The Western Jin Dynasty to the Southern and Northern Dynasties was the growth period of my country's paper industry. Its characteristics are: the papermaking industry has developed on a large scale, and paper has replaced slips and become the main writing material in society. 1. In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, rice and wheat straw were used to make earthen paper.
After the establishment of the Jin Dynasty, the social economy improved to a certain extent, the culture also developed, the demand for paper increased, and the papermaking industry More raw materials are required for production. The topic of finding new raw materials for papermaking is on the agenda. In 317 AD (Eastern Jin Dynasty), Emperor Sima Rui of Jin Yuan Dynasty established the capital in Jinling (now Nanjing). The papermaking method in the Central Plains area spread to the Yangtze River Basin and Jiangnan area through people's exchanges.
Jiangnan has beautiful mountains and clear waters, good geographical and climatic conditions, and lush plants that open people's horizons. The working people chose grass (rice, wheat straw) and rattan (skin) as new raw materials for paper making. Because the linen materials used in papermaking in the past, such as torn (linen) cloth, linen (thread) ends, fishing nets, etc., were all waste items, it is natural to think of trying rice straw, which is a by-product of food crops (rice, wheat). , wheat straw, etc. to make paper. However, rice straw fibers are shorter and the paper made from them is coarser and less durable. Therefore, Fan Ning of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (AD 339-401), when he was an official in Zhejiang, issued a "religious order" (announcement) saying: "Oil paper cannot be used as writing documents, and rattan corner paper is ordered to be used." Rattan angle paper is rattan paper. Fan Ning's words illustrate two problems: first, rice and wheat straw were used to make earthen paper in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, but the quality was not good; second, rattan paper was popular at that time and was of high quality.
It can be seen that around the fourth and fifth centuries AD, my country had already used rice and wheat straw to make paper, and was the earliest country in the world to use grass raw materials. "Tu paper" is straw paper. In Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian and other places in my country, straw paper is still commonly known as "Tu paper". Generally, paper made by hand using rice and wheat straw fibers is of low quality and is mostly used for hygiene purposes, so it cannot be used as a document. Regarding rattan paper, according to the book "Natural History" compiled by Zhang Hua (232 to 300 AD): "There are many ancient rattan trees in Yanshan River." Yanxi is the current area of ??Shengxian County, Zhejiang Province. The area produces vine trees and has streams and rivers. It is a good place to develop the paper industry. Rattan paper is of higher quality because it is made from the long fibers of rattan bark. 2. Promotion of Pupi paper
In the north, papermaking raw materials expanded from hemp to Pupi. Chu is the paper tree, also called the grain tree. It is a deciduous tree with light green flowers, red fruits and strong skin fibers.
The book "Essential Art of Qi Min" written by Jia Sixie of the Northern Wei Dynasty in the fifth century AD has a special chapter introducing the planting methods and conditions of Pu. Jia Sixie served as the governor of Gaoyang County (in today's Shandong Province). The book he wrote is a summary of agricultural and sideline production in the areas under the jurisdiction of the Northern Dynasties. It is emphasized that the cultivation of Pu is to open up a source of raw materials for the paper industry. The first process of using Pu to make paper is to peel off the Pu skin through cooking. It can be sold as a commodity and the profit is very high. This is the historical background for the promotion of Chu (skin) paper production in the Southern and Northern Dynasties and even in the following years. Farmers often sell the processed Pupi to the papermaking industry, and the papermaking industry obtains abundant Pupi raw materials. So Pupi paper became very popular in society.
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, there was a man named Zhang Yong (? ~475) who could make his own paper and ink. He made paper with a smooth and smooth surface to facilitate writing. According to the "Book of the Song Dynasty": "Zhang Yong had an ingenious idea. He made paper and ink by himself. Every time he got a permanent expression on it, he would play with it and sigh to himself. It was too late for the emperor." This shows that the study of papermaking technology has attracted people's attention. Some of the papers made by the people are even better than the paper used in the palace. Zhang Yongneng often wrote to the emperor, so he was certainly not an ordinary person in feudal society. Rather than saying that he has ingenuity, it is better to say that the craftsman who helped him make paper has wisdom. 3. Compared with the paper of the Han Dynasty, the quality of the paper of the Jin Dynasty has been greatly improved
After the Jin Dynasty and until the Southern and Northern Dynasties, my country's papermaking industry made great progress. There are records in history books, and there are also physical evidences handed down from ancient times and unearthed. If we compare Jin Dynasty paper with Han Dynasty paper, we can see that the quality of the two types of paper is obviously different.
For example, the "Pingfu Tie" currently in the Palace Museum was written on linen paper of the Jin Dynasty, which is much better than the Ejina paper with Chinese characters written on it.
This allows us to know that in the development of the paper industry, the quality of paper has been greatly improved during this period. 4. Replace slips with paper
The cultural undertakings in the Jin Dynasty were relatively developed, and the trend of reading, copying and collecting books became increasingly popular. According to records: in the early Jin Dynasty (AD 289), there were 29,945 volumes of official books; in the eighth year of Song and Yuanjia (AD 431), there were 64,582 volumes; in the reign of Emperor Liang and Yuan (AD 552 to 555 years) had more than 70,000 volumes of books in Jiangling?. As for the private collection of books, it gradually increased. Guo Tai of the Jin Dynasty had a private collection of five thousand volumes. Zhang Hua (AD 232-300) moved one house and carried 3,000 books in his car. During the reign of Emperor Wu of Liang (AD 502-549), his family had a literary and historical background within the four borders. (Zhang Xiumin: "The Development and Influence of Printing in China"). This is the result of the development of the paper industry and the promotion of cultural undertakings.
Because only when cheap and suitable paper can be fully supplied, can people's cultural knowledge be popularized and improved. Of course, this is inseparable from the hard work of paper craftsmen.
The mass production and application of paper have gradually reduced the space for bamboo slips, wooden slips, and silk fabrics. Because paper is much better for writing than bamboo and wood, calligraphy became popular. Wang Xizhi (321 to 378 AD) and Wang Xianzhi (344 to 488 AD) were both famous calligraphers in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. It is said that when Wang Xizhi was the prefect of Yongjia, he often came to the pond to study calligraphy, and the water in the pond was exhausted. Later, the Northern Song Dynasty painter Mi Fu (AD 1051-1107) wrote the two characters "Mo Chi" and stood on the side of the pool as a commemoration. Although the paper they used to write on was called "cloth paper", it was actually made from waste linen cloth, that is, hemp paper. Wang Xizhi once gave Xie An (a senior official in the Jin Dynasty) 90,000 pieces of hemp paper, which shows that he was able to mass-produce paper with better quality at that time.
After paper became widely available, copying became popular. The issue of protecting paper was also raised.
In addition to being exposed to disasters such as water, fire, and rats, paper is also subject to erosion by bookworms (also known as silverfish or sweater fish). In order to combat pests, people invented various methods to protect paper and books.
Ge Hong (AD 281-341) used yellow tiller juice to impregnate hemp paper. Based on this, he developed a method of embellishment processing of paper. Lu Yun (AD 262-303) of the Western Jin Dynasty wrote a letter to his brother Lu Ji (AD 261-301), asking Lu Ji to engrave the paper used for writing articles for preservation. The so-called jute paper is to soak the hemp paper in yellow tiller juice, then take it out and dry it immediately, so as to get "jute paper" (that is, yellow hemp paper). Scutellaria baicalensis contains alkaloids, mainly berberine (berberine), which can prevent insects.
In addition, the so-called realgar calligraphy has also appeared. This method is to grind the realgar or orpiment into very fine powder and use glue to make it look like an ink ingot. When used, grind it on a stone slab to make yellow juice, which can be used to erase wrong words written on jute paper and rewrite them separately.
Jute paper can prevent insects and has an auxiliary method for correcting typos, thus improving the practicality of the paper. At the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (AD 397-418), Huan Xuan, the Taiwei (equivalent to the official position of Prime Minister) of Emperor An, issued an order: "In ancient times, people who had no paper used slips, but today those who use slips should use yellow paper instead." At this point, the scholar-bureaucrat class used paper to write books and official documents.