The word "paper" is derived from the word "papyrus," which was a plant found in Egypt along the lower Nile River. About 5,000 years ago, Egyptians created "sheets" of papyrus by harvesting, peeling and slicing the plant into strips. The strips were then layered, pounded together and smoothed to make a flat, uniform sheet.
No major changes in writing materials were to come for about 3,000 years. According to Chinese historical accounts, paper was first invented by Ts'ai Lun (about 104 CE), who lived in the Eastern Han Dynasty. He took the inner bark of a mulberry tree and bamboo fibers, mixed them with water, and pounded them with a wooden tool. He then poured this mixture onto a flat piece of coarsely woven cloth and let the water drain through, leaving only the fibers on the cloth. Once dry, Ts'ai Lun discovered that he had created a quality writing surface that was relatively easy to make and lightweight. Some other materials he used for various papers included tree bark, remnants of hemp, linen rags, and fishnets.He presented the invention to Emperor He Di in 105 CE, and knowledge of papermaking was passed along to Korea, Samarkand, Baghdad, and Damascus.
In the province of Guizhou, papermaking has been a tradition in several local towns for hundreds of years. Many papermaking workshops are well-preserved and continue to make paper in small quantities. Today, both rough-straw paper and paper money are distributed in all corners of the province.
During the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and the Song Dynasty (960-1279), varieties of paper were developed for different purposes. The varieties include hemp paper, hide paper, bamboo paper, and xuan paper. Xuan paper is mostly used in Chinese paintings and calligraphy because of its smooth, durable, and whiteness of the paper.
Chinese paper making was introduced to Korea and Vietnam and later to Japan at the beginning of the 3rd century. By the end of the 7th century, it reached India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Bangladesh before spreading throughout Europe. By the 10th century, Arabians were substituting linen fibers for wood and bamboo, creating a finer sheet of paper. In 1150, Europe's first paper mill was built. By 1575, Mexico and Australia adopted the technique. Chinese paper making methods spread throughout the world by the 19th century.
The woodblock prints show some of the six major stages in papermaking, recorded in a seventeenth-century book "The Exploitation of the Works of Nature."
