When was papermaking invented?

PapermakingThe inventors are:Cai Lun

Cai Lun summed up the papermaking experience of people in the past, innovated the papermaking process, improved the papermaking technology, and finally made "Caihou paper". In the first year of Yuanxing (105 AD), he reported to the imperial court, the Han and the emperor.

Ordered to promote his paper-making method, in the first year of Jianguang (121 AD), he committed suicide due to a power struggle.

Cai Lun's improved papermaking technique was listed as the "Four Great Inventions" of ancient China, which made outstanding contributions to the spread of human culture and the progress of world civilization, and was highly respected by people for thousands of years, and was regarded as the originator of papermaking and the "paper god" by paper workers.

Papermaking process. Cai Lun, who was improving papermaking, supervised the manufacture of various utensils used in the palace, and he selected tree bark, broken linen, old fishing nets, etc., and asked the craftsmen to chop them up and soak them in a large pool. After a while, the debris rotted and the fibers were not perishable, so they were retained, and he asked the craftsmen to scoop up the soaked raw materials and put them in a stone mortar.

Stir until they become a pulp, then pick up the sticky stuff with bamboo strips, and when it dries, it becomes paper. Cai Lun led the craftsmen to trial and error, and tried to produce paper that is not only light and flexible, but also easy to use, wide and cheap.

In the first year of Yuanxing (105 AD), Cai Lun presented paper to Emperor Han He, and Cai Lun wrote the method of making paper as a song.

Together with the paper presented to the emperor, it was appreciated by the emperor, and he ordered the use and promotion of the imperial court inside and outside the world, and all the official offices of the imperial court and all parts of the country regarded it as a miracle. Nine years later, Cai Lun was named "Marquis of Longting", with 300 households. Due to the gradual implementation of the new papermaking method throughout the country Cai Lun invented, people called this kind of paper "Cai Hou paper".

It is not known who invented papermaking, except that it first appeared.

In addition, another evidence that the papermaking process of the Tang Dynasty has matured is that the production of process paper began during the Tang Dynasty. The so-called process paper is to dye or sprinkle gold on the paper, so as to make the paper more beautiful. After the papermaking technology was popularized in China, it also spread to other countries step by step, and finally successfully spread to the world, providing a lot of convenience for the development of human civilization.

There is some controversy among scholars about who exactly invented papermaking. One believes that papermaking was invented by Cai Lun in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the other believes that "paper" appeared as early as the Western Han Dynasty, and Cai Lun improved on its basis.

Papermaking was first used by the working people of the Han Dynasty to raise silkworms and weave silk, and there would be some silk wool piled up together, which could be used to write records after drying, which was the original paper, and it was not said who invented it.

Papermaking was invented by Cai Lun of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and slowly there was engraving printing, etc., and the popularity of writing began to become more and more widespread, and later spread to Europe, and the Renaissance began.

More than 1,800 years ago, Cai Lun, the inventor of papermaking, summed up the experience of using hemp fiber to make paper since the Western Han Dynasty, improved papermaking, and produced high-quality paper.

The period of invention was the Western Han Dynasty, and later came to the Eastern Han Dynasty and was improved by Cai Lun, but this person was a eunuch, and later papermaking became one of the four great inventions in China.

What we know now is that it was invented by Cai Lun of the Eastern Han Dynasty, but now according to research, Cai Lun was not the inventor of papermaking, and may have been invented in the Western Han Dynasty.

Papermaking is the crystallization of the long-term experience and wisdom of the ancient Chinese working people. Improved by Cai Lun.

In the first year of Yuanxing in the Eastern Han Dynasty (105), Cai Lun improved papermaking. He used bark, hemp and cloth, fish nets and other raw materials to make paper, through the process of frustration, pounding, copying, drying and other processes, is the origin of modern paper. This kind of paper, which is easy to find raw materials, is very cheap, and the quality has also improved, and it is gradually becoming more popular.

In order to commemorate Cai Lun's achievements, later generations called this kind of paper "Cai Hou paper".

Papermaking is one of the four great inventions in China, paper is the accumulation of long-term experience and wisdom of the working people of the Han nationality, and an outstanding invention in the history of human civilization. China is the first country in the world to raise silkworms and weave silk.

The working people of the Han nationality draw silk and weave silk from the cocoons of the silkworms, and the remaining evil cocoons and sick cocoons are made of silk cotton by bleaching method. After the bleaching is completed, there will be some residues left on the mat. When the number of bleaching is too much, the residue on the mat will accumulate into a layer of fiber flakes, which can be peeled off after drying, and can be used for writing.

The number of by-products of this drifting is not large, and it is called Helang or Fang Fu in ancient books. This shows that the origin of Chinese Han papermaking is related to silk wool.

Papermaking was invented during the Western Han Dynasty.

Cai Lun's "invention" was not paper, but papermaking. That is, the technology of producing durable paper cheaply and in large quantities. Paper also existed in China before Cai Lun, but it was of poor quality and could not be used for writing. Cai Lun, he completely changed China, but also changed the world.

The three words I just mentioned are cheap, massive, and durable, and if a technology does not have these three characteristics, it basically limits its own application and dissemination. As a carrier of information, parchment, like papyrus, is very expensive and difficult to produce in large quantities.

They do not have the characteristics of cheap and large quantities, and this high cost and low yield determine that they are basically eliminated. Even if their quality is more durable than the paper we commonly use. Because the high cost restricts the dissemination of information, culture is monopolized by a very small number of people.

It is very detrimental to the storage and dissemination of information. It even affects the administrative efficiency of the country.

Benefits of Papermaking:

The greatness of papermaking is that it can use cellulose in weeds, tree bark, fishing nets, etc., the precise expression of which was discovered thousands of years after the invention of papermaking (1838), and the Chinese magically knew how to peel and utilize this material early on.

Unlike papyrus and parchment, which are very intuitive writing materials, papermaking must be cut, beaten, steamed, and soaked, and then mixed with special materials. Therefore, it is difficult to find it by chance, and it must go through thousands of experiments and summaries to find out. That's why today's papermaking comes from a single source.

Papermaking was invented during the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Papermaking was invented by Cai Lun. In the first year of the Eastern Han Dynasty and Emperor Yuanxing (105 AD), Cai Lun invented the use of bark, broken fish nets, rags, hemp and other raw materials on the basis of summarizing the experience of his predecessors in manufacturing silk fabrics, and made it suitable for writing plant fiber paper, which made paper a commonly used writing material.

This paper is cheap, of high quality, and the raw materials are easy to find, so it is gradually becoming commonly used. By the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the use of paper has been fully popularized, and gradually spread to the surrounding countries, greatly improving the quality and production efficiency of paper, expanding the raw materials of paper, reducing the cost of paper, opening up prospects for paper to replace bamboo silk, and creating favorable conditions for the spread of culture.

Regarding the ancient book record of Cai Lun's invention of papermaking, "The Book of the Later Han Dynasty: The Biography of Cai Lun" says: "Since ancient times, the book deed has been mostly compiled with bamboo tubes; Those who use it are called paper. It is expensive and simple, and it is not convenient for people.

Lun is the intention of creation, with tree skin sails, hemp and cloth, fishing nets as paper. Later generations revered him as the inventor of Chinese papermaking.

Development History:

Since ancient times, the working people of China have known how to raise silkworms and reel silk. During the Qin and Han dynasties, the handicraft industry of making silk cotton from secondary cocoons was very popular. This method of processing the cocoon is called the bleaching method, and the basic points of the operation include repeated beating to mash the silkworm clothes.

This technology later developed into pulping in papermaking. In addition, in ancient China, lime water or grass and wood gray water were commonly used to degum silk and linen, and this technology also inspired the degumming of plant fibers in papermaking. Paper was developed with the help of these technologies.

Historically, there is very little literature on the papermaking technology of the Han Ku Xiao Dynasty, so it is difficult to understand its complete and detailed technological process. Although later generations have speculated, it can only be used as a reference. In general, there are many links in papermaking technology, so there must be a process of development and evolution, which is by no means the work of one person.

It is the crystallization of the long-term experience and wisdom of the Chinese working people.

The above content refers to Encyclopedia-Cai Lun.