Bi Sheng (? - around 1051) was a renowned scientist and the founder of movable type printing during the Northern Song Dynasty. He was born in Shexian County, Anhui Province. Bi Sheng, a commoner without official titles, dedicated his life to the study of technology. During the Qingli era of the Northern Song Dynasty, Bi Sheng recognized the complexities and inconveniences of traditional woodblock printing. He devoted himself to researching the technique of clay movable type printing. He invented the method of carving characters on clay blocks, firing them to harden, thus achieving a remarkable breakthrough in printing technology. This advancement significantly increased the printing speed, allowed for the replacement of individual characters with errors, and enabled the reuse of movable type. It marked the first great revolution in the history of printing. Bi Sheng's achievements were specifically recorded by the Song Dynasty scholar Shen Kuo in his book "Dream Pool Essays" (Mengxi Bitan).