Don't turn over the books! Tell me at once, which plants did the ancients use to make paper?

Production: Cao

Producer: Computer Network Information Center

"A pair of magpies break the jade sound, and the fragrance is cold around the silver screen, and it is a mountain." When the flowers are all gone, the sad Zhao Ruyi sits alone on the river boat and spreads out Yu Yin. He wants to write something, but he doesn't know where to start. It's really hard.

The word "jade note" is very literary and wonderful to read, but what does it mean?

The answer may surprise you: it is neither a jade bamboo slip nor a blue bamboo slip, but a synonym for paper.

Would it be a little disappointing to know the answer?

In modern life, paper has been considered as a common thing. However, judging from the development of global civilization, the contribution of paper is so great that it is difficult for any invention to compare with it. As early as more than two thousand years ago, when China used paper to record characters and carry on cultural inheritance, other countries had never heard of paper.

Without paper, there would be no such splendid modern civilization. Therefore, the ancients used beautiful words such as "jade note", "cloud fat" and "cloud piece" to refer to paper, which can be regarded as bringing out the best in each other and worthy of the name.

As an important invention to promote the progress of human civilization, paper is indispensable.

What raw materials did the ancients use to make paper?

The traditional concept of paper refers to a thin sheet made of plant fibers. It can be seen that the raw material of papermaking comes from plants, and the core material is fiber. In order to distinguish it from modern mechanical paper, the paper made in ancient times is collectively called handmade paper.

In ancient times, papermaking was a manual operation, and there was no mechanized production. In order to meet the needs of people's writing, painting and life, the ancients in China constantly searched for various papermaking plants and tried to explore the most suitable fiber materials. Among them, hemp fiber, bark fiber and straw fiber have all become the materials of papermaking, leaving the mark of ancient wisdom in the history of papermaking.

Hemp papermaking: It has a long history and many processes.

Hemp paper is the oldest paper in China, with hemp, flax, ramie and other hemp plant fibers as the main raw materials. According to the unearthed cultural relics and the physical objects that have been handed down to this day, the production history of hemp paper can be traced back to the Han Dynasty. After the Tang dynasty, the consumption of paper products was large, and the demand for hemp plants was in short supply, which could not meet people's needs. Hemp paper gradually faded out of people's sight.

Hemp plants contain fine and flexible fibers, and also have the advantages of being fine and impervious to water, so they are excellent raw materials for papermaking. For example, ramie. ), a plant of ramie in Urticaceae, has slender, white, bright, strong and elastic stem bark fibers.

However, using hemp to make paper is not cost-effective, the materials are scarce and the process is complicated. So far, bast fiber is mainly used in textile industry, and rarely used in paper making.

Bark papermaking: the combination of flexibility and fiber

The bast fibers in bark can also be used as raw materials for papermaking, and the paper made in this way is called leather paper. Bark fiber has large aspect ratio and high cellulose content, and is also a good raw material for papermaking.

The raw materials usually used for kraft paper mainly include the bark of Broussonetia papyrifera, mulberry, Pteroceltis tatarinowii and other plants. These plants are widely distributed in China, and they are common papermaking raw materials in the north and south. Next, please look at the life experiences of bark "paper makers"!

Broussonetia papyrifera is a deciduous tree of Moraceae. It is dioecious, the male inflorescence of catkin is fleshy, and it is only responsible for providing pollen; The female inflorescence with spherical head is like a hairball, which is responsible for breeding offspring.

Broussonetia papyrifera has obvious special-shaped leaf characteristics, and three different shapes of leaves can be found on the same tree: oval leaves with sharp front ends; There are also symmetrically divided trifoliates at the front end; There are also dichotomous leaves with heart-shaped base and unilateral splitting at the front end. Its fruit is a gathering flower and its red flesh is edible.

Cai Lun used Broussonetia papyrifera bark when he improved papermaking in Han Dynasty. Broussonetia papyrifera bark, as a raw material for papermaking, has been used to this day. For example, Tengchong and Qingxuan paper mills still use it to produce painting and calligraphy paper, cotton white paper and Pu 'er tea inner wrapping paper.

Mulberry is a tree or shrub of Moraceae. Leaves are the main feed for sericulture; Fruit, called mulberry, is a kind of collected flowers and fruits, which can be eaten or brewed. Taking mulberry bark as raw material to make paper, the best picking time is around the Dragon Boat Festival. During the sericulture season, the ancients lit the new leaves on the mulberry branches and cut them off one by one, which was beneficial to the development of branches and tender leaves.

Before and after the Dragon Boat Festival, the tender skins on these new branches can be picked back as raw materials for papermaking. Mulberry bark fiber is slender and extremely tough, and it is an "excellent student" in bark papermaking fiber. The famous Mingren Temple paper and Hua Kai paper in history are made of mulberry bark.

Sandalwood. It is a deciduous tree species in hemp. Pteroceltis tatarinowii is a unique fiber tree species in China, mainly produced in Anhui Province. Due to predatory logging, forest destruction and other factors, the wild Pteroceltis tatarinowii is decreasing day by day and has been listed as an endangered protected plant by the state.

Sandalwood has many uses: its bark can be used to make paper; Wood can make high-grade furniture; Leaves contain a variety of amino acids and trace elements, which can be used as nutritional feed; With developed root system, it is an excellent afforestation tree species in calcareous soil and limestone mountain areas, which can be described as "the whole body is a treasure".

The bark of Pteroceltis tatarinowii is the main raw material for making rice paper. The branches and barks of Pteroceltis tatarinowii with a growth period of 2-4 years are most suitable for picking. At this time, the fiber content of Pteroceltis tatarinowii is more, the regularity is higher, the paper is uniform, and the performance of the rice paper is good.

Xuan paper began in the Tang Dynasty and was produced in Jingxian County, Anhui Province. It belonged to Xuanzhou at that time, so it was called Xuan paper. Before the Qing Dynasty, the raw materials of rice paper were sandalwood bark. However, due to the excessive consumption of green sandalwood bark, the manufacturing speed of Xuan paper can't keep up with the needs of literati, which often leads to imbalance between supply and demand.

After repeated practice, the ancients finally used Shatian straw as an auxiliary material, which successfully solved the shortage of sandalwood bark and enhanced the softness of paper.

In addition to these common trees, Daphne plants. Also joined the "paper reserve army".

Paper made of Daphne bark is tough, thick, insect-proof and durable. The ancients mainly used it to write scriptures. For example, the gray leaves killed the elder brother. )Meisn。 Daphne of Naxi nationality in Yunnan. Dongba paper, some Tibetan paper in Tibetan areas in Yunnan, is made of Toona sinensis skin.

Bamboo Paper: Love and Kill of Lignin

Paper made from the stem fibers of Phyllostachys pubescens, Phyllostachys angustifolia, Phyllostachys pubescens, Phyllostachys pubescens and Phyllostachys bambusa is called bamboo paper. Although bamboo plants are short in fiber, rich in lignin and porous, they are not the best papermaking raw materials in the conventional sense, but they have strong fiber interweaving ability and high paper strength, which is beneficial to adding auxiliary materials and effectively improving the ink absorption ability of paper.

Paper-making with bamboo began in Jin Dynasty and prevailed in Tang and Song Dynasties. From using local bast fiber to using straw fiber completely, it is a great progress in the history of papermaking.

Bamboo fiber contains more lignin and has poor stability, so the bamboo paper made is fragile.

In order to improve the quality of bamboo paper, it is necessary to remove lignin from bamboo fiber and make the paper suitable for writing, so the ancients constantly developed and improved the manufacturing technology.

Finally, bamboo paper with good toughness and suitable for writing was successfully manufactured, and this technology also made it easier to make paper from wood. Because the density of bamboo is higher than that of wood, it is more difficult to remove lignin in pulping and papermaking.

The raw materials for making bamboo paper are mostly tender bamboo, and the lignin content is relatively low. Bamboo likes warm and humid climate and is suitable for growing in the south. It is one of the main papermaking raw materials in southern China. However, bamboo varieties vary from place to place, and most of the ancients chose bamboo according to local conditions: for example, Phyllostachys pubescens was widely used in Hunan, and Phyllostachys affinis and Phyllostachys pubescens were widely used in Sichuan.

Phyllostachys pubescens (carrier) J. Houzeau, also known as Phyllostachys pubescens, is a Gramineae Phyllostachys herb. Its rod can be as high as more than 20 meters, and its shape is thick. In addition to papermaking, bamboo is mainly used as scaffolding, beams and columns and other building materials; Excellent texture, can be used to make all kinds of handicrafts.

Ancient paper is a great invention of our country and the crystallization of the wisdom and hard work of ancient craftsmen. On the way to explore papermaking plants, the ancients not only used hemp fiber, bark fiber and stem fiber, but also tried grass fiber, rattan fiber and other plants. However, due to the long growth cycle of raw materials, limited origin, insufficient supply and complicated production, the comprehensive effect is not ideal, and it is gradually submerged in the long river of papermaking history with the passage of time.

There is a difference between ancient times and modern times. The once precious jade stationery has undergone earth-shaking changes today. As a kind of daily necessities, it has entered thousands of households, and the materials have been replaced by wood.

At present, the paper industry mostly uses wood fiber to make paper. The obtained paper products not only have high pulp yield, less impurities and easy washing, but also have high strength and good whiteness, which is more suitable for large-scale industrial production.

Generally speaking, the paper quality of different factories will indeed be "uneven". The longer the fiber is, the greater the aspect ratio is, the higher the cellulose content is, the lower the lignin content is, and the less the impurity cell content is, the better the choice of papermaking is.

References:

[1] Liu Renqing, Liu Jun Ti. Paper from China to the World (Serial) [J]. Paper and papermaking, 20 18(3):43-53.

[2] Wang Qing, Sun Ying. Study on the present situation of archival handmade paper raw materials [J]. Lantai World, 2013 (1):15-16.

[3] Yang Jun. On the history of handmade paper making in China [J]. Climbing the mountain, 2015 (10):147-150.

[4] Zhao,,,. On the forming factors and development of Xuan paper [J]. China Paper, 20 18(37):74-79.

[5] Wu. Study on the production technology of mulberry paper in Zezhou area [D]. Shanxi University.

[6] Li Zhonggu. Research on the Durability of Yunnan Minority Historical Archives Based on Handmade Paper [D]. Yunnan University.

Study on reproductive biology and population structure of rare plant Pteroceltis tatarinowii in Zhang Xingwang [D]. Anhui Normal University.