Past and present life of "paper"

Since human needs to record events, there have been various ways to record events. For example, the ancient people knotted the rope to remember that something had happened. After the emergence of characters, people began to use metal sharp tools, stone sharp tools, wooden sticks and other engraved characters to remember events.

Each ancient country has its own history of the development of recording media. Before the advent of paper, people tried to find various methods of recording events. Before the invention of paper-making in ancient China, the recording media were rocks (rock paintings, steles), oracle bones, bamboo slips and silk, while in other ancient countries there were clay boards, papyrus, mud bricks, sheepskins, leaves (palm leaf scriptures) and wax plates. It was only after the emergence of paper that people gradually got rid of the situation that writing was cumbersome and difficult to control.

The reason why "paper" is called "media for recording events" is that the early "paper" cannot be called paper, but only a medium for recording events at that time.

China is one of the four ancient civilizations. It has four great inventions in ancient times and has a great influence on the development of world history. The invention of papermaking has promoted the prosperity of paper industry, the birth of printmaking art and the exchange of various cultural activities. Before the invention of paper, people made great efforts to find the medium of chronicle and developed it step by step.

The word "paper" appeared earlier in China, and it has been recorded in ancient writings of the Qin Dynasty. And we can find many proofs about the use of the word "paper" in the literature before the Tang Dynasty: ① Zhang Shu of the Jin Dynasty's San Fu Jiu Shi, "Prince Wei has a big nose, Emperor Wu is ill, and the prince enters the province; Jiang Chong said," If you have a big nose, you should hold a piece of paper to cover it ". ② In Yilin by Ma Cong of the Tang Dynasty, Ying Shao of the Eastern Han Dynasty quoted the book "Customs Pass" as saying that Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty "moved to Luoyang in the east, carrying 2000 pieces of vegetarian scriptures, bamboo slips and paper scriptures". ③ The Biography of Jia Kui in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty records that "twenty talented people were selected from all the students and taught Zuo Shi to communicate with the simple paper scriptures".

Although the "paper" in these records is made of silk, it also shows that the concept of "paper" for recording and writing has a long history. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cai Lun succeeded in making paper from plant fibers, and the raw materials he used to make paper were simple and easy to get, including bark, hemp, old cloth and fishing nets. These materials were relatively easy to obtain in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the raw material of the old cloth and fishing net was hemp. These materials all had long fibers, which made it easier to make smaller fibers again for pulping. This is Cai Lun's plant fiber papermaking.

Cai Lun

About 80 years after Cai Lun invented paper making, Zuo Bo, a native of Donglai (now Laizhou City), Shandong Province, first improved the quality of paper. He created a more delicate and shiny Zuo Bo paper, which was made from the fiber of mulberry bark.

In the Western Jin Dynasty, due to the Eight Kings' Rebellion and the foreign relatives' seizure of power, the capital moved southward, resulting in a confrontation between the Northern and Southern Dynasties. The Yangtze River valley was the main manual paper making area. The paper making raw materials were expanded from the original hemp and bark to bamboo, rice straw, rice straw, rattan bark and other raw materials. The variety of paper was also increased, such as side paper, honey incense paper, Shanteng paper and other famous papers in history.

Ge Hong, the alchemist, found that the juice from the decoction of Huangnibei can be applied to the paper to prevent insects, and can also be used for dyeing. Phellodendron amurense is one of the main broad-leaved tree species in Changbai Mountain and Daxing'an Mountains in China, which is both a traditional Chinese medicine and a dye. At the same time, it was found that the paper could be hardened and waterproof by starch sizing.

From Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties to Song Dynasty, the development of paper became more prosperous. In terms of raw materials, mulberry bark, daphne bark, hibiscus bark, rattan bark, bamboo material, etc. are more common. Printing has been invented, and the amount of paper used has increased. Because people need to recite poems and give each other gifts and socialize, paper has become popular. Adding gold flowers, color dyes, gold mud and other materials in the paper making process can produce more advanced and beautiful paper.

Li Yu, the late leader of the Southern Tang Dynasty, personally supervised the production of the "Chengxin Hall" paper. This paper "has skin like an egg membrane, firm as jade, thin and smooth, and the crown is at the moment". It has the characteristics of "tough but moist, smooth but not slippery, white and dense, pure texture, no damage to the folds, and strong ink moistening". It is recorded in the Four Chapters of the Study by Su Yijian of the Northern Song Dynasty that "Li Zhucheng's Heart Hall is the first, and it is the two prefectures of She and the south pool of the Yangtze River. There are no more fine works in this world."

Cai Xiang's Calligraphy of Chengxin Hall

Later, various imitations also appeared, but they still could not make paper like that in the Southern Tang Dynasty. It has permeability and lubricity, and is loved by many calligraphers and painters. The Five Horses Painting of Li Gonglin, a famous painter in the Song Dynasty, and the New Book of Tang and History of the New Five Dynasties of Ouyang Xiu also use this paper. In addition, it is resistant to aging, does not change color, is less moth eaten, and has a long life, so it has the reputation of "king of paper, millennium paper".

The Painting of Five Horses (Part)

In the Song Dynasty, social stability led to economic prosperity and the maturity of printing technology. Paper was also used to make banknotes. A revolution in currency came. "Jiaozi" and "Huizi", which were used for exchange, appeared, and a large number of banknotes were issued. The government once set up a paper mill with more than 1200 people to produce banknote paper.

The Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties gathered the experience of predecessors, improved in raw materials, technology, equipment and processing, and produced professional technical books such as Tiangong Kaiwu. The use of paper also expanded with the change of society. In addition to the large amount of paper used for painting, calligraphy, printing, packaging and religious activities, wallpaper was also popular as an interior decoration. Paper screens were also very popular in the upper class society at that time.

"Cutting Bamboo and Floating Pond" in Heavenly Creations

In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the raw materials for paper making were gradually concentrated in bamboo, bark, hemp and straw. Bamboo paper was the most popular among Jiangxi and Fujian historical paper and rough paper, which were mostly used for printing, calligraphy and painting. Linen paper was still mainly used in northern provinces, leather paper was available in northern and southern provinces, and straw paper was used for packaging, fire paper, toilet and household goods.

The rice paper in Jingxian County, Anhui Province, is made of the unique green sandalwood bark and straw in the sand field. The quality of painting and calligraphy is very high, which can not be achieved by other papers in ancient and modern times. It is still unique today. There are also some new varieties of other processed paper, such as Ciqing paper, Yangnao paper, Mingrentian paper, plum blossom jade plate paper, Zhujin Yunlong paper, five color wax paper, calendered paper, etc., which are very famous. Now we can still see imitations, but the use and usage have decreased.

Rice paper

Machine papermaking has been invented since 1798. When it was introduced to China in 1884, the traditional manual papermaking was impacted and the output decreased year by year. Even the emerging machine papermaking could not withstand the dumping of foreign paper. Machines were used to produce traditional paper, such as imitation history paper, sea moon paper, rough edge paper, jade clasp paper, etc. In this way, the traditional manual paper can only produce cheap low-grade packaging paper and toilet paper, and the market is getting narrower and narrower.

After 1949, it was easy to increase the production of handmade paper in the first three years. Its annual output was more than that of machine paper, accounting for about 50% of the total output. Later, the production mode was adjusted, and ceremonial paper such as paper money was changed to culture and life paper to make up for the shortage of machine-made paper. A part of indigenous bamboo pulp was produced for machine-made paper, and famous rice paper and thin leather paper were vigorously developed. Since 1956, the annual output of handmade paper has remained at about 200,000 tons. However, because of the faster development of machine paper, the output is more. In contrast, handmade paper only accounts for about 2% of the total paper value of the country.

However, some manual paper mills have changed to use manual paper raw materials and made paper with wooden paper machines. The quality and quantity of the original precious traditional manual paper have also been improved, such as quantitative filter paper, mirror cleaning paper, watercolor painting paper, charcoal painting paper, etc., especially the thin leather paper in Zhejiang, they have started to use their own paper machines to make paper, realizing the mechanization of the manual paper making with long bast fibers, and have made high achievements.