Raw Materials for Paper Making in Ancient Times

Cai Lun was the greatest inventor of papermaking in ancient China. Before the invention of paper, the ancient peoples had tried every possible way to utilize stones, bricks, leaves, barks, wax boards, copper, lead, linen and animal skins, sheepskin and so on, the text recorded.

In our country during the Shang dynasty, people put the text of a stroke carved into the tortoise shell and cattle, sheep, pigs and other animals on the shoulder blades; then, people use the specification of a piece of wood (also known as documents) and bamboo (also known as Jane) to write the article; later, but also with the silk thick silk for the paper to write the way. The Eastern Han Dynasty, with the development of economic and cultural, bamboo, thick silk is more and more not adapt to the needs of writing. In order to create a more ideal writing materials, Cai Lun in the former use of waste silk paper on the basis of the use of bark, hemp, rags, waste fishnet as raw materials, successfully manufactured a lightweight, but also economic paper, summed up a set of more perfect papermaking methods, so that papermaking technology has been a pleasant leap forward. In 105 A.D. (Yuanxingyuan, the year of Emperor Liu Zhao of the Han Dynasty), Cai Lun offered the resulting paper to the court and was praised by the emperor. From then on, people used this kind of paper and called the paper made by Cai Lun "Cai Hou Paper" throughout the country.

In 121 A.D., Cai Lun was involved in an internal power struggle at the court of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and Emperor Liu Hu of the Han Dynasty ordered him to turn himself in. Cai Lun was ashamed to stand trial, so he bathed his whole body, put on his best clothes, and then took poison to kill himself.

Paper was already widely used in China in the 8th century A.D. In the centuries that followed, China exported paper to various parts of Asia and kept papermaking a closely guarded secret. In 751 AD, the Tang Dynasty and the Arab Empire clashed, and the Arabs captured several Chinese papermakers. It wasn't long before papermaking began in Samarkand and Baghdad. In this way, paper-making technology was gradually spread throughout the Arab world, where paper began to be widely used, and then spread to North America and Europe through the Arab countries. According to historical records, more than 1,000 years after the invention of papermaking by Cai Lun, the first paper mill was established in Europe. Although the modern paper industry has been very developed, but its basic principles are still the same as the method of Cai Lun paper. Paper raw materials, seven or eight of the ten has been replaced by wood pulp, but the manufacture of high-level printing paper, cigarette paper, rice paper and typewritten wax paper, etc., is still not outside the rags used by Cai Lun, bark, hemp, waste fish nets and other raw materials.

Cai Lun's influence on the development of our country and even human society is enormous, and this influence will continue. Today, we are unable to quantitatively measure the role of paper in the development of history, and it is difficult to predict how long the use of paper will continue. Therefore, Cai Lun (and Bi Sheng, the other inventor of the Four Great Inventions who left his name) deserve a place at or near the top of the list of people who have made a huge impact on the course of Chinese and human history.

Papermaking, one of the major contributions of the Chinese nation to human civilization, and gunpowder, compass, printing and known as China's ancient science and technology of the four great inventions and famous in the world, its emergence changed the human writing materials, so that the text of the new carrier, the end of the ancestors in the stone wall, animal bones, bamboo and wood and writing on silk history. At the same time, paper is also one of the four treasures.

Ancient books have the Eastern Han Cai Lun paper, this statement is still controversial. From the current excavated artifacts and information, in the Western Han Dynasty tombs have been excavated far from the paper. At that time, the paper is a mixture of animal and plant fibers, these fiber fragments after reprocessing was made of paper. Since the Eastern Han Dynasty, papermaking technology has been improved, and people can make thin paper using only plant fibers.

It can be inferred that Cai Lun in the Eastern Han Dynasty contributed to the improvement of papermaking. He invented the technique of making paper from bark, hemp, rags, fishnets and other materials, and offered the resulting paper to the emperor. Therefore, this paper is also called "Caihou Paper".

The invention of papermaking led to the development of pen, ink and inkstone. The art of papermaking spread to Southeast Asia, Europe and the Arab countries, promoting the progress of world civilization.

In 1986, Tianshui, Gansu Province, the Western Han Dynasty map unearthed ancient paper, as well as Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, hold the wind and Gansu Jiuyan unearthed Western Han Dynasty hemp paper belongs to the paper, scholars have debated over this. The thickness of the paper and uneven distribution of fibers, so it is called hemp paper. Hemp paper in the Han to Tang nearly a thousand years, has been the main paper for writing and painting in China.

With the development of social productivity, social material abundance, the raw materials for papermaking gradually increased. After the Wei and Jin dynasties, people began to use the rattan grass (straw, straw), orange peel, mulberry bark, hemp bamboo, nettle and other materials to make paper. Eastern Jin Dynasty, hemp was used for papermaking, this material made of paper tough white, water immersion, which should be the prototype of rice paper. And the real meaning of the Xuan paper to belong to the Southern Dynasties in Anhui Province, Shexian and other places produced a silver paper, when Emperor Wu of Liang's poem of paper "bright white as frost and snow, square as if the cloth chess, Xuan love and remember things, rather than the same time as the fishnet." Enough to illustrate the level of papermaking at that time.

Sui-Tang is the heyday of the development of papermaking. This time the paper varieties and styles are basically formed, and the emergence of the paper coloring process. The more famous paper in the Tang Dynasty were Yangzhou hemp paper and Xuan paper made of green sandalwood bark, and some new varieties appeared, such as Poyang white and Chengxintang paper. Paper dyed with color was a major feature at that time, only the Sichuan Shu paper, there are 10 kinds of color paper such as deep red, pink, bright yellow.

To the Song Dynasty, bamboo, Chu leather instead of hemp and become the main raw material for paper. In addition, kapok was also used as a material for papermaking. With the rise of the printing industry, invented in the Jin Dynasty suitable for printing books of bamboo paper is prevalent. In addition, the paper processing technology has been continuously improved, in addition to the fine faceting, processing is also equipped with wax glue, Phellodendron Bark, gum, alum, color, gold and silver accessories, so that the paper is more glossy, smooth, beautiful.

Ming and Qing dynasties, China's paper industry continues to develop. Paper, Xuan paper production process is becoming more and more exquisite. In the production process, in addition to sizing, alum, wax, dyeing, printing, gravel light, sprinkle gold and silver and other technologies, people also use the bean board, arching flowers of the printing method, to create a variety of exquisite paper. Qing Dynasty, rice paper as the main writing material, its origin to expand, many names. In addition to the jade plate Xuan, ribbed paper, six Ji paper, folder tribute, there are a lot of special paper, such as South Yuxian cloth paper, Hunan Laiyang cotton paper, etc., to the end of the Qing Dynasty, the introduction of machine papermaking technology into our country, papermaking industry has entered a new stage. ■

[Original]The origin of paper

Paper is one of the four great inventions of ancient China, once for the cultural dissemination of history set up an outstanding merit. Even in the prevalence of mechanical paper today, certain traditional handmade paper still reflects its irreplaceable role, glowing with a unique luster. Ancient paper in the ancient paintings and calligraphy that have been handed down can still be a glimpse of its appearance.

What did people use as mnemonic material long before the invention of paper? According to the literature and physical data, the earliest people are using the knot to remember things, things to tie a knot, things to unravel. Later on, they engraved words on tortoise shells and animal bones, the so-called "oracle bone inscriptions". After the production of bronze, and in bronze cast inscriptions, that is, "Jinwen" or "Zhongdingwen". Later, the word will be written in bamboo, wood cut into pieces, called "bamboo and wood Jane", such as wider and thicker bamboo and wood pieces are called "documents". At the same time, some of them are also written on silk woven products. Before pre-Qin, in addition to the above materials, but also found in the stone carved on the text, such as the famous "stone drums Wen".

It is generally known that paper was invented by Cai Lun in the Eastern Han Dynasty. But archaeological excavations in recent years have raised questions about this. With the progress of archaeological work along the Silk Road in the Northwest, many Western Han Dynasty sites and tombs were found, which also has no shortage of paper relics. These right paper are all titled according to the location of their excavation.

From the chronological order of the unearthed ancient papers themselves so far, they can be ranked as follows: Fangmatan paper in the early Western Han Dynasty, Baqiao paper, Hangquan paper, Horse Circle Bay paper, and Juyan paper in the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, and Drytanpo paper in the late Western Han Dynasty. These papers are not only earlier than the Cailun paper, and some of them have ink fonts, indicating that they have been used for the writing of documents.