The earliest paper was available 2200 years ago, at the beginning of the Western Han Dynasty, but it was still crude and not widely used. It was improved by Cai Lun of the Eastern Han Dynasty in 105 AD and is considered the originator of modern papermaking.
("Papyrus" is not the present concept of "paper", it is the papyrus plant to do some processing and made of writing media, and the invention of China's papermaking, breaking the original arrangement of the plant fibers, so that it is re-irregular cross-arrangement, to produce a finished product. The paper was made by the Chinese invention of papermaking, which broke the original arrangement of the plant fibers and rearranged them into irregular intersections, producing a finished product that can only be called "paper").
Writing was invented during the Yin and Shang dynasties in China, and began to use oracle bones as writing materials, and during the Spring and Autumn period, bamboo and wood slices were discovered and utilized, as well as thick waterproof silk as writing materials. But because thick silk was too expensive and bamboo was too heavy, paper was created.
One of the four great inventions of ancient China, papermaking, along with the compass, gunpowder, and printing, provided the material and technological basis for the prosperity of ancient Chinese culture. The invention of paper put an end to the ancient history of complicated paperwork and greatly facilitated the spread and development of culture.
Sui-Tang period, the famous Xuan paper was born. Tang Dynasty in the previous generation of dyed yellow paper on the basis of the paper, and evenly coated with wax, after calendaring, so that the paper has a glossy, lustrous, colorful and beautiful advantages, known as hard yellow paper.
Five generations of the paper industry continues to develop, Shezhou Chengxintang paper, until the Northern Song Dynasty, has been recognized as the best paper; this paper "slippery as spring water, as fine as a cocoon, tough than Shu paper, faster than Hedges kozo".
To the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the paper industry and prosperity and innovation. All kinds of paper once again prevalent, in the texture of the white paper and elegant color paper, color to the sharp and quiet, such as the Kangxi, Qianlong period of powder wax paper, printing and painting stained flower paper, paper production, to the Qing Dynasty, has reached the point of perfection. The technology of paper-making in the Qing Dynasty has been very mature.
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Paper, made of plant fibers, can be arbitrarily folded for writing non-compilation. Gansu Tianshui Fumatan unearthed in the Western Han Dynasty painted maps of paper, is currently the world's earliest pulp paper found. Made of plant fibers as thin sheets, as writing and painting, printing books and newspapers, packaging and so on.
Different from 鈪糹ndi, 糹ndi for animal fibers "silk dregs". Paper: a general term for paper. Paper in sheets, so paper is generally divided into: letterpress paper, newsprint, offset printing paper, coated paper, book cover paper, dictionary paper, copy paper, board paper and so on.
Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia Paper