Papermaking technique/Paper Making technics
One of China’s four great inventions and an outstanding invention in the history of human civilization.
Paper is a sheet fiber product used for writing, printing, painting or packaging. It is generally made of aqueous suspension of plant fibers that have been pulped, staggered on the web, initially dehydrated, and then compressed and dried. China is the first country in the world to invent paper. According to archaeological discoveries, hemp fiber paper already existed in my country during the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC to 8 BC). The texture is rough, the quantity is small, the cost is high, and it is not popular.
The development of papermaking
As for the ancient records of Cai Lun's invention of papermaking, "Book of the Later Han·Cai Lun's Biography" says: "Since ancient times, deeds have been mostly made of bamboo tubes; It is called paper. It is expensive and heavy, and is not convenient for people. Lun is an inventor who uses tree skin, hemp heads, cloth and fishnets as paper." Later generations will regard him as the inventor of papermaking in my country. Xu Shen of the Eastern Han Dynasty talked about the origin of "paper" in his "Shuowen Jiezi", which was China's first clear and systematic dictionary. He said: "'Paper' is next to the tie, which is next to 'silk'." This statement shows that paper at that time was mainly made of silk items, which was completely different from paper in the current sense. The invention, development and dissemination of paper also went through a tortuous process. After papermaking was invented in 105 AD, papermaking technology spread from Henan to other economically and culturally developed regions. Cai Lun was granted the title of Marquis Longting in Yangxian County, Shaanxi Province, and papermaking technology spread to the Hanzhong area and gradually spread to Sichuan. According to folklore in Cai Lun's hometown of Leiyang, Hunan, Cai Lun also taught papermaking to his hometown during his lifetime. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, papermaking in Shandong was also relatively developed, and Zuo Bo, an expert in papermaking, came out of Donglai County (today's Ye County). In addition, paper and algae-decorated books were also spread to various ethnic minority areas in the north through the Silk Road. Starting from the Jin Dynasty, famous calligraphers and painters emerged in large numbers in my country, which greatly promoted the development of paper for calligraphy and painting. For example, the calligrapher Wang Xizhi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty greatly improved the paper used for calligraphy and painting during the period of his father and son. The writing paper of the Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties was made of hemp and Chupi. The paper surface was coated with starch and white mineral paint and polished. After the Sui Dynasty unified the north and the south, the Tang and Song Dynasties inherited and developed hundreds of years of papermaking achievements, and ushered in the heyday of handmade papermaking in the Tang and Song Dynasty: the popularity of calligraphy, painting and Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty increased the demand for paper sharply, and the development of papermaking The raw materials are expanded to include rattan and mulberry bark. The calligraphy and painting paper is also boiled with starch salt and coated with paint, then waxed, and finally polished and calendered with coarse cloth or stones. The writing paper was also dyed yellow with barberry to avoid beetles. In the Northern Song Dynasty, Anhui had already adopted the method of sun-drying and night-harvesting to bleach hemp fiber to make paper. The raw paper produced was smooth, translucent and white, and had good durability. During the Southern Song Dynasty, the south of my country was already rich in bamboo paper. Wang Anshi, Su Dongpo and others liked to write on bamboo paper. They believed that bamboo paper had bright ink and sharp writing. It was imitated by many literati at that time, thus promoting the development of bamboo paper. The Song Dynasty was not only rich in bamboo paper, but also began to use rice and wheat straw to make paper. The "Four Pus of the Study" written by Su Yijian in the Northern Song Dynasty records that people in Zhejiang used wheat and rice straw to make pulp and combined it with oil cane to make paper. By the Ming Dynasty, my country's bamboo papermaking technology (referring to manual work) had been perfected. During this era, Song Yingxing's "Tiangong Kaiwu" systematically described the production process of bamboo papermaking, with illustrations of the production equipment and operation process. This book has been translated into Japanese, French, and English and spread to Japan and Europe. It is the earliest book that systematically describes the papermaking technology in my country. After hundreds of years in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, by the middle of the Qing Dynasty, my country's handmade papermaking had become quite developed, with advanced quality and a wide variety of varieties, which became the material conditions for the development and spread of the Chinese nation's culture over thousands of years.
Controversy over the inventor of papermaking
Papermaking is one of the four great inventions in ancient my country. Who invented papermaking? For a long time, people have believed that it was Cai Lun, the eunuch of the Eastern Han Dynasty. The main basis is the records in "Book of the Later Han: Biography of Cai Lun". The book says: "Since ancient times, most of the books and deeds have been compiled with bamboo slips, which are made of silk (that is, silk fabrics cut according to writing needs), which is called paper. Silk is expensive, simple and heavy, and is not convenient for people. Lun is an invention (invention) , created) using tree skin, hemp heads and poor cloth as paper. In the first year of Yuanxing, it was played.
The emperor was good at what he could do, so he never failed to use it, so the world called him "Cai Hou Zhi". "Therefore, some later Chinese and foreign works regarded Cai Lun as the inventor of paper in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and regarded the year 105 AD when he presented paper to Emperor Liu Zhao of the Han Dynasty as the birth year of paper.
But since the late archaeologist Huang Wenbi discovered a piece of ancient paper from the middle of the Western Han Dynasty in the Luobu Nur area of ??Xinjiang in 1933, he had different views on the invention of papermaking on May 8, 1957, in the suburbs of Xi'an, Shaanxi Province. Another 88 stacks of ancient paper fragments were found in the ancient tomb at the Baqiao Brick and Tile Factory. These stacks of ancient paper were padded very thickly under three bronze mirrors. Although they were in pieces, the edges were not completely rotten. The discovery aroused the interest of researchers. Archaeologists believe that this tomb cannot be later than the fifth year of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (118 BC), so the age of the Baqiao paper can be roughly determined in AD. Before 118 BC. This time is more than 200 years earlier than Cai Lun's papermaking. In addition, two pieces of hemp paper from the late Western Han Dynasty were unearthed from 1973 to 1974. From June to September this year, archaeologists from the Gansu Provincial Institute of Archeology unearthed a geological map in the Western Han Dynasty Tomb in Matan, Tianshui. The paper is 5.5 centimeters long and 2.6 centimeters wide. This latest paper map of the Western Han Dynasty has been discovered so far. The earliest paper objects in the street. These are strong proof that ancient China invented paper for writing and painting in the early Western Han Dynasty.
In addition, there are also historical records before Cai Lun. There are some records about paper. For example, "Sanfu Old Stories" once said: Prince Wei Liu Ju had a big nose, and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty did not like him. Jiang Chong gave him an idea and taught him to "hold paper when he goes to see Emperor Wu again." Cover his nose." The prince listened to Jiang Chong's words, covered his nose with paper, and went into the palace to see Emperor Concubine. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was furious. This painting took place in 91 BC. Another example is "Book of Han: Biography of Queen Zhao" Records: Zhao Zhaoyi, the sister of Zhao Feiyan, the favored concubine of Han Dynasty, wanted to kill the palace maid Cao Weineng after her death, so she sent someone to send poison and a "He Ti letter" to force Cao Weineng to commit suicide. According to Ying Shao of the Eastern Han Dynasty, "He Ti" means "Bo Xiao". Paper" (later called silk cotton paper). Another example is the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty: Jia Kui's Biography", which states that in 76 AD, Emperor Zhang of the Han Dynasty ordered Jia Kui to select twenty people to teach "Zuo's Biography" and "give slips and paper to "The above-mentioned documents related to paper are all earlier than 105 AD, the year when Cai Lun presented paper to Emperor He of the Han Dynasty.
Comrades who deny that papermaking was invented by Cai Lun believe that " It was the working people of the Western Han Dynasty who invented papermaking. After inheriting the papermaking technology of the Western Han Dynasty, the working people of the Eastern Han Dynasty improved, developed and improved it. During the reign of Emperor He, Cai Lun, Shang Fanling (who was responsible for managing the royal workshop and supervising the production of various instruments) organized the Shaofu Shang Fang Workshop to use sufficient manpower and material resources to supervise the production of a batch of fine paper that was more sophisticated than the previous generation. In the first year of Yuanxing, After popularization, 'it's natural that everyone in the world should follow it'. "This is one opinion in the debate.
Another opinion insists that Cai Lun is the inventor of papermaking in my country. The reason is that "according to the information about paper in Xu Shen's "Shuowen Jiezi" of the Han Dynasty The explanation is that the paper mentioned in ancient documents before Cai Lun was made of silk fiber. It is not actually paper, but a by-product of bleached silk. From ancient times to the present, to make a piece of Chinese-style plant fiber paper, generally It needs to go through basic operations such as shearing, retting, beating, suspending, papermaking, shaping and drying. And Baqiao paper is not paper in the real sense. The reason is that "from the outside, the paper belly is loose, the paper surface is rough, and the thickness varies greatly. After observation with a physical microscope and a scanning electron microscope, it was found that most of the fibers and fiber bundles are longer, indicating that its cutting degree is poor, and it is It is formed by the natural accumulation of fibers and has not gone through the basic operations of papermaking such as shearing and beating. It may not be considered real paper. It may be just the accumulation of woven textile scraps, such as lint, due to long-term padding. Under the bronze mirror of the ancient tomb, the flakes were formed by the pressure of the mirror body. In addition, the other so-called ancient papers of the Western Han Dynasty are also very rough, and are at best the prototype of ancient paper.
Cai Lun and his craftsmen summarized and improved on the basis of predecessors' methods of bleaching catkins and making prototype paper, and transferred the production of paper to an independent industry stage in terms of raw materials and technology for writing. It is true that "Cai Lun Paper" would not be made by Cai Lun, but without his "intention", Shangfang craftsmen alone would not be able to make this kind of plant fiber paper. Therefore, even today when the prototype paper is unearthed, it is still correct to regard Cai Lunping as the inventor or representative figure of my country's papermaking technology, and it has sufficient historical basis.
In addition, the records about Cai Lun's papermaking in "Book of the Later Han" are mainly taken from Liu Zhen's "Dongguan Han Ji". Liu Zhen and Cai Lun are contemporaries, so they should be credible. It can be seen from the records that Caihou paper could not only pay tribute to the emperor, but also be used for writing instead of silk, so the paper quality must have reached a certain level.
Some scholars also believe that whether Baqiao paper is a product of the Western Han Dynasty deserves further research. The reason they put forward is that "it is difficult to make a convincing scientific judgment on the production age of ancient paper until the life era of the person buried in the tomb cannot be accurately ascertained. What's more, the tomb has a disturbed soil layer and has been subject to external interference, which cannot be ruled out. The possibility of being brought in by future generations; the Changmawangdui, which is also a Han tomb, is as intact as if nothing had happened. The name of the tomb owner can be traced, the historical data is reliable, and the unearthed cultural relics are so rich, but except for thousands of bamboo slips and ancient silk-woven paper paintings , there is no piece of hemp paper. Some researchers also identified handwriting similar to regular script on the unearthed Baqiao paper, which is very similar to the font on the Eastern Jin Dynasty manuscript "The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms: Sun Quan" unearthed in Xinjiang. Based on this, they believe. Baqiao paper may be a product of the Jin Dynasty.