What did Bi Sheng's Movable Type Printing look like?

Individual square clay blocks with raised reversed characters. Multiple sorts are arranged in an iron frame to form the page. The iron frame is filled with pine resin and wax to fix the types in place.

How did Bi Sheng's Movable Type Printing work?

Characters carved in clay → fired hard into movable types → pine resin and wax spread on the composing tray → types arranged → heated to melt wax → the surface is pressed flat → cooled to fix → inked → paper laid over → impressed → after printing, heated to dismantle → types recovered for reuse.

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毕昇活字印刷术

Bi Sheng's Movable Type Printing

Individual movable types made from fired clay, assembled on demand for printing and dismantled afterward for reuse. Printing technology leaped from 'one plate, one use' (woodblock) to 'one character, infinite uses.'

毕昇活字

Scientific Principle

Movable-type composition: discrete text units are recombinable. Composition → printing → disassembly → text units are cyclically reused. Information reproduction efficiency is dramatically increased.