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 books and deeds have been made of bamboo slips, and those with silk books 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 is good at his ability, so he always uses it, so the world is salty and called Cai Hou paper. " This is the earliest record of papermaking in historical documents.
Extended data:
In the 8th century, paper was widely used in China. In the following centuries, China exported paper to all parts of Asia and kept the secret of papermaking strictly. In 75 1 year, there was a conflict between the Tang Dynasty and the Arab Empire, and the Arabs captured several China paper makers. Soon, the paper industry rose in Samarkand and Baghdad. In this way, papermaking gradually spread to all parts of the world, where paper began to be widely used and then spread to North America and Europe through Arab countries. According to historical records, the first paper mill was established in Europe more than 0/000 years after Cai Lun invented papermaking.