Wang.27s movable type printing Wang Zhen (inventor)

a revolving table typecase individual movable type characters arranged rhyming scheme, wang zhen s nong shu, published 1313.

wooden movable type had been used , experimented bi sheng in 11th century, discarded because wood judged unsuitable material use. wang improved earlier experimented process adding methods of specific type cutting , finishing, making type case , revolving table made process more efficient. in wang s system, chinese writing characters organized 5 different tones , according rhyming, using standard official book of chinese rhymes. 2 revolving tables used in process; 1 table had official types book of rhymes, , other contained used chinese writing characters quick selection. make entire process more efficient, each chinese character assigned different number, when number called, writing character selected. rare , unusual characters not prescribed number crafted on spot wood-cutters when needed.

while printing new books, wang described rectangular dimensions of each book needed determined in order make corrected size of four-sided wooden block used in printing. providing necessary ink job done brush moved vertically in columns, while impression on paper columns had rubbed brush top bottom.

two centuries before hua sui pioneered bronze-type printing in china in 1490, wang had experimented printing using tin, metal favored low melting point while casting. in nong shu, wang wrote:

thus, chinese metal type of 13th century using tin unsuccessful because incompatible inking process. although unsuccessful in wang s time, bronze metal type of hua sui in late 15th century used centuries in china, until late 19th century.

the chinese diamond sutra (868), oldest existent woodblock printed book in world.

although wang s nong shu printed use of woodblock printing, innovation of wooden movable type became popularly used in region of anhui. wang s wooden movable type used print local gazetteer paper of jingde city, incorporated use of 60,000 written characters organized on revolving tables. during year of 1298, 1 hundred copies of printed wooden movable type in month s time. following in footsteps of wang, in 1322 magistrate of fenghua, zhejiang province, named ma chengde, printed confucian classics movable type of 100,000 written characters on needed revolving tables. process of metal movable type developed in joseon korea 13th century, while metal movable type not pioneered in china until ming dynasty (1368–1644) printer hua sui used bronze movable type in 1490. although metal movable type became available in china during ming period, wooden movable type persisted in common use until 19th century. after point, european printing press machine first pioneered johannes gutenberg in 15th century became mainstay , standard in china , part global community until advent of digital printing , modern computer printer.

with movable type printing during ming dynasty of 14th 16th centuries, however, known used local academies, local government offices, wealthy local patrons of printing, , large chinese commercial printers located in cities of nanjing, suzhou, changzhou, hangzhou, wenzhou, , fuzhou. there many books wide variety of subjects published in wooden movable type during ming period, including novels, art, science , technology, family registers, , local gazettes. in 1541, 2 different significant publications using wooden movable type made under sponsorship of 2 different princes; prince of shu printing large literary collection of earlier song dynasty poet su che, , prince of yi printing book written rebuttal against superstitions written yuan dynasty era author.

during qing dynasty (1644–1911), wooden movable type used on wider scale previous ming period. officially sponsored imperial court @ beijing, yet widespread amongst private printing companies. creation of movable type writing fonts became wise enterprise of investment, since commonly pawned, sold, or presented gifts during qing period. in sphere of imperial court, official jin jian (d. 1794) placed in charge of printing @ wuying palace, yongzheng emperor had 253,000 wooden movable type characters crafted in year of 1733. jin jian, official in charge of project, provided elaborate detail on printing process in wu ying tian ju zhen ban cheng shi (imperial printing office manual movable type). in nineteen different sections, provided detailed description for:

type body
cutting type
making type cases
form trays
strips in variable thickness
blanks
center columns
sorting trays
page , column rule forms
setting text
proofing
printing
distribution of type
and schedule rotation

there notable differences between wang s movable type process , jin jian s. wang carved written characters on wooden blocks , sawed them apart, while jin initiated process preparing type bodies before characters individually cut types. setting type, wang employed method of revolving tables type came workers, whereas jin developed system workers went organized type. wang s frame added after type had been set, whereas jin printed ruled sheets , text separately on same paper.