Printing With Movable Wooden Type

The movable type printing is one of the greatest inventions in ancient China. In Sung Dynasty (960AD-1279AD), Bi Sheng was the first man to use movable type for printing and Clay was use for the types on the begging. Shen Kuo recorded the invention of movable type printing by Bi Sheng in Dream Pool Essays. The use of wooden movable type was in Yuan Dynasty (1271AD-1368AD), and was improved by Wong Zhen. The method is,
1, Crave positive and reverse characters on a wooden board;
2, Cut the board into single type with the same size;
3, Composed those single wooden types in the frame with small bamboo sticks in the space to form a page;
4, Ink the surface of the broad and print.

In Qing Dynasty (1644AD-1911 AD), the use of movable type printing is popular in the whole China. The scale of printing production greatly expanded not only in the capital but also in regional centres of China. Networks of private printers and workshops were developed. The varieties of publications increased too.

The new collection of movable types in our museum was belongs to the late Qing Dynasty. It has over 40000 wooden characters in large, medium and small size. The collection is extremely complete and was in good preservation.