蔡候纸术 惠及古今——探寻中国手工造纸术的发展足迹

文/五花肉

手工造纸术

manual papermaking

物尽其用

make good use

纸质检验

paper quality inspection

伦乃造意用树肤、麻头及敝布、鱼网以为纸。……帝善其能，自是莫不从用焉，故天下咸称“蔡侯纸”。

——《后汉书.蔡伦传》/范晔（南朝·宋）

Cai Lun used rind;linen and rag to make paper.The emperor praised him.The paper made by Cai Lun was used throughout China and was called"Cai's Paper"

——Fan Ye(Song Dynasty,History of the Later Han Dynasty Biography of Cai Lun)

其废纸洗去朱墨污秽，浸烂入槽再造，全省从前煮浸之力，依然成纸，耗亦不多。……名曰还魂纸。

——《天工开物·造竹纸》/宋应星（明）

The waste paper was washed; immersed and remade, which saved previous process of papermakingwith less loss. The recycled paper was called" Revival Paper"..

——Song Yingxing(Ming Dynasty,Heavenly Creations Bamboo Paper)

岩壁、陶面、体肤、青铜、甲骨、简牍、竹帛，在纸出现之前，中国古人使用过的绘写材料可谓洋洋大观。然而“缣贵而简重，并不便于人”，这些材料均不足以适应社会文化发展的需要。

In ancient China,people used various writing material including rock;pottery;skin;bronze;oracle and bamboo.The silk was too expensive and the bamboo was too heavy to be suitable for writing,neither of which met the needs of social and cultural development.

考古显示，早在西汉中国就已采用麻类植物纤维造纸，而东汉发明家蔡伦则是第一位名垂青史的手工造纸术总结与改进者。他凭借规模化使用楮皮和竹制帘面纸模，大大拓展了造纸原料、提高了抄纸质量，开创了人类文明传播载体的新纪元。在其后千余年间，中国人持续发明、革新，向世界贡献了一整套造纸及加工的完整技术体系，创制出麻纸、皮纸、竹纸等一系列产品。

Archeologically,early in Western Han Dynasty,people used linen to make paper.In Eastern Han Dynasty,Cai Lun firstly summarized and greatly improved papermaking technology.He mass produced paper from paper mulberry bark,which expended the range of raw material;improved quality and created a new era of paper media for cultural exchange.In later thousands of years Chinese people kept upgrading the papermaking technology;developed technology system and invented a series paper including linen paper;leather paper and bamboo paper.

造纸技术方面，中国古人于魏晋南北朝，便运用标准化原理，制成可拆合帘床抄纸器，提高了麻纸生产效率；到了造纸术臻于成熟的明清两代，许多技法形成固定“程式”，其间出版的《天工开物·杀青》，介绍了竹纸、皮纸的生产过程并附有生产设备操作图，被世界公认为手工造纸技术的权威著作。

As for papermaking technology,In the Wei Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties,Chinese people used standardization theory to improve the production efficiency of linen paper.In the Ming and Qing Dynasties,the technologies were standardized."Heavenly Creations-fixation"introduced the production process of bamboo paper and linen paper with operation chart and was regarded as the authoritative work for manual papermaking.

人们还秉承“物尽其用”的环保思想，自东汉始“变废为宝”，以敝布、旧鱼网作为造纸原料；北宋年间，又以故纸回槽制成“还魂纸”，开废纸循环利用之先河；还因地制宜，以间伐复种等方式循环利用各类植物资源，保障造纸原料、降低生产成本；天然漂白工艺的采用更使纸品具有了千年存真的品质。

With concept of environmental protection,ancient Chinese made good use of any material to make paper.Since Eastern Han Dynasty,people made paper from crap such as rag and waste net.In Northern Song Dynasty,people recycled waste paper to invent"Revival Paper".Furthermore,Chinese people utilized various plants to maintain the resource of papermaking and reduce the cost.Natural bleaching technology was invented for long term preservation.

此外，中国手工造纸业还形成了独有的技术体系，人们以“刀”、“张”等作为计量单位，针对纸质检验，归纳并广泛使用“纸质幼嫩”、“结实响张”、“沙丁”、“洋河”等三十余个名词术语。

Meanwhile,technical system for papermaking was developed."Quaternion" and "piece" became the metrological units.More than thirty terminologies for paper quality inspection including"Zhi Zhi You Nen(Tiny and Tender)";"Jie Shi Xiang Zhang(Strong and Tough);"Sha Ding"and"Yang He"were created.

可以说1300多年以来，正是中国手工造纸术的一路西传，最终催生出现代造纸术，有力推进了人类文明传播发展的历史进程。

In more than 1300 years,it was the westward transmission of Chinese papermaking technology that promoted the evolution of modern papermaking technology and boosted the development of human civilization.