Introduction to Cai Lun

Cai Lun, whose name is Jingzhong, was born in Guiyang (now Guiyang, Hunan Province) in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and was born in Yongping four years in the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 61). He died in the first year of Jianguang (AD 121). Cai Lun, who was born in an ordinary peasant family, farmed with his parents since childhood, but he is clever and charming. Liu Xu, Emperor of the Han Dynasty (AD 56-58), often went to various counties to select young children for the palace. In the 18th year of Yongle (AD 75), Cai Lun was elected as a eunuch in Luoyang Palace, when he was about 15 years old. He can read and write, and his grades are excellent. In the first year of the founding of the People's Republic of China (AD 76), he was appointed as Xiaohuangmen (a junior eunuch). Since then, he has served as assistant minister of the Yellow Gate, in charge of conveying official business inside and outside the palace, guiding the kings to meet and arranging seats. Dou Taihou, the official palace, had no children, so she ordered Zhang Di's princess Song Guiren to "suck up evil spirits" and ordered Cai Lun to "verify" and ordered her to commit suicide. Liu Qing, the prince born to Song Guiren, was demoted to the king of Qinghe. Dou Hou also ordered people to vote for "flying books" (anonymous letters) to frame Zhang Di's concubine Liang Guiren, seize his son Liu Zhao as his adopted son and make him a prince. Emperor Zhang died in 88 AD, and at the age of 11, Liu Zhao ascended the throne. For the sake of harmony, Dou Taihou was in charge. Cai Lun was promoted to be a regular servant for his work, accompanying the young emperor or so, and participating in state secrets, with a salary of 2,111 stone, and his status was equal to that of Jiuqing. In the history of China, eunuchs intervened in state affairs, which was also the beginning. Yongping nine years (AD 97), Dou Taihou died, and the emperor personally. In the 14th year of Yongyuan (AD 112), Emperor Deng Sui was appointed as the queen, and Cai Lun immediately took refuge in Queen Deng. Deng Sui likes to dance with words and make ink, and Cai Lun is willing to condescend to concurrently serve as the official order, in charge of palace imperial utensils and palace imperial manual workshops. During this period, he summarized the experience of papermaking since the Western Han Dynasty, improved papermaking technology, refined high-quality paper from raw materials such as bark, rags (linen), hemp heads, fishnets, etc., which was reported to the court in the first year of Yuanxing (AD 115), and was praised by Emperor He, so papermaking was popularized. In the same year, the 111-day-old baby born to He Di and Deng Hou acceded to the throne, and died in less than two years. After Deng, he succeeded Liu Hu (94 ~ 125 AD), the 13-year-old nephew of the Emperor, as Andi. Liu Hu was the son of Liu Qing, the king of Qinghe River. However, due to the fact that the Queen Mother Deng was still in charge of the state affairs in the early days of his accession to the throne, Cai Lun continued to be reused and was named "Dragon Pavilion Hou" (the fief was now in Yangxian County, Shaanxi Province), and since then he has entered the ranks of nobles. The paper supervised by him is called "Cai Hou Paper". About the fifth to sixth year of the Yuan Dynasty (118 ~ 119 AD), Cai Lun was promoted to Changle Taifu, which was equivalent to a great age. He became the chief assistant officer of Empress Dowager Deng and was flattered by the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty. Just as his power was at its peak, in the first year of Jianguang (A.D. 121), Empress Dowager Deng died and Andi took charge. Cai Lun was tried and investigated for being instructed by Dou Hou to participate in persecuting Emperor's grandmother Song Guiren to death and depriving his father Liu Qing of the right to inherit the throne. Cai Lun knew that capital punishment was inevitable, so he committed suicide. Cai Lun served as an official in the Imperial Palace all his life, serving four young emperors and taking refuge in two queens. He rose steadily, was in the rank of waiting, and was honored as nine ministers, but ended in a tragic death. However, he promoted the development of handicraft industry when he was in charge of respecting Fang, and was called a scientist in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Therefore, it will be remembered by later generations and won the approval of historians. According to "Biography of Cai Lun in the Later Han Dynasty", during the period when Cai Lun was in charge of Shangfang, he once "supervised the secret strokes and various instruments, all of which were exquisite and dense, which was the law for later generations". The physical objects excavated in modern archaeology also prove to be true. Shang Fangling was originally an official of a small government, in charge of the manufacture of all kinds of palace utensils such as swords, which was not commensurate with the high position of the middle servant, but Cai Lun tried his best to please, and all the objects that the emperor and the empress liked were refined in Shang Fang. Deng Hou likes literature, history and paper and ink, and once made every state and county pay tribute to paper and ink. Therefore, Cai Lun became a key figure in promoting the development of papermaking in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Because of his position, Cai Lun was able to observe and contact the production practice. Every time he was free, he closed the door and went to the workshop for technical investigation, learning and summarizing the rich experience accumulated by craftsmen for many years. Together with his own clever innovation, it played a significant role in promoting the development of metal smelting, casting, forging and mechanical manufacturing processes at that time. For example, at that time, steel knives were made of fried iron, which was forged many times and turned into steel. At that time, the artifacts made were indeed made by seiko in quality, performance and appearance, which could be imitated by later generations. But ... Cai Lun's most outstanding contribution to technology is still in papermaking, which can be roughly reviewed from three angles. First, the production and meticulous work of high-grade hemp paper were organized and popularized, which promoted the development of papermaking. Second, promote the creation and development of leather paper production in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Thirdly, due to the revision and copying of the classics collected by the Imperial Palace under the supervision of Empress Dowager Deng, a large-scale paper climax was formed, making paper books the most powerful tool for spreading culture. Papermaking is one of the "four great inventions" of ancient Chinese science and technology (compass, papermaking, printing and gunpowder), and it is a very valuable contribution made by the Chinese nation to world civilization, which greatly promotes the spread and exchange of world science and culture and profoundly affects the process of world history.

Original text

Since ancient times, most book contracts were made of bamboo slips, and those made of silk (that is, silk cut according to writing needs) were called paper. Expensive and simple, it is not convenient for people. Lun is to invent (invent) tree skin, hemp head and cloth. Fish nets are paper. In the first year of Yuanxing, play it. The emperor is good at what he can do, so it is called "Cai Hou Paper" in the world.

Translation

Since ancient times, words have been written or engraved on bamboo pieces and then compiled into books. The silk used for writing is called paper. Silk is expensive and bamboo slips are too heavy and inconvenient for people to use. Cai Lun then figured out a way to make paper from bark, hemp head, rags and fishing nets. In the first year of Yuan Xing (the year of Emperor Han and Emperor Han), the emperor praised his talent and used his paper from then on, so the world said "Cai Hou Paper". In his early years, Cai Lun and one of his eunuchs, Zhang Zhi, went to Huaigou River in Baishui to celebrate Zhang Fu's birthday. He found that the children were playing with wooden poles on the surface of the water. When he saw that the changed things left the water, they quickly dried up and rubbed with their hands. The texture was flexible and light, which could be used to write words. He returned to the palace the next day and wrote a word on each changed thing with black pigment. Picking hemp, cloth, cotton wool, bark and other retting materials everywhere, digging a pond for retting, beating, mixing, settling and repeated experiments, finally produced an ideal writing material. Because this creation was discovered in Zhangzhi's hometown, this writing material was named "paper", commonly known as "paper", and there is still a paper-making site in Cai Lun in this area. Who invented papermaking? For a long time, people have always thought that it was invented by Cai Lun, the eunuch of the Eastern Han Dynasty. The main basis is the record of Biography of Cai Lun in the Later Han Dynasty. The book says:

Cai Lun

"Since ancient times, most of the books and deeds were made of bamboo slips, and those made of silk (that is, silk cut according to the needs of writing) were called paper. Expensive and simple, it is not convenient for people. Lun is to invent (invent) tree skin, hemp head and cloth. Fish nets are paper. In the first year of Yuanxing, play it. The emperor is good at his ability, so he is always using it, so the world is called' Cai Hou Paper'. " Therefore, some later works, both at home and abroad, regard Cai Lun in the Eastern Han Dynasty as the inventor of paper, and take 115 AD, when he presented paper to Han and Emperor Liu Zhao, as the birth year of paper. In historical books, there were some records about paper long before Cai Lun. For example, "Three Ancients' Old Stories" once said: Prince Wei Liu has a big nose, and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty doesn't like him. Jiang Chong gave him an idea to "cover his nose with paper" when he went to see Emperor Wu again. The prince listened to Jiang Chong, covered his nose with paper, and went to the palace to see Emperor Ming. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was furious. This happened in 91 BC. Another example is the Biography of Empress Zhao in Hanshu, which records that Zhao Zhaoyi, the sister of Zhao Feiyan, a favored concubine of Hanwu, wanted Cao Weineng, a palace maid, after her death, and sent someone to send poison and a "Heti Book" to force Cao Wei to commit suicide. According to Ying Shao, a native of the Eastern Han Dynasty, "Hehoof" means "thin paper" (later called silk cotton paper). Another example is the Biography of Jia Kui in the Later Han Dynasty. In 76 AD, Emperor Hanzhang ordered Jia Kui to choose 21 people to teach Zuo's Biography, and "give a pass to the bamboo slips and the paper classics". The above documents about paper are all earlier than 115 AD, that is, the year when Cai Lun presented paper to Han and Emperor. Comrades who deny that papermaking was invented by Cai Lun believe that "it was the working people of the Western Han Dynasty who invented papermaking. After inheriting the papermaking technology of the Western Han Dynasty, the working people in the Eastern Han Dynasty improved, developed and improved. At the time of the Emperor Harmony, Shang Fang ordered Cai Lun to organize Shaofu Shangfang Workshop with sufficient manpower and material resources to produce a batch of fine papers carefully crafted in previous lives, which were played in the first year of Yuanxing. After promotion,' naturally, the world is full of use'. " This is an opinion in the debate. Another opinion insists that Cai Lun is the inventor of papermaking in China, on the grounds that "according to the explanation of paper in Shuo Wen Jie Zi by Xu Shen in the Han Dynasty, all the papers mentioned in ancient literature before Cai Lun were made of silk fibers, which were actually not paper, but a by-product of bleaching silk. Since ancient times, a Chinese-style plant fiber paper has to be cut, boiled, pulped, suspended. Baqiao paper is not real paper. The reason is that "from the outside, the paper is loose, the paper surface is rough and the thickness is very different." Through the observation of solid microscope and scanning electron microscope, it is found that most fibers and fiber bundles are long, which indicates that they are poorly cut. They are formed by natural accumulation of fibers, and cannot be regarded as real paper without the basic operation processes of cutting and beating. Maybe it's just the leftover of retted textiles, such as mess. The accumulation of fibers such as thread ends is flaky due to the long-term lining under the bronze mirror of the ancient tomb and the pressure of the weight of the mirror body. In addition, the rest of the so-called ancient paper in the Western Han Dynasty are also very rough, and at best, they are only the rudiments of the paper. Cai Lun and his craftsmen summarized and improved on the basis of predecessors' bleaching and manufacturing embryonic paper, and transferred the production of paper to an independent industry stage from raw materials and technology for writing. It is true that "Cai Lun Paper" will not be made by Cai Lun, but without his "intention", Shangfang craftsmen alone could not make this kind of plant fiber paper. Therefore, even today, when embryonic paper was unearthed, it is still correct to regard Cai Lunping as the inventor or representative of papermaking in China, and there is sufficient historical basis. In addition, the records of Cai Lun's papermaking in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty are mainly taken from Liu Zhen's "East View of Han Dynasty". Liu Zhen and Cai Lun are contemporaries and should be credible. It can be seen from the records that the paper of Cai Hou can not only pay tribute to the emperor, but also replace silk for writing, and the paper quality must reach a certain level. Some scholars also believe that whether Baqiao paper is a product of the Western Han Dynasty deserves further research. The reason they put forward is that "it is difficult to make a convincing scientific judgment on the production age of ancient paper before the life age of the tomb people can be ascertained exactly. What's more, the tomb has disturbed soil layers and has been disturbed by external sources, so the possibility of being brought in by future generations cannot be ruled out; The Changmawangdui, which is also a Han tomb, is as intact as if nothing had happened. The owner of the tomb has a name to check, and the historical materials are reliable. The unearthed cultural relics are so rich, but there is not a piece of hemp paper except thousands of Jane Eyre and silk-woven ancient paper silk paintings. Some researchers also recognized that Baqiao paper had handwriting similar to regular script on it, which resembled the handwriting on the Eastern Jin Dynasty's biography of the Three Kingdoms, which was unearthed in Xinjiang. Based on this, Baqiao paper may be a product of the Jin Dynasty.