Ancient papermaking materials, what materials can be used as raw materials for ancient papermaking?

The ancients used the best silkworm cocoons to draw silk and weave silk, and the remaining evil cocoons and sick cocoons were 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 papermaking is related to silk wool. In the first year of Yuanxing in the Eastern Han Dynasty (105), Cai Lun invented papermaking.

He used tree bark, hemp and cloth and fish nets and other plant raw materials to make paper through the process of frustration, pounding, copying, and baking, which is the origin of modern paper.

During the period of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties from the third to the sixth century AD, China's papermaking technology continued to innovate. In terms of raw materials, in addition to the original hemp and wrench, it has been extended to make paper from mulberry and rattan bark.

Cai Lun first used bark to make paper, which is a much richer raw material than hemp, which can greatly increase the output of paper. The lignin, pectin and protein contained in the bark are much higher than those of hemp, so the degumming and pulping of the bark are more difficult than those of hemp. This prompted Cai Lun to improve the technology of papermaking.

In the Western Han Dynasty, lime water was used for pulping, and in the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was changed to grass and wood ash water for pulping, and the grass and wood gray water has greater alkalinity, which is conducive to improving the quality of pulp.

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cai Lun improved papermaking and appeared paper made of bark, hemp, broken silk, and broken fishing nets.

The xylem or bamboo of the tree.

bark, and other bark of some plants.

The selection of raw materials used in ancient papermaking has gone through several stages such as hemp, skin, rattan and bamboo.

1. Hemp. The earliest papermaking raw material in China, the paper obtained from hemp has the characteristics of softness, delicacy and impermeability.

2. Leather. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, people added leather to the raw materials of papermaking, making the paper more delicate.

3. Rattans. Rattan paper is fine and durable, and rattan paper is used in official documents, books, paintings, etc., and the common rattan paper mainly includes green rattan paper, white rattan paper, yellow rattan paper, etc., but this paper is not easy to use.

4. Bamboo. Bamboo paper has the advantages of slippery, ink, Xuanbi peak, although Shu Zhi is long, the ink is unswerving, and the function of ink absorption and water absorption is excellent.

Bamboo. Cai Lun, who was improving papermaking, supervised the manufacture of various utensils used in the palace. He picked out tree bark, torn linen, old fishing nets, etc., and asked the craftsmen to chop them up and soak them in a large pool.

After some time, the debris in it rots, while the fibers are not perishable and are retained.

He then asked the craftsmen to scoop up the soaked raw materials, put them in a stone mortar, stir them constantly until they became a slurry, and then pick up the sticky thing with bamboo strips, and when it was dry, it was removed and turned into paper. Cai Lun led the craftsmen to trial and error, and tried to produce paper that is not only light, thin and flexible, but also easy to use, wide and inexpensive.

By the early years of the Western Han Dynasty in the 2nd century BC at the latest, paper had been introduced in China. The original paper is made of hemp skin fiber or hemp fabric, because the papermaking technology is still in the early stage, the process is simple, the paper made is rough texture, with more unloosened fiber bundles, the surface is not smooth, not suitable for writing, generally only used for packaging.

Only in the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Emperor period, after Cai Lun's improvement, a set of more stereotyped papermaking process was formed, and the process can be roughly summarized into four steps: the first is the separation of raw materials, that is, the raw materials are degummed in the lye by soaking or cooking, and dispersed into fibers; The second is pulping, which is to cut off the fiber by cutting and pounding, and make the fiber broom, and become pulp; The third is copying, that is, the pulp is soaked into a slurry, and then the pulp is scooped out with a paper grazer (mat), so that the pulp is interwoven into a thin sheet of strong wet paper on the paper grab; The fourth is drying, that is, the wet paper is dried or dried, and when it is removed, it becomes paper.

After the Han Dynasty, although the process was constantly improved and matured, these four steps remained basically unchanged, and even in modern times, in wet papermaking production, its production process is still not fundamentally different from the ancient Chinese papermaking method.

The development of papermaking technology is mainly reflected in two aspects: in terms of raw materials, the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties have begun to use mulberry bark and rattan bark to make paper. In the Sui Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, bamboo, sandalwood, wheat stalks, rice stalks, etc. have also been used as raw materials for papermaking, which has been used successively, thus providing rich and sufficient raw materials for the development of papermaking pages.

Among them, the Tang Dynasty used bamboo as a raw material to make bamboo paper, marking a major breakthrough in papermaking technology. The fiber of bamboo is hard, brittle and easy to break, and the technical treatment is more difficult, and the success of making paper with bamboo shows that the ancient Chinese papermaking technology has reached a considerable degree of maturity. In the Tang Dynasty, processing technologies such as alum, glue, powdering, sprinkling, and dyeing came out one after another in the papermaking process, laying a technical foundation for the production of various process papers.

From the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, the paper produced in China, in addition to the general paper, there are all kinds of color wax paper, cold gold, wrong gold, ribbing, mud gold and silver painting, calender paper and other precious papers, as well as a variety of rice paper, wallpaper, flower paper, etc. Make paper a necessity for people's cultural life and daily life.

Ancient papermaking used bark, hemp and cloth as raw materials, and the water suspension of plant fibers generally processed by pulping was staggered on the Internet, initially dehydrated, and then compressed and dried. China was the first country in the world to invent paper. According to archaeological findings, during the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC to 8 BC), hemp fiber paper was already available in China.

Ancient papermaking used bark, hemp and cloth as raw materials, and the water suspension of plant fibers generally processed by pulping was staggered on the Internet, initially dehydrated, and then compressed and dried. China was the first country in the world to invent paper. According to archaeological findings, during the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC to 8 BC), hemp fiber paper was already available in China.

The modern papermaking process is mechanized, from the raw materials to the pulping process, to the drying paper machine, and then to the packaging of the finished paper, which is semi-mechanized, with large output and high quality. In ancient times, it was a manual operation, and the quality, color difference, uniformity, and tensile force could not guarantee the standard, and there was no standard instrument measurement, and there was no process and laboratory professional measurement for whiteness and uniformity.

During the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC), China already had papermaking, and in the first year of Yuanxing of the Eastern Han Dynasty (105), Cai Lun improved papermaking. He used bark, hemp and cloth, fishing nets and other raw materials, through frustration, pounding, frying, drying and other processes to make paper, 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". There is very little historical literature on the papermaking technology of the Han Dynasty, so it is difficult to understand its complete and detailed 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 process is as follows:

1. Chop bamboo and drift pond: chop bamboo and tender bamboo, put it in the pond, cut and soak it for more than 100 days, and use natural microorganisms to decompose and wash off the green skin of the bamboo.

2. Boil the fire: Put the bamboo obtained above into the "wandering" bucket and steam it with lime for eight days and eight nights.

3. Mortar: Take out the bamboo treated above, put it into a stone mortar, and knock it with a stone mill until the bamboo is broken, which is similar to the mud surface.

4. Swing the material into the curtain: pour the broken bamboo material into the sink, and use the bamboo curtain to swing the material in the water, the bamboo material becomes a thin layer attached to the bamboo curtain, and the rest of the water flows down the groove from the four sides of the bamboo curtain.

5. Cover the curtain and press the paper: then repeat the curtain to make the wet paper fall on the board, that is, a piece of paper. In this way, the process of sprinkling and covering the curtain is repeated, so that thousands of sheets of wet paper are stacked one by one, and then a wooden board is added to squeeze out most of the water.

6. Transparent roasting: Raise the wet paper one by one and dry it. The equipment for baking paper is to build an alley with adobe bricks, a fire is lit in the alley, and after the temperature of the adobe bricks rises, the wet paper is pasted and dried one by one. After drying, it is lifted to form paper.

The significance of the invention of papermaking to promote the development of world culture:

1. Promote the development of industrial economy and industrial culture.

2. Promote the spread of human civilization.

3. Promote the development of education and make people's lives more convenient.

4. Promote cultural exchanges.

Papermaking, especially the papermaking technique improved by Cai Lun in the Eastern Han Dynasty (also known as "Cai Hou paper"), is a revolution in writing materials, which is easy to carry and widely used, and promotes the cultural development of China, Arabia, Europe and even the whole world.

Papermaking not only facilitated people's writing, but also promoted the spread of culture. Papermaking was introduced to Japan in the 7th century, and in the 8th century, it spread to European countries, and the wide spread of papermaking played a major role in the development of human culture.