Cai Lun

Cai Lun

Cai Lun (61-121), a native of Guiyang County in the Eastern Han Dynasty, was named Jingzhong. In the second year of Zhanghe (A.D. 88), Cai Lun was promoted to be a minister of the imperial court for his meritorious service to the Empress Dowager. Cai Lun summed up people's experience in papermaking, innovated papermaking technology, improved papermaking technology, and finally made "Caihou paper". In the first year of Yuanxing (AD 105), Emperor Hanhe ordered the promotion of his papermaking method. In the first year of Jianguang (121 AD), he committed suicide due to power struggle.

Cai Lun's improved papermaking is listed as the "four great inventions" in ancient China, which has made outstanding contributions to the spread of human culture and the progress of world civilization, and has been respected by people for thousands of years. It is regarded as the originator of papermaking and the "God of paper". In Michael Hart's list of 100 people who have influenced the course of human history, Cai Lun ranks seventh. Among the "best inventors of all time" published by time magazine, Cai Lun is on the list. At the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Cai Lun's improved papermaking technique was specially displayed.

Life of the characters

Cai Lun was born in a family of blacksmiths at the foot of Dacuo mountain in the early Eastern Han Dynasty. His ancestors were blacksmiths. After Wei SA became the prefect of Guiyang County, he set up iron officials in Guiyang, so the Cai family had close contact with the officials of the imperial court.

When he was a child, he was an elementary student in a village called Shilin at the foot of Dacuo mountain. He studied Zhouli and the Analects of Confucius. He was especially interested in the surrounding production and living environment, such as smelting, casting, planting hemp and raising silkworms. Cai Lun, a young man, is well versed in learning and talent.

According to the legend of Cai Lun's descendants, Cai Lun became a eunuch in the imperial palace after he was 18 years old, recommended by the officials from the capital to manage the transportation, mining and smelting of cast iron. This year is the 18th year of emperor Yongping (AD 75). According to the analysis of historical data, Cai Lun was the first person to enter the imperial court and become an official in South China and even in the south of the Yangtze River.

After he was elected to the palace, he began to work as a servant in yeting, where his concubines lived next to the palace. A few years later, he was promoted to a eunuch of xiaohuangmen who went in and out of the palace and delivered imperial edicts. Cai Lun's talent is more and more revealed. In the seventh year of the founding of the people's Republic of China, empress Dou designed to frame the song noble people, and Cai Lun "verified it.". When Emperor Hanhe ascended the throne (89 A.D.), he was promoted to be a Zhongchang servant who went to and from the imperial court and served the emperor. He became a high eunuch who communicated imperial edicts, took charge of documents, and participated in court affairs.

When Emperor Hanhe first ascended the throne, he was still young. Empress Dou, whom Cai Lun had served, became empress dowager. She took control of the government and left the imperial power to her relatives, the Dou family. Dou Xian, a compatriot of Empress Dowager Dou, and his four brothers were all dignitaries. They were good at authoritarianism, plotting irregularities, and were in full swing. Cai Lun, who was upright and upright, could not bear to see this, so he and the eunuch took the opportunity to ask Zheng Zhong to help emperor he and take advantage of Dou Xian's expedition to return to the imperial court, which eliminated the disadvantages of Dou's dictatorship and consolidated the imperial rule of emperor he.

In the ninth year of Yongyuan (A.D. 97), "Jianzuo secret sword and various instruments"; before that, zhongchangshi "Jiawei shangfangling".

In the first year of Yuanxing (AD 105), the paper was presented to Hanhe emperor. This kind of paper is called "Caihou paper".

In the first year of Yongchu (A.D. 107), Empress Dowager Deng was granted the title of Marquis of Longting because Cai served as a bodyguard for a long time. There were 300 households in the land. Later, he served as a servant of Changle. In the fourth year of the Yuan Dynasty (A.D. 110), the emperor selected Liu Zhen, a famous scholar, and Liang Shi, a doctor, to gather in Dongguan (Palace name) because most of the Scriptures and biographies were not verified and confirmed, and sent Cai Lun to supervise the event.

In the first year of Jianguang (A.D. 121), Empress Dowager Deng died and Emperor an was in charge. Cai Lun was interrogated for taking part in the persecution of song Guiren, the grandmother of emperor an, and depriving Liu Qing of the right of succession to the throne at the instigation of empress Dou. Cai Lun was ordered to go to Tingwei (the name of the judge) to plead guilty. Cai Lun was ashamed of being humiliated, so he put on his clothes and hat, drank poison and died. His fiefdom was abolished.

Main achievements

In charge of palace manufacturing

Cai Lun was in charge of Shangfang when he was also the order of Shangfang. It was an organization in charge of the manufacturing industry of the imperial palace. "Shangfang sword" was the sword made by Shangfang and later became the symbol of supreme power. Due to the lack of historical records, it is impossible to verify how this appointment happened, but it is undoubtedly one of the most correct appointments in Chinese history. At that time, the Imperial Palace workshop gathered the world's skilled craftsmen, representing the highest level of manufacturing industry at that time, and provided an excellent platform for Cai Lun. His personality, hobbies and outstanding talents in engineering technology were well displayed in this position.

In the ninth year of Yongyuan (A.D. 97), the swords and other utensils made by Shangfang were "all of them refined and dense, which were the methods of later generations". In other words, he greatly improved the production process, reached a very high level, and stayed at the peak of technology for a long time. Cui Shi, who lived in the late 30s and 40s of Cai Lun, wrote in his political commentary: "with the crossbow of CAI Taifu and the sword of the 9th year of Longting, he is still famous all over the world." "Cai Taifu" and "Longting" refer to Cai Lun, who has become a "brand" of weapons.

Cai Hou paper

Cai Lun, who was in charge of improving papermaking, supervised the manufacture of various utensils used in the palace. He selected bark, rags, old fishing nets and so on, and asked the craftsmen to cut them up and soak them in a large pool. After a period of time, the debris rotted away, and the fiber was not perishable, so it remained. He then asked the craftsmen to pick up the soaked raw materials, put them into the mortar, and kept stirring until they became a paste. Then he used bamboo strips to pick up the sticky things, and when they were dry, they took them off and turned them into paper. Cai Lun and his craftsmen tried and tried again and again to produce a kind of paper which is light, flexible, easy to use, widely available and cheap.

In the first year of Yuanxing (A.D. 105), Cai Lun presented paper to the emperor of Hanhe. Cai Lun wrote a memorial of the method of paper-making and presented it to the emperor together with the paper. After the emperor's appreciation, he ordered the imperial court to use and promote it inside and outside the world. All the official offices of the imperial court and all parts of the country regarded it as a miracle. Nine years later, Cai Lun was granted the title of "Marquis of the Dragon Pavilion" with 300 households in the city. Because Cai Lun invented the new papermaking method gradually carried out all over the country, people call this kind of paper "Cai Hou paper".

Cai Lun's improved papermaking spread to the whole world along the Silk Road through Central Asia and Western Europe, and played an indelible contribution to the inheritance and development of world civilization.

Textual research of later generations

Year of birth

Cai Lun was born in the Middle Eastern Han Dynasty more than 1900 years ago, but the specific year is missing. The historical materials about Cai Lun are marked with a "?" It's a mystery. This may be due to the fact that he was removed from the "state" after his death and lost the records, or that he deliberately concealed his age in order to become an official in the imperial palace.

According to Yang Congyi, the founder of the Southern Song Dynasty and the governor of yangzhoula, who wrote the tombstone of CAI Gong, the Marquis of Han Longting in 1132 A.D., Cai Lun was born on the 11th day of Xinyou. In the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty, Liu Xinbo wrote Yang county annals, also known as Cai Lun was born in the autumn of Xinyou. The year of Xinyou is the fourth year of emperor Yongping of the Han and Ming Dynasties, ad 61.

In the compendium of Cai Lun's Chronicles, Cai Lun was born in 63 A.D.

birthplace

Generally speaking, Cai Lun was born in today's Guiyang County. At the foot of Baoshan, it is commonly known as caiziping. The official history book of the Eastern Han Dynasty, dongguanhanji, and the book of the later Han Dynasty by Fan Ye of the Song Dynasty all record this: "Cai Lun's character is Jingzhong, and Guiyang people are also.". The extant genealogy of the Cai family in Hongxi village of Yantang Township, which was renewed in the 34th year of Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty, records the evolution of the genealogy of the Cai family. It is quoted from the preface of the eighth year of Kangxi reign as saying: "the first ancestor of Yu was granted the title of Longting Marquis, taboo Lun and Jingzhong, living in the south of Guiyang city." According to the records of Guiyang Zhili Prefecture by Tongzhi of the Qing Dynasty, "there is Cai lunjing in the South Gate of the state, and it is said that Yunlun's former residence is also here.".

But for a long time, there are still some problems, especially the specific location of Cai Lun's hometown. Chen county and Leiyang County of Guiyang County may also be Cai Lun's birthplace.

The dispute about papermaking

The records of Cai Lun's papermaking in historical books are very brief, only saying that he "made the paper with tree skin, hemp head, open cloth and fishing net". As a great invention, it takes a lot of time and energy to select materials and improve the process. The process is bound to be difficult and tortuous, and the technical problems involved are also very complex. In modern times, there is no problem in writing dozens of papers and books, but the historian is very stingy, and he only used less than 20 words to explain them all. However, although the record is brief, it is very accurate. It has long been the final conclusion that the inventor of paper was Cai Lun. But in recent years, quite a few people have raised objections.

It is believed that paper was invented by Cai Lun, mainly according to the records of Hou Han Shu. Most of the original historical materials of Houhanshu come from dongguanhanji. Dongguanhanji is a national history written by Liu Zhen and Ban Gu during the reign of emperor Liu Zhuang (58-75). Among them, the biography of Cai Lun was written by Cui Shi, Cao Shou and Yan Du in 151 ad under the order of emperor Huan of the Eastern Han Dynasty. It was only 30 years since Cai Lun died. The author and Cai Lun are contemporaries, so some scholars believe that the content of dongguanhanji should be authentic.

Some people think that if we want to check the original text of the biography of Cai Lun in dongguanhanji, we must discard the copies of kaimingqing and look for clues directly from the ancient books of Sui and Tang Dynasties. Because at that time, dongguanhanji was close to the Han Dynasty. If you take the Sui Dynasty's Northern Song Dynasty

Chinese PinYin : Cai Lun