Due to new archaeological discoveries, the traditional view of "Cai Lun papermaking" has caused controversy not only in China, but also among many experts in papermaking history in Asia.
1957 baqiao paper unearthed in Shaanxi, 1974 Jinguan paper unearthed in the former site of the Han Pavilion in Juyan, Gansu, 1978 Zhongyan paper unearthed in the Western Han kiln in Zhongyan Village, Fufeng, Shaanxi. According to archaeological experts' research and dating, these papers were confirmed to be from the early to the late Western Han Dynasty. Pan Jixing, a researcher at the Institute of Natural Science History of Chinese Academy of Sciences, pointed out that China had paper in the Western Han Dynasty before Cai Lun. Cai Lun should not be the inventor of papermaking, and the history of papermaking in China should be at least two or three centuries earlier.