paper, which have been passed down for thousands of years, one is Cai Lun, and the other must be proved by "Lanting Preface".
(Author: God twists)
papermaking is one of China's four great inventions, and promote the development of world culture. With reference to the unearthed cultural relics and classical books, China's papermaking technology predates Cai Lun. Cai Lun was the developer of papermaking technology. In Chinese history, there should be two papermaking techniques. These two papermaking methods have been passed down for thousands of years and have been used today.
1. The unearthed cultural relics indicate that the age of Chinese paper predates Cai Lun in the Eastern Han Dynasty.
Among the world-wide unearthed cultural relics, the oldest text carrier is the papyrus of the Nile River basin, about 5000 years ago. However, "Papyrus" is just a Chinese translation of the name. The word "Paper" is used in it. It is not paper in the true sense. It is just dried plant leaves and used as a record carrier for the text. The bamboo slips and wood slips of the pre-Qin period in China are similar, not strictly paper.
The earliest papers in the world are found in China, Xinjiang, Gansu, Shaanxi and other places. Among them, the paper unearthed from the Western Han Tomb in Fangmatan, Tianshui, Gansu Province, China, dates back to the Western Han Dynasty from 206 BC to 23 AD, more than 2000 years ago, two or three hundred years earlier than Cai Lun in the Eastern Han Dynasty. The earliest paper found in the world, with maps and text marks on it, is strictly paper.
2. Cai Lun of the Eastern Han Dynasty improved a papermaking method.
Cai Lun of the Eastern Han Dynasty, about 1900, recorded in "The Book of the Later Han-The Eunuch": "(Cai Lun) used tree skin, hemp head and cloth, and fish nets as paper", "the world is called "Caihou paper". From this text, two three points can be drawn:
1, the paper invented or created by Cai Lun is only one type of paper, so it is called "Caihou paper."
2, Cai Lun is the paper that promotes the development of plant fibers Method, the raw materials he uses, bark, hemp, rags, broken fish nets, etc., are all plant fibers, especially the use of rags and broken fish nets to make paper, it should be the first waste recycling technology, which greatly saves The cost of papermaking. Z1z
3, Cai Lun’s papermaking technology, in a strict sense, is to comprehensively promote the development of "plant fiber papermaking technology".
3. Papermaking has two raw materials, plant fiber and animal (protein) fiber.
plant Fiber can be used to make paper, and animal fiber can also be used to make paper. China was the first to use animal fiber in the world, and the most representative is silk. The use of silkworm cocoons to make silk fabrics has been around 4000 years ago. The inventor was Huangdi The concubine longing ancestor.
The plant fiber papermaking method or principle that has been used so far is mainly to mash the plant fiber, semi-soluble in water, similar to "thick soup", and then copy it with bamboo plaque or sand cloth, etc. After drying, it becomes paper.
However, when silkworm cocoons are reeled into silk fabrics in China, a part of the animal fibers are often left in the water. After precipitation, if they are copied by papermaking, they can actually be made into Paper is even the natural raw material for paper.
Before cotton fabrics were developed in the Yuan Dynasty in China, silk fabrics belonged to medium or ordinary commodities, with huge production and consumption. Not only could they be made into clothes, "silk wool" could also be used as warmth Cotton or cotton quilt can be used by middle-class people. Until the Yuan Dynasty, when sea island cotton seeds were introduced and Huang Daopo brought textile technology, cotton products became ordinary commodities, flying from the original extreme luxury to ordinary people. Home.
The cultural relics unearthed in Xinjiang and other places contain paper-like objects, except that there are no written words or patterns on them, so they have not been determined as paper in the strict sense, but from the texture analysis, they are plant fibers. It is a mixture of animal fibers.
and the earliest paper in the world mentioned above, the paper unearthed in Fangmatan, Tianshui, Gansu, its texture is plant fiber, no animal fiber, the paper cultural relics are often labeled as "the world's earliest Plant fiber paper".
4. What kind of paper is the "Lanting Collection Preface" written on?
In Chinese history, silk fabrics can also be used to write characters directly. Its historical time can at least be compared with bamboo slips and wood slips, and even used In the Qing Dynasty, in the official history, it was often called "Shen Shu" or "Silk Shu". In the "Historical Records", there are many records in silk books. For example, in the "Chen She Family", "DanThe book and silk say "Chen Shengwang", etc., which is to write directly on silk products; "Han Shu-Li Guangsu Wu Zhuan" records: "The emperor shoots in the forest and gets the wild goose. In the middle of the desert". The emperor shot down a big goose. There was silk fabric on the foot of the big goose, so it was called "silk script". Writing directly on the silk fabric was called a silk script. This name was extended to the Qing Dynasty. In the "Drafts of Qing History" there is also "(Zhao Jingxian) secretly mailed a silk book to Shanghai and his uncle Binglin Jue, vowing to stand by his death."
wrote directly on the silk fabrics. From the Western Han Dynasty in the "Historical Records", it is called " "Book" or "Silk Book". However, in the article "Lan Ting Ji" written by He Yanzhi of the Tang Dynasty, it is mentioned that "The Preface to the Collection of Lan Ting" was written on "silkworm cocoon paper", namely: "The Preface to Lan Ting uses silkworm cocoon paper and mouse It must be written by the pen." In the Tang Dynasty,
was written directly on silk fabrics, and it was still called "silk books". In the "Old Tang Book" and "New Tang Book", the records of "silk books" are not uncommon.
There is a historical question. If the Preface to the Collection of Lanting was written directly on silk products, it would be called "Silk Book", but in the article of He Yanzhi of the Tang Dynasty, the three words "cocoon paper" were used. Perhaps, three points can be derived from it:
1, silkworm cocoon paper is a kind of paper, not silk fabrics such as satin.
2, as the name suggests, silkworm cocoon paper may be different from paper made of plant fibers, it should be made of animal (protein) Paper made of fiber.
3. This kind of "silkworm cocoon paper" is extremely precious or rare. It is definitely not a silk fabric, so it is compared with the precious "rat whisker pen". Why is the Preface to Lanting so precious? It is the precious mouse used by the book Sheng Wang Yizhi The pen is written on the rare silkworm cocoon paper, and the three beauties are complete.
Five and two papermaking methods have been used so far.
Both plant fiber and animal fiber papermaking methods are in use today. Paper made from plant fibers is overwhelming. From napkins to toilet paper, they are all made of plant fibers; while paper made from animal fibers is called "silk paper" or "mian paper" in modern times, and belongs to specialty paper.
Wang Yizhi is about 1700 years ago, only later In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cai Lun was about 200 years old. If the "Lanting Preface" that has been lost for thousands of years can be found, there will be physical evidence of "silkworm cocoon paper" in the Jin Dynasty, perhaps the earliest physical evidence of animal fiber paper in China and the world.
One of China’s greatest inventions, if it can be proved that 2000 years ago, we not only had plant fiber paper, but also animal fiber paper. If the two paper manufacturing methods have been passed down for thousands of years, it will surely arouse the world's archaeological community. A sensation. "Lanting Preface", where are you!
Bibliography:
"Historical Records"
"Hanshu"
"Late Hanshu"
(new and old) "Tang Shu"
"Manuscripts of Qing History" etc.
