#文章首发挑战赛#
Since the fifties and sixties of the last century, there have been a lot of "Western Han Dynasty ancient paper (especially plant fiber paper)", and the time of Chinese papermaking has been advanced by one or two hundred years. Cai Lun seems to have been pulled off the altar by others, and he is no longer the papermaking hero who has made epoch-making contributions to human culture in our minds.
So are these so-called "ancient papers" paper, and did the Western Han Dynasty really already have "paper"?
Cai Lun, a eunuch of the Eastern Han Dynasty, became the supervising producer of the imperial utensils in the ninth year of Yongyuan (97). He invented a complete set of papermaking technology, so it is called "Caihou paper"
Let's first look at how to define the concept of "paper".
The basic steps of papermaking include: cutting plant fibers, boiling, rinsing, pounding, curtains, drying, and so on. A key point in judging whether it is handmade paper is "broomization", that is, the rough fibers are crushed after pulping treatment, so that the fiber ends are crushed into filaments, shaped like a broom. The function of broomization is to improve the bonding point and bonding strength of pulp fibers when they are made into paper.
No matter how much the ancient paper-like objects unearthed by archaeology look like paper, they cannot be called real paper without this process. Egyptian papyrus and ancient Chinese silk silk paper, both paper-like sheets, can also be written, but neither is real paper.
So let's take a look at the types of these unearthed "ancient Western Han Dynasty papers" and their identification results:
First, "Baqiao Paper"
"Baqiao paper" is a sheet unearthed from a Han Dynasty tomb on a construction site in the Baqiao area of Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province in mainland China in 1957. When unearthed, the "paper" has been broken into pieces, with the largest area of about 100 c㎡, the smallest about 12 c㎡, and the thickness of about 0.14 mm, a total of 88 pieces. Later, after scientific identification, it was found that these were just some fiber masses with hemp wool as the main body, which were used as pads under the copper mirror.
Second, "Juyan Paper"
In 1978, the first issue of Cultural Relics reported that in 1973, two pieces (one large and one small) of Juyan paper were unearthed from the Han Dynasty ruins in the Juyan area of Gansu Province. Archaeologists believe that these two pieces of "paper" are more than 150 years and 100 years earlier than Cai Lun paper, respectively. These two pieces of "Juyan paper" are in the collection of the Gansu History Museum.
After testing, Juyan paper is made of natural waste hemp wool, rope head, thread head, cloth head and a few silk fibers, the texture is rough and loose, the surface is uneven, and fluffy, and it is not suitable for use as writing materials. However, since it has undergone the basic process of pulping and fiber cutting, we think that it can be regarded as the prototype of paper.
"Juyan Paper"
Third, "Fufeng Paper"
In terms of appearance, Fufeng paper and Juyan paper are similar. The fiber is white, the whiteness is about 40%, the paper is rough, and the hemp segments and hemp bundles on the paper are clearly visible. The average thickness of the paper is about 0.22 ~ 0.24 mm, but it is uneven, and the difference in thickness is more than 3 times.
The fiber morphology is similar to that of Juyan paper, and it is also ramie and hemp fiber, and the degree of pulping is slightly higher than that of Juyan paper. The washing situation is very poor, there is a lot of mud and fibers that kink into clumps or are scattered in the tissue of the paper, or become a layer of sediment floating on the paper. From the perspective of paper structure, Fufeng paper and Juyan paper belong to the same type, which is hemp waste after simple cutting, scooping (or hammering) to become a thin sheet, without copying. It has the rudimentary form of paper, but it is very rough and not yet suitable for use as a writing material.
Fourth, Maquanwan paper
Maquanwan paper refers to the fragments of Western Han hemp paper found in 1979 at the Fengsui site of Maquanwan in Dunhuang, Gansu Province, the fragments were found at 5 exploration sites, some of these fragments were accumulated with animal manure, and the ash layer on it was about 0.3 ~ 0.5 m. The largest fragment area is 32 cm long and 29 cm wide.
Microscope and electron microscopy showed that the fiber composition was hemp, with a moderate degree of filament separation and broomization. The specimen can also be written, and it is no problem to call it paper, which is not a paper that is generally simple to produce, and the papermaking technology is high.
However, from the dry environment unearthed and the available historical materials, these "papers" are identified as products of the late Eastern Han Dynasty or even later, and were later mixed into the Great Wall of the Western Han Dynasty.
Fifth, the "paper map" of Fangmatan
In March 1986, a cultural relic was unearthed in the ancient tombs in the Fangmatan area of Tianshui City, Gansu Province, which was a fragment of a similar map, entitled "Fangmatan Paper Map".
The results of the appraisal show that the fragments of the "Fangmatan Paper Map" are not paper products, but a collection of several textile fragments; the so-called "map" is not a map, and all the black dots in the fragments are not geographical icons, but all insect-eaten holes; and all the lines in the fragments are suspected to have been unearthed and dried and shaped by later generations.
"Paper Map" of Fangmatan
Sixth, "Hanging Spring Paper"
In 1992, more than 20 pieces of so-called "Western Han paper" were found in Hanging Spring, Gansu Province, four of which had text. However, the site of Hanging Springs is a garbage accumulation from the Western Han Dynasty to the Wei and Jin dynasties, with a large annual span and violent environmental disturbances, so it is difficult to divide the dynasties. The paper shapes identified also vary. The paper with characters was judged to be a product of the Western Jin Dynasty based on calligraphy and word choice.
Hanging spring paper
To sum up, the various "Western Han paper" listed above are not scientifically defined "paper", but they are not forgeries, but they have been wrongly judged for some reasons. We should uphold the attitude of scientific archaeology, unify the standards, and then correct the mistakes, otherwise it will damage the reputation of science and the truth of history.
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(Some of the pictures are from the Internet, if there is any infringement, it will be deleted)