Communication · c. 1040

Movable type (Bi Sheng)

Individual characters baked in clay are arranged, printed and reused.

Shen Kuo recorded that the commoner Bi Sheng made movable type from fired clay during the 1040s. With thousands of Chinese characters it was less decisive than in alphabetic Europe, but it proved the principle; wooden and later bronze type followed in China and Korea.

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