The Eternal Light of Cai Lun’s Paper-Making

Cai Lun (61–121), courtesy name Jingzhong, was born in Leiyang County, Guiyang Commandery, in the Eastern Han Dynasty (modern-day Leiyang, Hunan). He revolutionized papermaking, the foremost of the Four Great Inventions of ancient China. As a eunuch in the Eastern Han court, he rose to the posts of Palace Attendant and Director of the Imperial Workshops and was ennobled as Marquis of Longting. Building on the papermaking methods of the Western Han, he pioneered a complete process for making paper pulp from inexpensive materials such as tree bark, hemp waste, rags, and fishing nets. In the first year of the Yuanxing era (105), he produced high-quality “Cai Hou Paper.” His invention allowed paper to replace bamboo slips and silk as the primary writing material, greatly advancing the spread of culture and the development of civilization. His papermaking methods traveled the world along the Silk Road, and are widely recognized as one of the inventions that contributed most to human progress. Though he took his own life by drinking poison amid court intrigues in his later years, his reputation as “a worthy eunuch of the Han” and his legacy as the father of papermaking live on in history.