The invention and development of ancient papermaking in China

Papermaking is one of the four great inventions in China. The invention of paper has played a great role in the development and spread of human culture, and it is a great contribution of the Chinese nation to the world science and culture. As a writing material, paper does not always exist. According to legend, knots were recorded in ancient China. At that time, there were no words, let alone writing paper. The characters in Shang and Zhou Dynasties were mature, but before there was paper, our ancestors came up with various methods to record characters. At first, they carved characters on the abdominal armor of turtles and the shoulder blades of cattle, sheep and other animals. The words carved on these Oracle bones are called. Oracle Bone Inscriptions? 1898, when farmers cultivated land in Xiaotun Village, Anyang, Henan Province, they didn't intend to dig out many lettering? Oracle Bone Inscriptions? The person who bought the medicine bought it. The following year, Wang, an ancient philologist, came across these characters in Oracle Bone Inscriptions. The area around Xiaotun in Anyang was originally a site of Shang Dynasty, so scholars recognized it as a script of Shang Dynasty. These Oracle bone fragments have a history of about 3500 years, and most of them are divination records of slave owners in Shang Dynasty, so they are also called? Oracle Bone Inscriptions? . However, it is very troublesome to take Oracle Bone Inscriptions, and it is not convenient to engrave it, so it doesn't take long to use Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Moreover, in Shang Dynasty, besides Oracle Bone Inscriptions, people also carved words on stones and bronzes. After the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, our ancestors began to use new writing materials-bamboo slips and silk books. Bamboo slips are a general term for several things. Chop bamboo and wood into long and narrow pieces, and then scrape the surface flat. This kind of long and narrow bamboo or wood chips used for writing is called bamboo slips or wooden slips, and the wide bamboo or wooden slips are called bamboo slips or wooden slips. Jane's length is different, some are three feet long, others are only five inches. Scriptures and laws are usually written on two feet four inches long Jane. Jane wrote a foot-long letter. That's what the ancients called it? A ruler? . There are not so many words written in each letter, some are thirty or forty words, and some are only a few words. There are many bamboo slips used in a long article or a book, which must be numbered in sequence and then strung together with rope, silk thread or cowhide strips. Policy? Or? Books? . At that time, in addition to bamboo slips, silk was also used as writing material. Silk is made of silk, and often a book is written on a roll of silk, so there is a saying that books are counted by rolls later. Bamboo slips and silk books, as writing materials, have obvious advantages compared with Oracle Bone Inscriptions and bronzes. Bamboo slips are made of bamboo, which is widely available and easy to process. You can write with pen and ink. If you make a mistake, you can rewrite it with a knife. Silk is soft, smooth, light and easy to carry and unfold. 1 April 1972 and1early 1974, China archaeologists excavated more than 900 bamboo slips in Mawangdui1No.3 Western Han tombs in Changsha, and the characters were written in ink, including a silk book with more than120,000 words and five beautifully painted silk paintings. This shows that until the Western Han Dynasty, bamboo slips and silk books were still widely used as writing materials. Although bamboo slips and silk books have their own merits. But they also have disadvantages. Bamboo slips are heavy and difficult to read and carry. Some of them are stored for a long time and often crack. The leather rope connecting Jane is broken, and the bamboo pieces are scattered all over the floor, so it is not easy to recover. According to historical records, the official documents of bamboo slips examined by Qin Shihuang every day weighed 100 kilograms. In the Western Han Dynasty, Dong Fangshuo wrote to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and used three thousand wooden slips, which were carried into the palace by two able-bodied men. It took Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty two months to finish reading. Hui Shi, a thinker in the Warring States period, went out for a study tour, and he carried five cars of books with him. Why? Learn to be rich and five cars? Allusions. It is troublesome to simplify the transportation and storage of so many books, and people often describe them as: a great success? 、? Chong dongyu? . So formed? Sweating a lot? Idiom. Silk also has many inconveniences. Although it is lighter than bamboo slips, it is too expensive for ordinary scholars to use. It is precisely because bamboo slips and silk books are not ideal writing materials that working people have found a writing material that can be used by most people through long-term exploration and innovation-paper has been slowly invented. What was the earliest paper made in China? Xu Shen in the Eastern Han Dynasty talked about it in his first well-organized and systematic dictionary, Shuowen Jiezi? Paper? Said's etymology:? Paper? From the side of this department, it shows that early paper was related to silk. Our ancestors planted mulberry, raised silkworms and reeled silk for weaving a long time ago. Silkworm was planted before Shang Dynasty, and by the early Western Han Dynasty, silk weaving had occupied an important position in social economy. At that time, silk was made of better cocoons, and silk floss was made of the remaining poor cocoons. When making silk floss, first cook the cocoon, wash it, then beat it on a mat soaked in water until the cocoon coat is pulpy, and then take out the silk floss that is connected into one piece. This is floating wool. After flossing, a layer of tangled silk will inevitably be attached to the mat, and the number of flossing is much more. When the mat is dried, thin silk sheets formed by residual flocs are attached to it. People peeled it off and found that it was similar to silk and could be used for writing. The ancients called it? Hetty? . ? Hetty? Unlike silk, although it is also made of silk, it is not made of warp and weft like silk, but is made of silk flocs stuck together. ? Hetty? It was used in the palace in the Western Han Dynasty. According to ancient records, in BC 12, a woman surnamed Cao gave birth to a son in the harem of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, which aroused the jealousy of the queen's sister Zhao, put her in prison and sent someone to use her? Hetty? Wrapped in poison and written on it, forced her to commit suicide. Ying Shao's "Custom Pass" said: Hetty, tissue paper is also. ? Because hetian is a by-product of making silk floss, its source is limited and its price is high, so it can't be produced and used in large quantities and can't meet people's needs. However, the method of making Heti inspired people greatly, which was an important beginning of ancient papermaking in China. After continuous exploration and experiments, plant fiber paper was finally invented successfully. When was plant fiber paper invented? It is not recorded in ancient books, but in 1933, archaeologists in China discovered a piece of hemp paper from the Xuandi period of the Western Han Dynasty at the beacon tower site in Noor, Lop Nur, Xinjiang. 1957, a pile of hemp paper was found in a tomb of the Western Han Dynasty in Anbaqiao, Xi 'an, Shaanxi Province, which was peeled off and divided into more than 80 pieces. Because it was unearthed in Baqiao, it is called? Baqiao paper industry? . It dates back to the 2nd century BC. This is the earliest plant fiber paper found so far. Of course, the production at that time was very rough and primitive. So how to make plant fiber paper more refined from rough and primitive? In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cai Lun earnestly summarized the experience of folk papermaking, improved papermaking technology, and selected cheap bark, hemp head, rags and waste fishing nets as raw materials for papermaking. These things are not only easy to obtain, but also easier to process than primitive plants. The processing method is as follows: first, stir these things with lime and blanch them, then pour them into a stone mortar to disperse the fibers, then add water to boil, add sticky substances such as glue to dissolve the fibers into slurry, and then use a fine curtain to evenly take these fine fibers out of the slurry and dry them. In this way, paper with light texture, low price and durability is made. In A.D. 105, Cai Lun presented the papermaking method to Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, which was appreciated by Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty and popularized his papermaking method. In a.d. 1 16, Cai Lun was named long tinghou, so people called the paper he invented? Where is Cai? . Cai Lun has made an indelible contribution in the history of paper making in China. After Cai Lun improved papermaking, a papermaking expert named Zuo Bo appeared at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. The paper he made was flat, thin, white and bright. With the wide application of paper, the range of papermaking raw materials has also expanded. In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, straw and wheat straw were used to make paper. Homemade paper? ; What's the name of making paper from rattan bark? Rattan paper? Or? Rattan paper? ; Trees are planted in the north, and bark is used to make paper. Grid paper? ; Bamboo is produced in the south and has been used to make paper since the Song Dynasty. Bamboo paper? Wait a minute. Due to the expansion of the range of papermaking raw materials, the papermaking industry naturally develops rapidly. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, some people used yellow leaf juice to dye paper yellow. In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, there were more papers of various colors, such as blue, red and green, which were very beautiful. Since the 4th century, Sichuan, Fujian, Zhejiang, Anhui, Hunan and other places have successively become famous papermaking producing areas. 1637, Song Jiaying, a scientist in Ming dynasty, recorded the ancient papermaking technology in detail in his book Heavenly Creations. The method of making bamboo paper mentioned in it is: first, cut bamboo into pieces, mix with lime and soak it in a pond, then take it out and cook it for a few days, then remove impurities and put it in a cellar for fermentation; Crushing with a stone mill, adding water to make paper pulp, and placing in a tank; Throw a wooden frame with a bamboo curtain from the pulp, leave a layer of fiber on the bamboo curtain, spread the bamboo curtain on the press, open the bamboo curtain, and this layer of wet paper will fall off; Multilayer wet paper is extruded and dried to make paper. Modern industrial papermaking is a continuous process of mechanization, but the basic principle of its production technology is not essentially different from that of ancient papermaking. After Yuan Dynasty, China paper industry was in a period of slow development. Until the establishment of Shanghai 189 1? Zhang Lun Paper Bureau? With the introduction of foreign machine papermaking technology, papermaking in China began to shift from manual production to machine manufacturing. Papermaking invented by China first spread to Korea in Wei and Jin Dynasties, and then spread from Korea to Japan in 6 10. In 75 1 year, there was a war between the Tang Dynasty and the * * * people, and some Tang soldiers were captured by the * * * people, including papermaking craftsmen, who passed on their papermaking technology to * * *, so * * also set up a paper mill. Later, Damascus, Egypt and Morocco in Syria also learned our papermaking technology. In 1 150, Spain had a paper mill. Later, Germany, Britain and the Netherlands also made paper. /kloc-After 0/6th century, papermaking spread from Europe to North America. Since then, it has gradually spread around the world. The invention and spread of ancient papermaking in China made an indelible contribution to the cultural development history of China and even the world!