Wool edge paper is a kind of light yellow paper made of bamboo fiber. It should be noted that it must be made of bamboo fiber. According to historical records, "the bamboo paper produced in Jiangxi in the late Ming Dynasty is delicate, thin and soft, light yellow, water-resistant and good in water absorption. Suitable for writing and printing ancient books. " Because Jin Mao, a great book collector in Ming Dynasty, loved books and printed books on bamboo paper, he once went to Jiangxi to order a large number of slightly thick bamboo paper and stamped the edge of the paper with the word "Mao", so people used to call this paper wool-edged paper, which is still in use today.
Then, it is very important to talk about the classification of edge paper. Edge paper is mainly divided into manual edge paper and machine-made edge paper. The reason why hand-made edge paper is written in front is that there is pure hand-made edge paper first, and then with the development of industrial technology, there is machine-made edge paper. For a detailed introduction of edge paper, please refer to the article published by Qi Ming before-"What paper is good for beginners to learn calligraphy (the difference between edge paper, Xuan paper and Yuan book paper)". Handmade edge paper is generally rough on both sides, so I won't discuss it here. In this paper, we will focus on the machine-made edge paper with glossy surface and rough surface.
Below, I will list some typical views on whether the edge paper is made of rough surface or glossy surface:
The first point of view is that the rough side of frosted paper should be used, which is called frosted side. The reason is that the rough side of edge paper will penetrate ink more easily, and the smooth ink penetration effect will be far less than that of the rough side. In addition, when writing, there is a feeling of struggle between paper and pen, especially when lifting and pressing. In other words, the friction between the rough side and the brush is greater, and it is easier to reflect the pen power.
This is the rough side of fringed paper shot by Qi Ming. You can see the rough texture of the paper.
Another point of view is that smooth surface should be used, that is, glossy surface. Book lovers who hold this view mainly think that the edge paper itself is already very rough and should use a smooth side.
This is the smooth side of wool paper photographed by Qi Ming. Compared with the previous picture, you can feel that it is much smoother here.
There is also a view that it depends on the specific content, whether to write a monument or a post. The rough side is more suitable for writing tablets, and the smooth side is more suitable for writing posts.
I put the rough edge paper with the smooth surface. Let's feel it.
Qi Ming first put the previous survey results in Qi Ming and his calligraphy friend QQ group, and then talked about his own views. The picture below shows the voting situation at the beginning of the survey.
As you can see, although only six people voted at first, the unanimous choice was rough.
Let's take a look at the comments on Qi Ming QQ Space below.
From the screenshot above, most book lovers choose to use the rough side of paper. I think everyone should be aware of the three points summarized by Qi Ming before. In Qi Ming's view, the rough side may indeed be more suitable for writing, or closer to the state of woolen paper used by the ancients. Of course, this is my personal opinion, so Qi Ming suggested that you use the rough side here. Of course, you can choose to use rough surface or glossy surface according to your preference. In short, it is for reference only.