During the Northern Song Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty, China and Bi Sheng invented clay movable type printing, which marked the birth of movable type printing. The production process of movable type printing in Bi Sheng is: carve individual characters on a small square made of clay, and put it on the fire to make it hard and become pottery movable type. Usually, these pottery movable types are put into paper bags, arranged in a wooden lattice in the order of vowels, and picked up separately when necessary.

Movable type plate making avoids the shortage of engraving. As long as enough single movable type is prepared in advance, you can make up at any time, which greatly speeds up the plate making time. After printing, movable type can be disassembled and reused, and the space occupied by movable type is smaller than that of engraving, which is convenient for storage and safekeeping. Bi Sheng invented movable type printing, which improved the printing efficiency.

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Significance of movable type printing

Like any invention, Bi Sheng invented movable type printing because of its social needs, material basis and technical conditions. China's social progress to the Northern Song Dynasty, due to economic development, commercial prosperity, and cultural prosperity, all required rapid and massive dissemination of information. Movable type printing is produced to solve the problems raised by this social demand.

Printing must use paper and ink. China invented paper, oil fume and pine smoke as early as the Han Dynasty. The invention of paper and ink laid a material foundation for the birth of movable type printing. Since the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties, the methods of copying characters and pictures, such as seal cutting and rubbing, have provided technical conditions for the invention of movable type printing.

The invention of movable type printing is the crystallization of the wisdom of the ancient working people in China and the wisdom of the ancient working people in China. It is a great technological revolution in the history of printing. Movable type printing provides more convenient conditions for the reproduction and timely and effective dissemination of books.

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