Special Column

Author Chen Ping

Dean and Professor of the Institute of Cultural Heritage and Creative Industries at Jinan University, and Chief Professor of World Heritage and Innovation in Traditional Handicrafts at UNESCO,Global President of the International Organization of Folk Arts (IOV), Editor in Chief of the Blue Book of Intangible Cultural Heritage: Report on the Development of China's Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Ancient papermaking is one of the the Four Great Inventions in ancient China. Since Cai Lun improved papermaking, it has experienced more than 2000 years of history, and has composed the oriental charm of traditional art with simple and elegant texture. Plant fiber materials such as hemp, phloem, bamboo, and grass undergo soaking, filtering, and drying in the hands of paper makers. After multiple cycles of rising and falling sun and moon, they can become a piece of paper that can carry ink and brush. A thin piece of paper that embraces the world; A skill that inherits the spirit of craftsmanship; A culture that has precipitated Chinese civilization.

Five Classic Part of Ancient Papermaking

The ancient method of papermaking had a complete set of production processes, which were generally the same regardless of the raw materials used or the type of paper being copied. This is also recorded in the book Tiangong Kaiwu. Taking bamboo paper as an example, every year before and after the Mangzhong period, paper makers go up the mountain to cut bamboo. They cut each bamboo into 5 to 7 feet long and excavate a pond on site. The cut bamboo is soaked in the pond for 100 days, softened, and then taken out for tapping, cleaning, and removing the coarse shell and green skin. Afterwards, place the bamboo material in a wooden barrel and soak it in lime water for 8 days before rinsing it multiple times with clean water until the fibers of the bamboo gradually decompose. At this point, the bamboo material has been boiled to a pulp. The craftsman places it in a mortar and crushes it into a mud like texture, then pours it into a paper trough. Afterwards, filter out the paper fibers from the pulp using a fine bamboo curtain, and form a paper film on the bamboo curtain. The process of covering the curtain and pressing the paper is the most laborious, and the paper-making craftsman needs to stand next to the paper trough and constantly scoop water and lift the bamboo curtain, bearing a weight of up to 20 kilograms each time. Paper picking still relies on experience: if you copy light paper, it will be too thin, and if you copy too heavy paper, it will be too thick, it all depends on the technique. Finally, let the fire dry: First, start a fire in the Jiaxiang - a brick wall made of two adobe bricks. Then spread wet paper on the wall one by one, letting the hot air slowly dry the paper. After it dries, peel it off and it will be a usable piece of paper.

The book Tian Gong Kai Wu records in detail the steps of making bamboo paper using ancient methods through illustrations (source image)

Skilled in calligraphy and painting

There are various types of ancient paper-making techniques in China, just like the sects in martial arts novels, each with its own unique strengths. If we talk about the king of paper, it is undoubtedly Xuan paper with a history of more than 1000 years, originally from Jing County, Xuancheng City, Anhui Province. Xuan paper is made from green sandalwood as raw material and rice straw as ingredients. It is divided into raw Xuan, semi ripe Xuan, ripe Xuan, etc., all of which have the characteristics of tough and moisturizing, smooth but not slippery, white and dense, pure texture, non-destructive rubbing and folding, and strong ink wetting properties, and have unique penetration and lubrication properties. Waving on Xuan paper, the characters written are both bone and spirit, and the paintings are full of vitality, making it the most representative of Chinese art style. Jiajiang County, Leshan City, Sichuan Province, is known as the hometown of Shu paper and is rich in bamboo paper, which was also used as imperial paper in the Qing Dynasty. In the early 1940s, the famous calligrapher and painter Zhang Daqian and the bamboo paper craftsmen in Jiajiang repeatedly explored and experimented, and transformed a new book of paper suitable for calligraphy and painting, which could rival Anhui Xuan paper.

In Jing County, Xuancheng City, Anhui Province, workers making rice paper carefully remove bamboo curtains and stack the paper film together (photo by Cao Lingzhi)

The China Printing Museum in Beijing exhibits Qing Dynasty bamboo paper source/visual China

The leather paper in Shiqiao Village, Danzhai County, Guizhou Province is also renowned both domestically and internationally, and the local area is known as the hometown of ancient Chinese paper-making due to the preservation of ancient paper-making techniques. The local area is rich in structured hemp, and paper-making craftsmen use it as raw material to produce white paper and colored paper. The production process is basically consistent with the diagram recorded in the book Tiangong Kaiwu by Song Yingxing in the Han Dynasty. This type of paper can be preserved for hundreds of years and has been designated as a special paper for the restoration of ancient books and cultural relics by national museums and libraries.

Dongba Paper making for thousands of years

In Yunnan, there is also a type of Dongba paper with a long history, originating from the Naxi ethnic group, which can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty and is still made using ancient methods to this day. The Naxi people believe in Dongba religion and have their own unique pictographic characters and scriptures. In order to keep records, they used local materials and the unique bark of the Chinese parasol tree as raw material to make paper. After dozens of processes, they produced thick, insect resistant, and corrosion-resistant Dongba paper that can be preserved for thousands of years. The just made Dongba paper has an ivory color and will gradually turn into bronze color over time. Nowadays, when visiting Yunnan, especially in the Lijiang area, you can also see many Dongba paper mills. They not only sell bookmarks, picture books, etc. made of Dongba paper, but also offer paper-making experiences, allowing tourists to personally experience how a piece of paper was born.

When making paper, craftsmen need to repeatedly scoop water and lift bamboo curtains to ensure that the weight is appropriate, so that the thickness of the paper can be uniform (photo by Wu Zhonglin)

In ancient papermaking, Dongba paper of the Naxi people in Yunnan has a long history, dating back to the Tang Dynasty (photo by Wang Mingwei)

Although each piece of paper made by ancient papermaking methods may not be glamorous, it embodies the sweat and wisdom of the workshop workers behind it. Paper is thin but emotions are strong. It is precisely because of this simple paper that people can express their thoughts and emotions with a pen and keep them in the world.