Bi Sheng (972–1051) was a Chinese craftsman and engineer during the Song dynasty (960–1279). He invented the world's first movable type. His system used fired clay tiles, with one tile for each Chinese character. The invention occurred between 1039 and 1048. Printing was one of the Four Great Inventions. Because Bi Sheng was not a scholar, few details about his life are known, except for his invention.

Movable type printing

Bi Sheng's invention was first described in the Dream Pool Essays by Shen Kuo, a Chinese scholar and scientist who lived from 1031 to 1095. The book explains how Bi Sheng created movable type printing:

Bi Sheng also made wooden movable type, but it was replaced with ceramic types. This was because wood had grain patterns and became uneven when soaked in ink.

After Bi Sheng's death, ceramic movable type may have been used in the Tangut kingdom of Western Xia. A Buddhist text called the Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra was discovered in modern Wuwei, Gansu. It dates back to the time when Emperor Renzong ruled Western Xia (1125–1193). The text shows signs of being printed with clay movable type, such as empty spaces in the letters and some broken or misshapen parts. Ceramic movable type was also passed on to Bi Sheng's descendants.

The next mention of movable type was in 1193, when Zhou Bida, a Southern Song official, credited Shen Kuo with the method. However, Shen Kuo did not invent movable type. Instead, he gave credit to Bi Sheng in his Dream Pool Essays. Yao Shu, a councilor to Kublai Khan, encouraged his student Yang Gu to use ceramic movable type to print language books.

Wang Zhen, a government official who lived around 1290–1333, improved Bi Sheng's clay type by using wood. His method made typesetting faster.

By 1490, a wealthy printer named Hua Sui (1439–1513) developed bronze movable type.

Wooden movable-type printing became common during the Qing dynasty (1644–1912), but it did not replace woodblock printing. This was likely because making a full set of letters was expensive, or because hiring a copyist was cheaper.

Legacy

Bisheng Subdistrict (畢昇社區) in Wenquan, Huanggang, Hubei is named after Bi Sheng. A crater on the Moon, called the Bi Sheng crater, is located in the LAC-7 quadrant near the northern pole on the far side of the Moon. The International Astronomical Union named this crater after Bi Sheng in August 2010. Bi Sheng is also honored on a commemorative stamp issued by the Liberian post office because of his invention of movable printing.