Bi Sheng, a civilian inventor in the Northern Song Dynasty, summed up the rich practical experience of block printing in past dynasties. After repeated experiments, he made clay movable type in Song Renzong in the Qing Dynasty (A.D. 104 1- 1048) and made typesetting and printing, thus completing a major revolution in the history of printing. Bi Sheng's method is as follows: make a blank with the same specification from clay, engrave the reverse character at one end, the height of the character is as high as the thickness of the copper coin edge, and then harden it with fire to become a single clay movable type. In order to meet the needs of typesetting, when repeated in the same version, there are usually several or even dozens of commonly used words for use. If you encounter uncommon words, you can use them with the system if you are not prepared in advance. In order to facilitate the choice of words, the clay type is put in the wooden lattice according to rhyme, and a note is attached to indicate it. When typesetting, an iron plate with a frame is used as the base, and a layer of medicine made of turpentine, wax and paper scraps is coated on it, and then the required clay movable type is picked out one by one and arranged in the frame. After a frame is filled in, it becomes a version, and then it is baked with fire. When the medicine melts slightly, flatten the words with a flat plate, and after the medicine cools and solidifies, it becomes a version. When printing, just brush the ink on the plate, cover it with paper, and add some pressure. For continuous printing, two iron plates are used, one with a writing brush and the other with typesetting, and the two plates are used alternately. After printing, burn it with a torch, shake it gently with your hand, and the movable type will fall off the iron plate, and then put it back in the original wooden box according to the rhyme, and use it next time. Bi Sheng has also experimented with wood movable type printing, but it is not used in Bi Sheng because of uneven wood texture, difficult carving, deformation of wood movable type when it meets water and difficult to separate from chemicals. Bi Sheng's method of printing books in clay type will not be easy if only two or three books are printed. If you print hundreds or thousands of copies, the work efficiency will be extremely impressive, which will not only save a lot of manpower and material resources, but also greatly improve the printing speed and quality, which is much superior to block printing. Although modern letterpress printing is incomparable to movable type printing in Bi Sheng in Song Dynasty in terms of equipment and technical conditions, the basic principles and methods are exactly the same. The invention of movable type printing has made great contributions to human culture. Among them, the contribution of Bi Sheng, a civilian inventor in China, is indelible. However, we know nothing about Bi Sheng's life story. Because Bi Sheng invented movable type printing, it was completely recorded in the famous book Meng Qian Bi Tan by Shen Kuo, a famous scientist in the Northern Song Dynasty. However, except for a few Buddhist scriptures in Xixia characters, it is speculated that they are printed with movable type, and there is no Chinese printed matter printed with movable type in the Central Plains!
Block printing can print hundreds or even thousands of copies, which has played a great role in the spread of culture. However, it takes a lot of time and manpower to be rigid, and large books often take several years, and the storage of plates also takes up a lot of space, and they are often damaged by deformation, moth-eaten and corrosion. Small quantities of books that don't need to be reprinted become waste. In addition, typos found in lettering are very difficult to correct, and it is often necessary to re-engrave the whole lettering.
Movable type plate making just 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. Moreover, movable type occupies less space than lettering and is easy to store and keep. In this way, the superiority of movable type is revealed.
1965, the publication "observing Buddhist scriptures by observing martial arts" found in Baixiang Pagoda in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, was identified as a movable type book from Fuyuan to Chongning in the Northern Song Dynasty (1/kloc-0 ~1103). This is the earliest historical testimony of movable type printing technology in Bi Sheng.