Who invented movable type printing?

Before the birth of printing, people had to publish a work entirely by hand copying, with no guarantee of quality. With the introduction of ink and paper, engraving was born. It operates by carving a text onto a wooden plate with a backhand. When printing, ink is brushed on the plate, and then the paper is covered on the plate and gently brushed solidly with a clean brush, and black writing appears on the paper.

In the early 20th century, archaeologists discovered a copy of the Diamond Sutra carved and printed in the ninth year of the Tang Dynasty in the Thousand Buddha Cave in Dunhuang, Gansu Province, which has become the earliest printed object in the world marked with the exact date of carving and printing.

Carving printing from rise to fall, after more than 1,000 years of wind and rain. After a long period of exploration, movable type printing was born. It not only recorded and spread traditional Chinese culture and civilization, but also led to the development of culture, art and science around the world, all thanks to the originator of modern printing, Bi A.

Live-type printing began with the production of movable type. The material used by Bi A was collodion, which was burned in a fire after the characters were carved to make it as hard as porcelain. Next is the layout, relax on the iron plate incense, wax and a mixture of paper ash and an iron frame, will pick out the word row full of a frame, that is, the iron plate is heated, so that the turpentine melted, the clay characters flattened, cooled and fixed, the plate that is made. Finally, is the printing, the same method and engraved printing. After printing, the iron plate will be heated again, so that the rosin and wax melting, will be removed and placed under the clay movable type for the next use. It is not difficult to see that the movable type printing invented by Bi A nearly a thousand years ago has largely possessed the basic principles and operating procedures that modern movable type printing has.