The Eastern Han eunuch Cai Lun, superintendent of the imperial workshops, in 105 CE presented Emperor He with paper improved from tree bark, hemp, rags, and fishing nets, known as "Marquis Cai's paper," and was later enfeoffed Marquis of Longting. Archaeology shows paper predated him; scholars mostly regard him as the great improver and promoter of papermaking rather than its inventor.
From antiquity writings were mostly strung on bamboo slips; those on silk were called 'paper.' But silk was costly and bamboo heavy, neither convenient to people. Lun then conceived of making paper from tree bark, hemp ends, rags, and fishing nets.
—— Book of the Later Han, 'Biographies of the Eunuchs' (comp. Fan Ye, 5th c.)
History
Cai Lun was a eunuch of the Eastern Han who rose to Regular Palace Attendant and Prefect of the Imperial Workshops. In 105 CE he presented to Emperor He a paper improved from tree bark, hemp ends, rags, and fishing nets; "the Emperor praised his ability, and from then on all adopted it," so it was called "Marquis Cai's paper." In 114 he was enfeoffed Marquis of Longting. Yet the benefactor of paper was enmeshed in court intrigue: years earlier he had been ordered to help frame Consort Song, grandmother of the future Emperor An. When the Empress Dowager Deng died and An reopened the case, Cai, knowing his fate, "bathed, dressed in formal robes, and drank poison" (121 CE). His birth year is unrecorded, somewhere between c. 50 and 62 CE. Plant-fiber fragments excavated in recent decades at Fangmatan, Xuanquanzhi, and even the Western-Han site of Baqiao show that paper existed before him; scholars therefore mostly regard him as the great improver and promoter of papermaking, not its inventor from nothing.
Connections
Consequences1
- PapermakingcontributedCai Lun improved papermaking and promoted its institutional adoption
Sources
- 范晔, 《后汉书》卷七十八·宦者列传
- 钱存训, 《书于竹帛》
- 郭伟涛等, 《中国古代造纸术起源新探》（2023）
Open questionspartly uncertain
- Cai Lun's year of birth is unknown (c. 50–62 CE).
- Whether the Baqiao paper counts as paper in the strict sense is disputed, and the early character zhi ("paper") may have referred to products made of silk floss.
- The Book of the Later Han was compiled about 300 years after his time.
Why it matters
Folk tradition honors Cai Lun as the "Paper Sage," but pinning papermaking on one name is a classic misplacement of the great-man view. Cai's place in history is that of a hub: the resources of the imperial workshops, the court's channels of promotion, and existing paper-making know-how converged in him, letting a cheaper writing material be standardized, scaled, and institutionalized. He resembles an outstanding "head of R&D" more than a lone genius. His end, too, shows that the history of technology never floats free of politics: the man who promoted paper was also party to a palace intrigue.