Over the years, there has been a controversy about the right to invent the printing press

Bi Sheng invented the printing press.

Printing is one of the four great inventions of the working people in ancient China. Block printing was invented in the Tang Dynasty and was widely used in the middle and late Tang Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty, Bi Sheng invented movable type printing, marking the birth of movable type printing.

He was the first inventor in the world, marking the birth of movable type printing about 400 years before the German Johannes Gutenberg's movable type printing.

Printing is the forerunner of modern human civilization and has created conditions for the wide dissemination and exchange of knowledge. Printing was spread to Korea, Japan, Central Asia, West Asia and Europe. China's printing technology has a long history and has spread far and wide.

It is an important part of Chinese culture; It sprouted with the birth of Chinese culture and evolved with the development of Chinese culture.

Printing origins

The invention of the brush and ink made it possible for readers not only to read but also to write, without having to need an engraver to wait at any time, as in the era of the knife and pen, and it was more convenient to record their thoughts. Before the Spring and Autumn Period, although there was no shortage of great politicians and great thinkers in Chinese history, none of them wrote books themselves, and this is the reason.

Meng Tian of the Qin Dynasty invented the method of soaking the hair with lime water to remove the water-repellent substances on the surface of the hair, which prompted the production technology of the brush to be finalized, and the brush really became a writing instrument. The ancients found a way to write fluently, saving time and effort, so that writing was no longer a chore, and people from the leisure class would write a few strokes to kill time in their spare time, and try to write beautifully, and even try to compete with each other to laugh, so as to create a precedent for the art of calligraphy.

Printing stool bending brush technique originated from Taoist engraving printing, a rough examination of it was active in the Tang Dynasty engraving printing, by the Song Renzong era of Bi Sheng's development, perfect, produced movable type printing, and by the Mongols to Europe, so the descendants called Bi Sheng the ancestor of printing. Printing is one of the four great inventions of the Han working people in ancient China. China's printing technology is the forerunner of modern human civilization and has created conditions for the wide dissemination and exchange of knowledge.

Printing was spread to Korea, Japan, Central Asia, West Asia and Europe.

Who invented printing?

The inventor of printing is Bi Sheng, he is a working people, and his service objects are also the vast number of working people, his main contribution is the invention of movable type printing. In the Tang Dynasty, engraving printing had already appeared, and the emergence of movable type printing greatly supplemented, developed, and perfected printing, and greatly improved printing efficiency.

Types of Typography.

It can usually be divided into four categories: letterpress, gravure, lithography and stencil printing. The first part of the printing plate used in letterpress printing is raised, which includes engraving, movable type, lead plate, copper-zinc plate, photosensitive resin plate and flexographic printing. The first part of the gravure printing plate is concave, and it is divided into three categories: engraving gravure, photogravure and electronic engraving.

The ** part and the non-** part of the lithographic printing plate are basically on the same plane, which usually refers to offset printing, but in fact, lithographic printing and cotegraphic printing also belong to the lithographic category. Engraving printing is mainly screen printing, that is, the screen is made of ** part of the printing plate that can pass through the ink rather than ** part of the impermeable ink for printing.

During the Sui and Tang dynasties in China, engraving printing technology was mastered. The Diamond Sutra left behind by the Tang Dynasty is currently the world's earliest print with an exact date (printed in 868). In the Song Dynasty in the mid-11th century, Bi Sheng invented movable type printing, which made printing widely popular.

China's engraving printing was transmitted to Japan in the 8th century AD, to Egypt around the 12th century, around the 13th century European travelers came into contact with Chinese printing, and in the 14th to 15th centuries printing began to become popular in Europe. The earliest surviving engraving print in Europe with an exact date is the portrait of St. Christopher in southern Germany (printed in 1423), about 600 years later than China. Around 1450, the Germans, influenced by Chinese movable type printing, created the movable type of European phonetic script and used it to print books, 400 years later than Bi Sheng.

After the printing press was introduced to Europe, it changed the situation that only monks could read and receive a higher education, and provided an important material condition for the rapid development of European science after the long dark night of the Middle Ages and the emergence of the Renaissance movement.

Printing originated from the stele extension, a process of copying the inscription with rice paper. Later, engraving printing appeared, which is to engrave words on wooden boards as abrasives to reproduce paper products in batches. Due to the complexity of this form of layout, Bi Sheng's movable type printing technique was later developed.

It is to make a single mold of the text we commonly use, typeset it as needed, compose the article, and then print. Finally, the development of lead type printing also belongs to the category of movable type printing, and now there is no application of movable type printing technology in printing. All of them are printed with film plate making or laser engraving.

Bi Sheng is indeed just an improvement, and as early as before the Song Dynasty, there was already a printing technique, but at that time it was not a movable type printing book, it could only be fixed, and the use was very cumbersome, with the needs of printing, so there was Bi Sheng's improvement. It's all in this book!

Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty created the imperial examination system, using the method of writing articles to select the best, and people who write good articles can become officials. In order to reproduce a large number of good articles, professional scribes imitated rubbing technology to make a large number of copies, and then combined with the seal Yang script anti-calligraphy, to create engraving printing.

It appeared in the Tang Dynasty to the Middle Tang Dynasty, prevailed in the Northern Song Dynasty, and finally matured by the invention of clay movable type by Buyi Bisheng.

Because Bi Sheng was the inventor of movable type printing, as for the earlier stereotype, there should be no exact indication of who invented it.