c. 1040 (clay type); 1377 (earliest surviving metal-type book)
●Documented date
Song dynasty China; Goryeo Korea
Associated with
Bi Sheng
Commoner craftsman described by Shen Kuo as inventing clay movable type
Korean printers of the Goryeo court
Used cast metal type, as shown by the Jikji of 1377
Plate 032
c. 1040
Song dynasty China; Goryeo Korea
No photograph is shown for this exhibition. The museum displays an image only where it can show the object honestly.
About this date
Bi Sheng’s clay type is described by Shen Kuo in the Dream Pool Essays (c. 1088). The Korean Jikji, printed in 1377 with metal type, is the oldest surviving book printed this way.
About credit
The description of Bi Sheng is the earliest record of movable type. Gutenberg’s European press is a separate development.
Chapter II
The world before
Life before Movable Type
Woodblocks needed a new block for each page, which was costly for short runs and useless once the print run ended.
II
The human achievement
How it came about
Bi Sheng baked characters in clay, set them in an iron frame bedded in a resinous paste, printed, then melted the paste to reuse the pieces. In Korea, printers cast bronze type in the 13th and 14th centuries.
III
Understanding the invention
How it works
Movable Type, explained in two steps.
01
Step 01 of 02
Separate pieces
Each character is a block that can be placed in any order.
Separate pieces
Reuse
IV
The transformation
What changed for humanity
Publishing
Smaller print runs became practical.
Reading
More varied texts were available to more readers.
A set of type could print many different books. For alphabetic scripts, this made printing much cheaper and flexible.
V
Before and after
Life before and after Movable Type
Before
Carve a new set of blocks.
After
Rearrange the same type.
On larger screens, drag the divider (or use the arrow keys) to give more room to the world before or after.
