Bi Sheng was a Chinese artisan of the Song dynasty who invented movable type printing using fired clay characters between 1039 and 1048, roughly four centuries before Johannes Gutenberg's independent movable-metal-type press in Europe. Because Bi Sheng was a commoner, almost nothing else is known of his life; his invention survives only because the scholar-official Shen Kuo recorded it in his Dream Pool Essays. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Disputed
Birth YearWikipedia's infobox gives a 972-1051 span, but the precise birth year is not independently attested beyond that inference; only his death year (1051) and the 1039-1048 window for his invention are directly recorded. NationalityChinese (Northern Song dynasty) 1 Connections
Associated With
Developed movable type using fired clay characters, an early ceramic materials innovation.
Invented By
Source Bi Sheng (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
In the Other Atlases
- Also in History Atlas: Bi Sheng, the same subject.
Sources
1. Bi Sheng (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationLead section
Bi's system used fired clay tiles, one for each Chinese character, and was invented between 1039 and 1048.
- Infobox
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