The history of printing begins in a parallel course with that of
moveable type. Although Johann Gutenberg, a goldsmith from Mainz,
Germany (c. 1400:c. 1468), is regarded as having invented both moveable
type and the printing press, the former dates back to eleventh-century
China, and the latter to eighth-century Japan and ninth-century China.
Between 1058 and 1061, Pi Sheng used clay, and later tin, to create
type. The nature of the Chinese language (the lack of a true alphabet
and the presence of more than 40,000 characters) made the invention and
practical use of moveable type a near impossibility. Pi Sheng's type was
not widely used, and didn't catch on in the East until a couple hundred
years later. Metal type was invented in 1403 in Korea, primarily due to
the dearth of hardwood necessary to create workable blocks of type, and
was quickly endorsed and adopted by the Korean emperor T'ai Tsung as an
aid to government and the preservation of civilization.
