Chapter 13 The Origin of Xuan Paper Section 1

Paper is not the first material for drawing and writing in the "Four Treasures of the Study".The earliest "painting and writing materials" can be said to be those rock walls, pottery surfaces, body skin and so on.In a stricter sense, that is, special drawing and writing materials, it seems to start with oracle bones.Around the Shang and Zhou dynasties, bamboo and wood also began to be used.From the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period to the period after the Eastern Han Dynasty, bamboo slips and wooden slips were the main writing materials in our country. This is what the ancients called "Jian Ce" or "block slips".Possibly in the Warring States period, silk [jian and] silk began to be used as writing and painting materials. "Mozi" has a record of "writing on bamboo and silk".Historically, oracle bones, bamboo, and silk objects have all been unearthed.But after all, "it is expensive but simple and heavy" ("Book of the Later Han Dynasty"), which affects its use.With the development of social economy, culture and education, newer, better and more popular drawing and writing materials are needed.In the process of people's long-term practice, a new material for drawing and writing - paper has been produced.

Paper is one of the four great inventions in ancient my country and a great contribution made by our Chinese nation to the development of human civilization.There has long been much debate about when and by whom paper was invented.In the past, there has always been a saying that Cai Lun made paper in the Eastern Han Dynasty, which can be seen in the "Biography of Cai Lun" in the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty" compiled according to "East View of Han Ji". In 1933 near Lop Nur, Xinjiang, a piece of ancient paper was discovered, which is the famous "Lop Nur [nao Nao] Er Paper" (Naoer means "lake" in Mongolian).Since the wooden slips unearthed at the same time have the year name of the first year of Huanglong (49 BC), it is generally believed that the paper is Western Han paper, which is one and a half centuries earlier than the time when Cai Lun made paper, that is, 105 AD.Later, there were discoveries such as "Baqiao paper" in Xi'an, "Jinguan paper" in Juyan, and "Zhongyan paper" in Fufeng.It has been determined that these papers were also made in the Western Han Dynasty.Thanks to these new discoveries, a new view has been gained on the origin of paper.Zhou Peiyuan said in his speech at the "Conference to Commemorate Cai Lun's Invention of Papermaking Technology": "It is understandable that the prototype of paper appeared in the Western Han Dynasty before Cai Lun. However, Cai Lun completed the invention of papermaking technology, which was applied at that time. , and later spread to the whole world, this is the objective existence of history.”

In the history of papermaking, hemp paper can be said to be the earliest paper, and later there are papers made of bark (bark), rattan, grass, bamboo, etc.Since there is a special volume introducing Chinese papers in this series, I won’t talk about them here.What this chapter is going to introduce is "Xuan paper", which is unique to our country and is closely related to Chinese calligraphy and painting. The term "Xuan paper" as we know it first appeared in Zhang Yanyuan's "Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties" in the Tang Dynasty: "Jiangdong is moist and dust-free, and there are many people with exquisite skills. A good person should buy a hundred pieces of Xuan paper and use wax to prepare for imitation." "Jiangdong" in the quotation refers to the land east of the Yangtze River, that is, the Xuanzhou area.Wei Xi of the Qing Dynasty said in "Rilu Miscellany": "For Yuzhang (now Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province), Jinling is located in the east of the south of the Yangtze River... Jinling, Taiping, Ningguo, Guangde and other places are the east of the south of the Yangtze River. "Xuanzhou" jurisdiction in the Tang Dynasty was equivalent to the south of the Yangtze River in Anhui Province, the north of Huangshan Mountain and Jiuhua Mountain in Anhui Province, and the Lishui and Liyang areas in Jiangsu Province today.It can be seen that the two places refer to roughly the same, so "Jiangdong" refers to "Xuanzhou".The paper produced in this area is mostly collected and distributed in Xuancheng, so it is called "Xuan paper".This kind of "Xuan paper" can be regarded as the origin of Xuan paper [Shang Shang] in the future, and it is "Xuan paper" in a broad sense.

Judging from the records of "Hundred sheets of rice paper purchased by Jia Yi", a certain amount of rice paper was already prepared privately at that time; from the record of "Using Wax", it seems that the paper was processed, which shows that the rice paper was also of a certain quality at that time.These all show that the southern Anhui area was already an important paper producing area at that time, and the papermaking industry was quite developed. According to the "Old Book of Tang" and "New Book of Tang", the paper (and pens) produced in this area at that time were imported. Tribute.Since the paper industry is quite developed, it can be inferred that the paper industry in this region may have appeared earlier.After the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty, a large number of handicraft technicians from the Central Plains moved southward, bringing the Central Plains culture, including advanced papermaking technology, to the area south of the Yangtze River.It is likely that at that time, the paper industry appeared in southern Anhui. "There are many people and exquisite skills", thus creating "Xuan paper" that can be "waxed with wax for imitation".