What kind of paper is used for Chinese calligraphy and painting? How is this paper made?

Chinese calligraphy and painting owe their success to the use of "Xuan paper".

? The reason for the development of Jing County in Anhui Province, especially the development of Xuan paper, is that in ancient times, Jing County was a mountainous area with a lot of trees planted, and these trees were the main raw material for Xuan paper. Ancient Jingxian is now a county under the jurisdiction of Xuancheng City in Anhui Province, China, which is in the southeast of Anhui Province, such places are all hilly, hilly areas are more suitable for the planting of sandalwood trees, and the main raw material for Xuan paper is sandalwood trees.

? Xuan paper traditional production techniques

(1) Xuan paper in the production of previous, to go through a leather production process and a grass production process. In which the skin production mainly refers to the production of paper raw materials such as sandalwood fibers, which includes more than thirty complicated small processes, such as peeling, stepping on the skin, spreading into the prairie skin, whip skin washing, bleaching into sandalwood fibers and so on.

? (2) grass production process is mainly on rice straw and other grass fiber production and processing, which covers about twenty small processes, such as selecting grass, cutting grass, pounding grass, continuous steaming and solarization until the final bleaching into grass fiber material. After these two processes, it will be able to make rice paper for the production of ingredients, that is, sandalwood fiber material and grass fiber material mixed in a certain proportion.

? (3) the type of paper required is not the same, the proportion of the configuration will also be different, adjusted material must be screened, playing, washing, etc., and finally made into a kind of mixed paper paddle.

? (4) this kind of mixed pulp with appropriate water, another with the kiwi vine juice of the glue, and then through the fishing paper, pressing and baking paper, a full set of processes out, the paper is good or bad and ink blotting effect are roughly clear out into the original Xuan paper.

? (5) but as a product of Xuan paper only this is not enough, the finished product of the production of processed Xuan paper, the specification of the requirements are also very high, not only to ensure that the paper is tough, feel soft, flat paper, there is a vague bamboo curtain pattern, but also the need to make the edges neat and clean, the paper can not be stored on the folds and cracks, holes, small stones and appendages, and other defects.

Therefore, it is also necessary to identify and select the paper that has already been finalized, and then cut the selected paper to remove the burrs, plus printing, alum, grinding and polishing, packaging and so on, before it can become world-famous Xuan paper.