History of printing in East Asia

Both the use of a printing press and of movable type were invented in China and Korea before their invention in Europe by Johannes Gutenberg.

For the main article on the development of printing in Europe, see History of typography.

Block printing

Block printing, whereby individual sheets of paper were pressed into wooden blocks with the text and illustrations carved into them, was first recorded in Chinese history, and the documentably oldest surviving printed book, a copy of the Buddhist Diamond Sutra, is dated 848 AD. By the 12th and 13th centuries, many Chinese libraries contained tens of thousands of printed books.

The earliest woodblocks used for printing in Europe, in the fourteenth century, were remarkably similar to Chinese woodblocks, leading some scholars to hypothesize a connection: "the process of printing them must have been copied from ancient Chinese specimens, brought from that country by some early travelers, whose names have not been handed down to our times" (Robert Curzon, 1810-1873). Joseph Needham's Science and Civilization in China has a chapter that suggests that "European block printers must not only have seen Chinese samples, but perhaps had been taught by missionaries or others who had learned these un-European methods from Chinese printers during their residence in China."

The transition from block printing to movable metal type occurred in Korea sometime in the thirteenth century to meet the heavy demand for both religious and secular books. A set of ritual books, Sangjong Gogeum Yemun were printed with the movable metal type in 1234.

This description of the Korean font casting process was recorded by Song Hyon in the 15th c.:

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 [molds]. 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 molds, one by one becoming type. Lastly, one scrapes and files off the irregularities, and piles them up to be arranged.

Among books printed with movable type, the oldest surviving books are from Korea, dated at least from 1377.

The credit for the first iron printing press may go to Chae Yun-eui of the Goryeo Dynasty in 1234, , and the first movable type was invented in China, traditionally credited with Bi Sheng, between 1041 to 1048.

see also

Typography movable type printing press