query: when was movable type printing invented in china

pos: Movable type Movable type Movable type (US English; moveable type in British English) is the system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual alphanumeric characters or punctuation marks) usually on the medium of paper. The world's first movable type printing press technology for printing paper books was made of porcelain materials and was invented around AD 1040 in China during the Northern Song Dynasty by the inventor Bi Sheng (990–1051). Subsequently in 1377, the world's oldest extant movable metal print book, Jikji, was printed in Korea during the Goryeo dynasty.

neg: Hua Sui Hua Sui Hua Sui (Traditional Chinese: 華燧; Simplified Chinese:华燧; Hanyu Pinyin: Huá Suì) (1439-1513 AD) was a Chinese scholar and printer of Wuxi, Jiangsu province during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD). He belonged to the wealthy Hua family that was renowned throughout the region. Hua Sui is best known for creating China's first metal movable type printing in 1490 AD. Metal movable type printing had been invented in Korea during the earlier 13th century, but there is no concrete evidence that suggests Hua Sui's metal type print was influenced by Korean printing. Movable type was invented and improved in China

neg: Four Great Inventions Northern China was further advanced by the 11th century, as it was written by the Song Dynasty scientist and statesman Shen Kuo (1031–1095) that the common artisan Bi Sheng (990-1051) invented ceramic movable type printing. Then there were those such as Wang Zhen (fl. 1290-1333) who invented respectively wooden type setting, which later influenced developing metal moveable type printing in Korea (1372-1377). Movable type printing was a tedious process if one were to assemble thousands of individual characters for the printing of simply one or a few books, but if used for printing thousands of books, the process was efficient

neg: Printing system of revolving tables and number-association with written Chinese characters that made typesetting and printing more efficient. Still, the main method in use there remained woodblock printing (xylography), which "proved to be cheaper and more efficient for printing Chinese, with its thousands of characters". Copper movable type printing originated in China at the beginning of the 12th century. It was used in large-scale printing of paper money issued by the Northern Song dynasty. Movable type spread to Korea during the Goryeo dynasty. Around 1230, Koreans invented a metal type movable printing using bronze. The Jikji, published in 1377, is the

neg: Typography the same printing technique may be found in tenth to twelfth century Byzantine reliquaries. Other early examples include individual letter tiles where the words are formed by assembling single letter tiles in the desired order, which were reasonably widespread in medieval Northern Europe. Typography with movable type was invented during the eleventh-century Song dynasty in China by Bi Sheng (990–1051). His movable type system was manufactured from ceramic materials, and clay type printing continued to be practiced in China until the Qing Dynasty. Wang Zhen was one of the pioneers of wooden movable type. Although the wooden type was more

neg: Science and technology of the Song dynasty production of printed materials. This meant that parents could encourage sons to learn to read and write and therefore be able to take the imperial examination and become part of the growing learned bureaucracy. Movable type printing was further advanced in Joseon era Korea, where Bi Sheng's baked clay characters were scrapped for metal type characters in 1234. The movable type of Bi Sheng was later improved upon by Wang Zhen (1290–1333), who invented wooden movable type c. 1298, and Hua Sui (1439–1513), who invented bronze movable type in China in 1490; yet the Koreans had metal movable type before

neg: History of printing in East Asia composit a page from so many different types. However, if one was to use movable type for multitudes of the same document, the speed of printing would be relatively quicker. Although the wooden type was more durable under the mechanical rigors of handling, repeated printing wore the character faces down, and the types could only be replaced by carving new pieces. Bronze movable type printing was invented in China no later than the 12th century, according to at least 13 material finds in China, in large scale bronze plate printing of paper money and formal official documents issued by Jin

neg: History of printing of movable type, with the range of estimated dates being between about 1440–1460. Movable type is the system of printing and typography using movable pieces of metal type, made by casting from matrices struck by letterpunches. Movable-type was invented in the Northern Song dynasty around the year 1041 by the commoner Bi Sheng. Bi Sheng's movable-type was fired in porcelain. After his death, the ceramic movable-type passed onto his descendants. The next mention of movable-type occurred in 1193 when a Southern Song chief counselor, Zhou Bida (周必大), attributed the movable-type method of printing to Shen Kuo. However Shen Kuo did

neg: Printing press adopted the basic design, thereby mechanizing the printing process. Printing, however, put a demand on the machine quite different from pressing. Gutenberg adapted the construction so that the pressing power exerted by the platen on the paper was now applied both evenly and with the required sudden elasticity. To speed up the printing process, he introduced a movable undertable with a plane surface on which the sheets could be swiftly changed. The concept of movable type was not new in the 15th century; movable type printing had been invented in China during the Song dynasty, and was later used in

neg: Typography durable under the mechanical rigors of handling, repeated printing wore the character faces down and the types could be replaced only by carving new pieces. Metal movable type was first invented in Korea during the Goryeo Dynasty, approximately 1230. Hua Sui introduced bronze type printing to China in 1490 AD. The diffusion of both movable-type systems was limited and the technology did not spread beyond East and Central Asia, however. Modern lead-based movable type, along with the mechanical printing press, is most often attributed to the goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg in 1439. His type pieces, made from a lead-based alloy, suited

neg: Electrotyping magazine and newspaper printing. Electrotyping was also used to produce entire printing plates directly from the formes composed from movable type and illustrations. In this application, electrotyping was a higher quality but more costly alternative to stereotyping, which involved casting of type metal into a mold prepared from the forme. Stereotyping had been invented around 1725, and was already well-established when electrotyping was invented in 1838. Both methods yielded plates that could be preserved in case of future needs, for example in the printing of novels and other books of unpredictable popularity. The movable type used to compose the original

neg: History of printing in East Asia As late as 1844 there were still books printed in China with ceramic movable types. Wooden movable type was also first developed around 1040 AD by Bi Sheng (990–1051), as described by the Chinese scholar Shen Kuo (1031–1095), but was abandoned in favour of clay movable types due to the presence of wood grains and the unevenness of the wooden type after being soaked in ink. In 1298, Wang Zhen (王祯/王禎), a Yuan dynasty governmental official of Jingde County, Anhui Province, China, re-invented a method of making movable wooden types. He made more than 30,000 wooden movable types and printed

neg: Schweipolt Fiol Poland. Unfortunately his attempts to reform the state led to the Partitions of Poland carried out by Prussia, Austria and Russia. The world's first movable type printing technology was invented and developed in China by the Han Chinese printer Bi Sheng between the years 1041 and 1048. In the West, the invention of an improved movable type mechanical printing technology in Europe is credited to the German printer Johannes Gutenberg in 1450. The exact date of Gutenberg's press is debated based on existing screw presses. Gutenberg, a goldsmith by profession, developed a printing system by both adapting existing technologies and

neg: Printing Printing Printing is a process for 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 earliest known form of printing as applied to paper was woodblock printing, which appeared in China before 220 AD. Later developments in printing technology include the movable type invented by Bi Sheng around 1040 AD and the printing press invented by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century. The technology of printing played a key role in the development of the Renaissance and

neg: Movable type the blocks were made to the same type height. If intaglio methods, such as copper plates, were used for the images, then images and the text would have required separate print runs on different machines. Movable type Movable type (US English; moveable type in British English) is the system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual alphanumeric characters or punctuation marks) usually on the medium of paper. The world's first movable type printing press technology for printing paper books was made of porcelain materials and was invented around

neg: Science and technology of the Tang dynasty Although Bi Sheng later invented the movable type system in the 11th century, Tang dynasty style woodblock printing would remain the dominant mode of printing in China until the more advanced printing press from Europe became widely accepted and used in East Asia. However it was not Gutenberg's letterpress that made the decisive breakthrough for Western methods in China as it is commonly believed, but lithography, a nineteenth century technological marvel almost wholly forgotten in Europe. Playing cards may have been invented during the Tang dynasty around the 9th century AD as a result of the usage of woodblock printing

neg: Woodblock printing method of printing textiles, which has been a large industry since at least the 10th century. Large quantities of printed Indian silk and cotton were exported to Europe throughout the Modern period. Because Chinese has a character set running into the thousands, woodblock printing suits it better than movable type to the extent that characters only need to be created as they occur in the text. Although the Chinese had invented a form of movable type with baked clay in the 11th century, and metal movable type was invented in Korea in the 13th century, woodblocks continued to be preferred

neg: Type design alphanumeric characters. Each of the characters is stored in a master archetype form and then a user, by means of hand picking (handset metal type), a keyboard (linotype and desktop publishing) or other means (voice recognition) selects individual characters to "set" into the text. The technology of printing text using movable type was invented in China, but the vast number of Chinese characters, and the esteem with which calligraphy was held, meant that few distinctive, complete fonts were created in China in the early centuries of printing. Gutenberg's most important innovation in the mid 15th century development of his press

neg: Shen Kuo the canal pound lock. Although Ibn al-Haytham (965–1039) was the first to describe camera obscura, Shen was the first in China to do so, several decades later. Shen wrote extensively about movable type printing invented by Bi Sheng (990–1051), and because of his written works the legacy of Bi Sheng and the modern understanding of the earliest movable type has been handed down to later generations. Following an old tradition in China, Shen created a raised-relief map while inspecting borderlands. His description of an ancient crossbow mechanism which he himself unearthed proved to be a Jacob's staff, a surveying tool

neg: Shen Kuo the speed of typesetting with simple mechanical devices, along with the complex, systematic arrangement of wooden movable type involving the use of revolving tables. Although later metal movable type would be used in China, Wang Zhen experimented with tin metal movable type, but found its use to be inefficient. By the 15th century, metal movable type printing was developed in Ming Dynasty China (and earlier in Joseon Korea, by the mid 13th century), and was widely applied in China by at least the 16th century. In Jiangsu and Fujian, wealthy Ming era families sponsored the use of metal type printing

neg: Four Great Inventions and rapid enough to be successful and highly employed. Indeed, there were many cities in China where movable type printing, in wooden and metal form, was adopted by the enterprises of wealthy local families or large private industries. The Qing Dynasty court sponsored enormous printing projects using woodblock movable type printing during the 18th century. Although superseded by western printing techniques, woodblock movable type printing remains in use in isolated communities in China. In 2005, the Hong Kong postal service created a special stamp issue that featured the Four Great Inventions. The stamp series was first issued on August 18,

neg: Printing view, followed the introduction of movable type, with the range of estimated dates being between about 1440 and 1460. Movable type is the system of printing and typography using movable pieces of metal type, made by casting from matrices struck by letterpunches. Movable type allowed for much more flexible processes than hand copying or block printing. Around 1040, the first known movable type system was created in China by Bi Sheng out of porcelain. Bi Sheng used clay type, which broke easily, but Wang Zhen by 1298 had carved a more durable type from wood. He also developed a complex

neg: Tianyi Ge using natural materials, hand tools, utensils and naturally occurring reagents. This technology had further improved in the Ming Dynasty. Song Yingxing (1587-1666 AD) documented the work rolled up by the gradual process of this manufacture in his book,“Tian Gung Kai Wu (The Exploitation of the Works of Nature)” Since the typography invention of movable type printing in the Song Dynasty of China, printing technology had continued to develop. In the late Yuan Dynasty, Wang Zhen invented wooden printing. Compared with muddy characters, the resistance of wood type to external forces was better. By the Ming dynasty, printing technology reached another

neg: Hua Sui were made, steps were made to perfect the process and thus making it harder to differentiate between woodblock printing editions and movable type editions (unless noted in the text). Hua Sui Hua Sui (Traditional Chinese: 華燧; Simplified Chinese:华燧; Hanyu Pinyin: Huá Suì) (1439-1513 AD) was a Chinese scholar and printer of Wuxi, Jiangsu province during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD). He belonged to the wealthy Hua family that was renowned throughout the region. Hua Sui is best known for creating China's first metal movable type printing in 1490 AD. Metal movable type printing had been invented in Korea during the

neg: History of printing History of printing The history of printing starts as early as 3500 BCE, when the Persian and Mesopotamian civilizations used cylinder seals to certify documents written in clay. Other early forms include block seals, pottery imprints and cloth printing. Woodblock printing on paper originated in China around 200 CE. It led to the development of movable type in the eleventh century and the spread of book production in East Asia. Woodblock printing was also used in Europe, but it was in the fifteenth century that European printers combined movable type and alphabetic scripts to create an economical book publishing industry.

neg: Printing a press was faster and more durable. Also, the metal type pieces were sturdier and the lettering more uniform, leading to typography and fonts. The high quality and relatively low price of the Gutenberg Bible (1455) established the superiority of movable type for Western languages. The printing press rapidly spread across Europe, leading up to the Renaissance, and later all around the world. Gutenberg's innovations in movable type printing have been called the most important invention of the second millennium. The rotary printing press was invented by Richard March Hoe in 1843. It uses impressions curved around a cylinder to

neg: History of printing only replaced Hanja in the 20th century. And unlike China, the movable type system was kept mainly within the confines of a highly stratified elite Korean society: Only during the Ming and Qing dynasties did wooden and metal movable types see any considerable use, but the preferred method remained woodblock. Usage of movable type in China never exceeded 10 percent of all printed materials while 90 percent of printed books used the older woodblock technology. In one case an entire set of wooden type numbering 250,000 pieces was used for firewood. Woodblocks remained the dominant printing method in China until

neg: Movable type particular difficulty. It was faster to carve one woodblock per page than to composit a page from so many different types. However, if one used movable type to produce multiple copies of the same document, the speed of printing would increase relatively. At least 13 material finds in China indicate the invention of bronze movable type printing in China no later than the 12th century, with the country producing large-scale bronze-plate-printed paper money and formal official documents issued by the Jin (1115–1234) and Southern Song (1127–1279) dynasties with embedded bronze metal types for anti-counterfeit markers. Such paper-money printing might date

neg: Wang Zhen (inventor) Wang, in 1322 the magistrate of Fenghua, Zhejiang province, named Ma Chengde, printed Confucian classics with movable type of 100,000 written characters on needed revolving tables. The process of metal movable type was also developed in Joseon Korea by the 13th century, while metal movable type was not pioneered in China until the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) printer Hua Sui used bronze movable type in 1490. Although metal movable type became available in China during the Ming period, wooden movable type persisted in common use even until the 19th century. After that point, the European printing press machine first pioneered by

neg: Science and technology of the Yuan dynasty Chinese printing technology was transferred to the Mongols through Uighur and Tibetan intermediaries. Some Yuan documents such as Wang Zhen's "Nong Shu" were printed with earthenware movable type, a technology invented in the 12th century. However, most published works were still produced through traditional block printing techniques. The publication of a Taoist text inscribed with the name of Töregene Khatun, Ögedei's wife, is one of the first printed works sponsored by the Mongols. In 1273, the Mongols created the Imperial Library Directorate, a government-sponsored printing office. The Yuan government established centers for printing throughout China. Local schools and government agencies

neg: History of printing in East Asia History of printing in East Asia Printing in East Asia evolved from ink rubbings made on paper or cloth from texts on stone tables in China during the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 CE). Mechanical woodblock printing on paper started in China during the Tang dynasty before the 8th century CE. Use of woodblock printing quickly spread to other East Asian countries. While the Chinese used only clay and wood movable type at first, use of metal movable type was pioneered in Korea by the 13th century. The Western-style printing press became known in East Asia by the 16th

neg: History of printing in East Asia half of the 19th century by western-style printing, initially lithography. Bi Sheng (毕昇) (990–1051) developed the first known movable-type system for printing in China around 1040 AD during the Northern Song dynasty, using ceramic materials. As described by the Chinese scholar Shen Kuo (沈括) (1031–1095): In 1193, Zhou Bida, an officer of Southern Song Dynasty, made a set of clay movable-type method according to the method described by Shen Kuo in his "Dream Pool Essays", and printed his book "Notes of The Jade Hall" (《玉堂杂记》). Clay type printing was practiced in China from the Song dynasty through the Qing dynasty.

neg: Movable type Because of this, the diffusion of both movable-type systems was, to some degree, limited to primarily East Asia, although various sporadic reports of movable type technology were brought back to Europe by Christian missionaries, traders and business people who were returning to Europe after having worked in China for several years; and influenced the development of printing technology in Europe. Some of these medieval European accounts are still preserved in the library archives of the Vatican and Oxford University among many others. Around 1450, Johannes Gutenberg introduced the metal movable-type printing press in Europe, along with innovations in casting the

neg: Song dynasty copies. The enhancement of widespread printing and print culture in the Song period was thus a direct catalyst in the rise of social mobility and expansion of the educated class of scholar elites, the latter which expanded dramatically in size from the 11th to 13th centuries. The movable type invented by Bi Sheng was ultimately trumped by the use of woodblock printing due to the limitations of the enormous Chinese character writing system, yet movable type printing continued to be used and was improved in later periods. The Yuan dynasty scholar-official Wang Zhen (fl. 1290–1333) implemented a faster typesetting process,

neg: Movable type Huozi Yinshufa" (《造活字印书法》/《造活字印書法》) by the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) official Wang Zhen mentions tin movable type, used probably since the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279), but this was largely experimental. It was unsatisfactory due to its incompatibility with the inking process. During the Mongol Empire (1206–1405), printing using movable type spread from China to Central Asia. The Uyghurs of Central Asia used movable type, their script type adopted from the Mongol language, some with Chinese words printed between the pages – strong evidence that the books were printed in China. During the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), Hua Sui in 1490 used bronze type

neg: Korea printing was invented by Choe Yun-ui in 1234. This invention made printing easier, more efficient and also increased literacy, which observed by Chinese visitors was seen to be so important where it was considered to be shameful to not be able to read. The Mongol Empire later adopted Korea's movable type printing and spread as far as Central Asia. There is conjecture as to whether or not Choe's invention had any influence on later printing inventions such as Gutenberg's Printing press. When the Mongols invaded Europe they inadvertently introduced different kinds of Asian technology. During the Joseon period, the Turtle

neg: History of technology powered blast furnace bellows, the iron plough, the multi-tube seed drill, the wheelbarrow, the suspension bridge, the parachute, the compass, the raised-relief map, the propeller, the crossbow, the South Pointing Chariot and gunpowder. China also developed deep well drilling, which they used to extract brine for making salt. Some of these wells, which were as deep as 900 meters, produced natural gas which was used for evaporating brine. Other Chinese discoveries and inventions from the Medieval period include block printing, movable type printing, phosphorescent paint, endless power chain drive and the clock escapement mechanism. The solid-fuel rocket was invented in

neg: History of printing in East Asia evidence that the books were printed in China. During the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), Hua Sui in 1490 used bronze type in printing books. In 1574 the massive 1000 volume encyclopedia Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era (《太平御览》/《太平御覧》) were printed with bronze movable type. In 1725, the Qing dynasty government made 250,000 bronze movable-type characters and printed 64 sets of the encyclopedic "Gujin Tushu Jicheng" (《古今图书集成》/《古今圖書集成》, "Complete Collection of Illustrations and Writings from the Earliest to Current Times"). Each set consisted of 5040 volumes, making a total of 322,560 volumes printed using movable type. The transition from wood type to movable

neg: History of East Asia Sheng in the Pinyin system). Pi Sheng's type was made of baked clay, as described by the Chinese scholar Shen Kuo (1031–1095). The world's first metal-based movable type printing press was invented in Korea in 1234, 210 years before Johannes Gutenberg invented a similar press in Germany. Jikji is the world's oldest extant movable metal print book. It was published in Heungdeok Temple in 1377, 78 years prior to Gutenberg's "42-Line Bible" printed during the years 1452-1455. In 1603, the Tokugawa shogunate (military dictatorship) ushered in a long period of isolation from foreign influence in order to secure its power.

neg: Science and technology of the Song dynasty for the reception of the driving belt, an endless band which responds to the movement of the machine by continuously rotating the pulley. An endless rope or cord may have been used in Du Shi's device of waterwheels that powered bellows of the blast furnace in the 1st century (see Wind Power below). Printing technology in the form of movable type was invented by Bi Sheng (; 990–1051) in the 11th century. The work of Bi Sheng was written of by Shen Kuo in his "Dream Pool Essays" (Mengxi Bitan). Movable type, alongside woodblock printing, increased literacy with the mass

neg: History of printing in East Asia issued in large scale and in circulation for a long time. In the 1298 book "Zao Huozi Yinshufa" (《造活字印书法》/《造活字印書法》) by the early Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) official Wang Zhen, there is mention of tin movable type, used probably since the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279), but this was largely experimental. It was unsatisfactory due to its incompatibility with the inking process. During the Mongol Empire (1206–1405), printing using movable type spread from China to Central Asia. The Uyghurs of Central Asia used movable type, their script type adopted from the Mongol language, some with Chinese words printed between the pages, a strong

neg: Science and technology of the Song dynasty Hua Sui, and even Wang Zhen had experimented with tin-metal movable type. Although movable type and woodblock printing would remain the dominant types of printing methods for centuries, the European printing press (employing the Hellenistic screw-press) was eventually adopted by East Asian countries. For printing, the mass production of paper for writing was already well established in China. The papermaking process had been perfected and standardized by the Han dynasty court eunuch Cai Lun (50–121) in 105, and was in widespread use for writing even by the 3rd century. The Song dynasty was the world's first government in history to

neg: Woodblock printing was also used extensively for printing playing cards. In East Asia, woodblock printing proved to be more enduring than in Europe, continuing well into the 19th century as the major form of printing texts, especially in China, even after the introduction of the European printing press. In countries using Arabic, Turkish and similar scripts, works, especially the Qur'an were sometimes printed by lithography in the 19th century, as the links between the characters require compromises when movable type is used which were considered inappropriate for sacred texts. Nianhua were a form of coloured woodblock prints in China, depicting images for

neg: Ancient technology to the Scottish researcher Joseph Needham, the Chinese made many first-known discoveries and developments. Major technological contributions from China include early seismological detectors, matches, paper, the double-action piston pump, cast iron, the iron plough, the multi-tube seed drill, the suspension bridge, natural gas as fuel, the magnetic compass, the raised-relief map, the propeller, the crossbow, the south-pointing chariot, and gunpowder. Other Chinese discoveries and inventions from the Medieval period, according to Joseph Needham's research, include: block printing and movable type, phosphorescent paint, and the spinning wheel. The solid-fuel rocket was invented in China about 1150 AD, nearly 200 years after

neg: History of technology blast furnace came into widespread use in France in the mid 15th century. The blast furnace had been used in China since the 4th century BC. The invention of the movable cast metal type printing press, whose pressing mechanism was adapted from an olive screw press, (c. 1441) lead to a tremendous increase in the number of books and the number of titles published. Movable ceramic type had been used in China for a few centuries and woodblock printing dated back even further. The era is marked by such profound technical advancements like linear perceptivity, double shell domes or Bastion

neg: Song dynasty improved Bi's baked-clay movable type character set with a wooden one, and experimented with tin-metal movable type. The wealthy printing patron Hua Sui (1439–1513) of the Ming dynasty established China's first metal movable type (using bronze) in 1490. In 1638 the Beijing Gazette switched their printing process from woodblock to movable type printing. Yet it was during the Qing dynasty that massive printing projects began to employ movable type printing. This includes the printing of sixty-six copies of a 5,020 volume long encyclopedia in 1725, the "Gujin Tushu Jicheng" ("Complete Collection of Illustrations and Writings from the Earliest to Current

neg: History of science and technology in China by Jiao Yu in the 14th century. For gunpowder weapons, it outlined the use of fire arrows and rockets, fire lances and firearms, land mines and naval mines, bombards and cannons, two stage rockets, along with different compositions of gunpowder, including 'magic gunpowder', 'poisonous gunpowder', and 'blinding and burning gunpowder' (refer to his article). For the 11th century invention of ceramic movable type printing by Bi Sheng (990-1051), it was enhanced by the wooden movable type of Wang Zhen in 1298 and the bronze metal movable type of Hua Sui in 1490. Among the engineering accomplishments of early China were

neg: Firmin Didot Firmin Didot Firmin Didot (; 14 April 176424 April 1836) was a French printer, engraver, and type founder. Firmin Didot was born in Paris into a family of printers founded by François Didot, the father of 11 children. Firmin was one of his grandchildren. The family's paper manufactory was located at Essonnes, a town c. 30 km southeast of Paris near Corbeil, which had notable paper factories. Didot invented the word "stereotype", which in printing refers to the metal printing plate created for the actual printing of pages (as opposed to printing pages directly with movable type), and used the

neg: Wang Zhen (inventor) Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century became the mainstay and standard in China and for the most part the global community until the advent of digital printing and the modern computer printer. With movable type printing during the Ming dynasty of the 14th to 16th centuries, however, it was known to be used by local academies, local government offices, by wealthy local patrons of printing, and the large Chinese commercial printers located in the cities of Nanjing, Suzhou, Changzhou, Hangzhou, Wenzhou, and Fuzhou. There were many books from a wide variety of subjects published in wooden movable type during the

neg: Movable type (990–1051) also pioneered the use of wooden movable type around 1040 AD, as described by the Chinese scholar Shen Kuo (1031–1095). However, this technology was abandoned in favour of clay movable types due to the presence of wood grains and the unevenness of the wooden type after being soaked in ink. In 1298, Wang Zhen (王祯/王禎), a Yuan dynasty governmental official of Jingde County, Anhui Province, China, re-invented a method of making movable wooden types. He made more than 30,000 wooden movable types and printed 100 copies of "Records of Jingde County" (《旌德縣志》), a book of more than 60,000 Chinese

neg: Typographic ligature In hand writing, a ligature is made by joining two or more characters in atypical fashion by merging their parts or by writing one above or inside the other. While in printing, a ligature is a group of characters that is typeset as a unit, and the characters do not have to be joined. For example, in some cases the fi ligature prints the letters f and i with a greater separation than when they are typeset as separate letters. When printing with movable type was invented around 1450, typefaces included many ligatures and additional letters, as they were based

neg: Movable type type, after being baked in an oven, becomes hard and difficult to break, such that it remains intact after being dropped from a height of two metres onto a marble floor. The length of clay movable types in China was 1 to 2 centimetres, not 2mm, thus hard as horn. There has been an ongoing debate regarding the success of ceramic printing technology as there have been no printed materials found with ceramic movable types. However, it is historically recorded to have been used as late as 1844 in China from the Song dynasty through the Qing dynasty. Bi Sheng

neg: Printing are uncertain, however, and they appear to have had very little influence outside of the Muslim world. Though Europe adopted woodblock printing from the Muslim world, initially for fabric, the technique of metal block printing remained unknown in Europe. Block printing later went out of use in Islamic Central Asia after movable type printing was introduced from China. Block printing first came to Europe as a method for printing on cloth, where it was common by 1300. Images printed on cloth for religious purposes could be quite large and elaborate. When paper became relatively easily available, around 1400, the medium

neg: History of printing Fust and Peter Schöffer experimented with Gutenberg in Mainz. Compared to woodblock printing, movable type page-setting was quicker and more durable. The metal type pieces were more durable and the lettering was more uniform, leading to typography and fonts. The high quality and relatively low price of the Gutenberg Bible (1455) established the superiority of movable type, and printing presses rapidly spread across Europe, leading up to the Renaissance, and later all around the world. Today, practically all movable type printing ultimately derives from Gutenberg's movable type printing, which is often regarded as the most important invention of the second

neg: History of printing in East Asia sand-casting method. The following description of the Korean font casting process was recorded by the Joseon dynasty scholar Song Hyon (15th century): While metal movable type printing was developed in Korea and the oldest extant metal print book had been printed in Korea, Korea never witnessed a printing revolution comparable to Europe's: A potential solution to the linguistic and cultural bottleneck that held back movable type in Korea for two hundred years appeared in the early 15th century—a generation before Gutenberg would begin working on his own movable type invention in Europe—when King Sejong devised a simplified alphabet of 24

neg: Goryeo white (quartz) which created bold contrast with the glaze. Scholars also theorize that this developed in part to an inlay tradition in Korean metalworks and lacquer, and also to the dissatisfaction with the nearly invisible effect of incising when done under a thick celadon glaze. It is generally accepted that the world's first metal movable type was invented in Goryeo during the 13th century by Choe Yun-ui. However, according to the Chinese scholar Pan Jixing, a primitive form of metal movable type existed in China as early as the 11th century: it was a metal plate to print money and

neg: History of libraries sheet, resulting in a black background with white letters. The Chinese also employed inked carved woodblock to produce printed materials. One the major Buddhist cannons, the "Tripitaka," was published in 5,000 volumes using more than 130,000 individual woodblocks. In the eleventh century movable type was developed in China and Koreans established the first foundry for producing movable type. In spite of these developments, woodblock printing remained the norm in China, Korea, and Japan. Each ruler in China compiled its own official written archives. Every emperor decided which philosophical texts, which accounts of history, which rituals of faith, and what poetry

neg: History of printing an electronic machine. Between 1939 and 1944, Carlson was turned down by over 20 companies, including IBM and GE, neither of which believed there was a significant market for copiers. History of printing The history of printing starts as early as 3500 BCE, when the Persian and Mesopotamian civilizations used cylinder seals to certify documents written in clay. Other early forms include block seals, pottery imprints and cloth printing. Woodblock printing on paper originated in China around 200 CE. It led to the development of movable type in the eleventh century and the spread of book production in East Asia.

neg: History of books The Diamond Sutra was printed by method of woodblock printing, a strenuous method in which the text to be printed would be carved into a woodblock's surface, essentially to be used to stamp the words onto the writing surface medium. Woodblock printing was a common process for the reproduction of already handwritten texts during the earliest stages of book printing. This process was incredibly time-consuming. Because of the meticulous and time-consuming process that woodblock printing was, Bi Sheng, a key contributor to the history of printing, invented the process of movable type printing (1041-1048 AD). Bi Sheng developed a printing

neg: Shen Kuo obscure commoner and artisan known as Bi Sheng (990–1051) invented ceramic movable type printing. Although the use of assembling individual characters to compose a piece of text had its origins in antiquity, Bi Sheng's methodical innovation was something completely revolutionary for his time. Shen Kuo noted that the process was tedious if one only wanted to print a few copies of a book, but if one desired to make hundreds or thousands of copies, the process was incredibly fast and efficient. Beyond Shen Kuo's writing, however, nothing is known of Bi Sheng's life or the influence of movable type in

neg: Publishing the development of books. The Chinese inventor Bi Sheng made movable type of earthenware circa 1045, but there are no known surviving examples of his printing. Around 1450, in what is commonly regarded as an independent invention, Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type in Europe, along with innovations in casting the type based on a matrix and hand mould. This invention gradually made books less expensive to produce, and more widely available. Early printed books, single sheets and images which were created before 1501 in Europe are known as incunables or "incunabula". "A man born in 1453, the year of the

neg: Wang Zhen (inventor) Hua Sui in the late 15th century would be used for centuries in China, up until the late 19th century. Although Wang's "Nong Shu" was mostly printed by use of woodblock printing, his innovation of wooden movable type soon became popularly used in the region of Anhui. Wang's wooden movable type was used to print the local gazetteer paper of Jingde City, which incorporated the use of 60,000 written characters organized on revolving tables. During the year of 1298, roughly one hundred copies of this were printed by wooden movable type in a month's time. Following in the footsteps of

neg: Movable type invent a metal movable-type printing system in Europe, the printing press. Gutenberg was a goldsmith familiar with techniques of cutting punches for making coins from moulds. Between 1436 and 1450 he developed hardware and techniques for casting letters from matrices using a device called the hand mould. Gutenberg's key invention and contribution to movable-type printing in Europe, the hand mould, was the first practical means of making cheap copies of letterpunches in the vast quantities needed to print complete books, making the movable-type printing process a viable enterprise. Before Gutenberg, books were copied out by hand on scrolls and paper,

neg: Movable type tens of hundreds of books, playing a magnificent role in spreading culture. Yet carving the plate was time and labour consuming. Huge books cost years of effort. The plates needed a lot of storage space, and were often damaged by deformation, worms and corrosion. If books had a small print run, and were not reprinted, the printing plates would become nothing but waste; and worse, if a mistake was found, it was difficult to correct it without discarding the whole plate. Bi Sheng (毕昇/畢昇) (990–1051) developed the first known movable-type system for printing in China around 1040 AD during the

neg: Printing press technologies to printing purposes, as well as making inventions of his own. Printing in East Asia had been prevalent since the Tang dynasty, and in Europe, woodblock printing based on existing screw presses was common by the 14th century. Gutenberg's most important innovation was the development of hand-molded metal printing matrices, thus producing a movable type based printing press system. His newly devised hand mould made possible the precise and rapid creation of metal movable type in large quantities. Movable type had been hitherto unknown in Europe. In Europe, the two inventions, the hand mould and the printing press, together

neg: Bi Sheng commoner, and his ancestry and details were not recorded. He was recorded only in the "Dream Pool Essays" by Chinese scholar-official and polymath Shen Kuo (1031–1095). The book records detailed description on the technical details of Bi Sheng's invention of movable type: The government official Wang Zhen (fl. 1290–1333) improved Bi Sheng's clay types by innovation through wood, as his process increased the speed of typesetting as well. Later in China by 1490 bronze movable type was developed by the wealthy printer Hua Sui (1439–1513). Shelton A. Gunaratne (2001). Paper, printing and the printing press: A horizontally integrative macrohistory analysis.

neg: Letterpress printing remained the primary way to print and distribute information until the 20th century, when offset printing was developed, which largely supplanted its role in printing books and newspapers. All forms of data collection were affected by the invention of letterpress printing, as were many careers such as teachers, preachers, physicians and surgeons and artist-engineers. More recently, letterpress printing has seen a revival in an artisanal form. Johannes Gutenberg is credited with the development in the western hemisphere, in about 1440, of modern movable type printing from individually cast, reusable letters set together in a form (frame or chase). Movable type

neg: Jang Yeong-sil around the Gyeongnghoeru Pavilion in Gyeongbok Palace and made into use by the astronomers. The success of Jang Yeong-sil's astronomical machines was marked in 1442 AD when the Korean astronomers compiled their computations on the courses of the seven heavenly objects (five visible planets, the sun, and moon) in "Chiljeongsan" (칠정산). Although Choe Yun-ui (최윤의) invented the world's first metal printing press in 1234 during the Goryeo Dynasty, Johannes Gutenberg is recognized worldwide as the first to pioneer this technology. In general, metal movable type printing blocks surpassed the wooden counterparts in durability, clarity, and longevity. Even then, the king

neg: Book early 14th century. Books (known as block-books), as well as playing-cards and religious pictures, began to be produced by this method. Creating an entire book was a painstaking process, requiring a hand-carved block for each page; and the wood blocks tended to crack, if stored for long. The monks or people who wrote them were paid highly. The Chinese inventor Bi Sheng made movable type of earthenware c. 1045, but there are no known surviving examples of his printing. Around 1450, in what is commonly regarded as an independent invention, Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type in Europe, along with innovations

neg: Movable type printing allowed for the quick assembly of a page of text. Furthermore, these new, more compact type fonts could be reused and stored. The set of wafer-like metal stamp types could be assembled to form pages, inked, and page impressions taken from rubbings on cloth or paper. In 1322，a Fenghua county officer Ma Chengde (馬称德) in Zhejiang, made 100,000 wooded movable types and printed the 43-volume "Daxue Yanyi" (《大學衍義》). Wooden movable types were used continually in China. Even as late as 1733, a 2300-volume "Wuying Palace Collected Gems Edition" (《武英殿聚珍版叢書》) was printed with 253,500 wooden movable types on order of

neg: Shen Kuo (mostly using bronze). This included the printing works of Hua Sui (1439–1513), who pioneered the first Chinese bronze-type movable printing in the year 1490. In 1718, during the mid Qing Dynasty (1644–1912), the scholar of Tai'an known as Xu Zhiding developed movable type with enamelware instead of earthenware. There was also Zhai Jinsheng (b. 1784), a teacher of Jingxian, Anhui, who spent thirty years making a font of earthenware movable type, and by 1844 he had over 100,000 Chinese writing characters in five sizes. Despite these advances, movable type printing never gained the amount of widespread use in East Asia

neg: Shen Kuo that woodblock printing had achieved since the Chinese Tang Dynasty in the 9th century. With written Chinese, the vast amount of written morpheme characters impeded movable type's acceptance and practical use, and was therefore seen as largely unsatisfactory. Furthermore, the European printing press, first invented by Johannes Gutenberg (1398–1468), was eventually wholly adopted as the standard in China, yet the tradition of woodblock printing remains popular in East Asian countries still. Shen Kuo described the phenomena of natural predator insects controlling the population of pests, the latter of which had the potential to wreak havoc upon the agricultural base of

neg: Movable type with metal type replaced the earlier methods. In the industrial era printing methods would be chosen to suit the purpose. For example, when printing large scale letters in posters etc. the metal type would have proved too heavy and economically unviable. Thus, large scale type was made as carved wood blocks as well as ceramics plates. Also in many cases where large scale text was required, it was simpler to hand the job to a sign painter than a printer. Images could be printed together with movable type if they were made as woodcuts or wood engravings as long as

neg: Movable type for printing designs on fabrics, and later for printing texts. Woodblock printing, invented by about the 8th century during the Tang Dynasty, worked as follows. First, the neat hand-copied script was stuck on a relatively thick and smooth board, with the front of the paper, which was so thin that it was nearly transparent, sticking to the board, and characters showing in reverse, but distinctly, so that every stroke could be easily recognized. Then carvers cut away the parts of the board that were not part of the character, so that the characters were cut in relief, completely differently from

neg: Print culture text arose. Scribal culture, transforming into print culture, was only replicated in manners of written text. The Chinese invention of paper and woodblock printing, at some point before the first dated book in 868 (the Diamond Sutra) produced the world's first print culture. Hundreds of thousands of books, on subjects ranging from Confusion Classics to science and mathematics, were printed using woodblock printing. Paper and woodblock printing were introduced into Europe in the 15th Century, and the first printed books began appearing in Europe. Chinese movable type was spread to Korea during the Goryeo Dynasty. Around 1230, Koreans invented a

neg: Johannes Gutenberg Gutenberg in 1439 was the first European to use movable type. Among his many contributions to printing are: the invention of a process for mass-producing movable type; the use of oil-based ink for printing books; adjustable molds; mechanical movable type; and the use of a wooden printing press similar to the agricultural screw presses of the period. His truly epochal invention was the combination of these elements into a practical system that allowed the mass production of printed books and was economically viable for printers and readers alike. Gutenberg's method for making type is traditionally considered to have included a

neg: Mass media various ancient cultures. This was the first time when a form of media was "broadcast" to a wider audience. The first dated printed book known is the "Diamond Sutra", printed in China in 868 AD, although it is clear that books were printed earlier. Movable clay type was invented in 1041 in China. However, due to the slow spread of literacy to the masses in China, and the relatively high cost of paper there, the earliest printed mass-medium was probably European popular prints from about 1400. Although these were produced in huge numbers, very few early examples survive, and even

neg: Wang Zhen (inventor) for the water-powered blast-furnace in previous times and in his era of the 14th century: In improving movable type printing, Wang mentioned an alternative method of baking porcelain printing type with earthenware frame in order to make whole blocks. Wang is best known for his usage of wooden movable type while he was a magistrate of Jingde in Anhui province from 1290 to 1301. His main contribution was improving the speed of typesetting with simple mechanical devices, along with the complex, systematic arrangement of wooden movable types. Wang summarized the process of making wooden movable type as described in the

neg: Hua Sui of whom were supposedly inspired by Shen Kuo's description of Bi Sheng's movable type in the "Meng Xi Bi Tan" (Dream Pool Essays) of 1088 AD. Yet the process of earthenware movable type and metal movable type are different, as metal movable type required many more complex technical processes of engraving, casting, type-setting, inking, and printing. Bronze type publications were soon after made in the cities of Changzhou, Suzhou, and Nanjing during the 16th century. Yet the sponsors of printing weren't all described as the works of simply the area's wealthiest local family, as the bronze-type books in Fujian province

neg: History of printing in East Asia type fonts could be reused and stored. The set of wafer-like metal stamp types could be assembled to form pages, inked, and page impressions taken from rubbings on cloth or paper. In 1322，a Fenghua county officer Ma Chengde (马称德) in Zhejiang, made 100,000 wooded movable types and printed 43 volume "Daxue Yanyi" (《大学衍义》). Wooden movable types were used continually in China. Even as late as 1733, a 2300-volume "Wuying Palace Collected Gems Edition" (《武英殿聚珍版丛书》) was printed with 253500 wooden movable type on order of the Yongzheng Emperor, and completed in one year. A number of books printed in Tangut script

neg: Woodblock printing in Europe of the same process to print substantial amounts of text together with images in block-books only, came about four hundred years after the development of movable type by Bi Sheng (990–1051) during the Northern Song Dynasty of China, . In China, an alternative to woodblock printing was a system of reprography since the Han Dynasty using carved stone steles to reproduce pages of text. The three necessary components for woodblock printing are the wood block, which carries the design cut in relief; dye or ink, which had been widely used in the ancient world; and either cloth or

neg: Printing earliest known metal printed book. Type-casting was used, adapted from the method of casting coins. The character was cut in beech wood, which was then pressed into a soft clay to form a mould, and bronze poured into the mould, and finally the type was polished. The Korean form of metal movable type was described by the French scholar Henri-Jean Martin as "extremely similar to Gutenberg's". Eastern metal movable type was spread to Europe between the late 14th century and the early 15th century. Around 1450, Johannes Gutenberg introduced the first movable type printing system in Europe. He advanced innovations

neg: Tang dynasty as calendars, the latter essential for calculating and marking which days were auspicious and which days were not. With so many books coming into circulation for the general public, literacy rates could improve, along with the lower classes being able to obtain cheaper sources of study. Therefore, there were more lower-class people seen entering the Imperial Examinations and passing them by the later Song dynasty. Although the later Bi Sheng's movable type printing in the 11th century was innovative for his period, woodblock printing that became widespread in the Tang would remain the dominant printing type in China until the

neg: Slate and stylus Slate and stylus The slate and stylus are tools used by blind persons to write text that they can read without assistance. Invented by Charles Barbier as the tool for writing night writing, the slate and stylus allow for a quick, easy, convenient and constant method of making embossed printing for Braille character encoding. Prior methods of making raised printing for the blind required a movable type printing press. The basic design of the slate consists of two pieces of metal, plastic or wood fastened together with a hinge at one side. The back part of the slate is solid

neg: History of printing instantaneous arrival of both xylography and movable type in Europe. The early Jesuit missionaries of late 16th century China, for instance, had a similar distaste for wood based printing for very different reasons. These Jesuits found that "the cheapness and omnipresence of printing in China made the prevailing wood-based technology extremely disturbing, even dangerous." Matteo Ricci made note of "the exceedingly large numbers of books in circulation here and the ridiculously low prices at which they are sold." Two hundred years later the Englishman John Barrow, by way of the Macartney mission to Qing China, also remarked with some amazement

neg: Movable type type based on a matrix and hand mould. The small number of alphabetic characters needed for European languages was an important factor. Gutenberg was the first to create his type pieces from an alloy of lead, tin, and antimony—and these materials remained standard for 550 years. For alphabetic scripts, movable-type page setting was quicker than woodblock printing. The metal type pieces were more durable and the lettering was more uniform, leading to typography and fonts. The high quality and relatively low price of the Gutenberg Bible (1455) established the superiority of movable type in Europe and the use of printing

neg: Culture of the People's Republic of China China blocked access to Comedy Central's website, deeming the website unsuitable for China's citizens. Hong Kong is the only city in China to offer a full-time comedy club, where both English and Cantonese speaking comedians perform. Each October, Hong Kong hosts an annual comedy festival, the HK International Comedy Festival. Publishing in China dates from the invention of woodblock printing around the eighth century CE and was greatly expanded with the invention of movable clay type in the eleventh century. From the tenth to the twelfth century, Kaifeng, Meishan, Hangzhou, and Jianyang were major printing centers. In the nineteenth century,

neg: Slate and stylus each a total of 12 dots could be required for a single symbol, the cell was too large for a single touch and was hard to read and learn, it was not successful. Slate and stylus The slate and stylus are tools used by blind persons to write text that they can read without assistance. Invented by Charles Barbier as the tool for writing night writing, the slate and stylus allow for a quick, easy, convenient and constant method of making embossed printing for Braille character encoding. Prior methods of making raised printing for the blind required a movable type

neg: Block book believed that block books dated to the first half of the 15th century and were precursors to printing by movable metal type, invented by Gutenberg in the early 1450s. The style of the woodcuts was used to support such early dates, although it is now understood that they may simply have copied an older style. Early written reports relating to "printing" also suggested to some early dates, but in fact are ambiguous. Written notations of purchase and rubrication dates, however, lead scholars to believe that the books had been printed later. Wilhelm Ludwig Schreiber, a leading nineteenth century scholar of

neg: Yuan dynasty of the court. Chinese physicians opposed Western medicine because its humoral system contradicted the yin-yang and wuxing philosophy underlying traditional Chinese medicine. No Chinese translation of Western medical works is known, but it is possible that the Chinese had access to Avicenna's "The Canon of Medicine". The Mongol rulers patronized the Yuan printing industry. Chinese printing technology was transferred to the Mongols through Kingdom of Qocho and Tibetan intermediaries. Some Yuan documents such as Wang Zhen's "Nong Shu" were printed with earthenware movable type, a technology invented in the 12th century. However, most published works were still produced through traditional

neg: History of printing metal movable type was most widespread, it still never replaced woodblock printing. Indeed, even the promulgation of Hangeul was done through woodblock prints. The general assumption is that movable type did not replace block printing in places that used Chinese characters due to the expense of producing more than 200,000 individual pieces of type. Even woodblock printing was not as cost productive as simply paying a copyist to write out a book by hand if there was no intention of producing more than a few copies. Although Sejong the Great introduced Hangeul, an alphabetic system, in the 15th century, Hangeul

neg: History of science and technology in Korea which supposedly represent the twelve months of the year. The design is said to be strongly influenced by Buddhism. The nine-story wooden pagoda of Hwangnyongsa, which was commissioned by Queen Seondeok after the main temple was finished, is reputed to be the largest premodern Korean stupa ever built. It was reported to be 80 metres in height. Only its foundation stones remain today but they attest to the mammoth proportions of the original structure. During the Goryeo Dynasty metal movable type printing was invented by Choe Yun-ui in 1234. This invention made printing easier, more efficient and also increased literacy,

neg: History of printing considered to be the earliest extant Japanese text printed using metal movable type. The popularity of movable type in Japan was short lived. By the 1640s woodblock printing had reasserted itself as the dominant mode of printing in Japan. Traditionally it has been assumed that the prevalence of woodblock printing in East Asia as a result of Chinese characters led to the stagnation of printing culture and enterprise in that region. S. H. Steinberg describes woodblock printing in his "Five Hundred Years of Printing" as having "outlived their usefulness" and their printed material as "cheap tracts for the half-literate, ...

neg: History of printing book to have been printed by used cast metal type is the "Sangjeong Gogeum Yemun", by Choe Yun-ui, in 1234. However, all of the 50 original copies seem to have been lost. The oldest extant book printed with movable metal type is the Jikji, which was printed during the Goryeo Dynasty in 1377. Tin movable type is mentioned in Wang Zhen's "Zao Huozi Yinshufa" (造活字印書法) of 1298, but it was considered unsatisfactory due to incompatibility with the inking process. Movable type printing was hardly used for the first 300 years after its invention by Bi Sheng. Even in Korea where

neg: Woodblock printing in Japan Woodblock printing in Japan Woodblock printing in Japan (, mokuhanga) is a technique best known for its use in the "ukiyo-e" artistic genre of single sheets, but it was also used for printing books in the same period. Woodblock printing had been used in China for centuries to print books, long before the advent of movable type, but was widely adopted in Japan during the Edo period (1603–1868). Although similar to woodcut in Western printmaking in some regards, the mokuhanga technique differs in that it uses water-based inks—as opposed to western woodcut, which often uses oil-based inks. The Japanese water-based

neg: Movable type "Confucian prohibition on the commercialization of printing" also obstructed the proliferation of movable type, restricting the distribution of books produced using the new method to the government. The technique was restricted to use by the royal foundry for official state publications only, where the focus was on reprinting Chinese classics lost in 1126 when Korea's libraries and palaces had perished in a conflict between dynasties. Scholarly debate and speculation has occurred as to whether Eastern movable type spread to Europe between the late 14th century and early 15th centuries. Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz, Germany is acknowledged as the first to

neg: Hua Sui the reputation as a printer in the region. Hua Sui became the first of his familial clan to use his resources in establishing bronze-type printing in 1490. The first book printed in bronze-type in China was the "Zhu Chen Zou Yi" of that year (housed now in the National Central Library of Taipei, Taiwan), a simple collection of memorials printed in two editions. The books printed by Hua Sui contain the signature "Hui Tong Guan" (Studio of Mastery and Comprehension), meaning he had mastered the process of metal movable type printing. Including the "Zhu Chen Zou Yi", published 15 titles

neg: Culture of the People's Republic of China China acquired movable lead type and photogravure printing plates and entered the age of modern book and magazine printing. The largest of the early publishing houses were the Commercial Press ("Shangwu Yinshuguan"), established in 1897, and the China Publishing House ("Zhonghua Shuju"), established in 1912, both of which were still operating in 1987. Following the May Fourth Movement of 1919, publishers, especially those associated with various groups of intellectuals, proliferated. During the Chinese civil war, New China Booksellers ("Xinhua Shudian") published a large amount of Marxist literature and educational materials in the communist-controlled areas. On the eve of the establishment

neg: Hua Sui were developed by truly commercial enterprises. Chinese writing fonts of different sizes and scope could be jointly owned and invested in by more than one printer in the region. In addition to bronze, there were also other metal types used for movable type printing. Lu Shen (1477-1544 AD) once reported in the early 16th century that printers of Changzhou used bronze and lead movable type printing, which could have been separate materials or an alloy mixture of the two. During the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), the imperial court had made wooden movable type the official printing method, overseen by the official