First of all, what is the origin of paper?
Today, the invention of the paper we use is only 2000 years, but the history of human civilization is much longer. The reason why we can know the distant history is really thanks to other kinds of "paper" invented by human beings before the invention of real paper, and also thanks to the efforts made by our ancestors.
In the Metropolitan Museum in new york, USA, there is an ancient cultural relic "Kip" unearthed in Peru. If you are lucky enough to see this rare treasure, you may be disappointed, because it is just some rotten ropes with many knots. It turns out that Kip was used by ancient Indians to record.
In the development process of all nationalities in the world, almost all of them have had this method of knotting sounds. China's ancient book "Book of Changes" wrote: "The ancient rule is based on the knot, and the later sages take the book as a Covenant." It means that ancient people tied knots with ropes to solve problems, and later saints wrote them on paper instead.
According to research, about 5000 years ago, Egyptians used papyrus to make "paper". They broke the papyrus stems into filaments, folded them into two layers, and then glued them together. The quality of papyrus made by this method is quite good, and it has become the main export product of Egypt. Most classical Greek literary works are written on papyrus.
Around the Spring and Autumn Period, people in China began to write with silk. It is much more convenient to write on silk with ink than bamboo slips, and silk is light and soft and can be rolled up. Now sometimes a book is called a book, which comes from this.
Unfortunately, this kind of "silk paper" is very useful, but it is expensive. In the Han dynasty, a piece of silk was equivalent to 720 Jin of rice, which most people could not afford. So until the Han Dynasty, "silk paper" and bamboo slips were also used by people at the same time.
In the first year of Yuan Xing in the Eastern Han Dynasty (A.D. 105), Cai Lun dedicated his papermaking method to the emperor. Han and Emperor, who was ill in bed, appreciated it very much and ordered it to be popularized throughout the country. Later, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty named Cai Lunlong Hou Ting for his contribution to the invention of paper.
China's papermaking was later spread to Korea, Japan, India and Arabia, and then to Europe through North Africa. The invention of papermaking is one of the most outstanding contributions of the Chinese nation to world civilization. Cai Lun's name has also remained in the history of world science and technology.
Since Cai Lun invented paper, the paper-making materials used by people, whether rags, broken nets, bark, wheat straw, rice straw, reeds, Russian hair and wood, are all fiber materials, and stone paper is the first paper made of non-fiber materials. What kind of new papers will be published in the future? We can't predict, but what is certain is that the pursuit of human beings is endless, and so is the invention of paper.
How is paper made?
Cai Lun summed up his previous experience seriously. He thought that only by expanding the source of papermaking raw materials, improving papermaking technology and improving the quality of paper can paper be accepted by everyone. Cai Lun was the first to make paper from bark. Bark is a much richer raw material than hemp, which can greatly increase the output of paper. The lignin, pectin and protein in bark are much higher than those in hemp, so it is more difficult to degum bark for pulping than hemp. This prompted Cai Lun to improve papermaking. Lime water was used for pulping in the Western Han Dynasty, and plant ash water was used for pulping in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Plant ash water is alkaline, which is beneficial to improve pulp quality. In the first year of Yuan Xing (A.D. 105), Cai Lun presented a batch of high-grade paper he made on Fang to Liu Zhao, the emperor of Han Dynasty. Han and the emperor praised his talent and immediately ordered it to be adopted all over the world. In this way, Cai Lun's papermaking methods soon spread all over the country.
With the development and evolution of history, there are more and more types and characteristics of papermaking in Cai Lun. Let me introduce some.
According to statistics, there are about 12000 kinds of paper with different uses in the world, which meet the needs of human beings in all aspects. Some of these papers were invented consciously, and some were born unintentionally; Some inventions applied for patents and left the name of the invention, while others did not know who the inventor was, leaving only his invention.
Ok, let's top it, for my hard work's sake.