7/5/2015 The Paper Making Invention (蔡伦造纸) Before the paper was invented, People recorded events on tortoise shells, bones, and then later on bamboo slips (汉简). These writing materials were heavy and required a lot of space to store. Because of their bulkiness, they were difficult to transport to another place, especially for those scholars who travelled a lot. Some wrote on silk (丝帛). Even though using silk as a mean of writing material had overcome the above constraints, but it was an expensive material to consider. During that time, there was another type of expensive writing material being used. It was made of a combination of silk and cotton, which was also expensive and could not be produced in mass scale due to its scarcity. (丝绵纸) In 105 A.D., Cai Lun (蔡伦), who was an official of the Imperial Court in the Eastern Han Dynasty, had looked into a new way to create an affordable and better writing materials. He learnt from the experience of forefather, improving the processes by using cheap and common raw materials like tree bark, hemp, rag and fish net. He soaked these materials in water, boiled them in long hours, and pounded them into pulp. He then spread it out flatly on a bamboo mould, pressing out the water and let it dry under the sun. After a few attempts, he managed to produce a smooth, thin, light and durable surface which was suitable for brush writing. The paper he invented could be produced everywhere on large scale at a moderate cost. The invention also helped in the development and modernization of the ancient China. This paper-making technique is considered one of the great inventions in the history of ancient China.