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Johannes Gutenberg is often credited as the inventor of the printing press in 1454. But neither printing nor movable type was actually invented by Johannes Gutenberg, nor did he print the first book. The Chinese actually printed from movable type in 1040, but later discarding the method.
Even before printing books from movable type, the Chinese used wooden blocks to print Budhist writings by hand on scrolls. Chinese writer Fenzhi mentioned in his writings Yuan Xian San Ji that woodblocks were used to print Buddhist scripture during the Zhenguan years (627-649 A.D.). The oldest known surviving woodblock-printed work is a Buddhist scripture of the Chinese Wu Zetian period (684-705 A.D.) discovered in 1906 in Tubofan in the Xinjiang province of China.
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Printing is considered one of the four great inventions of China; the other being the compass, gunpowder and paper. While there are no surviving examples of the Chinese printing presses of the 11th Century, the oldest surving dated printed book on record is the Budhist Diamond-Sutra, dated 11 May 868 AD.
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