Papermaking, compass, printing and gunpowder are collectively known as the four great inventions of ancient Chinese science and technology, which played an important role in promoting the development of human civilization.Among them, the invention of papermaking was earlier than the other three, so Chinese paper and papermaking were the first to spread all over the world.Early paper was used as a new type of writing material and packaging material to replace other existing materials, especially as a writing note material, which was necessary for the development of science and culture.Before the invention of paper, the materials used for writing records in ancient China included oracle bones, gold and stone, silk and bamboo slips.In addition to gold and stone, foreign countries also use sedge pieces, bay leaves, bark and sheepskin as materials for writing notes.The ancient historical and cultural heritage depends on these materials to be preserved and passed on to future generations.From the above-mentioned ancient materials to paper, it has experienced a long historical evolution process.The earliest written records in China are mainly found in the oracle bone inscriptions of the Yin and Shang Dynasties (about 17th-11th centuries BC).The armor is the shell of a tortoise, and the bone is the shoulder blade of a four-hoofed beast (cow). The inscribed characters on it are called oracle bone inscriptions.From the Shang and Zhou Dynasties to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, characters were also engraved on bronze or carved on stone and jade.However, from the Warring States period (475 BC to 221 BC), a large number of silk fabrics, bamboo slips, and wooden tablets were used as writing materials.Therefore, there is a saying in "Mozi" that "write on bamboo and silk, engrave on gold and stone, and carve on panyu, so that those who pass on to future generations will know it".There were sedges in the Nile River valley of ancient Africa and the swamps in the west. The Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and Arabs cut the pith into thin strips and pressed them into thin sheets as writing materials.India and other South Asian and Southeast Asian countries use the leaves of the fan palm tree to be dried and flattened as writing materials.The Indian Buddhist scriptures introduced to China are all written on the leaves, and then tied together, called "Bayeye Sutra".In ancient times in Europe and Arabia, sheepskin was used to write, sometimes on scraped bark.

We can divide the above-mentioned classical writing materials into three categories, and then make a comparison with paper.The first category is heavy and hard materials, such as gold and stone, oracle bones, and bamboo slips, which have limited capacity for characters, are bulkier than paper and are inconvenient to carry, and cannot be unrolled, occupying a large volume.Casting characters with bronze or iron consumes a lot of metal and costs a lot of labor.The second category is light and brittle materials, such as sedge flakes, bay leaves, bark, etc. Although they are not as strong as the first category, they are small in weight, have a large capacity, and are easy to carry.However, it is more brittle than paper and cannot be folded, nor can it be unrolled and written with a pen at will.Binding many sheets into bundles also takes up a large volume and is heavier than paper.The third category is light and flexible materials, such as silk and sheepskin, which can also be included in this category. Their surfaces are smooth and ink-receiving, and they can accommodate many characters and can be used for painting.Especially silk, which can be unrolled and cut, and is easy to carry.This kind of material also has a long lifespan and is an ideal material, but the biggest disadvantage of the same paper is that it is expensive and not easy to obtain. Therefore, in Chinese history, it is said that "the poor are not as good as the elements", that is, it is difficult for the poor to write on silk.The average person in the West can't afford sheepskin either.Compared with the above three types of materials, paper has the following advantages:

(1) The surface is smooth, white and ink-receiving, with a larger format and more characters. (2) Lightweight, soft and fold-resistant, it can be rolled up freely, easy to carry, can be used for writing and drawing with hard pens and soft pens (brush brushes), and is suitable for use by all ethnic groups in the East and the West. (3) It has a long lifespan, and can be preserved for thousands of years under good conditions as if it were a new work. The biggest advantage is that it is of high quality and low price, and the raw materials are available everywhere, and can be manufactured in any corner of the world.

(4) It has a wide range of uses, not only as writing materials, but also as printing and packaging materials. Various paper products have countless uses in industry, agriculture, military affairs, daily life, culture and art. Paper is a universal material, and all other classical materials cannot compare with paper. The invention of paper is a major invention with epoch-making and revolutionary significance in the history of human writing and note-taking materials.When paper and papermaking technology were promoted from China to the whole world, as an international general material, it accelerated the development of human civilization, and it was a great gift from the Chinese to all mankind.

Before discussing the history of papermaking, we must first understand what is paper?Traditionally, the so-called paper refers to the plant fiber raw material that is artificially mechanical-chemically made into a relatively high-purity dispersed fiber, mixed with water to form a slurry, filtered through a leaky mold, and the fibers are interwoven into a wet film on the mold, and then dried Dehydration forms a smooth sheet of fibers with a certain strength, which is used as a material for writing, printing and packaging.This definition is applicable to all papers in ancient and modern China and abroad, and is generally accepted by the academic circle.It includes four elements of the concept of "paper":

(1) Raw material: It must be plant fiber, not animal, inorganic or man-made fiber. Those made of raw materials other than plant fiber are not paper in the traditional sense. (2) Manufacturing process: Plant fiber raw materials are processed into paper after purification, mechanical dispersion, pulping, papermaking, drying and molding. Those made without these processes and through other methods are not paper in the traditional sense. (3) Appearance: The surface is relatively smooth, and the body is flexible. It is formed by the intertwining of dispersed fibers in irregular directions. The distribution of fibers is relatively uniform, and the overall shape is thin (except for cardboard).

(4) Uses: writing, printing, packaging, etc. Only those that meet these conditions can be called paper. In the past, because people did not clarify or stipulate the exact definition of paper, some materials that were not paper were also regarded as paper, which caused misunderstandings about the origin of papermaking.For example, Fan Ye, the author of "Book of the Later Han Dynasty", said: "Those who use silk are called paper", which seems wrong today.Silk fabrics are originally silk fabrics made from animal fiber silk through the weaving process, which does not meet the definition of paper, so silk fabrics are not paper.Others believe that the sedge sheet is paper, and draw the conclusion that papermaking originated in the West.Although the sedge flakes are plant raw materials, the processing method is fundamentally different from the papermaking process, and the appearance and structure are also very different from paper, so they cannot be regarded as paper.Some people even believe that the bark cloth (tapa) made by some peoples in the Pacific coast countries and oceanic islands is paper, and link the origin of papermaking with the "bark cloth culture".In fact, bark cloth, like sedge sheets and bay leaves, cannot be compared with paper in terms of manufacturing process and appearance, and is not paper.The basis of paper is purified dispersed fibers, which is not the case with sedge sheets, bay leaves, and bark cloth.When discussing the origin of papermaking, it is necessary to strictly follow the definition of paper agreed by experts so as not to cause confusion.

As mentioned above, bamboo slips and silk were the main writing materials in China during the Warring States period, which was a step ahead of the use of oracle bones, gold and stones in the Shang and Zhou dynasties.In 221 BC, Qin Shihuang conquered the six kingdoms, ended the separatist regime in the Warring States Period, and established the first feudal dynasty in history.The unification of the Qin Dynasty (221-207 BC) conformed to the trend of social development, and adopted powerful measures such as "writing on the same track and writing on the same track" to promote social development, which is of great historical significance.It is recorded in the history that Qin Shihuang reviewed the bamboo slips and inscriptions every day when he was in power, which was often calculated in stone (each stone was 120 catties), which took him a lot of time.After Qin, Liu Bang established a unified Han Dynasty, with its capital in Chang'an, known as the Western Han Dynasty in history (206 BC-25 AD).After the Western Han Dynasty came the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD), which moved its capital to Luoyang.The rulers of the early Han Dynasty carried out the policy of recuperating and developing production, which led to a new upsurge in social economy, culture, science and technology, resulting in the famous "Government of Wenjing" in history.During the Qin and Han Dynasties, China was a powerful and unified feudal empire, but the society still used the silk slips popular in the Warring States Period as writing materials, which no longer met the social needs of the new era.If it is said that Qin Shihuang's review of bamboo slips and memorials was counted in stone, then the emperor of the Western Han Dynasty had to review even more memorials.For example, it took Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty two months to finish reading Dongfang Shuo's letter written on 3,000 bamboo slips.The society urgently needs cheap and easy-to-obtain writing materials that can replace silk slips, so there is the invention of papermaking.This is the successful product of the ancestors in the Qin and Han Dynasties who experienced countless experiments.The history of Chinese papermaking technology wrote the first chapter from this period.

So far, we have only seen the word "paper" in the 2nd century BC, used to denote a new kind of thing.This is probably related to the fact that papermaking originated from the end of Qin Dynasty to the beginning of Western Han Dynasty.Xu Shen (approximately A.D. 58-approximately 147 years) explained the word "paper" in "Shuowen Jiezi", the earliest surviving Chinese dictionary: "Paper, flocculation——苫 [shan fan]. From Shito, Di sound." This means that the meaning of this character comes from "系", and the sound comes from "脳", and Di and Shi are connected, and it is pronounced as zhi [zhi].Thatch is also used as (upper bamboo and lower stick), which means mat.Therefore Xu Shen believed that the paper was a piece of wadding formed on the mat. "Watt" is the fiber in today's words, and "thatch" is the mold that makes the fiber gather and shape.This definition includes the raw materials of paper and the main tools and molds for papermaking.It's just not stated whether the wadding is animal fiber or plant fiber.The original meaning of flocculation refers to silk fiber, but sometimes it also refers to plant fiber.The plant fibers that make up the paper look like fine white silk wadding to the naked eye, which made the ancients call plant fiber paper "wadding paper" or "cocoon paper". In fact, the raw material is not silk. We tested this kind of paper and proved it to be hemp paper. or parchment.When ancient characters were created, the word "paper" came from the side of silk, which does not mean that early paper was made of silk, just as in Western languages, paper (English) and papier (French) are derived from Latin papyrus, while paper is not made of sedge. The slices are made the same.After the appearance of paper, it can play the role of silk and sedge flakes in the past, so characters such as "paper" and "paper" were created to indicate new materials that replaced silk and sedge flakes.New words reflecting new material are derived from the roots of the old things that are replaced, as is often the case in philology.For example, the word "porcelain" is understood from the tile, and the sound is from the second, and the tile is a vessel fired on pottery.Porcelain, as a new material to replace pottery, is derived from the word "tile", which does not mean that porcelain is made of ordinary clay that is used to make pottery.From the perspective of archaeological excavations, the earliest paper was made of plant fibers instead of silk flocs. It can be seen that the "flock" in the definition of paper in "Shuowen Jiezi" should be understood as plant fibers today, mainly hemp. Xu, although the word "paper" has the root of Shito.In order to clearly express the meaning of paper characters, the character "帋" was created in the 3rd century AD, and it was used until the 10th century, but the character "paper" was used again later.

Regarding the origin of papermaking, there have been two different opinions for a long time.The first opinion, represented by Zhang Yi, a philologist in the Three Kingdoms period, and Fan Ye, a historian in the Southern Dynasties, believed that Cai Lun, an eunuch in the Eastern Han Dynasty, invented paper in 105.Zhang Yi called the silk fabric "banner paper" or "ancient paper", and he believed that Cai Lun used old cloth to make paper, which he called "jinzhi" or "帋".Fan Ye holds the same point of view, and also believes that silk is made of paper, while Cai Lun "created ideas" using bark, hemp rope, rags and fishnets as paper. , Naturally, it passes through the world.According to our aforementioned definition, paper in any era is made of plant fibers through processes such as pounding and copying, and there is no difference between ancient and modern China and foreign countries.The so-called "ancient paper" by Zhang and Fan is not paper, but silk fabric.What they said about Cai Lun's paper making is incorrect.The second opinion on the origin of papermaking is represented by Zhang Huaiguan (guanguan), a connoisseur of calligraphy and painting in the Tang Dynasty, and some writers in the Song Dynasty. They believed that there were paper slips in the early Han Dynasty (2nd century BC), and Cai Lun in the Eastern Han Dynasty. The paper was made in a previous life, so Cai Lun is not the inventor of paper, but the improver.The practice of modern archaeological excavations proves that the second opinion above is correct. In 1933, archaeologist Huang Wenbi (1893-1966 A.D.) unearthed a piece of hemp paper at the Hanfengsui site in Lop Nur, Xinjiang, which was dated to the first year of Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty (49 BC). Years have paper. In 1954, Yuan Hanqing, a historian of chemistry, reaffirmed this point of view.He believes that the opinions of Tang and Song scholars are correct. Cai Lun did have paper before, and Cai Lun was an improver of papermaking.Mr. Yuan wrote: "Inventions and creations in ancient times were obtained by the working people in production practice, and often cannot be attributed to any individual. After an invention, it can be summarized by some people after a period of time, and of course it can be improved technically. The invention of papermaking will be no exception.” We agree with these sentiments.

When there are different references to a certain thing recorded in historical documents, archaeological excavations often help to determine which reference is correct.The dispute of different opinions surrounding the origin of papermaking has not been resolved for a long time, mainly because the ancient paper of the Han Dynasty was unearthed late.Did Cai Lun have paper before?If yes, what is the raw material, shape and manufacturing method of the paper?These questions have to rely on archaeological excavations to get the final answer.Fortunately, since the 20th century, field excavations in China have been carried out gradually, bringing new light to solve the ancient problem of the origin of papermaking.Following the discovery in 1933, in May 1957, a batch of cultural relics were unearthed from the ancient tomb site of the Baqiao Brick and Tile Factory in the eastern suburbs of Xi'an, Shaanxi, including bronze mirrors, bronze swords, half coins, painted pottery, and stone tigers hundred pieces.When cleaning up the cultural relics, it was found that there was linen under the bronze mirror and paper under the cloth, both with patina and green spots, and the largest piece was about 10 square centimeters.Although the excavation of this tomb was not planned, the nearby soil layer is single, without interference from other tombs, and the artifacts are also from this tomb.The disturbed soil layer on the cliff is the Wuhua soil backfilled at that time.The tomb is an earth chamber tomb with north and south holes, and there are white coffin ash.According to the shape of the tomb and the unearthed artifacts, archaeologists judged that its burial date was no later than the era of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty (140-87 BC). In 1964, we identified Baqiao paper, which was light yellow in color, with many fiber bundles on the paper, and small hemp rope ends that had not been loosened in between, but overall it was still dominated by scattered fibers, so it was broken as early hemp paper. In 1973, the Gansu Provincial Archaeological Team carried out scientific excavations at the Jianshui Jinguan garrison site in the Juyan area of ​​the Han Dynasty in the Ejina River Basin, and cleared out dated wooden slips, silk pieces, linen, wooden utensils, brushes, stone inkstones, and ancient paper.There are two pieces of ancient paper, one is white, even and fine in texture, 9 cm x 21 cm, dated to the second year of Ganlu (52 BC) of Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty.The other piece is dark yellow in color and looser in texture, measuring 9 cm by 11.5 cm, dated to the first year of Jianping (6 BC) of Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty.The age of the paper is determined according to the chronological wooden slips produced in the same exploration square.After testing, it is also hemp paper.Archaeologists believe that the excavation site is clear, the location of the site is clear, most of them have a layer relationship, and it is a scientific excavation, so the dating of Jinguan paper is reliable. In October 1978, pottery pots stored in cellars were cleared from the Han Dynasty architectural site in Zhongyan Village, Fufeng County, Shaanxi Province. There were more than 30 pieces of half taels, five baht coins, and bronze wares in them.Among them, paper is filled in the gaps between the copper bubbles (copper nails) of the lacquerware decorative parts. There are green spots on the paper. The paper surface is white and fine in texture, about 6.8 cm x 7.2 cm.Experts identified this batch of cultural relics as relics of Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty (73-49 BC).The unearthed Zhongyan paper has a clear stratum, and it is also a complete Western Han cellar excavated by archaeologists, with credible dating.According to our test, it is also hemp paper, which is at the same time as Lop Nur paper, but it is made more finely. In October 1979, the joint investigation team of the Great Wall of Gansu Province unearthed 337 real objects at the Western Han beacon site in Maquan Bay, Dunhuang, including five baht coins, silk and wool fabrics, copper, iron and wood ware, linen, brushes, stone inkstones, hemp paper and 1217 wooden slips .There are five pieces of ancient paper in different shades and textures, dating from the 1st century BC and the early AD.Four of them are white, finely made, and dated to the end of the Western Han Dynasty; the other is light yellow, thicker, and roughly manufactured, in the shape of a rectangle of 20 cm x 32 cm, with clear natural edges around it. It is the largest complete piece of paper unearthed in the Western Han Dynasty so far , during the time of Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty. As of the 1970s, Chinese archaeologists had discovered Cai Lunqian ancient paper made in different periods in the Western Han Dynasty five times in 1933, 1957, 1973, 1978, and 1979 in different places in Xinjiang, Shaanxi, and Gansu, thus solving the problem. The origin of papermaking.The existence of these ancient papers complements the deficiency of Western Han paper in "Historical Records" and "Hanshu", and also corrects the misrecording about the origin of papermaking in the Eastern Han Dynasty in "Book of the Later Han Dynasty", and advances the origin of Chinese papermaking by 200 years. Papermaking has a long history.This is a good thing, and anyone who cares about the history of China's material culture will be happy and accept the archaeological facts.In fact, relevant Chinese and foreign publications have done so in the past 30 years.It is also natural to prove that Cai Lun is not the inventor of papermaking from the facts of archaeological excavations.So does this mean that Cai Lun's role is completely denied?no.His role is to: (1) He summed up the technical experience of the previous generation and the contemporary generation of hemp paper, and organized the production of a batch of high-quality hemp paper.He is an innovator and promoter of hemp paper technology. (2) He presided over and advocated the development of mulberry paper in Luoyang, completed the technical breakthrough of papermaking with woody bast fiber, and expanded the raw materials for papermaking.The development of leather paper is a major technological innovation. In short, although Cai Lun was not the inventor of paper, he was indeed an innovator of papermaking that inherited the past and ushered in the future.In principle, these evaluations are consistent with the conclusions of Tang and Song scholars, but they are made under the new historical background with archaeological evidence. After discussing that papermaking originated in the Western Han Dynasty, and giving due evaluation to Cai Lun in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the long-lasting dispute over the origin of papermaking should have come to an end, and people's understanding should have tended to be consistent.Unfortunately, there are still people who still insist on the old theory that Cai Lun invented paper, denying that there was paper before Cai Lun, and this means denying the facts of all archaeological discoveries since the 20th century.However, in 1986, Gansu archaeologists found ancient paper in the Western Han Tomb at Fangmatan on the outskirts of Tianshui City, which was yellow in color and measured 5.6 cm x 2.6 cm.Maps are drawn on the paper, with mountains, rivers, and roads drawn in thin black lines. The drawing method is similar to the silk map unearthed from the Mawangdui Western Han Dynasty Tomb in Changsha.This paper map was placed on the chest of the deceased in the coffin, and pottery, lacquerware and wooden products were unearthed at the same time.The excavation report wrote: "The structure of the tomb is basically the same as that of the Qin tomb, but the characteristics of the burial objects are close to those of the early Han tombs in Shaanxi and Yunmeng, Hubei. Therefore, the age of this tomb is in the Wen and Jing periods of the Western Han Dynasty." Wen, Jing That is, Emperor Wen of the Western Han Dynasty (reigned from 179 BC to 157 BC) and Emperor Jing (reigned from 156 to 141 BC).The report also said: "The paper map fragment unearthed from Han Tomb No. 5 is the earliest known paper object. It strongly proves that my country has invented paper that can be used for drawing and writing in the early Western Han Dynasty. The origin, manufacturing technology, materials and uses of these materials are of particularly great value." For those who try to deny Cai Lun's existence of paper, it is like Wang Lingshi of the Song Dynasty said: "Nine original yellow soils are flexible, and the eternal blue sky is flying like a thunderbolt." , the more the existence of Western Han paper is denied, the more Western Han paper is unearthed. From May to July 1989, we repeatedly tested Fangmatan paper, which proved to be hemp paper of better quality, although it was earlier than Baqiao paper.Maps on paper show that paper was used for writing as early as the early Western Han Dynasty.The motivation of the ancestors of the Western Han Dynasty to make paper was to find a new type of writing material that could replace the silk slips, and their hard work finally succeeded.The unearthed Western Han paper brought to light the raw materials, shapes, production methods and uses of early paper that have been lacking in detailed records in historical books. Since June 1990, Fangmatan paper has officially met Chinese and foreign audiences in the Forbidden City in Beijing as an exhibit in the "Exhibition of the Essence of Chinese Cultural Relics". On July 5, "China Cultural Relics News" wrote: "As one of the four great inventions, paper objects actually appeared in the tombs of the early Western Han Dynasty. The debate can stop here." After that, in the winter of 1990, Gansu archaeologist Mr. He Shuangquan conducted an excavation at the Xuanquan site of the Western Han Dynasty in Tianshuijing, Dunhuang, and found more than 30 pieces of ancient paper, including 3 pieces of paper. Handwriting, date belongs to the Western Han Dynasty.The excavation site has a clear stratigraphic relationship, as well as a seal (the seal is "Yuan Changhe Yin"), 15,000 wooden slips and 10,000 pieces of various utensils.This is really physical evidence in black and white, proving that Western Han paper can be used for writing.The author was fortunate to have a sneak peek, and it is still hemp paper after inspection.In any case, it is impossible to deny the fact that Cai Lun had writing paper in the Western Han Dynasty. According to the unearthed ancient paper inspection and document records, the paper made in the early Han Dynasty was hemp paper.The production of hemp paper is actually not complicated. From the Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, for more than a thousand years, hemp paper was the main paper used in China.However, the ancient books lack records on the papermaking technology of the Han Dynasty. To solve this problem, it is necessary to conduct a systematic test on the paper of the Han Dynasty to understand its raw material composition, shape and texture. experiment. In 1965, I conducted a comprehensive study based on the above methods, and concluded that hemp paper in the Han Dynasty generally had to go through the following 11 processes to be made: soaking and chopping raw material rags, hemp rope, etc., soaking in lime water, steaming, washing, It is pounded into mud, and then mixed with water to make a slurry, which is then made into paper with molds.These processes and the required equipment are now shown in a diagram.The fineness of paper depends on the operation skills and whether it is meticulous workmanship, and the use of effective equipment is also related to this.It was through these technical operations that the ancestors of the Western Han Dynasty completed the invention of papermaking using simple equipment from waste hemp materials.The shape of Han paper is divided into two types: square and rectangular, and the latter is the most common. In 1979, a complete piece of Western Han hemp paper was unearthed in Majuanwan, Dunhuang, with a vertical height of 20 cm and a horizontal length of 32 cm. From this, it can be imagined that the size of the papermaking mold at that time was also similar to this, but it is not ruled out that even larger ones can be made. paper possible. In the winter of 1990, the hemp paper with characters in the Western Han Dynasty unearthed from Tianshui Well in Dunhuang had obvious curtain patterns on the paper surface, from which the structure of the paper-making mold can be inferred. After a century of development in the Western Han Dynasty, hemp paper was summarized and improved in the Cai Lun era of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the paper made was greatly improved, so it was popularized quickly.By the end of the Han Dynasty (2nd-3rd century A.D.), famous papermakers emerged in large numbers, the most famous being Zuo Bo from Donglai, Shandong, whose hemp paper was famous for a while.Zhao Qi's "San Fu Jue Lu" quoted Wei Dan's statement: "A husband must first sharpen his tools if he wants to be good at his work. Using Zhang Zhi's pen, Zuo Bo's paper and Chen's ink (Wei Dan's ink) are all ancient methods." Writing paper from the Eastern Han Dynasty was also unearthed in Northwest China in the 20th century. The paper is fine and thin, and can be written on both sides.Another achievement of the Eastern Han Dynasty was the production of vellum paper other than hemp paper, which was related to Cai Lun's activities.Dong Ba, a doctor of Wei (220-265 A.D.) during the Three Kingdoms period, recorded in "Da Han Yu Fu Zhi" that Cai Lun presided over the production of leather paper in Tokyo (Luoyang), and used the bark of the wild mulberry tree (now called the tree) as raw material.This is a woody plant of the family Moraceae, which is wild in the north and south. Its bast is a good raw material for papermaking, and the fiber content is relatively high.In ancient times, mulberry skin fibers were woven into mulberry cloth for clothing, which has the same function as linen, but the cost is obviously lower than that of linen. Because mulberry trees do not need artificial cultivation, they can be felled anywhere, and fibers can be obtained after retting. It is spun into cloth.Cloth woven from mulberry skin fibers in the Han Dynasty of China was unearthed in Xinjiang in the early 20th century.The worn-out Chubu and linen are therefore also used as raw materials for papermaking.Since the Han people can use cheaper mulberry fiber to weave instead of linen, it is possible to explore the direct use of mulberry fiber to make paper.This is not only possible from a technical point of view, but also an inevitable result.It can be imagined that to make paper from mulberry skin, it needs to be retting and degummed in water first, and then steamed with plant ash water. The following procedure is the same as that of making hemp paper, but the green skin layer on the surface of mulberry skin must be peeled off at any time.The appearance of mulberry paper opened up a wide range of raw material sources for papermaking, leading to the emergence of a series of leather papers such as mulberry paper, rattan paper, and Swiss incense paper.However, vellum paper from the Han Dynasty has rarely been unearthed so far, because most of the places where hemp paper was unearthed were in the dry climate areas of the northwest. At that time, hemp paper was still the main product in these places. Vellum paper is rarely found in excavated ancient tombs, which does not mean that there was no vellum paper produced at that time.

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