Wasn't Cai Lun the first person to make paper? Archaeology has found the truth, and the unearthed paper is more than 300 years earlier than Cai Lun

Cai Lun of the Eastern Han Dynasty of China was the inventor of paper, because he invented paper, which caused the first revolutionary major change in history in China and the world in the media technology of communication, and Cai Lun became the first great inventor of China to change the face of the world, especially to change the face of world culture.

This is a passage said by the famous scholar Liu Guangyu in the "Examination of the Life and Deeds of Inventor Cai Lun".

Obviously, this passage affirms that the birth of paper is of great significance to the continent and the world, and of course, it also affirms that Cai Lun, the inventor of paper, single-handedly changed the face of the whole world, and Cai Lun is really a wizard.

Whenever we use paper in our lives, we can't help but thank this great inventor, after all, paper has filled every aspect of our lives, and it is difficult for us to imagine what our lives would become without paper, and what the whole world would become.

I vaguely remember that in the books when I was a child, it was clearly written that Cai Lun was the inventor of paper and the first person to make paper, so that when we talk about the inventor of paper, we will think of "paper god" Cai Lun.

However, with the continuous development of social science and technology, especially after the continuous excavation of various cultural relics, some of the historical knowledge that we are familiar with have been continuously overthrown, just to say that the excavation of two cultural relics of "Qinghua Jian" and "Bamboo Book Chronicle" has caused a lot of sensations and hit a lot of established historical facts.

The relationship between Cai Lun and papermaking has not landed smoothly, and even archaeology has found a truth that is powerless to refute:

Cai Lun was not the first person to make paper, and the paper known so far predates Cai Lun's life by more than 300 years.

So what is the story between Cai Lun and papermaking, and where was the earliest paper unearthed in archaeology?

Let's take a look.

Cai Lun and papermaking

Cai Lun was born in the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, his ancestors made a living from playing iron, he was a native of Songyang, Hunan, Cai Lun was smart and clever since childhood, very likable, because the family environment was not bad, Cai Lun also read a lot of books when he was young.

However, compared with the knowledge in the books, Cai Lun prefers all kinds of production behaviors around him, such as iron smelting, hemp breeding, silkworm breeding, etc. he is very fascinated.

During the reign of Emperor Ming of Han, the Eunuchs recruited by the Han court to enter the palace under the heavens, and for unknown reasons, Cai Lun was sent to the palace and became the first person in South China to enter the palace as an official at that time.

After Cai Lun entered the palace, he initially worked as an errand boy in the court where the concubines lived, and a few years later he was promoted to Xiaohuangmen, which was a very low official position, but the good villain was also an official.

After emperor He of Han ascended the throne, Cai Lun was promoted to serve the Zhongchang servant of the Heavenly Son, participated in state secret affairs, and became a super eunuch who conveyed edicts and participated in the government of the dynasty.

After having the authority, Cai Lun was still very interested in the production of the tools used in the palace, and even asked the emperor for an official position of Shang FangLing, which was responsible for supervising the craftsmen to make swords and other utensils for the emperor.

When Cai Lun was fine, he often chatted with craftsmen to discuss how to improve production, perhaps because of the exquisite technology and creativity of the working people, Cai Lun came up with the idea of papermaking.

At that time, when people wrote documents, they still used bamboo and wooden jane, and sometimes they could also use silk veils, but the former was too bulky, the latter was too expensive, and they were not suitable writing materials, and the strong desire to transform writing materials made Cai Lun begin to study the method of papermaking.

The kung fu pays off, Cai Lun summed up the experience of the previous artificial paper, he cut the bark, rotten cloth, hemp head, fishing nets and other things, and then put it into water to soak, and then mashed into a pulp, after steaming and drying, the paper was made.

As recorded in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty:

Lun Nai made up his mind, using tree skin, hemp head and cloth, fishing net as paper... The emperor is good at his ability, and he cannot help but use it.

Archaeological finds

After Cai Lun made a more practical paper, he told the Han And Emperor the news, and the Han and Emperor were very pleased, praised Cai Lun well, and named this paper "Cai Hou Paper".

In the fourth year of the first year of the Yuan Dynasty, Cai Lun was entrusted with the task of editing the scriptures, and after he completed the proofreading, he copied copies of the scriptures he had created and issued them to local officials, and since then the paper books have ushered in the climax of development, and the paper books have become the most powerful tool for spreading culture.

For a long time in history, because there is no other historical document and cultural evidence, posterity will say that Cai Lun was the first person to make paper according to the only records in the historical records, and for thousands of years, with false rumors, if someone jumped out and said that Cai Lun was not the inventor of paper, it would be said that he could not look up.

However, the deep-rooted concept is not necessarily a historical fact, and the archaeological excavations of cultural relics can be closer to the truth, and Cai Lun and papermaking have also been constantly "punched in the face" by new discoveries in archaeology.

In 1957, on the construction site of an inconspicuous brick and tile factory in Baqiao, Xi'an, when the bulldozer was bulldozing, it suddenly launched a clay pot with a copper mirror inside, and there was a ball of hemp wire under the copper mirror.

In 1974, the "Jinguan Paper" was unearthed from the former site of the Han Dynasty Pavilion in Juyan Jinguan, Gansu.

In 1978, "Zhongyan Paper" was unearthed again in the Western Han Cellar in Zhongyan Village, Fufeng, Shaanxi.

These three major discoveries have pointed out to people that there was already "paper" in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, so some experts say that Cai Lun of the Eastern Han Dynasty was the first person to make paper.

Of course, some experts believe that these hemp papers are not comparable to the paper invented by Cai Lun in texture, after all, they are too rough and loose.

Even if this is the case, it at least proves that Cai Lun is not the inventor of papermaking, which is like the electric lamp now brighter than the previous Edison invented, can it be said that Edison invented not the electric lamp?

The earliest known paper

In the following years, whether Cai Lun was the first person to make paper was debated by experts until 1986, when an ancient paper map was unearthed from the No. 5 Han Tomb in Fangmatan, Tianshui, Gansu Province, and whether Cai Lun was the first person to make paper seemed to be a conclusive conclusion.

The paperwork is very smooth, the texture is very soft and light, the structure is also very tight, and what is more amazing is that it also depicts mountains, rivers, cliffs and roads.

After experts have studied the raw material of this ancient paper as cannabis, the manufacturing process is very complicated, after cutting, pounding, pulping, precipitation filtration, extrusion and other processes.

The age of this Han tomb is from the late Qin to the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, which means that the latest era of this ancient paper map is in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, more than 300 years before the history of Cai Lun papermaking, which can be described as the earliest known paper in the world.

Therefore, it can be concluded that in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, there was already paper that could be used for writing, and the texture was not bad, the process was also very mature, and there was a high level of papermaking, and Cai Lun naturally could not be called the first person to make paper.

As Zhang Huaihuan of the Tang Dynasty said in the Book Break:

Han Xing, there is a paper generation Jane, to the time of the Emperor He, Cai Lungong for it.

However, we cannot deny the merits of Cai Lun, because Cai Lun transformed papermaking, and it is precisely because of Cai Lun's major innovations that not only once again improved the quality of paper, but also greatly improved the output, and then became the real "paper" that people are proud of now.

Therefore, even if Cai Lun is not the first person to make paper, he can be called the inventor of papermaking, after all, he has worked hard to provide people with cheap and high-quality paper, which has caused changes in writing materials, and this great achievement cannot be ignored.

References: "Book of Han", "Book of the Later Han Dynasty", "Examination of the Life and Deeds of Inventor Cai Lun", "Book Break" and so on.

(Figure net, invasion and deletion)