The evolution of papermaking in China from ancient times to the present.

The invention and development of papermaking paper are the most commonly used items in our daily life. Whether reading a book, reading a newspaper, writing or drawing, you have to contact with paper. Paper is also indispensable in the production of industry, agriculture and national defense industry. Today, there is no paper, which is unimaginable. Paper is a powerful tool and material for exchanging ideas, spreading culture, developing science and technology and production. Looking back at history, this important substance was invented by the working people in ancient China. Papermaking, compass, gunpowder and printing are also called the four great inventions of ancient science and technology in China, which are outstanding contributions made by our people to the development of world science and culture.

The original paper appeared as a new writing material. Before the invention of paper, things recorded in China were mostly tortoise shells, animal bones, epigraphy, bamboo slips, wooden slips and silk books. Since the beginning of this century, the material objects of Oracle Bone Inscriptions and Zhong Dingwen in Yin Dynasty have been unearthed continuously. Bamboo slips, wooden slips, silk books and silk paintings from the Warring States to the Qin and Han Dynasties have also been unearthed in recent years. However, Oracle bones are hard to get, stones and silks are heavy and expensive, and bamboo slips take up a lot of space, which is inconvenient to use. With the development of social economy and culture, it is urgent to find new writing materials that are cheap and easy to get. After long-term exploration and practice, plant fiber paper made of waste hemp materials such as hemp rope ends, rags and old fishing nets was finally invented.

With regard to the origin of papermaking, Ye Fan (398-445), a historian in the 5th century, once said that paper was invented by Cai Lun (62- 12 1), a eunuch in the Eastern Han Dynasty, in the 17th year of Yong Yuan (A.D. 105). However, the practice of archaeological excavations since this century has shaken Cai Lun's view that paper is an invention. 1933, the hemp paper of the Western Han Dynasty was unearthed at the Han Dynasty site in Luobnuoer, Xinjiang, more than a century before Cai Lun. 1957, ancient paper in the early Western Han Dynasty in the second century BC was unearthed again in Baqiao, the eastern suburb of Xi. Through the analysis and test in this paper, it is confirmed that it is mainly made of hemp and a small amount of ramie fiber. Following this, 1973 Jinguan Site in Juyan, Gansu Province and 1978 Han Dynasty cellar in Zhongyan Village, Fufeng, Shaanxi Province also unearthed hemp paper in the Western Han Dynasty. It is worth pointing out that in the ancient tomb of Fangmatan near Tianshui City, Gansu Province in 1986, map-drawn hemp paper from Wendi and Jingdi periods in the early Western Han Dynasty (from 179 BC to 1465438 BC) was unearthed, which is the earliest plant fiber paper found in the world. /kloc-in the winter of 0/990, more than 30 pieces of hemp paper were unearthed from the site of Western Han Station in Jiaohuang Tianshuijing, among which 3 pieces were written with words. These facts strongly show that as early as the second century BC, the working people in our country had invented papermaking, and the paper made at that time could already be used for writing.

However, the hemp paper in the early Western Han Dynasty still needs further improvement. In the second century, Cai Lun, who served in the Eastern Han Dynasty, supervised and organized the production of a batch of fine paper with sufficient manpower and material resources, which was presented to the court in the seventeenth year of Yongyuan, and papermaking was popularized in China. At the same time, the East Han Dynasty further utilized bark, especially Broussonetia papyrifera bark, to make paper, which expanded the source of raw materials. In this sense, Cai Lun appeared as a producer and promoter of good paper in history. These activities are objectively beneficial to the development of papermaking, so its role should not be completely obliterated.

According to our experimental research, the production technology of hemp paper in Han Dynasty is to soak raw materials such as hemp heads and rags in water to make them swell, then chop them up with an axe and then wash them with water. Then soaking and cooking with weakly alkaline plant ash water can be said to be the origin of alkaline chemical pulping technology in later generations. By cooking with alkali liquor, impurities such as lignin, pectin, pigment and oil in raw materials are further removed, rinsed with clear water and mashed. The mashed fine fiber is made into suspension pulp with water, and then the pulp is taken out with a paper leakage mould, and then it is dehydrated and dried to make paper. If the paper surface is wrinkled and astringent, it needs to be polished before writing.

The working people in the Han Dynasty used simple and ordinary equipment to regenerate textile waste into fiber raw materials and make plant fiber paper by chemical and mechanical processing methods, which is indeed an achievement worthy of great books in the history of chemistry and technology. There are two technical keys here. Firstly, the non-cellulose components in the fiber raw materials are removed by chemical methods, and then the pure cellulose macromolecules are chopped and split into filaments by strong tamping. The second is to design a porous plane screen to make the pulp stagnate on the screen surface. After most of the water is filtered out, the fiber containing a small amount of water will remain on the screen surface, and then it will be dried and dehydrated to form paper with certain mechanical strength. This flat screen is the paper machine, which is the original prototype of modern fourdrinier and rotary screen paper machines.

After the popularization of papermaking in China in the second century, paper became a strong competitor of silk books and bamboo slips. In the third and fourth centuries, paper has basically replaced silk and bamboo slips as the only writing material in China, which has effectively promoted the spread and development of science and culture in China. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties from the third to the sixth century, China's papermaking was constantly innovated. In terms of raw materials, in addition to the original hemp and paper, it is also expanded to use mulberry bark and rattan bark to make paper. In terms of equipment, the paper-making technology of the Western Han Dynasty was inherited, and more movable curtain bed paper molds appeared. A movable bamboo curtain is placed on the frame, which can repeatedly fish out thousands of wet papers and improve work efficiency. In processing and manufacturing technology, alkali liquor cooking and beating were strengthened, and the quality of paper was improved, and processed paper such as colored paper, coated paper and filler paper appeared.

Judging from the ancient paper of this period unearthed from the Stone Chamber in Dunhuang and Shaqi in Xinjiang, it can be said that the paper fibers are evenly knotted, the appearance is white and the surface is smooth, which can be described as "brilliant". In the 6th century, Jia Sixie also wrote two articles in Qi Yao Min Shu, which recorded the treatment of papermaking raw materials and the technology of dyeing yellow paper. At the same time, papermaking spread to China's neighboring countries, Korea and Viet Nam, which was the beginning of the spread of papermaking.

During the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties from the 6th century to the10th century, besides hemp paper, bamboo paper, mulberry paper, rattan paper, sandalwood paper, Daphne paper, straw paper and Hsinchu paper also appeared in China. In the southern bamboo-producing areas, bamboo resources are abundant, so bamboo paper develops rapidly. Regarding the origin of bamboo paper, some people think that it began in the Jin Dynasty, but there is not enough literature and material evidence. From a technical point of view, bamboo paper should appear after the development of leather paper technology, because bamboo material is stem fiber, which is hard and difficult to handle, and it is unlikely to appear in Jin Dynasty. Bamboo paper should have originated after the Tang Dynasty, but it developed greatly in the Tang and Song Dynasties. It was not until the eighteenth century that bamboo paper appeared in Europe.

Paper-making areas in this period were all over the north and south. Because of the invention of block printing, the book printing industry has risen, which has promoted the development of paper industry, improved the output and quality of paper, and the price has been declining, and various paper products have spread to people's daily lives. Precious papers include "hard yellow" in the Tang Dynasty, "Cheng Xin Tang Paper" in the Five Dynasties, as well as water-grain paper and various artistic processing papers. There were many paintings in the Tang Dynasty, which reflected the improvement of papermaking technology.

10- 18 During the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, paper, mulberry paper and other paper and bamboo paper were particularly popular and consumed a lot. Bamboo curtains for papermaking mostly use thin bamboo strips, which requires that the beating degree of paper must be quite high and the produced paper must be very fine and symmetrical. Starch paste was used as a sizing agent in the pre-Tang dynasty, which had the function of filling and reducing the fiber sinking at the bottom of the pool. After the Song Dynasty, plant mucus was used as "paper medicine" to make the pulp uniform. The commonly used "paper medicine" is the extract of carambola and Abelmoschus manihot. This technology was adopted as early as the Tang Dynasty, but it became popular after the Song Dynasty, so that starch paste was no longer used.

At this time, there are many kinds of processing paper, and the use of paper is becoming more and more extensive. Besides painting, printing and daily use, China is the first country in the world to issue paper money. This kind of paper money was called "Jiaozi" in the Song Dynasty and continued to be issued after the Yuan and Ming Dynasties. Later, countries all over the world also issued paper money. Wallpaper, paper flowers, paper cutting, etc. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was also very beautiful for interior decoration, and it was sold at home and abroad. All kinds of colored wax paper, cold gold, clay gold, rib, clay gold and silver plus painting, decal paper, etc. , mostly enjoyed by the feudal ruling class, with high cost and quality above ordinary paper.

During this period, books about papermaking also appeared constantly. For example, Paper Spectrum in Song Dynasty, Paper Annotation Spectrum in Yuan Dynasty, Jun Shu by Wang in Ming Dynasty, especially Tiangong in Song Dynasty, have many records on ancient papermaking in China. The record of bamboo paper and leather paper in Thirteen Volumes of Heavenly Creations can be said to be a summary narrative. There is also a paper-making operation chart in the book, which is the most detailed paper-making record in the world at that time.

Taking bamboo paper as an example, it is pointed out in Tiangong Kaiwu: Before and after mango seeds, climb the mountain to cut bamboo, cut off five or seven feet, soak in pond water for a hundred days, and after processing and cleaning, remove the rough shell and green peel. Then wrap the pulp with good lime juice, put it in a yellow bucket for eight days and nights, take out the bamboo material, rinse it with clear water, use wood ash (plant ash water) pulp, cook it in a kettle, and water it with grey water. This will naturally stink for more than ten days. Take it out and put it in a mortar, pound it into a mud surface, and then make pulp and paper. These records are basically the same as the process of making bamboo paper by folk methods later.

Papermaking was introduced to Japan through Korea in the seventh century and to Arabia through Central Asia in the middle of the eighth century. When the first paper-making workshops were organized in Arab newspapers (now Baghdad, Iraq), Damascus (now Damascus, Syria) and Samarkand, it was built after China paper workers personally taught the technology. Hemp paper originally made in Arabia takes rags as raw materials and adopts the technology and equipment of China. After mass production, Arabic paper was continuously exported to European countries, and papermaking was subsequently introduced to Europe from Arabia.

/kloc-In the 20th century, Europe first established paper mills in Spain and France, and in the 3rd century, it also established paper mills in Italy and Germany. By the 16th century, paper had swept all over Europe, eventually completely replacing the traditional sheepskin and Egyptian papyrus, and since then paper has gradually spread all over the world.

During the two thousand years from the 2nd century BC to the early 18th century AD, China's papermaking has been at the advanced level in the world. China's ancient papermaking technology, equipment and technology provided a complete technical system for all countries in the world. All the main technical links of the modern machine papermaking industry can be found in the original development form from the ancient papermaking in China. China's traditional papermaking methods have been followed by countries all over the world for more than 1000 years. [Edit this paragraph] The historical development of papermaking was as early as when Cai Lun invented "Cai Hou Paper" in the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25 ~ AD 220), and the embryonic form of paper appeared in China. Early Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-23 AD) paper unearthed from Fangmatan Han Tomb in Tianshui, Gansu, China, is the earliest paper found so far. In addition, ancient paper of the Western Han Dynasty was also unearthed in Lop Nur and Xi Baqiao, Xinjiang. But these papers are rough, and the raw materials are hemp or silk floss.

In the Eastern Han Dynasty AD 105, eunuch Cai Lun summarized and improved the paper-making technology since the Western Han Dynasty. Taking bark, rags, hemp heads and fishing nets as raw materials, combined with a whole set of processes of retting, ramming and copying, he created a kind of plant fiber paper called "Cai Hou Paper". Since then, paper has gradually replaced bamboo tubes and silk as the main writing material.

Papermaking began to spread eastward to Korea and Japan in the early 7th century (late Sui and early Tang Dynasties). In the 8th century, it was introduced to Samarkand, later Arabia and then Baghdad. 10 century to Damascus and Cairo; 1 1 century was introduced to Morocco; /kloc-was introduced to India in the 0/3rd century; From14th century to Italy, many cities in Italy built paper mills, which became an important base for the spread of papermaking in Europe, and then spread to Germany and Britain. /kloc-was introduced to Russia and Holland in the 6th century; /kloc-spread to Britain in the 0/7th century; It was introduced to Canada in the19th century. The invention and spread of papermaking greatly reduced the carrier cost of words and realized the popularization of knowledge among the common people, thus greatly promoting the development of science, technology and economy in the world.

The invention of papermaking is not only a great change in book-making materials, but also of epoch-making significance in the history of human civilization.

A large number of ancient papers unearthed in Dunhuang once again overthrew Cai Lun as the inventor of papermaking.

Lanzhou, May 5 (Xinhua): Over the years, the textbooks used by China tell people that Cai Lun began to make paper in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Since the 20th century, many archaeological discoveries have shown that in the Western Han Dynasty before Cai Lun, China had "paper". These two views have been debated in academic circles for more than 40 years. At present, a large number of ancient paper unearthed in Dunhuang seems to provide more powerful proof: as early as the Western Han Dynasty, China had real paper.

Xinhuanet reported that "Cai Lun invented papermaking" based on China's important history book "The Book of the Later Han Dynasty". Because the author of the Book of the Later Han Dynasty recorded this event very clearly, and the Book of the Later Han Dynasty was of great significance and status at that time and in history, in the absence of other historical documents as evidence, later generations decided that Cai Lun invented papermaking in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

1957 baqiao paper unearthed in Shaanxi in the late Western Han Dynasty, 1974 Jinguan paper unearthed in the former site of the Han Pavilion in Juyan, Gansu Province, 1978 Zhongyan paper unearthed in the Western Han kiln in Zhongyan Village, Fufeng, Shaanxi Province. These archaeological discoveries make academic circles object to Cai Lun's viewpoint of papermaking. 1986, ancient paper of the Western Han Dynasty was discovered again in Fangmatan, Tianshui, Gansu. Different from previous archaeological discoveries, the unearthed ancient paper is of high quality, with smooth paper, light and soft texture, and mountains, rivers, roads and other figures are drawn with fine ink lines. According to experts' research, this "birthday" of ancient paper was in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, more than 300 years earlier than the paper-making history of Cai Lun in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Therefore, this paper, the earliest known in the world, became the only physical evidence that China had excellent paper in the early Western Han Dynasty.

Recently, another important discovery has been made in the archaeological research of Xuanquanjia site in Dunhuang, Gansu Province. He Shuangquan, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology in Gansu Province, revealed that the site has unearthed more than 200 pieces of paper documents and hemp paper, which is the place where the most ancient papers were found in archaeological excavations in China. According to the bamboo slips unearthed at the same time and stratigraphic analysis, these ancient paper dates from Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Zhao and Xuan Di, Yuan and Cheng to the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Western Jin Dynasty. There are many colors and textures in ancient paper, including black thick, black thin, brown thick, white thin and yellow thick. Judging from the residue left on the paper, these ancient papers were mainly made of hemp fabrics and fine silk fabrics, which were used to write documents, letters and parcels. He Shuangquan said that the number, variety and time span of ancient paper unearthed in Dunhuang is the first time in China archaeological excavation. The discovery of these ancient papers not only strongly proves that Cai Lun was not the inventor of papermaking, but also provides abundant evidence for China to study the historical development of paper.