The main raw materials for papermaking are mostly plant fibers, mainly bamboo and wood, and the fiber of wood is flexible, so the paper made has strong ink absorption; Bamboo fiber is brittle and hard, and the paper made of it has weak ink absorption, so it can be divided into two categories:
Weak blotting paper:
Mostly made of bamboo fiber, the paper is smooth, the ink floats on the surface, and it is not easy to open slowly, so the color is bright. Mainly paper, such as Tang paper, clay paper and today's foreign paper also belong to this category.
Tang paper:
The famous paper used by Li Houzhu in the Southern Tang Dynasty is as famous as Tinggui Ink. It is characterized by smoothness and compactness, and is known as "as slippery as spring ice and as dense as a seal". It is the top grade of weak blotting paper, which is almost called jade water paper, and the inferior one is called cold jade. "Light and crisp" is its characteristic.
Shu Gui:
It is said that Cai Lun's ancient papermaking method has spread in western Shu, and the Shu Gui produced by it has been quite famous since the Tang Dynasty, such as Xue Taogui and Xie Gonggui. It is said that its water quality is pure, so its paper is great. "Thank the official document" is named after the teacher's creativity, because it has ten colors, also known as ten-color text. "Xue Taogui" is named after pottery, but this kind of colored paper is made according to the ancient method, which is easy to dye and cannot be circulated for a long time. Just for fun.
Tibetan scripture paper:
Tibetan scripture paper is the paper used by Buddhist temples to write or print Buddhist scriptures, also known as Jinsuwen, and there are two kinds of yellow and white.
Clay gold and wax jars commonly used in Ming and Qing dynasties are rare today, and cold light jars are rare even if they have the lowest appearance. Bird paper made in Japan is widely used now, but it is expensive, not durable and really not practical.
Strong blotting paper:
Most of them are wood fibers, which have strong ink absorption and rough surface, and the ink is easy to spread when it falls off the paper. Writing is often made of paste or wax, the luster is not as bright as paper, and it is more subtle, mainly based on Xuan paper. Although it appeared late, it has replaced paper and become the most valuable writing paper.
Xuan Paper and Imitation Xuan:
Today, the most valuable writing paper is the poster of the jade plate. Lime for yubanxuan, mulberry, short wood, straw and sandalwood skin has the strongest ink absorption and the best texture. Xuan paper is named after Xuancheng, Anhui Province, but Xuancheng itself does not produce paper, and the surrounding local paper is declared as scattered land.
Let's continue to talk about the precious jade plate announcement. This kind of paper can't be used by everyone, because it has strong ink absorption, so it is hard for people who use it slowly: as long as they stop writing, the ink will seep out and form a big ink ball! However, some people use its characteristics to write distinctive characters, such as Bao's light ink book and Qi Baishi's freehand brushwork.
Because rice paper is too ink-absorbing and difficult to write, some people have improved it: either calendering, adding glue alum or adding pulp. After improvement, the ink absorption of rice paper is slightly reduced, making it easier to write.
Wool edge paper, meta book paper, cotton paper;
Xuan paper is expensive, so it is often used in calligraphy. This kind of paper was originally used to print books, but because of its good paper quality, some people bought books and cut them out to practice writing, so it is called "pleated paper". The raw material of this paper is mainly bamboo, which is yellow in color and excellent in texture, which is very different from the machine-made selvage paper used by primary and secondary school students now. Yuanshu paper is similar to fringed paper, but it is unknown today. The cotton paper produced in this province can also be regarded as this kind, with good texture, toughness and low price, which can be used as calligraphy.
Selection method of paper
Soft and dense texture:
When choosing paper, the texture is the most important. Poor quality paper is not only easy to damage the pen, but also difficult to keep. Famous papers in ancient and modern times are famous for their quality, such as "Integrity Hall paper is as dense as printing", and the jade board claims to be "flexible and durable". The toughness and compactness of paper are the best, which can be known by visual inspection when choosing.
White:
Paper is not white, because the raw materials are not good, or the water quality is not good. The extremely white jade board is made of ebony, and the bookcase is made of "Huan flower bed water", all of which are examples. If it is dyed, it must be pure white and natural paper. However, the dyed paper is not easy to spread for a long time. If you want the work to be placed in the Palace Museum in a hundred years, you'd better avoid using it. White is not white, you can understand it with your eyes. I don't need to say more about this.
Moderate surface smoothness:
The surface of paper can be divided into smooth and rough; Smooth and solid pen, but if it is too slippery and light, there is no pen power, while if it is rough, it is easy to get pen power, but if it is too rough, it is difficult to write and damage the pen tip. The so-called "fine but not astringent" is also true. This can be distinguished by vision and touch, so I won't say much.
Medium ink absorption:
The paper must be able to feed ink, otherwise the ink floats on the paper, which is easy to fall off and cannot be stored for a long time. Generally speaking, Xuan paper has strong ink absorption, while paper is the opposite. Ink absorption is too strong. If you use the pen slowly, dots and pictures will become ink balls. But if the ink absorption is too weak, the ink is not easy to enter the paper, so it is not suitable. Therefore, when choosing paper, we should consider the style of the book and the speed of personal pen lifting. If only ink could feed paper but not "balls". If the store allows, we can only try it in ink when we try it.
According to the inscription, choose paper:
If copying a tablet looks like a miracle, we should not only pay attention to pens, but also pay attention to paper. When choosing paper, we should first distinguish its ink absorption, depending on the degree of the base paper. Choose paper with strong ink absorption when entering the paper, and vice versa. If you can't get a glimpse of the actual situation of entering ink, such as those printed on slate, you can also distinguish their customs. Those papers with sharp edges and bright colors. Gentle, reserved and introverted people can choose rice paper.
Choose paper according to your personality:
Of course, you should also consider your personal preferences, otherwise you may not want to use the paper you don't like when you buy it back. If you are in a hurry, you should choose strong blotting paper so that ink can enter the paper. If you write slowly, you can choose weak blotting paper, otherwise the ink will jump out of the paper, which is not good.
How to use paper
Yiping:
When writing, it must be laid flat to facilitate writing; If the paper is wrinkled, it will be difficult to write. It's just that when people write ancient seals, they deliberately wrinkle the paper in order to make it mottled and old.
Cleanliness:
Dirty paper will affect the appearance and ink color, and dust will also affect the pen. If mixed with ink, the ink is neither firm nor shiny. Although this is only a small matter, it is also very important!
Framework:
Calligraphy, calligraphy and writing are the most important, so "calligraphy" and "law" are also called, especially shelves and rules. The layout rules are divided into vertical rows and horizontal rows, and the vertical frame has Jiugong, Tian Zi and Mizi styles. There are also differences between light and dark lines, all cursive scripts are like this, especially regular scripts; It is said that people in the Tang Dynasty attached great importance to "Fa" and were meticulous. Look at the remaining famous laws. Their laws are stricter than ever before. So there is a saying that Jiugong was founded in the Tang Dynasty.
The division also depends on the style of the script. Regular script and seal script with the strictest statutes should be neat in both vertical and horizontal directions, and grades can be drawn. However, cursive script can only go straight and should not be added, so as not to bind hands and feet and not to stand upright. Open lines should be thin, so as not to hinder the appreciation of courage, and dark lines should be light, so as not to smear or damage the paper. If origami is easy to wrinkle and fold, which hinders the transportation of pens, it must also be avoided.
Fixed:
When writing, the paper needs to be fixed When the paper moves with the pen, the words can't keep up with your heart. Methods In addition to pressing the paper with the left hand, you can also press the paper in a proper position with a press.
Pad absorbent cloth:
When writing with a pen full of thick ink, press it again and again, the force will penetrate the back of the paper, and the ink will penetrate the paper, which will not only dirty the desktop, but also dirty the strokes and destroy the picture. Therefore, absorbent paper or cloth should be padded under the paper to absorb the oozing ink and keep the picture clean.
Paper to be dried:
Everyone knows what happens when the ink is not dry! A good word is an inexplicable "mirror image", which sometimes makes people laugh and cry. Also, don't be smart enough to "dry" your work or try to dry it with toilet paper, which will not only make the ink fall off easily, but also destroy the color of the ink. When cleaning, don't fold it at will, so as not to damage the paper and hinder viewing.
Hide in a dry and cool place;
Paper will rot easily when it is wet, and it will break if it is too dry, so if you want to make your masterpiece durable, put it in a dry and cool place. Others, such as insects, should also pay attention.
The invention of paper
Papermaking is also one of the four great inventions in China. The invention and application of paper greatly promoted the progress of human civilization. Paper is not only an ideal material for writing, but also for printing. Therefore, the invention of paper provided good conditions for the invention of printing.
Who invented paper?
Cai LUN
In Four Treasures of the Study, paper appeared later than pen, ink and inkstone. Cai Lun, the eunuch in the early Eastern Han Dynasty, was recognized as the inventor of papermaking.
According to Ye Fan's Book of the Later Han Dynasty, "Cai Lun, with respect, is also a native of Guiyang. ..... Since ancient times, many book contracts have used bamboo slips, and those who use silks are called' paper'. Expensive and simple, inconvenient for people. Lennart created this idea, using bark, hemp head, our cloth and fishing nets as paper. In the first year of Yuanxing, play it. " The emperor's ability is superior, so he always uses it wisely, so the world calls it Cai Hou paper.
This is the earliest record of papermaking in historical documents. As can be seen from the records, the raw materials used for papermaking in Cai Lun are low-priced materials such as bark, hemp head, old cloth and fishing net. Therefore, the paper made by this method has low cost and can be popularized and applied soon.
The use of early paper
In 105, the paper made in Cai Lun has been able to meet the requirements of writing. For Cai Lun, the purpose of papermaking is to replace wooden slips, bamboo slips, silk books and other materials for writing and recording words, and it is widely used because of its advantages of light paper and low price.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zuo Bo, a native of Shandong Province, was famous for his exquisite papermaking. At that time, calligraphers spoke highly of Zuo Bo's paper. That is to say, at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, papermaking surpassed that of Cai Lun.
In the 4th century, bamboo slips, silk and paper were used together. With the continuous improvement of paper quality and output, the proportion of paper as writing material is increasing. During this period, paper became an indispensable writing material for literati.
Early papermaking methods
Photographs of papermaking
There are few historical records about the ancient papermaking methods in China, but the papermaking technology and its principle have not changed much since it was invented two thousand years ago. To sum up, the following points can be summarized:
First, cut plants, such as hemp plants, are soaked in water, peeled, chopped with a knife, boiled in a pot, soaked and trampled after cooling, and stirred with a stick to make their fibers break and thin.
Photographs of papermaking
Secondly, add auxiliary materials to make paper pulp.
Thirdly, it can be dried by a paper machine (bamboo curtain and the like) to make paper.
Photographs of papermaking
The invention of papermaking
The history of China has gone through primitive society, slave society and feudal society. It's been more than five thousand years. During this long time, our ancestors used many natural raw materials or processed materials to take notes and write in order to help them remember, record their experiences, leave them behind and write books. The methods recorded in ancient books or the objects discovered in archaeology include: knotting notes, Oracle Bone Inscriptions, stone drum tablets, bamboo slips and silks, etc.
Among the early materials mentioned above, bamboo slips and silk books, especially bamboo slips, are the most widely used. Bamboo slips are actually the general name of several things, which refer to bamboo slips, wooden slips, bamboo slips and wooden slips, among which bamboo slips are the most common. Writing on long and narrow bamboo pieces or strips is called bamboo slips or wooden slips; What is written on a wide piece of bamboo or wood is called bamboo slips or wooden slips. Wang Chong in the Eastern Han Dynasty recorded in Lun Heng: "Bamboo is born on the mountain, wood is longer than forest, cutting bamboo slips, breaking them into regular script, adding pen and ink marks, writing", "cutting wood into rafters, bending it into boards, scraping it hard, playing rafters". This is what was recorded.
Silk is actually a kind of silk fabric, which can be cut, sewn, written and painted. Compared with bamboo slips, it is soft and smooth, easy to carry pens and unwind, and not as bulky and messy as bamboo slips. But silk is expensive and cannot be popularized.
Cai Lun was a regular servant and official in the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, who was responsible for making palace supplies. According to Cai Lun's biography, he was "brilliant, diligent and cautious" ... In the ninth year of Yongyuan (AD 97), he supervised all kinds of secret swords and kept them secret, which was the law of later generations. It shows that he has the personal qualities of invention and creation and the material conditions for developing plant fiber paper. He also said that "every time he goes to rest, he closes the door and rushes out of the field", which shows that he often goes to the folk to inspect the production experience of retting hemp, boiling kudzu vine and textile, and concentrates on research to deepen and accumulate the understanding of plant raw materials and fiber properties. He complied with the needs of society and everyone's expectations. After long-term efforts, he finally made writing paper from broken fishing nets, old cloth heads, hemp heads and bark in 105 (the first year of Yuan Xing in the Eastern Han Dynasty).
As for the historical fact of Cai Lun's invention of papermaking, it is clearly recorded in the Third Book of the Twenty-fifth History of China: "Since ancient times, book contracts have been made of bamboo slips, and those who use silks are called paper. Expensive and simple, inconvenient for people. Lennart created this idea, using bark, hemp head, our cloth and fishing nets as paper. In the first year of Yuanxing (AD 105), the emperor was good at talent, so he always used it, so the world is salty and called Cai Hou Paper. " Other ancient books also recorded Cai Lun's paper-making methods, such as Natural History, which said, "Cai Lun boiled bark to make paper", "Cai Lun began to pound old fishing nets to make paper", and Records of the Later Han Dynasty said, "Cai Lun smashed old nets to make paper". Here, beating, boiling, mashing and banknotes are equivalent to the main papermaking processes such as pulp cutting, cooking, beating and papermaking. "Yi" and "Chu Dao" have the meaning of being invented first, indicating that Cai Lun first used rags, fishing nets and stem skins of phloem plants as.