The Origins of Paper

As is well known, paper originated in China. Up until the mid-20th century, sinologists had given a face to this invention: Cai Lun, head of the imperial workshops, who died in 121 CE and is revered in China as the patron saint of papermakers.

It was particularly in the early 20th century that scholars began to examine the origins of paper, an invention just as decisive as printing, though less spectacular. It was then placed within the long history of Chinese writing and its precursors: knotted cords, cracks in burnt bones, tortoise shells used for divination, bamboo slips, and jade tablets of the emperors… But bamboo was too heavy, and silk too expensive. Cai Lun, who served the emperor He from 75 CE, set to work. He had the idea of recycling less noble and lighter plant-based materials—bark, hemp, mulberry, rags, fishing nets—and presented his invention in 105 CE.

The emperor was convinced. The venerable Cai was later ennobled and became a marquis, before meeting a tragic end. But the myth of the origin of paper was born, recorded in the History of the Later Han, a 5th-century document that would henceforth hold authority.

It was in 1957 that archaeological excavations in Shaanxi province revealed that hemp paper was already in use during the reign of Emperor Wu, two centuries before Cai Lun. Further discoveries followed. They all confirm that paper did indeed exist, likely intended for wrapping objects. Cai Lun may have lost his laurels as the inventor, but he is credited with a decisive manufacturing technique: the pulp was no longer spread on a fixed support but on a mobile lattice of bamboo or daylily stems. From then on, while one sheet dried in the sun, another could be prepared. And paper could then spread throughout the world.