Before printing was invented, a scholar had to do the transcription word by word. In Sui and Tang dynasties, the technology of block printing was invented, therefore the speed of printing was increased. But when a book was to be printed, many wooden blocks had to be engraved so it was rather troublesome. Till Northern Song Dynasty more than 900 years ago, Bi Sheng invented movable type printing after the repeating experimentations. He engraved the characters on small pieces of clay, and heated them until hard. In the course of presswork, the moveable characters were placed into a whole block in accordance with manuscripts to be delivered to the printing. All those moveable characters could be removed from the block after the presswork for later reuse. This technique invented by Bi Sheng was both economical and timesaving, thus brought the technique of printing into a new era.

China's movable type printing was first introduced eastward to Korea and Japan, and then western to Persia and Egypt. The invention of the technique of printing greatly sped up the international development of culture and exchanges. It is no doubt that the moveable type printing is one of the greatest contributions to the world.