The origin of paper is traced
back to the Chinese almost two thousand years ago. Chinese recorded their accounts upon textiles
using a form of writing known as calligraphy done with a brush and ink. Due to technological
advances with the type of ink and brushes used to write, the need for an improved writing surface
emerged. The Chinese eunuch, Ts’ai Lun, in 105 C.E. consequentially thought of the idea of using
"a thin, felted material formed on flat, porous molds from macerated vegetable
fibre."5 Emperor
Ho-ti commended Ts’ai Lun for his invention and he became known as the
patron of papermaking. 6
The Chinese managed to keep their process of making paper a secret and thus were able to establish
a monopoly on papermaking for over five hundred years.7
4 "Specimen
of the ancient paper found in the ruins of a watchtower in
Tsakhortei." Library of Congress. Papermaking: Art and Craft. Washington: Library of Congress, 1968: 9.
5 Hunter, Dard.
Papermaking: The History and Technique of an Ancient Craft, 4.
6Papermaking:
Art and Craft, 8.
7 Hunter, Dard.
Papermaking: The History and Technique of an Ancient Craft, 10.
The origin of paper is traced
back to the Chinese almost two thousand years ago. Chinese recorded their accounts upon textiles
using a form of writing known as calligraphy done with a brush and ink. Due to technological
advances with the type of ink and brushes used to write, the need for an improved writing surface
emerged. The Chinese eunuch, Ts’ai Lun, in 105 C.E. consequentially thought of the idea of using
"a thin, felted material formed on flat, porous molds from macerated vegetable
fibre."