Editing Movable type (section)

=== Wooden movable type ===
[[File:Chinese movable type 1313-ce.png|thumb|A revolving typecase for wooden type in China, from [[Wang Zhen (official)|Wang Zhen]]'s book published in 1313]]

[[Bi Sheng]] (990–1051) of the [[Song dynasty]] also pioneered the use of [[wood type|wooden movable type]] around 1040&nbsp;AD, as described by the Chinese scholar [[Shen Kuo]] (1031–1095). However, this technology was abandoned in favour of clay movable types due to the presence of wood grains and the unevenness of the wooden type after being soaked in ink.<ref name="tsien" /><ref>{{cite book |last = Shen |first = Kuo |author-link = Shen Kuo |title = Dream Pool Essays |title-link = Dream Pool Essays }}</ref>

In 1298, [[Wang Zhen (official)|Wang Zhen]] ({{lang|zh-Hant|王禎}}), a [[Yuan dynasty]] governmental official of [[Jingde County]], [[Anhui|Anhui Province]], China, re-invented a method of making movable wooden types. He made more than 30,000 wooden movable types and printed 100 copies of ''Records of Jingde County'' ({{lang|zh-Hant|《旌德縣志》}}), a book of more than 60,000 [[Chinese characters]]. Soon afterwards, he summarized his invention in his book ''A method of making moveable wooden types for printing books''. Although the wooden type was more durable under the mechanical rigors of handling, repeated printing wore down the character faces, and the types could only be replaced by carving new pieces. This system was later enhanced by pressing wooden blocks into sand and casting metal types from the depression in copper, bronze, iron or tin. This new method overcame many of the shortcomings of woodblock printing. Rather than manually carving an individual block to print a single page, movable type printing allowed for the quick assembly of a page of text. Furthermore, these new, more compact type fonts could be reused and stored.<ref name="tsien" /><ref name="Man" /> Wang Zhen used two rotating circular tables as trays for laying out his type. The first table was separated into 24 trays in which each movable type was categorized based on a number corresponding with a rhyming pattern. The second table contained miscellaneous characters.{{sfn|Wilkinson|2012|p=911}}

The set of wafer-like metal stamp types could be assembled to form pages, inked, and page impressions taken from rubbings on cloth or paper.<ref name="Man" /> In 1322, a [[Fenghua|Fenghua county]] officer Ma Chengde ({{lang|zh-Hant|馬称德}}) in Zhejiang, made 100,000 wooden movable types and printed the 43-volume ''Daxue Yanyi'' ({{lang|zh-Hant|《大學衍義》}}). Wooden movable types were used continually in China. Even as late as 1733, a 2300-volume ''Wuying Palace Collected Gems Edition'' ({{lang|zh-Hant|《武英殿聚珍版叢書》}}) was printed with 253,500 wooden movable types on order of the [[Qianlong Emperor]], and completed in one year.{{sfn|Wilkinson|2012|p=911}}

A number of books printed in [[Tangut script]] during the [[Western Xia]] (1038–1227) period are known, of which the ''[[Auspicious Tantra of All-Reaching Union]]'', which was discovered in the ruins of [[Baisigou Square Pagoda]] in 1991 is believed to have been printed sometime during the reign of [[Emperor Renzong of Western Xia]] (1139–1193).<ref name="zhang-yuzhen-2003">{{cite journal |author = Zhang Yuzhen (張玉珍) |title = 世界上現存最早的木活字印本—宁夏贺兰山方塔出土西夏文佛經《吉祥遍至口和本讀》介紹 |trans-title = The world's oldest extant book printed with wooden movable type |journal = Library and Information (《書與情报》) |year = 2003 |issue = 1 |url = http://www.zhg1.cn/science/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID=244&Page=1 |issn = 1003-6938 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120402150528/http://www.zhg1.cn/science/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID=244&Page=1 |archive-date = 2012-04-02 }}</ref> It is considered by many Chinese experts to be the earliest extant example of a book printed using wooden movable type.<ref name="beijing-daily">{{cite news |author1 = Hou Jianmei (侯健美) |author2 = Tong Shuquan (童曙泉) |title = 《大夏寻踪》今展國博 |trans-title='In the Footsteps of the Great Xia' now exhibiting at the National Museum |newspaper = [[Beijing Daily]] (《北京日报》) |date = 20 December 2004 }}</ref>