One of the four great inventions in China, an outstanding invention in the history of human civilization.

Paper is a sheet fiber product used for writing, printing, painting or packaging. Generally, it is made from the aqueous suspension of plant fibers through pulping, staggered combination on the net, preliminary dehydration, compression and drying. China was the first country in the world to invent paper. According to archaeological findings, in the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC to 8 BC), China already had hemp fiber paper. Rough texture, small quantity, high cost and low popularity.

The development of papermaking

Regarding the ancient records of Cai Lun's invention of papermaking, The Biography of Cai Lun in the Later Han Dynasty said: "Since ancient times, books and deeds have been compiled with bamboo tubes; People who use it are called paper. Expensive and simple, inconvenient for people. Lun intends to use bark, hemp head, cloth and fishing net as paper. " Later generations revered him as the inventor of China's papermaking. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Xu Shen talked about the origin of "paper" in his first well-organized and systematic dictionary Shuo Wen Jie Zi in China. He said: "Paper comes from the side, that is, from the side of silk." At that time, the paper was mainly spun silk, which was completely different from the paper in the present sense. The invention, development and spread of paper also went through a tortuous process. /kloc-after the invention of papermaking in 0/05, papermaking spread from Henan to other economically and culturally developed areas. Cai Lun sealed the Dragon Pavilion in Yangxian County, Shaanxi Province, and papermaking spread to Hanzhong area, and gradually spread to Sichuan. According to the folklore of Cai Lun's hometown Leiyang, Hunan, Cai Lun also taught papermaking to his hometown before his death. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Shandong's papermaking was also relatively developed, and it was an expert in papermaking in Donglai County (now Yexian County) of Zuo Bo. In addition, paper and decorative books first spread to the northern minority areas through the Silk Road. Since the Jin Dynasty, many famous painters and calligraphers have appeared in China, which greatly promoted the development of calligraphy and painting paper. For example, Wang Xizhi, a calligrapher in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, greatly improved the paper used for painting and calligraphy during the father-son period. Writing paper in the Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties was made of hemp and bamboo bark, coated with starch and white mineral pigments, and polished. After the Sui Dynasty unified the north and south, the Tang and Song Dynasties inherited and developed hundreds of years of papermaking achievements, which opened the heyday of manual papermaking in the Tang and Song Dynasties: the popularity of calligraphy and painting and Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty increased the demand for paper, and the raw materials for papermaking expanded to rattan and mulberry bark. Painting and calligraphy paper is also coated with nitrate starch before waxing, and finally polished with coarse cloth or stone. Warp writing paper is also dyed yellow with phellodendron to avoid smoking. In the Northern Song Dynasty, Anhui used the method of night drying and late harvest to bleach bast fiber to make paper. The base paper was smooth, white and durable. In the Southern Song Dynasty, bamboo paper was abundant in southern China. Both Wang Anshi and Su Dongpo like to write with bamboo paper. They think that bamboo paper has bright ink color and bright brushwork, which was imitated by many literati at that time, thus promoting the development of bamboo paper. In the Song Dynasty, bamboo paper was not only abundant, but also rice and wheat straw was used to make paper. Su Yijian in the Northern Song Dynasty recorded that people in Zhejiang made paper pulp from wheat and rice stalks, and made paper with oil vines. By the Ming Dynasty, the technology of making paper from bamboo in China had been perfected. At that time, Song's Tiangong systematically described the production process of making paper with bamboo, with illustrations of production equipment and operation process. This book has been translated into Japanese, French and English and spread to Japan and Europe. It is the earliest book in China that systematically describes papermaking technology. After hundreds of years in Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, by the middle of Qing Dynasty, China's hand-made paper was quite developed, with advanced quality and various varieties, which became the material conditions for the development and spread of China culture for thousands of years.

The controversy of the inventor of papermaking

Papermaking is one of the four great inventions in ancient China. Who invented papermaking? For a long time, people have always believed that it was invented by Cai Lun, a eunuch in the Eastern Han Dynasty. The main basis is the record of Biography of Cai Lun in the later Han Dynasty. The book said: "Since ancient times, book contracts have mostly used bamboo slips as book contracts, and silk books (that is, silk books tailored according to writing needs) have been paper contracts. Expensive and simple, inconvenient for people. Aaron invented bark, hemp head and cloth. Fishing nets are made of paper. In the first year of Yuanxing, play it. The emperor has a good skill, so he has been using it, so the world calls it' Cai Hou Paper'. " Therefore, some later works at home and abroad regard Cai Lun of the Eastern Han Dynasty as the inventor of paper, and take 105, when he presented paper to Hanhe, as the birth year of paper.

However, since 1933, the late archaeologist Huang Wenbi discovered a piece of ancient paper in the middle of the Western Han Dynasty in Luonaoer, Xinjiang, he had different views on the invention of papermaking. On May 8th, 1957, 88 ancient paper were found in the ancient tomb of Baqiao Brick Factory in the suburb of Xi, Shaanxi Province. This pile of ancient paper is very thick under three bronze mirrors. Although it has become fragments, the edge has not completely rotted. This discovery aroused the interest of researchers. According to the research of archaeologists, it is believed that this tomb will not be later than the fifth year of Emperor Yuan Shou of the Han Dynasty (BC 1 18), so it can also be roughly determined that the age of Baqiao paper is before BC 1 18. This time is more than 200 years earlier than the time when Cai Lun made paper. In addition, from 1973 to 1974, two pieces of hemp paper from the late Western Han Dynasty were unearthed at the Han Juyan site in Gansu. What needs to be pointed out here is that1from June to September, 1986, archaeologists of Gansu Provincial Institute of Archaeology excavated a geological map in the ancient tomb of the Western Han Dynasty in Matan, Tianshui. This paper is 5.5 cm long and 2.6 cm wide. This newly discovered paper map of the Western Han Dynasty is the earliest street paper object at present. All these strongly prove that China invented ancient paper which can be used for writing and painting in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty.

In addition, there are some records about paper in the history books before Cai Lun. For example, "The Old Stories of Three Ancient People" once said: Prince Liu Wei has a big nose, and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty doesn't like him. Jiang Chong gave him an idea to "cover his nose with paper" when he went to see Emperor Wu again. At Jiang Chong's words, the prince covered his nose with paper and went to the palace to see Ming Chengzu. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was furious. This painting took place in 9 1 year BC. Another example is the Biography of Empress Zhao in Hanshu, which records that Zhao, the younger sister of Zhao, who was favored by Hanwu, wanted Cao Weineng, a palace maid, to send poison and a "book of harmony" after Cao Wei's death, forcing Cao Wei to commit suicide. According to Ying Shao, a native of the Eastern Han Dynasty, "Hehoof" means "tissue paper" (hereinafter referred to as silk cotton paper). Another example is the Biography of Jia Kui in the Later Han Dynasty. In 76 AD, the emperor ordered Jia Kui to select 20 people to teach Zuo Zhuan and "recite bamboo slips and paper classics". The above documents about paper are all earlier than A.D. 105, which is the year when Cai Lun presented paper to Han and Di.

The comrades who denied that Cai Lun invented papermaking thought that "it was the working people of the Western Han Dynasty who invented papermaking. After inheriting the papermaking technology of the Western Han Dynasty, the working people in the Eastern Han Dynasty improved, developed and improved it. Emperor Yong, Fang Shang ordered Cai Lun to organize a workshop in Shaofu with sufficient manpower and material resources, and produced a batch of fine paper made in Shangbeizi, which was played in the first year of Yuanxing. After the promotion,' everything in the world is natural'. " This is a point in the debate.

Another opinion insists that Cai Lun is the inventor of papermaking in China, on the grounds that "according to the explanation of paper in Shuo Wen Jie Zi by Xu Shen in Han Dynasty, all the papers mentioned in the ancient literature before Cai Lun were made of silk fibers, which were actually not paper, but by-products of bleached silk. Since ancient times, a Chinese-style plant fiber paper has to be cut, cooked, beaten and hung. Baqiao paper is not real paper. The reason is that "from the outside, the paper is loose and rough, and the thickness varies greatly." "Through the observation of solid microscope and scanning electron microscope, it was found that most fibers and fiber bundles were long, indicating poor cutting. They are formed by natural accumulation of fibers, and cannot be regarded as real paper without basic operation processes such as cutting and beating. Maybe it's just leftovers from retting textiles, such as a mess. Due to the long-term lining under the bronze mirror of the ancient tomb and the pressure of the weight of the mirror, the accumulation of fibers such as thread ends is flaky. In addition, the so-called ancient paper in the rest of the Western Han Dynasty is also very rough, and at best it is only the embryonic form of paper. Cai Lun and his craftsmen summarized and improved on the basis of previous bleaching and manufacturing embryonic paper, and transferred the production of paper from the raw materials and technology for writing to an independent industrial stage. Admittedly, "Cai Lun Paper" won't be made by Cai Lun, but without his "heart", this kind of plant fiber paper could not be made by local craftsmen alone. Therefore, even today when embryonic paper has been unearthed, it is still correct to regard Cai Lunping as the inventor or representative of papermaking in China, which has sufficient historical basis.

In addition, the record of Cai Lun's papermaking in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty is mainly taken from Serina Liu's Book of the East of Han Dynasty. Serina Liu and Cai Lun are contemporaries and should be credible. It can be seen from the records that Cai Hou's paper can not only pay tribute to the emperor, but also replace silk writing, and the paper quality must reach a certain level.

Some scholars also believe that whether Baqiao paper is a product of the Western Han Dynasty deserves further study. The reason they put forward is that "it is difficult to make a convincing scientific judgment on the production age of ancient paper before accurately finding out the life age of the tomb man." What's more, the tomb disturbed the soil layer and was disturbed by external sources, which does not rule out the possibility that it was brought in by future generations; The Changmawangdui, which is also the tomb of the Han Dynasty, is intact, as if nothing had happened. The owner of the tomb has a name to check and the historical materials are reliable. Unearthed cultural relics are so rich, except thousands of Jane Eyre and silk-woven ancient paper silk paintings, but there is not a piece of hemp paper. Some researchers also believe that Baqiao paper has handwriting similar to regular script, which is similar to the handwriting in the Three Kingdoms of the Eastern Jin Dynasty unearthed in Xinjiang. Based on this, Baqiao paper may be the product of Jin Dynasty.