Cai Lun paper is cooked Xuan paper, a kind of rice paper. (Detailed introduction below)
Xuan paper comes from Jingxian County, Anhui Province. It is a high-end art paper mainly used for Chinese calligraphy and painting, mounting, rubbing, watermarking, etc. It has good ink wetting, durability, deformability and insect resistance. Rice paper can generally be divided into rice paper base paper and processed paper. Rice paper base paper: After rice paper goes through the last "baking" process, the paper properties (good or bad) and ink color effect) has basically been determined. This kind of finished paper with "no subsequent processing to affect the paper properties" is the base rice paper. Processed paper is a general term for paper that is processed based on the original paper to change the paper properties, appearance and visual effects - excluding "cutting to size only", such as: printing, vitriol, and polishing. . . Rice paper is divided into raw Xuan, half-cooked Xuan, and cooked Xuan.
Raw Xuan has strong water absorption and water-clearing properties, and is prone to rich ink rhyme changes. Use it to splash ink or accumulate ink, and it can absorb water halo. Ink, to achieve the artistic effect of water flowing ink. It is often used in freehand landscapes. What Shengxuan pursues in his paintings is this kind of "variable" ink taste. It is fixed once he starts writing, and the ink penetrates quickly, making it difficult for unskilled people to master. It is this magical changeability that has attracted countless celebrities and masters from ancient times to the present. We have made unremitting efforts to pursue the charm and change of ink, and we have not stopped yet...
Mature xuan is coated with alum etc. during processing, so the paper is harder than raw xuan and has weaker water absorption capacity. , so that the ink and color will not spread when used. Therefore, this
characteristic of Shuxuan makes it suitable for painting fine brushwork rather than freehand ink painting. The disadvantage is that "alum leakage" or brittleness may occur if stored for a long time. Ripe xuan can be reprocessed. Coral, mica paper, cold gold, sprinkled gold, wax gold flower rib, pink tiger skin, etc. are all types of paper that are reprocessed from ripe xuan. If it is born in Xuan, it has strong water absorption. When writing with light ink, the ink penetrates and melts easily. Writing in thick ink is relatively easy. Therefore, when creating calligraphy and painting, you need to master the shades of ink so that you can be handy.
Half-cooked Xuan is also processed from raw Xuan, and its water-absorbing ability is somewhere between the first two. "Jade Ban Xuan" falls into this category.
The simple way to distinguish raw xuan and cooked xuan is to contact the paper surface with water. The water that spreads out immediately is raw xuan, the water that condenses basically unchanged is called cooked xuan, and the water that spreads out slowly is called cooked xuan. It is half-cooked Xuan (also known as Boiled Xuan).