The main content of the book "The Invention of Papermaking: Origin, Spread and Influence" is that China has been famous for its developed humanities and natural sciences since ancient times, and has made many achievements in various fields, making great contributions to the development of human civilization, especially the ancient science and technology with papermaking, printing, gunpowder and compass as the main body has been in the leading position in the world for a long time. Studies have proved that although modern science first emerged in Europe, half of the basic discoveries and inventions (at least 100) on which it is based came from China. Sorting out these scientific heritages is of great significance for carrying forward the excellent culture of the Chinese nation. Therefore, after years of research, the author wrote four great inventions of ancient china: Origin, Dissemination and Its World Influence, which was published by China University of Science and Technology Press in February 2002. However, this kind of academic works will inevitably refer to all kinds of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign documents and physical materials, and conduct a series of textual research, identification, analysis and comparison on a large number of historical materials. These tasks are boring, but they are necessary. Otherwise, it is not enough to draw reliable conclusions and corresponding academic views.
For ordinary readers, what they are most interested in and want to know is not the details of the research process, but the research results. People want to master the essence and research results of academic works accurately as soon as possible, and they don't have enough time and patience to read through the masterpieces. It will bring great convenience to readers if someone combs, simplifies and condenses academic works. Historian Dr. Duan Zhihong has been engaged in the collation, editing and publishing of ancient books for many years, and really feels the necessity of popularizing academic works. To this end, she plans to edit a series of books, invite like-minded scholars, change some academic works into concise and popular books with vivid language and easy acceptance by the masses, and take clumsy works as a pilot and then expand them to other academic works. This is a very good idea and a good thing. I deeply appreciate this and am optimistic about its success. This work is actually a process of re-creation, which helps the original to reach a wider audience. But unlike the film adaptation, there is no "joke" element, but it is still loyal to the original. This time, many illustrations about papermaking, printing, gunpowder, firearms and compass were collected and drawn to enrich the shortcomings of the original work. I believe this project will be successful.