The story of printing is a long and complex one. It may be too much to claim that printing was the single cause of the massive social, political and psychological changes it is associated with. However, printing did wield enormous influence on every aspect of world culture. Some historians suggest that print was instrumental in bringing about all the major shifts in science, religion, politics and the modes of thought that are commonly associated with modern culture.

　　Chinese innovations in ink block printing and movable clay type all fed the technological push toward expanding the written word's range of influence.

　　Before the invention of printing, dissemination of knowledge depended either on word of mouth or handwritten copies of manuscripts. Both took time and were liable to error. Beginning 2000 years ago in the Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C. ?25 A.D.), stone-tablet rubbing was in vogue for spreading Confucian classics or Buddhist sutras. This led in the Sui Dynasty (581-618) to the practice of engraving writing or pictures on a wooden board, smearing it with ink and then printing on pieces of paper page-by-page. This became known as block printing.

　　The first book with a verifiable date of printing appeared in China in the year 868, or nearly 600 years before that happened in Europe. In the Tang Dynasty (618-907), this technology was gradually introduced to Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Block printing reached its golden age during the Song dynasty which was in the years 960-1279 as the imperial patronage encouraged the publication of large numbers of books by the central and local governments. Yet block printing had its drawbacks. All the boards became useless after the printing was done and a single mistake in carving could ruin a whole block.

　　In 1041-1048 of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), a man named Bi Sheng carved individual characters on identical pieces of fine clay which he hardened by a slow baking process, resulting in pieces of movable type.

　　Bi's printing consisted of four processes: making the types, composing the text, printing and retrieving the movable types. According to Dream Stream Essays, Bi Sheng carved individual characters on squares of sticky clay, then baked them make clay type pieces. When composing a text, he put a large iron frame on a piece of iron board and arranged the words within the frame. While one plate was being printed, another plate could be composed. After printing, the movable types were taken away and stored for future use.

　　This invention was recorded by his contemporary Shen Kuo which recorded it in his Dream stream Essays. During the 13-14th centuries, the agriculturist Wang Zhen made an important contribution to the development of movable type printing. This technology then spread to Korea, Japan, Vietnam and Europe. Later, German Johann Gutenberg invented movable type made of metal in 1440-1448.

　　Movable type printing has a very important position in the history of printing, for all later printing methods such as wooden type, copper type and lead type printing invariably developed on the basis of movable clay types. Bi Sheng created movable type printing more than four hundred years earlier than it was invented in Europe.