Monday, February 8, 2010
Invention of paper
How would paper change peoples life in the Han dynasty?
Cai Lun, who is the inventor of paper and papermaking process is know as a very popular guy and also he is born in Guiyang during the Han dynasty. After serving as a court eunuch from AD 75, he is given several promotions under the rule of emperor He of Han. In AD 89 he is promoted with the title of Shang Fang Si, an office in charge of instruments and weapons, he’s also a regular palace attendant.
Cai Lun’s plan is to invent paper because if he doesn’t people would use turtle shell, animal bone, golden stone, bamboo slips, wood and cloth to record data. It was hard to find all these writing materials like the animal bones could not be found easily and stone was heavy. Good cloth is to expensive to use for writing, and bamboo slips and wooden boards took too much space.
Cai Lun is going to make paper by boiling mulberry bark, hemp rags, and fishnets together in a large tub of water. Then he lowered a screen into the pulp and lifted some out letting the water drain out. He pressed the pulp flat to squeeze out any access water. After the pulp dried, he had a sheet of paper.
Cai Lun wants to invent paper because he knows that other writing materials cost a lot and there are a lot of peasant people and they can’t afford other materials, paper would be a lot less cheaper and anyone could afford it.
After Cai Lun invented paper people loved it because it was so cheap and some people said that “I never have to pay more money for a writing material again,” and this is what people thought of paper.
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