Lun, Cai

Tshai Lun, a native of Kuei-yang, was a eunuch who served at the imperial court and was promoted to Shang Fang SSU, an office in charge of manufacture of instruments and weapons. He was described as a man of talent and learning, loyal and careful. His biography in the standard history says: In ancient times writings and inscriptions were generally made on tablets of bamboo or on pieces of silk called chih. But silk being costly and bamboo heavy, they were not convenient to use. Tshai Lun then initiated the idea of making paper from the bark of trees, remnants of hemp, rags of cloth, and fishing nets. He submitted the process to the emperor in the first year of Yiian-Hsing and received praise for his ability. From this time, paper has been in use everywhere and is universally called 'the paper of Marquis Tshai. The existence of paper before Tshai Lun does not necessarily contradict the story of his contribution as recorded in the official history. It is possible that he was an innovator who used new raw materials in papermaking. Indeed, the term tsao il used in his biography can be read as 'to initiate the idea' of introducing new materials, especially tree bark (shufu) and hemp ends (ma thou), which was not a second-hand material previously used for some other purpose. As to the rags of cloth (pho pu) and fish nets (yii wang), they may still have been mentioned as common or officially approved materials for papermaking, even if they had been so used before. In any case, rags and other second-hand materials were probably used first, but their supply was limited compared with that off resh fibres from trees or other plants, which made possible the large-scale production of paper. It is also suggested that the use of tree bark for papermaking by Tshai Lun may have been influenced by the bark cloth culture which existed in China before the manufacture of paper by a process of felting.