A Study on Papermaking in Ancient China Originated from Textile Industry
The origin of papermaking has always been one of the focuses of academic research.Historical books such as Dong Guan Han Ji and The Book of the Later Han regard papermaking as Cai Lun's independent invention.But whether it was originally inspired by other industries or elements is not recorded in the classical books.For this problem,contemporary scholars have put forward three different views:papermaking originated from silk textiles,papermaking originated from plant textiles,and papermaking originated from non-textile bark cloth.In this paper,from the three angles of raw materials,technology and function,we investigate the inheritance of papermaking in the textile industry.At last,we think that the invention of papermaking is inspired by the textile industry,and the bark cloth can not be used as the explanation of the origin of papermaking.