Long-lasting but not brittle, with unique permeability. Tough and moist, it has become the calligraphy and painting paper that can best reflect China's artistic style. The paper of Chinese painting is mainly Xuan paper. In addition, it is aging-resistant, white and dense, and will not fade, while Xuan paper is easy to preserve, and the leather paper is silk, which does not change color, has pure texture and strong ink. Writing has both bone and spirit, painting is radiant, moth-eaten, long life and better lubricity, so Xuan paper is known as "the king of paper, the paper with a thousand years of life". Therefore, Chinese paintings often use Xuan paper.
The main producing area of Xuan paper is Jingxian County, Xuancheng City, Anhui Province. Since Jingxian County is under the jurisdiction of Xuanzhou, and Xuanzhou has also been the distribution center of the paper industry since ancient times, the paper produced in this area is called "Xuanzhi".
Xuan paper can be divided into raw and cooked Xuan paper according to the degree of raw and cooked. The so-called "raw" and "cooked" are the differences in production technology. Cooked propaganda has one more process than raw propaganda, that is, it is necessary to brush a layer of alum and peach gum (or bone glue) on the paper to make the paper no longer seep. So is the painting and calligraphy paper good with water seepage or not? It depends on different creative needs.
Life propaganda absorbs water. For painting, if you need to show rich blooming effect, life propaganda is better than familiar propaganda. Cooked propaganda is more suitable for the creation of delicate meticulous painting.
As far as calligraphy is concerned, it is very easy to absorb water, so it is easy to penetrate when writing, and it is not suitable for expressing details such as tying strings and reflecting belts (so if you want to learn Jin and Tang calligraphy such as Lanting Preface, you can use cooked propaganda instead of sheng Xuan); Because brush strokes will have greater resistance, and the power of brush strokes will go deeper into the paper, many calligraphers also like to use brush strokes in order to show the strength of brush strokes.
Summary: Strictly speaking, Xuan paper is produced in Jingxian County, Anhui Province and its surrounding areas. It is made of Shatian straw and Pteroceltis tatarinowii bark as the main raw materials and refined by many traditional processes. However, with the widespread use of the name "Xuan paper", calligraphy and painting paper produced in Sichuan, Zhejiang and other places has also been named "Xuan paper".
For professional painters and calligraphers, they are more willing to choose not only Xuan paper in the strict sense, but also quite old paper with history. Now we can still see rice paper made hundreds of years ago. These old newspapers are very valuable and have become more and more collectibles.