It is the most common style of Chinese painting, named after the "axis". Generally, one work is mounted on the shaft, and many works are mounted on the shaft. The measurement unit "axis" of Chinese painting comes from this. There are vertical scrolls and banners. Vertical axis, hanging screen and nave are straight, horizontal hanging and hand rolling are banners.

The origin of scrolls is closely related to the popularity of paper.

In the Eastern Han Dynasty and the first year of Yongyuan (A.D. 105), Cai Lun made good quality paper, and paper began to be used as writing material. In the Jin Dynasty (3rd century A.D.), Zuo Si spent ten years writing The Trials of the Three Capitals, saying that "the luxurious family contended for the biography and writing, and Luoyang did it for you". This is the famous story of "Luoyang paper is expensive" in history, which shows that paper has been widely used as writing material in the 3rd century.

In the first year of Yuanxing in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (AD 403), according to Huan Xuan's "Records of Jiankang (now Nanjing)", he ordered: "There was no paper in ancient times, so use simplicity, not respect." Today, all simple users use yellow paper instead. "This is the earliest record that the ruler ordered the promotion of paper instead of Jane, which also played a certain role in the promotion and application of paper.

However, due to the early form of writing books on paper, it was completely imitated by silk books. After paper was widely used, it gradually developed from copying to rolling, forming a complete scroll system. Therefore, this period [Eastern Han and Jin Dynasties] is also called the scroll age in the history of books.

In the early days, the shape of the paper roll followed the silk scroll, which was proved by ancient documents and Dunhuang paper records. In the later period, when the album system was transformed, it evolved into a unique shape, namely folding and whirlwind. The paper roll is like a silk scroll, winding from left to right around the axis. A paper roll usually consists of several sheets of paper. The length of ancient paper often has certain standards. Each piece of China paper is about one foot (0.23 1 cm). Regarding the specifications of gold paper, Zhao Xihu, a poet in the Song Dynasty, said: "The tall one is one foot, and the elderly are half a foot." Dunhuang paper is generally about 30 cm wide, slightly wider than Jin paper; The length is about 4 1 to 48 cm, which is about two feet of China ruler, which is roughly consistent with the ancient saying that two feet of paper were used to banknote books.

The number of words in each line of the paper roll is also not fixed. Physically, there are dozens of words to dozens of crosses. Papers are generally written on one side and on both sides. Since the Six Dynasties, paper written in two colors, Zhu and Mo, appeared. The text is written in Zhu and the notes are written in ink, which is the pioneer of color printing in later generations. The copying format of the paper roll follows the silk script and becomes more detailed.

The texture of the paper roll is far less flexible and strong than that of silk, which needs more protection. As a result, some protective measures that have been taken on the silk shaft have gradually formed a complete system in the era of paper roll. Besides the blank "redundancy" left by itself, the head of the paper roll often needs to be added with a "Baotou" (hereinafter referred to as "Baotou") to protect the paper roll. The bag head is made of strong hard paper, or silk fabrics such as silk, and the paper is tied with a belt in the middle, which is called "belt". Ribbons are usually made of silk, which was also very particular in ancient times. Some people also use tapes of different colors to distinguish different kinds of books. Some big books have many volumes. In order to avoid confusion with other books and protect the volume from friction, it should be wrapped with a "book coat", called a "book" and written as a "book". Said Wen: "Hey, book clothes also. "Such a package is a package, usually ten or five volumes are a package.

This scroll form has been used until the end of the Tang Dynasty, and then evolved into folding forms such as folding and whirlwind, and then developed into loose-leaf binding, which triggered a revolution in the form of books.