The famous French historian Broudel proposed that history is divided into long periods, medium periods and short periods. A battle, a meeting of politicians, an important speech or a letter of great importance, these political, military, diplomatic and other events are fleeting in history, historians call them short periods, these historical events, the impact on the parties involved is great, but the impact on the development of history is very small. Medium and long periods may have little impact on the parties, but the impact on history is very large.
Let's use this view of history today to look at Cai Lun's life.
Regarding Cai Lun, what we remember now is that he invented the art of papermaking. This is a long-term event. However, if we look back at the time in which he lived, we will find that the invention of papermaking did not have much influence on him, but what really affected his life was something else.
First thing: Eunuch Cai Lun
Cai Lun was erudite and knowledgeable, familiar with poetry and books, and was exceptionally intelligent since childhood, known as a "child prodigy". During the reign of Emperor Liu Zhao of Han, Cai Lun was elected to the palace and became a eunuch.
With his own ingenuity, Cai Lun was not bad in the palace, and was appointed by the emperor as the Yellow Gate Attendant, mainly responsible for reaching and guiding the dynasties to see and arrange for the seating.
The second thing: court struggles
The palace is at the top of the power, and doing things in the palace is naturally indispensable to the court struggle. Cai Lun was also consciously or unconsciously involved in the court struggle at that time.
At that time, Empress Dou had no heirs, and the son of the noble concubine Song Guiren was made crown prince. But Empress Dowager Dou did not like the prince. Therefore, she instructed Cai Lun to frame the noble concubine Song Guiren on the charge of "carrying evil and flattering", and eventually forced Song Guiren to commit suicide, and Liu Qing, a child of Song Guiren, who had been made crown prince, was demoted to the title of King of Qinghe. Empress Dowager Dou also forcibly made Liu Zhaona, a child of Liang Guiren, an adopted son, and Emperor Zhang of Han made him crown prince.
Empress Dowager Dou's wave of "riotous operations" was aimed at abolishing Chang Liyou. Because Liu Zhao was very young at that time, he was set up to facilitate control.
Sure enough, Emperor Zhangdi of Han died in 188, and the 10-year-old crown prince Liu Zhao successfully succeeded to the throne as Emperor He of Han. The little emperor was still a child, and the power was in the hands of Empress Dou.
Because of his meritorious efforts in seizing power, Cai Lun was promoted to zhongchang shi (中常侍), accompanied by emperor You, participated in state secret affairs, ranked 2,000 stones, and had the same status as Jiuqing.
The third thing: get the favor of the new lord and be crowned the Marquis of Longting
In Chinese history, there have been many eunuchs who have fallen into power, but few have been enfeoffed. Among these few people, Cai Lun is one of them.
In the ninth year of Yongping, Empress Dou died, and Emperor Han and Emperor He took over the government. At this point, the balance of power begins to shift. Emperor He's empress Dowager Deng Sui gradually seized power. Cai Lun immediately defected to Empress Deng. Deng Sui liked to dance and ink, and Cai Lun, in order to do what he liked, was willing to condescend and concurrently serve as Shang Fangling, in charge of the imperial utensils in the palace and the imperial handicraft workshop in the palace. During this period, he summed up the papermaking experience since the Western Han Dynasty, improved the papermaking process, and refined high-quality paper using raw materials such as bark, rags (sackcloth), hemp head, and fishing nets. In the first year of the Yuan Dynasty, Cai Lun reported this discovery to the imperial court, which was praised by Empress Deng and Emperor He of Han, and papermaking was also promoted. The paper produced by him is called "Caihou paper".
In the same year, Emperor He died, and Empress Deng's baby, who was only 100 days old, was put on the throne. The infant emperor did not live long and died less than two years later. Deng Hou made his 13-year-old nephew Liu Hu emperor for Emperor An of Han. At the beginning of his reign, he was still controlled by Empress Deng, and Cai Lun continued to be used heavily, and was given the title of "Marquis of Longting", and from then on he entered the ranks of the nobility. Around the fifth and sixth year of the first century, Cai Lun was promoted to changle taibu and became empress dowager's chief attendant, and was flattered by manchu wenwu.
Fourth thing: suicide
The power of eunuchs came from the magnates to whom they depended. Once the magnates lose power or die, their glory and wealth will come to an end.
In the first year of Jianguang, Empress Deng died, and Emperor An took the throne. Cai Lun suddenly fell from the peak of power to the bottom. He knew very well that when he was instructed by Empress Dou to participate in the persecution of Emperor An's grandmother Song Guiren and deprive his father Liu Qing of the right to inherit the throne, Emperor An of Han would not let him go. So he simply hanged himself, leaving a whole corpse.
The above four things are very, very important things for Cai Lun, and the impact on his life is also very large. But, in the context of a long period of history, these four things are insignificant and few will remember. However, the invention of paper had little impact on Cai Lun, but in a long period of time, this matter was very important, the impact was very large, even beyond national borders, and promoted the development of the entire history of world civilization.