Cai Lun was the greatest inventor in ancient China, and also the inventor of papermaking. Before the invention of paper, people in ancient countries tried their best to use stones, bricks, leaves, bark, wax boards, copper, lead, linen, animal skin, sheepskin and so on to record in words.
During the Shang Dynasty in China, people carved characters on the scapula of tortoise shells, cattle, sheep, pigs and other animals one by one. Subsequently, people wrote articles with wood chips (also known as bamboo slips) and bamboo pieces (also known as slips) with one-to-one specifications; We will also use silk as paper to write in the future. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, with the development of economy and culture, bamboo and silk became more and more unsuitable for writing. In order to make an ideal writing material, Cai Lun made a light and economical paper with bark, hemp, rags and waste fishing nets as raw materials on the basis of using waste silk cotton to make paper, and summarized a set of relatively perfect papermaking methods, which made the papermaking technology leap. In A.D. 105 (in the reign of Liu Zhaonian in the first year of Han Yuan Xing), Cai Lun presented the finished paper to the court and was praised by the emperor. From then on, people began to use this kind of paper, and the paper made in Cai Lun was called "Cai Hou Paper" all over the country.
In A.D. 12 1 year, Cai Lun was involved in the struggle for power and interests of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and Emperor Liu Hu ordered him to surrender. Cai Lun was ashamed of being tried, so he bathed himself, put on the most beautiful clothes, and then committed suicide by taking poison.
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 all over the Arab world, where paper was 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. Although the modern paper industry has developed, its basic principle is still the same as that of Cai Lun. Nine times out of ten, the raw materials for papermaking have been replaced by wood pulp, but the raw materials for making high-grade printing paper, cigarette paper, rice paper and typing wax paper are still nothing more than rags, bark, hemp heads and waste fishing nets used in Cai Lun.
Cai Lun has a great influence on the development of our country and even human society, and it will continue. Today, it is impossible for us to measure the role of paper in historical development by quantity, let alone predict how long human use of paper will last. Therefore, Cai Lun (and another inventor of the four great inventions, Bi Sheng, who left his name) should occupy the position of chief or near chief in the list of people who have brought great influence to China and the historical process of mankind.
Business/79/2006-3/17/0631711064956745.htm.