Effective moveable type for printing was invented around 1045 AD by an obscure commoner by the name of Pi-Cheng. He cut characters into cubes of clay and put them into an iron frame. When the frame was full the whole made one solid block of type ready to print.

But because the Chinese language required thousands of different characters moveable type printing remained rare in China despite the fact that it was invented there four centuries before its 'invention' by Gutenberg in Europe.