Papermaking is the first of the four major inventions in ancient China, and it has also had a profound impact on the development process of human civilization. Because of the emergence and popularity of paper, people can record history, communicate and learn in a convenient way.
As we all know, the real sense of papermaking originated in China, and in the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was improved to make it almost perfect, and the people who improved it are all familiar to us: Cai Lun. There is a book in the United States called "100 Celebrities Who Influenced the Course of Human History in the World", in which Cai Lun's ranking is very close to Confucius's ranking, which shows that his status among world celebrities is still very high. However, Cai Lun's tragic ending is little known, and today we will introduce Cai Lun's life.
First, Cai Lun invented papermaking or improved papermaking
Cai Lun (蔡倫), courtesy name Jingzhong, was a native of Songyang, Guiyang County, Eastern Han Dynasty. In the last year of the HanMing Emperor Yongping, Cai Lun, who was still young, entered the palace as a eunuch. Although he was young, he matured relatively early. He acted cautiously and attentively in the palace, and was deeply appreciated by the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and in the second year of entering the palace, he was promoted to Xiaohuangmen (an official of ancient China dedicated to emperors, monarchs, and their family servants). Eunuchs were not all eunuchs during the pre-Qin and Western Han dynasties, but from the Eastern Han Dynasty onwards, eunuchs were all eunuchs), and soon after they were promoted to the higher status of Huangmen Shilang (Lang guan who was given to the palace gate, was a close attendant of the emperor, and could convey edicts).
Many of us mention that Cai Lun's first reaction is to invent papermaking, but in fact, there is not enough evidence to prove that paper is made by Cai Lun, so this statement is also untenable.
Cai Lun's papermaking theory comes from the Book of the Later Han Dynasty written by Fan Ye of the Southern Song Dynasty: "Since the ancient book Qi duo was compiled with bamboo Jane, its use of silk paper is called zhi paper. Expensive and simple, it is not convenient for people, and Lun is a deliberate, using tree skin, hemp head and cloth and fishing nets as paper. In the first year of Yuan Xing, the emperor was good at his ability, and he could not use it. Therefore, the world is called 'CaiHou Paper'. "
However, most of the content of Fan Ye's "Book of the Later Han Dynasty" is taken from the Eastern Han Dynasty history book "Dongguan HanJi". However, there is no record of Cai Lun in the Eastern Guan Han Ji version. In the first year of Yuan Jia (151), after Yan Du and others were ordered by Emperor Huan of Han to supplement the Biography of Cai Lun, there was a section on Cai Lun in the Book of Eastern Han. Because the time of the supplementary writing of the "Biography of Cai Lun" was only thirty years after Cai Lun's death, many historians believe that Yan Du and Cai Lun were people of the same period, and the credibility of the "Biography of Cai Lun" is still very high. However, the extant "Dongguan Hanji" is a compilation of the "Four Libraries", because of its age, the ancient books will produce errors when copied, so this compilation is also very vague about the concept given by Cai Lun's papermaking.
However, in the summer of 1933, archaeologist Huang Wenbi found a piece of suspected paper from the Western Han Dynasty in the ruins of the Lop Po Han Dynasty. Huang Wenbi said it was "hempy, white, as a square flake, incomplete around". Seeing such a description, our first reaction is that Mr. Huang Lao found paper! But is this really paper? Papermaking experts said: To judge whether it is paper unearthed, the key is to look at its constituent fibers, if it is animal fiber, it means that it is a silk fabric, if it is a plant fiber, it is paper. The final result shows that Mr. Huang Wenbi found paper!
Therefore, Cai Lun did not invent papermaking, but only improved papermaking.
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Second, Cai Lun was involved in the court struggle, and the end was miserable
Even though Cai Lun improved papermaking and contributed to human civilization, in the environment at that time, he was only a eunuch and inevitably became involved in the whirlpool of court struggles.
The Book of later Han records that Cai Lun soon became Empress Dou's confidant when he entered the palace. However, Empress Dou had no children, and in the royal family where the mother was expensive, the absence of children meant the instability of the "back seat". At that time, the son of another concubine in the palace, Song Guiren, was made crown prince by Emperor Zhang of Han, which greatly stimulated Empress Dou. In order to prevent Song Guiren from taking her place, Empress Dou instructed Cai Lun to plan a witchcraft incident to frame Song Guiren for cursing the emperor. At that time, the person in charge of hearing the case was also Cai Lun, who beat the sisters of the Song Nobles into confessions to convict the Song Nobles, and also ordered the Emperor to sentence the Sisters of the Song Nobles to death by hanging. In the end, the humiliated Sister Song Guiren committed suicide by taking poison in prison.
After Song Guiren's death, Empress Dou threatened another Liang Guiren, who had just given birth to a child, to pass the child over to her as a son, and made the infant child crown prince. After the death of Emperor Zhang of Han, the child raised by Empress Dou ascended the throne as Emperor He of Han, and Empress Dou also became the empress dowager. Cai Lun was also promoted, and was even given the title of "Marquis of Longting".
However, no one could have predicted the fate of the arrangement. Many years later, Emperor An of Han, the grandson of The Song Dynasty, succeeded to the throne, and Emperor Han wanted to avenge his grandmother, but the mastermind Empress Dou was no longer there, so the first to clean up was Duke Cai. Cai Lun also knew that he would not be able to escape the disaster, so he took poison and committed suicide.