When Cai Lun lived in the Eastern Han Dynasty and Emperor Wudi, he was a native of Guiyang, which is now Laiyang, Hunan. Decades before Cai Lun was born, a large-scale peasant uprising took place in China. Uprising attacked feudal rule to a certain extent and promoted the development of social productive forces. From the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty to the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, agriculture and handicrafts made continuous progress. The development of social economy puts forward higher requirements for paper production.
Cai Lun went to the imperial court as a eunuch at an early age, and his position was even lower-Xiaohuangmen. Later, he was trusted by Han and Emperor, and was promoted to be a constant servant to participate in state secret affairs. He also worked as an official in charge of palace supplies-Shang Fangling, supervising craftsmen to make swords and other instruments for the royal family, so he often contacted craftsmen. The superb technology and creative spirit of the working people greatly influenced him.
At that time, Cai Lun saw that it was inconvenient for everyone to write. Bamboo slips and wooden slips are too heavy, and silk is too expensive, so silk tissue paper cannot be mass-produced. They all have shortcomings. So he studied ways to improve papermaking.
Cai Lun summed up the experience of predecessors in papermaking, and led craftsmen to use raw materials such as bark hemp, rags and broken fishing nets to make paper. They chop or cut bark, hemp heads, rags and broken fishing nets, soak them in water for a long time, then mash them into pulp, even cook them, and then spread them on mats to dry them, thus turning them into paper.
The paper made by this method is light and thin, which is very suitable for writing and has been welcomed by people. In the first year of Yuan Xing in the Eastern Han Dynasty (A.D. 105), Cai Lun reported this great achievement to Han and Emperor, who praised him. Since then, all parts of the country have begun to use this method to make paper.
Paper-making technology is very complicated, which is beyond one's imagination. In fact, before Cai Lun, the working people had already made paper with plant fibers. Therefore, we can't say that paper was invented by Cai Lun, but we must also affirm Cai Lun's great contribution in improving papermaking technology.
Cai Lun led craftsmen to improve paper-making methods and produce high-quality paper. He proposed using bark, hemp head, rags and broken fishing nets as raw materials, which was also a great progress in papermaking technology. These raw materials are widely available and cheap, and some of them are wastes, which can be produced in large quantities. As for using bark as raw material, it is a new discovery. Later generations made paper with wood pulp, which was the inspiration of Cai Lun's making paper with bark.
Cai Lun's success in improving papermaking methods is a great event in the history of human culture. From then on, paper can be produced on a large scale, creating material conditions for the printing of bookends in the future.
After Cai Lun, others constantly improved his methods. About eighty years after Cai Lun's death (at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty), there was another papermaking expert named Zuo Bo. The paper he made is even in thickness, delicate in texture and bright in color. At that time, people called this kind of paper "Zuo Bo paper". Unfortunately, the raw materials and manufacturing methods used in Zuo Bo are not recorded in history.
In A.D. 12 1 year, Cai Lun was involved in the struggle for power and profit of the Eastern Han regime, and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ordered him to surrender. Cai Lun was ashamed of being tried, so he bathed himself, put on the most beautiful clothes, and then committed suicide by taking poison.