Bi Sheng


Bì Shēng was a Chinese artisan and inventor of the world's first movable type technology, with printing being one of the Four Great Inventions of Ancient China. Bi Sheng's system was made of Chinese porcelain and was invented between 1039 and 1048 during the medieval Song dynasty. Bisheng Community in Wenquan, Huanggang, Hubei is named for Bi Sheng. The Bi Sheng crater located in the LAC-7 quadrant near the northern pole on the far side of the Moon was named after Bi Sheng by the IAU in August 2010.

Movable type printing

Bi Sheng was born in Yingshan County, Hubei a 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. The book records a detailed description of the technical details of Bi Sheng's invention of movable type printing:
The government official Wang Zhen improved Bi Sheng's clay types by innovation through the 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.