Why did movable type not replace woodblock printing in China?

While movable type was invented in China by Pi Sheng in the 11th century and later refined by Wang Chen, it did not replace the traditional woodblock method.1

The persistence of woodblock printing was largely due to the nature of the Chinese writing system. Unlike alphabetic languages, which rely on a small set of characters, the Chinese language utilizes thousands of unique ideograms. Carving these complex characters into individual, durable pieces of type was a labor-intensive and delicate process that offered little advantage over the established woodblock technique.21

Furthermore, woodblock printing was a highly refined and efficient system for the Chinese context. Once a block was carved, it could be used to produce high-quality impressions repeatedly, and the blocks themselves were easier to store and manage than thousands of individual, fragile pieces of movable type. Because the existing method was already well-suited to the demands of Chinese publishing, the innovations in movable type were not widely adopted or followed up in China at the time.13