Editing Movable type (section)

=== Ceramic movable type ===
[[File:活字《佛说观无量寿佛经》残叶.jpg|thumb|Chinese characters are arranged in the shape of buddha on a page remain of [[Amitayurdhyana Sutra]] printed in 1103 ([[Northern Song dynasty]]) by ceramic movable type. Found in Baixiang Pagoda, Wenzhou.<ref>{{cite journal |last = Jin 金 |first = 柏东 |title=从白象塔《佛说观无量寿佛经》的发现说起活字印刷与温州——看我国现存最早的活字印刷品 |journal=温州会刊 |date=1 February 2004 |volume=20 |page=2 |url = https://www.tongxianghuicn.com/article/914488.jhtml?libId= |access-date=16 March 2021 }}</ref>]]

[[Bi Sheng]] ({{lang|zh-Hant|畢昇}}) (990–1051) developed the first known movable-type system for printing in China around 1040&nbsp;AD during the [[Northern Song]] dynasty, using ceramic materials.<ref name="tsien" /><ref name="Man">{{cite book |last=Man |first=John |title = The Gutenberg Revolution: The story of a genius that changed the world |year=2002 |publisher = Headline Book Publishing |location=London |isbn=978-0-7472-4504-9 |url-access=registration |url = https://archive.org/details/gutenbergrevolut0000manj }} A detailed examination of Gutenberg's life and invention, interwoven with the underlying social and religious upheaval of [[Medieval Europe]] on the eve of the Renaissance.</ref> As described by the Chinese scholar [[Shen Kuo]] (沈括) (1031–1095):

{{blockquote|When he wished to print, he took an iron frame and set it on the iron plate. In this he placed the types, set close together. When the frame was full, the whole made one solid block of type. He then placed it near the fire to warm it. When the paste [at the back] was slightly melted, he took a smooth board and pressed it over the surface, so that the block of type became as even as a whetstone.

For each character there were several types, and for certain common characters there were twenty or more types each, in order to be prepared for the repetition of characters on the same page. When the characters were not in use he had them arranged with paper labels, one label for each rhyme-group, and kept them in wooden cases.

If one were to print only two or three copies, this method would be neither simple nor easy. But for printing hundreds or thousands of copies, it was marvelously quick. As a rule he kept two forms going. While the impression was being made from the one form, the type was being put in place on the other. When the printing of the one form was finished, the other was then ready. In this way the two forms alternated and the printing was done with great rapidity.<ref name="tsien">{{cite book |last = Tsien |first = Tsuen-Hsuin |author-link=Tsien Tsuen-hsuin |title = Paper and Printing |volume = 5 part 1 |series = Needham, Joseph ''Science and Civilization in China'' |publisher = Cambridge University Press |year = 1985 |isbn = 978-0-521-08690-5 |pages = 201–217}}; also published in Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd., 1986.</ref>}}

After his death, the ceramic movable-type passed onto his descendants. In 1193, [[Zhou Bida]], an officer of the Southern Song dynasty, made a set of clay movable-type method according to the method described by Shen Kuo in his ''[[Dream Pool Essays]]'', and printed his book ''Notes of The Jade Hall'' ({{lang|zh-Hant|《玉堂雜記》}}).<ref name="Yinong">Xu Yinong, ''Moveable Type Books'' (徐憶農《活字本》) {{ISBN|7-80643-795-9}}</ref> The ceramic movable type was also mentioned by [[Kublai Khan]]'s counsellor [[Yao Shu]], who convinced his pupil [[Yang Gu]] to print language primers using this method.{{sfn|Wilkinson|2012|p=911}}

The claim that Bi Sheng's clay types were "fragile" and "not practical for large-scale printing" and "short lived"<ref>{{cite journal |last=Sohn |first=Pow-Key |title=Early Korean Printing |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=79 |issue=2 |year=1959 |pages=96–103 |jstor=595851 |doi=10.2307/595851 }}</ref> was refuted by later experiments. Bao Shicheng (1775–1885) wrote that baked clay moveable type was "as hard and tough as horn"; experiments show that clay type, after being baked in an oven, becomes hard and difficult to break, such that it remains intact after being dropped from a height of two metres onto a marble floor. The length of clay movable types in China was 1 to 2 centimetres, not 2&nbsp;mm, thus hard as horn. But similar to metal type, ceramic type did not hold the water-based Chinese calligraphic ink well, and had an added disadvantage of uneven matching of the type which could sometimes result from the uneven changes in size of the type during the baking process.<ref>''Science and Civilization'', volume 5 part 1, Joseph Needham, 1985, Cambridge University Press, page 221. {{ISBN|0 521 08690 6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uxiZCgAAQBAJ&dq=movable+type+chinese+ink&pg=PT115 | isbn=9780393244809 | title=The Book: A Cover-to-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time | date=22 August 2016 | publisher=W. W. Norton & Company }}</ref>

There has been an ongoing debate regarding the success of ceramic printing technology as there have been no printed materials found with ceramic movable types. However, it is historically recorded to have been used as late as 1844 in China from the Song dynasty through the Qing dynasty.<ref name="Yinong" /><ref name="Jixing">Pan Jixing, A history of movable metal type printing technique in China 2001</ref>{{rp|22}}