问答题

The Chinese invented block printing(雕版印刷)more than 1,400 years ago. The original characters were engraved on wood and ink was then applied. Block printing is time consuming and costs a lot of manpower and materials. Misprinted characters cannot be easily corrected. These shortcomings were only overcome after the emergence of movable type printing, which greatly improved the speed and quality of printing. Bi Sheng of the Northern Song Dynasty invented the movable type printing. Although what he invented was simple when compared to today’s letterpress printing(凸版印刷), it already had the main traits of modern printing. So Bi Sheng’s contribution to printing cannot be overstated.