Chapter 17 Section 5 Types and Production of Xuan Paper

Xuan paper has a long history and a wide variety.Now according to different categories, make a brief introduction. (1) According to the proportion of ingredients, it can be divided into three categories: cotton, clean leather and extra clean. Cotton material: green sandalwood bark accounts for about 30% to 40%; straw accounts for about 60% to 70%. Clean bark: green sandalwood bark accounts for about 60% to 80%; straw accounts for about 20% to 40%. Extra clean: green sandalwood bark accounts for about 85% to 95%; straw accounts for about 5% to 15%. (2) According to the thickness, it can be divided into single Xuan, folder Xuan and so on.

Single Xuan: Single Xuan is a single layer, which is relatively thin rice paper. Folder Xuan: Folder Xuan is the rice paper made by two consecutive copies. (3) According to different sizes, it can be divided into four-foot Xuan, five-foot Xuan, Zhanger Xuan and so on. Four-foot Xuan: Four-foot Xuan refers to rice paper two by four, which is actually two feet and five feet wide and four feet one inch long. Five-foot Xuan: Five-foot-wide refers to rice paper that is two feet five by four feet six. In fact, it is rice paper that is two feet five inches wide and four feet five inches long.

Zhangerxuan: Zhangerxuan refers to rice paper four feet three by eleven feet, which is actually rice paper four feet three inches five in width and eleven feet four in length. (4) According to different processing, it can be divided into three categories: raw Xuan, cooked Xuan, and letter paper. Shengxuan: Shengxuan is ordinary rice paper without any treatment. It has the characteristics of osmosis, water absorption, etc., and has strong ink wetting.Used for splash ink and freehand painting. Cooked Xuan: Cooked Xuan is to brush a layer of glue alum on the raw Xuan to make it lose its osmotic and water-absorbing properties.Therefore Shuxuan is also called "Alum Xuan".For fine brushwork.

Note paper: Note paper is made of Xuanxuan according to different purposes, through printing, dyeing, adding materials, rubbing wax, calendering (ya surprise) light, gilding, gilding silver powder, sprinkling gold and silver foil, drawing gold and silver patterns, etc. made of paper.Most of them are also called "Hua Jian" or "Jin Jian".After the paper is processed with Xuan paper, it is often given various elegant names.Mainly used for writing.Such as jade plate (made with starch as a binder, more than two layers of raw Xuan, and framed), tiger skin Xuan (that is, "golden millet paper", which is to dye the rice paper processing points into patterns to make it beautiful).

Main raw material: The main raw material of Xuan paper is green sandalwood, commonly known as sandalwood, which is a unique tree species in my country.The green sandalwood has lush branches and leaves, and the tallest can reach about 15 meters.It looks like a mulberry tree, the bark is blue-gray, and the stem bark fiber is the raw material for making rice paper. Main ingredients: Proper amount of rice straw is added in the production of rice paper to make the paper quality better.The straw is the top grade locally produced Shatian straw, which is more slender and tougher than the muddy straw fiber.Enhances softness.In addition, straw has good water absorption performance, which can improve ink absorption performance.

Main medicinal material: The main medicinal material of rice paper is carambola vine, also known as sheep peach, which is a vine.The juice of carambola vine (also known as "water slide") is added to the pulp to increase the suspension of fibers in the pulp, so that the fibers can be evenly dispersed, so that the thickness of the copied paper is uniform. The manufacture of rice paper is to first obtain cellulose, that is, remove lignin, pectin, etc. in plant fibers, make pulp, and then make paper through papermaking.The traditional technological process of making rice paper is very complicated. Here is a brief introduction to the main process.

Leather production: first select the material, chop and pick the green sandalwood branches, and the best ones are those that have grown for two to three years.Cook in alkaline water for a day and night, then peel off the sandalwood bark; then soak in ash, that is, immerse in lime juice; pile it up for several days; cook and spread it in the sun twice, each time for about a month, to make burnt bark; then squeeze the bark; Beating; bleaching (about five months); making sandalwood fiber material. Forage production: Straw is crushed with a wooden pestle; then buried and soaked in water for one to two months; then soaked in lime juice and accumulated for four months; then steamed; then spread in the sun for several months; steamed and spread again to make Liao grass; pressed again, Pound and ramming material; then bleach (seven months) to produce straw fiber material.

Among them, ash staining and cooking are to quickly degumming the fibers, and immersion and accumulation are microbial fermentation degumming.It is to separate lignin and cellulose from cellulose.Bleaching is to increase the whiteness, there are sunlight bleaching and drug bleaching.Pounding is to expose the hydroxyl groups of cellulose and form hydrogen bonds, so that it can be piled up into sheets and finally made into paper. Batching process: mix leather and forage in a certain proportion, stir well and remove water, which is called whole material. Papermaking process: First, water distribution, put the whole material into the paper tank, inject water, add medicine (carambola vine and other mucus, also known as paper medicine), and mix well; then papermaking (also known as fishing paper, filter paper), copy paper When fishing, immerse the bamboo curtain in the pulp, lift it out quickly, filter the water on the curtain, and leave the paper material on the curtain, then turn the curtain on the groove frame, lift it with one hand, and leave the paper tire on the flat plate, that is, into a piece of paper.Papermaking is one of the important links in papermaking technology, requiring skilled technology and tacit cooperation.When making paper, the pulp must be shaken first, and then the paper is made with a curtain, which is called "wave-beating". The wave-beating process plays the role of stirring the pulp and sending the pulp to the curtain.Papermaking technology determines the thickness and quality of the paper produced.Song Yingxing, a scientist in the Ming Dynasty, said in "Tiangong Kaiwu": "Thickness and thickness are determined by human methods. If it is lightly shaken, it will be thin, and if it is heavy, it will be thick." The process needs to be done slowly.The last is sun-drying paper, also known as baking (beibei) paper and kang paper.Dried to make rice paper.

Bamboo curtains are the key tool used in papermaking. Bamboo curtains also have different shapes and specifications, as well as different textures and patterns on the curtain surface, so that different specifications and varieties of rice paper can be copied.Bamboo curtains are very finely made and are a unique handicraft.It has to go through several processes such as cutting strips, drawing silk, weaving, and painting.Xuan paper making, if you glimpse this, you will know the complexity. Generally speaking, the production of rice paper has to go through more than 50 processes and more than 100 operating procedures.The production cycle is as long as more than 300 days, which is really the result of "the combination of water and fire, the brilliance of the sun and the moon", and the skill of skilled craftsmen.The invention and creation of Xuan paper is the crystallization of the wisdom and hard work of the working people in our country.

In addition to the durability of a thousand years of life and the stability of not being easily deformed, rice paper is characterized by its ability to moisten ink, which means that when painting and writing with ink, the ink spreads evenly around the periphery, has strong penetration and adsorption, and the ink color is smooth. Clear shades, clear layers, strong three-dimensional sense.Where the splashed ink is dripping and unrestrained, where the accumulated ink is deep and thick, where the thick ink is bright and bright, where the light ink is empty and elegant.The water-absorbing and water-absorbing properties of rice paper are really like rain falling into sand, changing with the shape.Using his calligraphy to write and paint, the verve and charm are fully displayed, and the wonderland is fully realized.

Why does rice paper have the characteristic of "moistening ink" that oozes and absorbs water?Someone has done a lot of research on this.Through the observation of the electron microscope, it can be seen that there are a lot of "wrinkles" on the bast fiber cell wall of Qingtan, while the "wrinkles" of other plant fibers are much less.This "wrinkle" plays an important role in "moistening ink".On the one hand, "wrinkles" can accommodate and retain some fine particles, such as calcium carbonate, etc., which can help absorb ink; It realizes the change of shade and produces a rich artistic effect.