In ancient times, democracy was recorded by knotting ropes, and later, characters were gradually invented, and Oracle Bone Inscriptions was used as writing materials. Later, bamboo and wood chips (bamboo slips) and silk were found and used as writing materials. But paper was invented because silk was too expensive and bamboo was too heavy.
According to research, the production of paper began in the Western Han Dynasty. From 65438 to 0957, Shaanxi Provincial Museum distributed a batch of artifacts named "Baqiao Paper" in a tomb of the Western Han Dynasty near Baqiao in the eastern suburb of xi, and its production date should be no later than the era of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty. Later, paper fragments of the Han Dynasty were unearthed in Luobnuoer, Xinjiang, Juyan, Gansu and other places, about 150 to 200 years earlier than the paper made by eunuch Cai Lun from the early Eastern Han Dynasty to Yuanxing. However, we should also see that although paper was invented long ago, it was not widely used at first, and government documents were still written in bamboo slips and silk books. In Xian Di, Zuo Bo, a native of Donglai, improved the previous paper-making method and further improved the paper quality. The paper he made is white, delicate, soft, uniform and bright, and the paper quality is particularly good. Known as "Zuo Bo paper" in the world, especially five-color stationery and high-grade stationery.
During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, paper was widely spread and used, and papermaking was further improved. Before the Jin Dynasty, the paper-making area was concentrated in Luoyang, Henan Province, and gradually spread to Vietnam, Sichuan, Shao, Yang, Anhui, Jiangxi and other places, with increasing output and quality. Paper-making raw materials are also diversified, and there are many names of paper. Such as bamboo curtain paper, the paper has obvious lines, and its paper is tight, thin and even. Tunxi has rattan paper with rattan skin as raw material. The paper is smooth and white as jade, leaving no ink marks. Dongyang has fish egg paper, also known as fish note, which is soft and smooth. Jiangnan uses straw and straw fiber to make paper. The paper is yellow and rough, so it is difficult to write. In the north, mulberry bark fiber is used to make paper, which has excellent texture, white color, light softness and strong tensile force, and the paper grain tears like cotton silk, so it is called cotton paper. Cai Lun has a wide range of papermaking raw materials. Paper made of rotten fishing nets is called net paper, and paper made of rags is called cloth paper. At that time, fishing nets and rags were classified as hemp fibers, so they were collectively called hemp paper.
In order to prolong the life of paper, the Jin Dynasty has invented a new technology of dyeing paper, that is, impregnating paper with yellow tiller boiling juice, some of which are written first and then dyed, and some are dyed first and then written. Impregnated paper is called dyed yellow paper, which is natural yellow, so it is also called jute paper. Yellow paper has the function of killing insects and moth.
During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the famous Xuan paper was born. There is a legend in Xuanzhou, Anhui Province, the main producing area of Xuan paper: Cai Lun's apprentice Kong Dan, who made paper in southern Anhui, always wanted to make a particularly ideal white paper for his master to paint and trim the score. But after many experiments, it can't be realized. Once, he happened to see some sandalwood trees lying beside the mountain stream, which had been corroded by water for a long time and had rotted and turned white. Later, he made paper with this bark and finally succeeded. It can be concluded that using bark as rice paper has been very popular in the Tang Dynasty. Hard yellow paper used to write classics in the Tang Dynasty, Cheng Xin Tang paper in the Five Dynasties and the Northern Song Dynasty, etc. All belong to the category of cooked rice paper. Since then, Xuan paper has been an indispensable treasure for writing and painting. After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, almost all the paintings and calligraphy in China were made of rice paper.
At the same time, the invention of engraving brush greatly stimulated the development of paper industry, and the papermaking area was further expanded, and famous papers appeared one after another, such as yellow and white linen paper in Yizhou, rattan paper in Hangzhou, Wuzhou, Quzhou and Yuezhou, large paper in Zhou Jun, thin paper and white paper in Zhou Pu, Xuan paper in Xuanzhou, hard yellow paper and bamboo paper in Shaozhou, and slip paper in Linzhou. In the Tang Dynasty, bast fibers such as Daphne bark, Broussonetia papyrifera bark, mulberry bark, rattan bark, hibiscus bark and Pteroceltis tatarinowii bark were used as raw materials for papermaking. This kind of paper is flexible and thin, and the fibers are evenly staggered.
On the basis of the yellow paper dyed in the previous generation in the Tang Dynasty, the paper was coated with wax evenly. After calendering, the paper had the advantages of luster, luster and beauty, so it was called hard yellow paper. There is also a kind of hard white paper, which is called hard white paper, which is coated with wax on the front and back sides of the original paper, and then rubbed with pebbles or arc stones to make the paper bright, lubricated and dense, and the fibers are even and meticulous, which is slightly thicker than hard yellow paper. In addition, politicians have added mineral powder and wax paper; On the basis of powder wax paper and colored paper, paper products with gold and silver foil or powder luster are called golden flower paper, silver flower paper or honeysuckle paper, also called cold gold paper or sprinkled gold and silver paper; There is also that kind of paper with exquisite colors and patterns, which is polished and pressed one by one on the pattern board engraved with calligraphy and painting, so that various patterns are hidden on the paper, also called flower curtain paper or pattern paper. At that time, caviar paper made in Sichuan was very popular among scholars. In addition, there have been papers that have undergone simple reprocessing, such as Xue Tao's stationery, Xie Gong's 10-color stationery and other dyed papers, Jin Sushan's warp paper, and various printed papers, pine paper, variegated quicksand paper, rosy clouds paper, gold powder paper and dragon paper.
The paper industry of the Five Dynasties continued to develop. Zhangzhou's Chengxin Tang paper was always considered as the best paper until the Northern Song Dynasty. This kind of paper is "as smooth as spring water, as thin as cocoon, as tough as paper and as bright as paper". This paper can be as long as 50 feet and as thin as a tail. It inherited the papermaking tradition of Song Dynasty, Tang Dynasty and Five Dynasties, and many papers with different textures appeared. Paper is generally light, soft, thin and tough. First-class paper is all produced in Jiangnan, also known as Jiangdong paper. The reuse of paper began in the Southern Song Dynasty, and the New Testament was reconstructed from waste paper, called rejuvenation paper or mature rejuvenation paper. It has the characteristics of material saving, time saving and quick effect.
By the Yuan Dynasty, the paper industry was dying, and only the south of the Yangtze River barely maintained its former scene. It was not until the Ming Dynasty that the paper industry flourished again. The main famous products are Xuan paper, bamboo paper, Xuande paper and Songjiang Tan paper. The manufacturing technology of Xuan paper in Qing Dynasty was further improved and became a well-known paper. Most of them use local papermaking raw materials, and all kinds of raw materials are used to make all kinds of paper. Paper processing technology has been further developed and innovated, such as sizing, alum addition, dyeing, waxing, calendering, gold scattering and printing. All kinds of stationery are popular again. White paper and elegant colored paper are highly respected in texture, and the colors are mainly bright and quiet. During the reign of Emperor Kangxi, there were pastel wax banknotes, such as those depicting gold and silver patterns, those depicting wax banknotes, those depicting multicolored calendered wax banknotes, and those depicting printed and printed flower banknotes, which were calendered on three-color paper with pastel wax and then painted with clay gold or clay silver. The production of letterhead paper has reached an exquisite level in the Qing Dynasty.
In addition, since the Jin Dynasty, the imperial court in China has accepted tribute paper from neighboring countries, such as South Vietnamese tissue paper (or moss paper), which is sweet, warm and non-toxic with seaweed as raw material. Korean tribute paper and chicken forest paper are loved by rulers of past dynasties. In the Qing Dynasty, there were North Korea's Lijin stationery, Jinling stationery, mirror stationery, bamboo green paper, Vietnamese moss stationery, Japanese snow paper, book paper, western Phnom Penh paper, mica paper, flower paper, all kinds of stationery and flower paper.