Before the invention of papermaking in China, Egyptian papyrus was once the cheapest and lightest writing tool. Compared with papyrus, clay tablets are too heavy, copper tablets are too difficult to write, parchment is too expensive, and sand tables are too difficult to preserve. Papyrus paper does not have the above disadvantages at all. Of course, we can't say it is perfect. Its disadvantage is that it can't be folded, and it is a bit rough.
The manufacturing technology of papyrus was once lost, but before Cai Lun invented papermaking, it was one of the traditional export materials of ancient Egypt. After being cut off by Cai Lun, this ancient industry gradually declined, and finally the Egyptians used Cai Lun's method to make paper. This shows how fragile the vitality of some things in traditional culture is.
Later, after Egyptians regarded tourism as the pillar industry of their own economy, they thought of vigorously developing tourism resources, so papyrus papermaking developed again under that background.
Papyrus papermaking is very simple: after cutting papyrus, peel off the hard skin outside, cut it into sections as required, and soak it in water. After soaking, take it out and cut it into thin slices with a blade. Then spread these thin slices on a flat slate, cover it with linen, and press a slate on it. Squeeze the water out of the straw stem and air dry naturally in a few days. After uncovering the linen, a piece of toilet paper is finished. The lush sedges on both sides of the Nile provided good writing materials for the ancient Egyptians. This papyrus document records a famous legend in ancient Egypt, namely "the story of two brothers".
Such papyrus paper needs to be cut and pasted before writing, and the purpose of pasting is to connect the files to be written into volumes. The written scroll is rolled up with a shaft like a mounted calligraphy and painting, and the longest can reach 30 to 40 meters. The longest existing papyrus paper roll is Harris papyrus, which is 40.5 meters long. Because it was discovered by an Englishman, Harris named it after him. The content records the list of gifts given to the temple by Ramses III during the new dynasty. A gift list is more than 40 meters long. It seems that this gift is rich enough.
The ancient Egyptians used natural pigments as ink. All these pigments have a common feature, that is, they must be bright and suitable for modulation. The ancient Egyptians ground these pigments into powder, mixed them with special gum and dried them, so that they were easy to carry and melted with water when used. Typical examples of these pigments are ochre and carbon black.
In this way, this kind of pigment block is very similar to the ink block in ancient China, with a slight difference that there are more kinds of colors. It is undeniable that the history of ancient Egyptian civilization is several years earlier, which makes us wonder what our ancestors borrowed from ancient Egyptian civilization. However, there are also some places where such doubts have not been scrutinized. After all, there is no record of direct or indirect contact between the two sides in history. So there can only be one explanation: great minds think alike.
The "scribe" who could write at that time had a high social status. This sculpture of scribe is one of the best works in the history of ancient Egyptian art. He is sitting on his plate and writing, as if he had just looked up from the intermission of writing, listening carefully to other people's conversations and preparing for recording. His nervous expression seems to be afraid of missing a word. In addition to the similarity of ink blocks, the writing format is also strikingly similar. The writing format of papyrus documents is the same as writing with a brush, from right to left and from top to bottom. In fact, this writing method is very easy to get ink, especially for beginners. Comparatively speaking, the current writing form makes the right hand of writing farther away from the newly written handwriting. But writing from right to left is easier to read. We roll up the scroll in the most comfortable position and then open it for reading. What we see first must be the rightmost part.
The ancient Egyptians didn't write with a brush, otherwise we should say that China calligraphy originated in Egypt. Their writing tools tend to be simplified. Generally, a piece of plant stem is taken, and a little processing is a pen. The fine stems of rushes or papyrus can be used as writing tools after grinding. Later, they also used reeds and goose feathers as pens, and of course the fonts became more and more beautiful.
The ancient Egyptians had inkstones, but they didn't use them often. Their most commonly used tool is a tablet computer. Wordpad is made of wood or stone, generally more than one foot long, four fingers wide and one finger thick, much like paperweight, but with one or several grooves. The writer grinds ink in these grooves, so the inkstone is basically not used. The carvings on some monuments are very fine, and the contents are mostly historical events.
In ancient China, there was a great gap in the status of mental workers. It seems that their concept is exactly the same as that of the Egyptians, that is, "the book has its own golden house, and the book has its own Yan Ruyu".