Editing Movable type (section)

==== Korea ====
[[File:JikjiType.gif|thumb|Recreated Korean movable type from 1377 as used for the ''[[Jikji]]'']]
[[File:Korean book-Jikji-Selected Teachings of Buddhist Sages and Seon Masters-1377.jpg|thumb|Printed pages of the ''Jikji'']]

In 1234 the first books known to have been printed in metallic type set were published in [[Goryeo dynasty]] Korea. They form a set of ritual books, ''Sangjeong Gogeum Yemun'', compiled by [[Ch'oe Yun-ŭi]].<ref name="christensen">{{cite web
 |url = http://www.rightreading.com/printing/gutenberg.asia/gutenberg-asia-1-introduction.htm
 |title = Did East Asian Printing Traditions Influence the European Renaissance?
 |author = Thomas Christensen
 |access-date = 2006-10-18
 |year = 2007
 |publisher = Arts of Asia Magazine (to appear)
 |archive-date = 2019-08-11
 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190811145633/http://www.rightreading.com/printing/gutenberg.asia/gutenberg-asia-1-introduction.htm
 |url-status = live
 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal
 |last = Sohn
 |first = Pow-Key
 |title = Printing Since the 8th Century in Korea
 |date = Summer 1993
 |journal = Koreana
 |volume = 7
 |issue = 2
 |pages = 4–9
 |url = http://koreana.kf.or.kr/popup.asp?article_id=309
 }}{{Dead link|date=August 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

While these books have not survived, ''[[Jikji]]'', printed in [[Korea]] in 1377, is believed to be the world's oldest metallic movable type-printed book.<ref>{{cite book |first= Michael |last= Twyman |title = The British Library Guide to Printing: History and Techniques |location = London |publisher = The British Library |year = 1998 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=KXoaalwyOjAC&pg=PA21 |page = 21 |isbn= 9780802081797 }}</ref>
However, 2022 research suggests that a copy of the [[Song of Enlightenment]] with Commentaries by Buddhist Monk ''Nammyeong Cheon,'' printed 138 years before ''Jikji'' in 1239'','' may have been printed in metal type.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Yoo |first=Woo Sik |date=2022-05-27 |title=The World's Oldest Book Printed by Movable Metal Type in Korea in 1239: The Song of Enlightenment |journal=Heritage |language=en |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=1089–1119 |doi=10.3390/heritage5020059 |doi-access=free |issn=2571-9408}}</ref> The Asian Reading Room of the [[Library of Congress]] in Washington, D.C., displays examples of this metal type.<ref>[https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/world/world-record.html World Treasures of the Library of Congress] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160829232346/http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/world/world-record.html |date=2016-08-29 }}. Retrieved 26 December 2006.</ref> Commenting on the invention of metallic types by Koreans, French scholar Henri-Jean Martin described this as "[extremely similar] to Gutenberg's".<ref name="Briggs 2002 pp.15-23">Briggs, Asa and Burke, Peter (2002) ''A Social History of the Media: from Gutenberg to the Internet'', Polity, Cambridge, pp.&nbsp;15–23, 61–73.</ref> However, Korean movable metal type printing differed from European printing in the materials used for the type, punch, matrix, mould and in method of making an impression.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://origin-archive.ifla.org/IV/ifla72/papers/085-Lee-en.pdf |title=Korean Typography in 15th Century |author=Hee-Jae LEE |publisher=72ND IFLA GENERAL CONFERENCE AND COUNCIL |at=table on page 15 |date=20–24 August 2006 |location=Seoul, Korea |access-date=26 August 2020 |archive-date=4 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804030745/http://origin-archive.ifla.org/IV/ifla72/papers/085-Lee-en.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The techniques for bronze casting, used at the time for making coins (as well as bells and statues) were adapted to making metal type. The [[Joseon dynasty]] scholar Seong Hyeon (성현, 成俔, 1439–1504) records the following description of the Korean font-casting process:
{{blockquote|At first, one cuts letters in beech wood. One fills a trough level with fine sandy [clay] of the reed-growing seashore. Wood-cut letters are pressed into the sand, then the impressions become negative and form letters [moulds]. At this step, placing one trough together with another, one pours the molten bronze down into an opening. The fluid flows in, filling these negative moulds, one by one becoming type. Lastly, one scrapes and files off the irregularities, and piles them up to be arranged.<ref name="christensen" />}}

A potential solution to the linguistic and cultural bottleneck that held back movable type in Korea for 200 years appeared in the early 15th century—a generation before Gutenberg would begin working on his own movable-type invention in Europe—when [[Sejong the Great of Joseon|Sejong the Great]] devised a simplified [[alphabet]] of 24 characters ([[hangul]]) for use by the common people, which could have made the typecasting and compositing process more feasible. But Korea's cultural elite, "appalled at the idea of losing [[hanja]], the badge of their elitism", stifled the adoption of the new alphabet.<ref name="Man" />

A "[[Confucianism|Confucian]] prohibition on the commercialization of printing" also obstructed the proliferation of movable type, restricting the distribution of books produced using the new method to the government.<ref name="Burke" /> The technique was restricted to use by the royal foundry for official state publications only, where the focus was on reprinting Chinese classics lost in 1126 when Korea's libraries and palaces had perished in a conflict between dynasties.<ref name="Burke">Burke</ref>

Scholarly debate and speculation has occurred as to whether Eastern movable type spread to Europe between the late 14th century and early 15th centuries.<ref name="christensen" /><ref name="meggs58-69">{{cite book | last = von Polenz | first = Peter | title = Deutsche Sprachgeschichte vom Spätmittelalter bis zur Gegenwart: I. Einführung, Grundbegriffe, Deutsch in der frühbürgerlichen Zeit | location = New York/Berlin | publisher = Walter de Gruyter GmbH | year = 1991 | language = de }}</ref>{{rp|58–69}}<ref>{{cite book |author = Juan González de Mendoza |author-link = Juan González de Mendoza |title = Historia de las cosas más notables, ritos y costumbres del gran reyno de la China |url = http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k75292n/f2.image |year = 1585 |language = es }}
</ref><ref name="Thomas Franklin Carter">
[[Thomas Franklin Carter]], ''The Invention of Printing in China and its Spread Westward'', The Ronald Press, NY 2nd ed. 1955, pp.&nbsp;176–178
</ref><ref name="McDermott" /> For example, authoritative historians [[Frances Gies and Joseph Gies]] claimed that "The Asian priority of invention movable type is now firmly established, and that Chinese-Korean technique, or a report of it traveled westward is almost certain."<ref name="Frances&Joseph">[[Frances Gies and Joseph Gies|Gies, Frances and Gies, Joseph]] (1994) ''Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Age'', New York : HarperCollins, {{ISBN|0-06-016590-1}}, p.&nbsp;241.</ref> However, Joseph P. McDermott claimed that "No text indicates the presence or knowledge of any kind of Asian movable type or movable type imprint in Europe before 1450. The material evidence is even more conclusive."<ref name="McDermott">{{cite book |editor-last=McDermott |editor-first=Joseph P. |title=The Book Worlds of East Asia and Europe, 1450–1850: Connections and Comparisons|publisher=Hong Kong University Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-988-8208-08-1 |pages=25–26}}</ref>