Paper making and printing are two of the four great inventions of ancient China, the accumulation of experience and wisdom of the ancient Chinese people, and are of great importance to China and the world. The invention and use of paper overcame the drawbacks of early writing materials such as gold, stone and silk, which were bulky and expensive, and made written records more convenient; the popularization of printing skills contributed to the wide dissemination of book materials and made knowledge acquisition more comfortable.
Paper, which originated in ancient southern China, is closely related to the barkcloth cultural system that emerged in the Lingnan region more than 6,000 years ago. Barkcloth was used in plants such as the Constructed Tree and the Banyan Tree, which were also important plants used in making paper in ancient China. 2200 years ago in the early Western Han Dynasty, paper was already available, but it was not widely used because the workmanship was very crude. It was not until 105 years after the park, when it was improved by Cai Lun in the Eastern Han Dynasty, that paper became widely available. Therefore, Cai Lun is also considered to be the originator of modern paper making. The invention of paper put an end to the ancient history of cumbersome paperwork and greatly facilitated the spread and development of culture.
Printing technology in ancient China included both engraved printing and movable type printing.
First, engraving printing. Engraving and printing is divided into two processes: one is engraving and the other is printing. After the engraving and printing process, the pages are bound into a book, so that an ancient book is printed.
Compared with the manual copying method, engraving and printing has shown great superiority in saving time and improving efficiency. However, it also had its own drawbacks and weaknesses: each book had to be carved into a set of plates, which was extremely costly. In order to solve this problem, Bi Sheng of the Northern Song Dynasty first created clay movable type and invented movable type printing.
Bi Sheng carved with clay, a word a print, burned by fire, so that it is strong, used to carve books. The success of movable type printing technology can be proved by the printing of mud movable type books. After the clay movable type, there are also wood movable type, copper movable type, tin movable type, lead movable type and many others. Printing in ancient China has made great contributions to the progress of human civilization.
Paper-making and printing are two of the four great inventions of ancient China, which are cultural achievements that every Chinese son and daughter should be proud of and commemorate forever.
