We all know that Cai Lun is the inventor of "paper". Cai Lun's improved papermaking is also listed as one of the four great inventions in ancient China. It has made outstanding contributions to the spread of human culture and the progress of world civilization. It has been respected by people for thousands of years. Therefore, it is also regarded as the originator of papermaking by paper industry and paper workers and " paper god ". In Mike Hart's " 100 People Influencing the Process of Human History", Cai Lun ranked seventh. Cai Lun is on the list of "The Best Inventor of All Time" released by Time magazine. However, I really didn't expect that Cai Lun was still a genuine eunuch.
Cai Lun was born in Hong Kong in the Eastern Han Dynasty. His courtesy name is Jingzhong, and he is Hong Kong in Guiyang County (now Chenzhou, Hunan). Emperor Ming of Han entered the palace in the late Yongping year, Emperor He of Han succeeded to the throne, and Cai Lun was promoted to the Central Secretariat. Later, Cai Lun served as the Shangfang Order as the nine ministers. Shang Fangling was an official in charge of palace manufacturing, responsible for the manufacturing of weapons and use of intra-palace tools. It is said that in the Qin and the Western Han 1, the Shaofu officials had Shangfang Ling and Cheng, which were established along the Eastern Han Dynasty. The so-called " Shangfang Sword " originally refers to the sword made in " Shangfang ".
Cai Lun is usually very interested in the surrounding production and living environment, such as smelting, casting, planting hemp and raising silkworms. It was during his tenure as Shangfangling that he summed up people's past papermaking experience and innovated the "paper making" process, improved papermaking technology, and finally made " Caihou Paper ", which made him an identity as an "inventor". However, Cai Lun's life ending was extremely tragic.
According to historical records, Cai Lun came from a blacksmith family engaged in smelting and casting at the foot of Dacui Mountain in the early Eastern Han Dynasty. His ancestors were iron-muggling. Cai Lun has been practicing "The Book of Zhou" since he was a child and read "The Analects of Confucius". When he was a teenager, he was already full of knowledge and very talented. According to legend, when Cai Lun was about 14 years old, he was recommended by officials from the capital to Guiyang to manage, transport and collect cast iron, and entered the palace to become a eunuch.
After being selected into the palace, Cai Lun started to work in the palace where the concubines lived next to the palace. A few years later, he was promoted to a small yellow eunuch who entered and left the palace and passed the imperial edicts. Cai Lun's talent is becoming more and more obvious. When Emperor He of Han ascended the throne, he was promoted to the Central Office of the Court and served the Emperor. He was in the tent and became a high-ranking eunuch who conveyed edicts, handled documents, and participated in the government affairs. Because Huangdi was still young, Empress Dou, who Cai Lun had served, became the empress dowager, controlled the government, and the imperial power was left behind by the Dou family. Empress Dowager Dou's compatriots Dou Xian and four other brothers are all prominent, good at authoritarian , planning ill-behaving, and their power is in power. Cai Lun, who was upright in his heart, couldn't stand these things, so he planned to help Emperor He, and took advantage of Dou Xian's opportunity to go out to fight and return to the court to collect the seal of General Dou Xian, cleared the drawbacks of Dou's autocracy, and consolidated Emperor He's imperial rule.
In the first year of Jianguang, Empress Dowager Deng died, and Emperor An took power. Due to the power struggle within the palace, Cai Lun was interrogated and investigated because he was instructed by Empress Dou to participate in the persecution of Emperor An's grandmother, Concubine Song, and deprived of the right to inherit the throne. Cai Lun was a righteous person by nature and was ashamed of being humiliated. So after taking a shower, he put on neat clothes and hats, and committed suicide by drinking poison. A giant who "influenced the course of human history" eventually became a victim of infighting in the palace. Do you understand? Please leave your opinion in the comment section.
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