In China, in the early Western Han Dynasty BC, folk papermaking appeared, and the paper excavated in The Hanging Spring in Gansu is known as the earliest paper found in the world. In recent years, 460 pieces of ancient paper made of hemp have been excavated there, becoming the place where the most ancient paper has been found. Usually we say that Cai Lun papermaking refers to the "Cai Hou paper" that around 200 AD, Cai Lun of the Eastern Han Dynasty summed up the folk experience, and used bark, hemp heads, rags, and fishing nets to create official and social recognition and organize large-scale production of "Cai Hou paper". Five or six hundred years later, it spread to Persia and the Middle East through the Silk Road. It took another two hundred years, and only after 1000 AD did it reach Europe through the Silk Road.
In ancient Greece and Rome, numerous cultural celebrities appeared. These cultural celebrities wrote many masterpieces, leaving unparalleled spiritual wealth to future generations. One can't help but wonder: How did the texts written more than 1,000 years ago be preserved and passed down to the present day? This cannot be avoided without mentioning the sheepskin low, which has played a huge role in the cultural heritage of Europe and the Near East.
In ancient Greece and Rome, there was neither paper nor printing, and people used feathers or reed pipes as pens and ink to write on parchment, and then bound into books. Whoever wants to get a book, the general way is to copy it. At that time, the rich and powerful had slaves who specialized in copying books. From the 6th to the 10th century AD, during the Dark Ages of the European Middle Ages, the long-accumulated classics were incalculable after countless wars, looting, burning, scraping, insect moths, molds, and decay. Despite this, most of the ancient Greek and Roman parchment texts have survived. How did these ancient books survive to this day?
One is through the transcription of the monks and the collection of the church. Some say that the monks copied almost all the sheepskin ancient books that can be seen since the 6th century AD, so that a large number of texts have been preserved to this day. Of course, many of these ancient texts died or were lost to the Gentiles long before the Germanic attacks on the city of Rome. There are also some books that have not been copied because of the prohibition, and many books have been lost after being copied. It is difficult to save them all.
Some scholars believe that the Arabs made the first contribution to the preservation of ancient Greco-Roman parchment texts. Beginning in the 7th century AD, the Arabs conquered large areas along the Mediterranean coast in centuries-long expansion and received a large number of precious Greco-Roman books. The Arabs even used their armies to rob books. In the 9th century, Caliph Al-Mamun established a large library in Baghdad and translated the ancient books he collected into Arabic. The library's books flowed back to Europe after the 12th century and were translated into Latin. It is estimated that the Arabs collected more ancient Greek books than European monasteries preserved, and they consciously preserved some valuable works of medicine and natural science. These books were later translated into Latin and became popular in Europe. Knowing these situations and associating with Qin Shi Huang's book burning pit Confucianism, I was really ashamed.
It is also believed that the greatest preserver of ancient Greek texts was the Byzantine Kingdom, the Eastern Roman Empire. A large number of parchment texts were destroyed in the Middle Ages, but the Byzantine Dynasty was keen to preserve books. So some people call Byzantium the preserve of classical culture. If it were not for Byzantium, people today would not have been able to see the great works of Homer, Plato, Sophocles, and even Aristotle. It seems that the Byzantine Empire emphasized itself as the inheritor of the Romans, and history also referred to them as the Eastern Roman Empire, and the cultural coordinates are indeed reasonable.
The above statements have a certain truth, although they cannot be regarded as an exact conclusion, but they provide us with multiple paths to explore this problem.
31 August 2014 in Kalabaka
The picture shows the cultural scholar: Xiao Yunru
About author:Xiao Yunru, born in 1940 in Jiangxi, lives in Xi'an, Shaanxi, is the vice chairman of the Shaanxi Provincial Federation of Literature and Literature, a famous cultural scholar and researcher. In 1961, Xiao Yunru first mentioned the theory of prose "scattered and scattered", which profoundly affected the Chinese literary circle. For decades, he has studied in depth and enthusiastically promoted Western culture, and has been called the ambassador of Western culture. As the oldest member of the "Silk Road Journey" team, he will complete the journey from Xi'an to Rome, investigate the Silk Road culture along the way, and use a series of articles to show his thoughts on the history of the Silk Road and the spirit of the Silk Road.