The invention of printing is often credited to Gutenberg. Put these events in order: you will see what already existed before his name appeared.
The question
Who invented printing?
What you do The five cards are out of order. Arrange them from oldest (at the top) to most recent (at the bottom): drag a card by its handle ⠿, or use the arrows ▲ ▼. Then press “Check”.
Without JavaScript, here are the animation’s data.
| Event | Date | Source |
|---|---|---|
| A map drawn on paper, buried in a tomb in Gansu (China) | between 179 and 141 BCE | 1 |
| The Diamond Sutra, the oldest dated printed book | 868 | 2 |
| Bi Sheng makes movable type in fired clay | around 1040 | 3 |
| The Jikji, printed in Korea with movable metal type | 1377 | 4 |
| A printed book names Gutenberg as the inventor of printing | around 1471 | 5 |
The Gansu map comes from a tomb dated 179 to 141 BCE; the timeline places it in the middle of that range.
The takeaway Paper, printing and movable type existed in East Asia centuries before Gutenberg was named as the inventor of printing.
Photo credits 4
- Fragment of a paper map drawn in black ink, found in 1986 on the chest of the occupant of Tomb 5 at Fangmatan (Gansu); the tomb dates from the early Western Han. Size: 5.6 × 2.6 cm. Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Frontispiece of a printed, dated copy of the Diamond Sutra: ink on paper, woodblock print (British Library, Or.8210/P.2). International Dunhuang Project, Public domain, source
- Two pages (4v and 5r) of the 1377 Jikji, the oldest example of printing with movable metal type, held and digitised by the Department of Manuscripts of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Public domain, source
- Guillaume Fichet (right), rector of the University of Paris, presents his Rhetoric, printed in Paris in 1471, to Cardinal Bessarion: illumination in the presentation copy (Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana). Anonymous illuminator, Public domain, source
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Sources 5
Li Qingling (李清凌), “【溯源甘肃】天水放马滩秦汉墓的三个“第一”” [Aux sources du Gansu : les trois “premières” des tombes Qin-Han de Fangmatan, à Tianshui], Gansu ribao (甘肃日报), 6 August 2020, repris par le Réseau chinois des sciences sociales (中国社会科学网, Académie chinoise des sciences sociales), beginning of the article (discovery) and part on the third Chinese “first”, the paper of the early Western Han.
1986年4月的一天，一场大雨过后，小陇山林业局放马滩工区的职工清理宿舍后墙淤泥的时候，发现了一个古墓洞穴。[…] 其中年代最早的是甘肃天水放马滩五号墓出土的纸图残片。[…] 放马滩五号墓是汉文帝、汉景帝时（前179—前141年）的墓葬，残纸上可见有墨线标识的山川道路图。[…] 将中国造纸术的发明时间，比蔡伦造纸的记载至少提前了近300年。
Editors’ translation One day in April 1986, after a heavy rainstorm, workers of the Fangmatan work area of the Xiaolongshan Forestry Bureau, while clearing silt from behind the rear wall of their dormitory, discovered the cavity of an ancient tomb. […] The earliest of them is the fragment of a paper map unearthed from tomb no. 5 at Fangmatan, Tianshui, Gansu. […] Fangmatan tomb no. 5 is a burial from the time of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing of the Han (179–141 BCE); on the remaining paper, a map of mountains, rivers and roads marked with ink lines can be seen. […] This pushes back the date of the invention of Chinese papermaking by at least nearly 300 years compared with the record of Cai Lun’s papermaking.
Open access open the source · checked on 24 October 2026
Swift, Vic, “The Diamond Sutra”, International Dunhuang Programme, British Library, 26 January 2010, open access, blog post of 26 January 2010, presentation of the scroll Or.8210/P.2.
is the world's earliest dated printed book, and was made in AD 868
Open access open the source · checked on 24 October 2026
Citéco (Cité de l’économie, Banque de France), “First Use of Movable Type Made in Terra Cotta”, timeline 10,000 Years of Economic History, section “Antiquity to Middle Ages”, undated page, entry dated “1040 AD”, 1st and 2nd sentences.
1040 AD […] In China, under the Sung dynasty (960−1279), Bi Sheng improved printing techniques by inventing the movable type. He fashioned clay cubes that were sculpted, baked and assembled onto an iron frame using wax and resin.
Open access open the source · checked on 27 October 2026
Bibliothèque nationale de France, “Le “Jikji”, un trésor de l’imprimerie”, open access, BnF page, presentation (same page: “Datant de 1377, le Jikji a été imprimé dans le temple Heungdeok-sa de Cheongju”).
Le Jikji est le plus ancien livre au monde, connu à ce jour, imprimé au moyen de caractères métalliques mobiles.
Editors’ translation The Jikji is the oldest book in the world known to date to have been printed with movable metal type.
Open access open the source · checked on 24 October 2026
The Morgan Library & Museum, notice de l’incunable PML 21586 : Barzizza, Gasparino, Orthographia, avec la lettre de Guillaume Fichet à Robert Gaguin, Paris, Ulrich Gering, Martin Crantz et Michael Friburger, peu après le 1 January 1470/71, open access, catalogue record, note; imprint: “[Paris : Ulrich Gering, Martin Crantz and Michael Friburger, shortly after 1 Jan. 1470/71]”.
Fichet's letter contains the earliest report in print naming Gutenberg as the inventor of printing.
Open access open the source · checked on 24 October 2026
Read the entry 9.13 · The media of knowledge: tablets, papyrus, paper, printing presses