'' by Chinese scholar-official and polymath

Shen Kuo Shen Kuo (; 1031–1095) or Shen Gua, courtesy name Cunzhong (存中) and Art name#China, pseudonym Mengqi (now usually given as Mengxi) Weng (夢溪翁),Yao (2003), 544. was a Chinese polymath, scientist, and statesman of the Song dynasty (960� ...

(1031–1095). The book provides a detailed description of the technical details of Bi Sheng's invention of

printing: Bi Sheng also developed wooden movable type, but it was abandoned in favor of ceramic types due to the presence of wood grains and the unevenness of the wooden type after being soaked in ink. After his death, ceramic movable type may have spread to the Tangut kingdom of

Western Xia The Western Xia or the Xi Xia ( zh, c=, w=Hsi1 Hsia4, p=Xī Xià), officially the Great Xia ( zh, c=大夏, w=Ta4 Hsia4, p=Dà Xià, labels=no), also known as the Tangut Empire, and known as Stein (1972), pp. 70–71. to the Tanguts ...

, where a Buddhist text known as the ''Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra'' was found in modern Wuwei,

Gansu Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

, dating to the reign of Emperor Renzong of Western Xia (r. 1125-1193). The text features traits that have been identified as hallmarks of clay movable type such as the hollowness of the character strokes and deformed and broken strokes. The ceramic movable-type also passed onto Bi Sheng's descendants. The next mention of movable type occurred in 1193 when a Southern Song chief counselor, Zhou Bida (), attributed the movable-type method of printing to

. However Shen Kuo did not invent the movable type but credited it to Bi Sheng in his ''

''. The ceramic movable type was also mentioned by

Kublai Khan Kublai Khan (23 September 1215 – 18 February 1294), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Shizu of Yuan and his regnal name Setsen Khan, was the founder and first emperor of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China. He proclaimed the ...

's councilor Yao Shu, who convinced his pupil Yang Gu to print language primers using this method. The government official Wang Zhen () improved Bi Sheng's clay types by innovation through the wood, as his process increased the speed of typesetting as well. By 1490, bronze movable type was developed by the wealthy printer Hua Sui (1439–1513). Wooden movable-type printing became widespread in the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

(1644–1912), but did not replace block printing, probably because of the expense of creating a font of so many pieces or the low cost of a copyist.

Legacy

Bisheng Subdistrict () in Wenquan, Huanggang,

Hubei Hubei is a province of China, province in Central China. It has the List of Chinese provincial-level divisions by GDP, seventh-largest economy among Chinese provinces, the second-largest within Central China, and the third-largest among inland ...

is named for Bi Sheng. The Bi Sheng crater located in the LAC-7 quadrant near the northern pole on the

far side of the Moon The far side of the Moon is the hemisphere of the Moon that is facing away from Earth, the opposite hemisphere is the near side. It always has the same surface oriented away from Earth because of synchronous rotation in the Moon's orbit. C ...

was named after Bi Sheng by the

IAU The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...

in August 2010. He also appears in a commemorative stamp by the Liberian post office due to his invention of movable printing.

References

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Movable type printing

Legacy

See also

References

Sources

Further reading