Cai Lun

In this Chinese name, the family name is Cai.

Cai Lun
蔡伦
File:Cai Lun.jpg Posthumous depiction of Cai on a stamp issued by China Post in 1962
Born	c. 50–62 CE Leiyang, Guiyang Commandery, Han Empire (modern-day Leiyang, Hunan province, China)
Died	121 CE Luoyang, Han Empire (modern-day Luoyang, Henan province, China)
Occupation(s)	Inventor and eunuch court official
Known for	Modernization of paper

Cai Lun
"Cai Lun" in Simplified (top) and Traditional (bottom) Chinese characters
Simplified Chinese	蔡伦
Traditional Chinese	蔡倫
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Cài Lún Gwoyeu Romatzyh Tsay Lun Wade–Giles Ts'ai4 Lun2 IPA [tsʰâɪ lwə̌n] Wu Suzhounese Tsha Lun Hakka Romanization Tshai Lun Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Choi Lèuhn Jyutping Coi3 Leon4 Southern Min Hokkien POJ Chhoà Lûn Tâi-lô Tshuà Lûn

Cai Lun (Chinese: 蔡伦; courtesy name: Jingzhong (Chinese: 敬仲); c. 50–62 – 121 CE), formerly romanized as Ts'ai Lun, was a Chinese inventor and eunuch court official of the Eastern Han dynasty. He is traditionally regarded as the inventor of paper and the modern papermaking process, as he originated paper in its modern form. Although early forms of paper had existed since the 3rd century BCE, he was responsible for significant improvements in papermaking by adding important new materials, such as tree bark, to its composition.

Born in Leiyang, Guiyang Commandery, Cai arrived at the imperial court by 75, where he served as a chamberlain for Emperor Zhang and as political counselor to the young Emperor He. After assisting Emperor He in a 92 coup against Dowager Empress Dou, Cai was promoted to head of the Imperial Supply Department. In 105 Cai substantially improved the papermaking process with the use of tree bark, hemp waste, old rags, and fishnets. The achievement resulted in fame and wealth for Cai, and paper use rapidly increased throughout China. He was closely associated with Dowager Empress Deng Sui, who, in 114, awarded him the title of marquis, lordship of a small village and later appointed him to oversee 100 scholars' new edition of the Five Classics. He committed suicide in 121 after a false rumor spread that he intended to harm the newly ascended Emperor An.

Cai's contributions have been enormously impactful on human history and of China's Four Great Inventions—the compass, gunpowder, papermaking and printing—Cai is the only inventor whose name is known. While in China he is revered in ancestor worship, the subject of folklore and deified as the god of papermaking, he is mostly unknown outside of East Asia.

Sources

Little is known about Cai Lun's life. The main source of information is just 300 characters in the Hòu Hànshū (Book of the Later Han), an "orthodox history" compiled by the Liu Song dynasty historian and politician Fan Ye. Fan's primary source was the Dongguan Hanji, in which Yan Du is credited as the original author of a now-lost biography of Cai. Sinologist Tsien Tsuen-hsuin notes that while Fan's account is the most comprehensive, it is problematic due to being written nearly 300 years after Cai's death. The only surviving contemporary excerpt is a brief 70 character section in the Dongguan Hanji, although the work only survives in a reconstructed state from a lost original. Other older excerpts are brief mentions by two 3rd-century scholars, Tung Pa and Wang Yin. Cai is included in the Song Dynasty Shiwu Jiyuan (事物紀原) as well. Sinologist T H Barrett stated that there are various major histories, such as the Hou Hanji (後漢紀) and Zizhi Tongjian (資治通鑑) that do not include Cai's contributions. Barrett suggested this was because "Cai Lun was, after all, a palace eunuch, precisely the sort of person normally viewed with antagonism by the regular bureaucrats who controlled the writing of official (and even most unofficial) history".

Life and career

Early life

Cai Lun was born in Leiyang, Guiyang Commandery (modern-day, Leiyang, Hunan province) during the mid 1st-century CE of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25–220 CE). His exact year of birth is unknown; estimates include c. 50, c. 57, and c. 62. Other than being born into a poor family, virtually nothing is known of his early life. Legends suggest there was a pool near his home, south of which was a stone mortar that Cai would later use for papermaking. Fan describes Guiyang Commandery as having "a culture very different from that of the midlands [the central government]. In the prefecture of Kuei-Yung [Guiyang] people lived humbly; the people were poor but lived together peacefully".

Imperial court service

Further information: History of the Han dynasty § Policies under Guangwu, Ming, Zhang, and He

It is not known how Cai Lun came to be in the service of the imperial court; Fan reports that he was first employed during the Yongping era (58–75) of Emperor Ming. Leiyang had recently attracted attention from the government due to its newly discovered resources of iron, copper and zinc. Ancient sources report that an iron mine was founded to harvest the iron and transport it to the central government in Luoyang. The former director of the Paper Museum in Tokyo, Kiyofusa Narita, suggested that "through the assistance of some who were in charge of the iron foundry, he found opportunity to go to the capital city". Narita cites Cai's future court appointment to oversee the production of weapons, especially swords, as evidence that he must have learned the skills to do so earlier in his life, likely from the iron foundry.

Posthumous depiction of Emperor Zhang, whom Cai served under for 13 years.

Cai is first recorded as a castrated eunuch in 75, although it is possible he was employed earlier in the Yongping era. In the Han Dynasty, eunuchs were employed in imperial service and were the only people eligible for certain specialized tasks, such as watching over the imperial harem and the imperial household; there were also certain promotions available for them. Cai's position was probably as a liaison between the privy council and the emperor, and likely involved duties akin to a chamberlain for the royal family. Narita notes that this role meant that Cai would have had many chances to become acquainted with some of the most powerful men in China. Later in 75, Emperor Ming died. His successor, Emperor Zhang, appointed Cai in 80 as Huangmen Shilang (黃門侍郎), translated by sinologist Rafe de Crespigny as "Gentleman at the Yellow Gates", which was a "gentlemen inside the palace". The climate in the court was increasingly unstable because Liu Qing, Emperor Zhang's son from his concubine Consort Song, was the designated heir; this enraged Empress Dou, Emperor Zhang's empress and favorite, since she desired her adopted son, Prince Zhao, to be the heir. As a result, when Consort Song became ill in 82 and asked for herbs, Empress Dou falsely accused her of planning to use the herbs for witchcraft against Emperor Zhang. Empress Dou then convinced Cai to interrogate Consort Song and her sister, another imperial consort, in order to force a confession; they both killed themselves. Believing Empress Dou's accusation, Emperor Zhang removed Liu Qing as heir and appointed Prince Zhao.

In the year 88, Emperor Zhang died and was succeeded by Prince Zhao, who ruled as Emperor He. Since Emperor He was 9 or 10 years old at his accession, Empress Dou took control as empress dowager and secured her authority by giving various positions to her four brothers. During this time Cai was promoted to his most important position yet, Zhongchang shi (中常侍), a "Regular Attendant", where Cai served as a private counselor to Emperor He in political matters. Fan suggested that this promotion was due to Cai's talent and ingenuity, and says that Cai was willing to both praise and criticize those in power. Emperor He came of age in 92 and sought to claim imperial power from Dowager Empress Dou, perhaps from the encouragement of the former heir Liu Qing. Emperor He was assisted by various officials, Cai and other eunuchs, especially Zheng Zhong, in overthrowing the Dou family. While little is known about the coup itself, Emperor He was victorious and consequently forced the four Dou brothers to commit suicide, exiling Dowager Empress Dou and the rest of her family to Vietnam. In 97, Cai became well associated with Consort Deng Sui; for his service in the coup, the same year Cai was given the additional position of Shang Fang Ling (尚方令), making him the manager of the Imperial Supply department. This was a powerful role that would have included a wide variety of tasks, including oversight of the imperial library and the production of weapons, furniture and various other materials that would offer him the perfect resources to experiment and develop a more practical and higher quality version of paper.

Standardization of paper

See also: Papermaking and Science and technology of the Han dynasty

Five seminal steps in ancient Chinese papermaking outlined in a woodcut.

In 105, Cai Lun publicly declared that he had invented a new composition for paper and papermaking process. Writing had a long history in China with writing surfaces being bamboo and wooden slips (wood for short text and bamboo for lengthy text). These mediums were inconvenient for many reasons, being especially awkward to store, heavy and difficult to write on. With the introduction of a writing animal-hair brush by Meng Tian in the 3rd-century BCE, silk and cloth became alternatives that addressed these issues, but their high cost prevented widespread use. The absence of a practical solution motivated continued experimentation with different materials; Cai's pulp solution became the most effective in 105. Cai's process still involved the use of bamboo but also hemp waste, old rags, fishnets and most importantly, bark from trees, probably mulberry ones. These materials were boiled in a pulp that was beaten with a wood or stone mallet and then mixed with a large amount of water. The resulting composition was then dunked with wooden sieves and the excess water was removed, leaving the paper finished after drying. The paper that resulted form this method is often referred to as "Cai Hou paper" (蔡侯纸).

Many legends exist as to the inspiration for Cai's invention, with one of the most popular ones being that Cai was inspired by watching paper wasps make their nests. Tsien suggested that Cai was inspired by the people of his birthplace, Leiyang, who used bark from the many mulberry trees to create cloth as a writing surface. In contrast, Narita cites a story about how Emperor He had ordered Cai to sort and organize the wooden–board books of the imperial library, a task that was probably extremely difficult due to the awkwardness and heaviness of the books. Narita suggested that this task may have convinced Cai that a new writing surface was needed and thus encouraged him to begin experimenting. Irrespective of its origin, in 105, Cai's new paper making process not only impressed Emperor He but gained him fame throughout the empire.

Final years and death

Memorial for Cai at Hunan International Economics University

Later in 105 Emperor He died and was succeeded by the infant Emperor Shang, who died before the age of 1 in 106, and then the 13-year-old Emperor An. Due to Emperor An's young age, Consort Deng Sui became Dowager Empress Deng Sui and ruled the empire with other officials until he came of age. The Imperial Supply Department was diminished in status and power after in 114, due to the discovery that much of its profits were given to specific families rather than the government. However, Cai Lun's early association with the Dowager Empress Deng Sui proved useful: while he was dismissed from his position in the Imperial Supply Department, he was awarded the title of marquis and made the lord of Lung T'ing, a small village of 300 families in the Shensi province. Later that year, Zheng Zhong died and Cai succeeded him as chief of the palace. In 117, Dowager Empress Deng Sui appointed Cai to oversee and supervise more than 100 scholars—including Liu Zhen, Liu Taotu and Ma Rong—in their creation of a definitive edition of the Five Classics.

Emperor An assumed power after Empress Deng's death in 121. There were many officials in the kingdom who not only despised the deceased Dowager Empress Deng Sui, but also her associates that remained in power. In order to remove these associates, a false rumor was spread that a coup was being planned to overthrow Emperor An; the rumor alleged that Cai was involved in the plot. De Crespigny notes that Cai was not helped by the fact that Emperor An was the grandson of Consort Song, whose death had been in part because of Cai's interrogation. Cai was ordered to reported to the Ministry of Justice in order to answer the charges, but since he was likely to be killed he instead went to his house to prepare for his death. Ever since the death of his ally Empress Deng Sui, Cai had carried poison on his person that he himself had made while chief of the Imperial Supply Department. Cai, ashamed that the Emperor would send him to death in a dishonorable way, bathed and dressed in formal clothes before killing himself by drinking the poison. Cai's death date and place are unknown, but various monuments and shrines have been erected to honor him.

Folklore

See also: Chinese folklore

While Cai's personal life is mostly unknown, a popular folktale suggests he had a wife, brother and was both a shopkeeper and trickster, though there is no historical confirmation to this. The story goes that after Cai's improvements to paper there was little demand for the product so he had an ever-growing surplus. As such, Cai and his wife developed a ploy to increase sales; they told townsfolk that paper becomes money in the afterlife when burned.

In the most popular variation to the tale, Cai Mo and Hui Niang—Cai's brother and sister-in-law of unconfirmed historicity—take the place of Cai and his wife. In this version, Hui convinced Cai Mo to learn the new papermaking trade from his younger brother, and when he returned in only 3 months, the paper he and his wife produce was too low quality to sell. To address this, Hui pretended to have died, and Cai Mo stood at beside her coffin, wailing and burning money as tribute. Then, their neighbors checked in on them, and Hui sprung out of the coffin, explaining that the burned money was transferred to her in the afterlife, with which she paid ghosts to return her from the dead. Believing the story, the neighbors quickly purchased large amounts of paper for their own use. While mostly fictitious, intense wailing and burning offerings were commonplace in Chinese culture.

Historical assessment

While Cai Lun is traditionally credited with inventing paper, due to modern archeological investigations, it is now certain that different forms of paper existed as early as the 3rd-century BCE. However, Tsien noted that this does not necessarily discount the credit given to Cai. Tsien explains that the term used in Cai's ancient biography, tsao i, can be understood as "to initiate the idea", meaning that he furthered the ongoing process with the addition of important materials like tree bark and hemp waste. Additionally, Cai is responsible for the earliest known use of tree bark and hemp as ingredients for paper, and it is clear that paper did not see wide-spread use in China until Cai's improvements. As such, scholars have revised his contributions as ones that furthered an ongoing process, rather than a sudden discovery, and resulted in a rapid spread of use throughout China. There is also speculation Cai was the patron of this achievement and took credit from someone else, as Feng Dao may have done with his improvements to printing.

Legacy

Global influence

Further information: History of paper

The Three Gods of Paper-making, Cai Lun with Donchō (on the left) and Mochizuki Seibee (who brought the art to Nishijima (西嶋)) (Minobu Town Museum of History and Folklore)

Cai Lun's standardization of paper and the paper making process are considered enormously impactful to human history, spreading literature and knowledge around the world as well as revolutionizing the means of communication. However, Cai is only somewhat known outside East Asia and is often excluded from major encyclopedias. Scholars have praised him and drawn parallels to the inventor of the movable type printing press, Johannes Gutenberg. In The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, author Michael H. Hart ranked him 7th, above figures such as Christopher Columbus, Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin.

Cai's basic papermaking process changed little over time. After Cai efforts in 105, a younger contemporary of him, Zuo Bo (courtesy name: Tzǔ-yi), improved the process later in the 2nd-century. The new form of paper and paper marking then rapidly spread throughout China. According to legend, the Buddhist monk Damjing brought the process to Japan; though this is unconfirmed, Damjing occupies a similar patron saint position in Japan that Cai does in China. By the 600s the process appeared in Turkestan, Korea and India, while Chinese prisoners from the 751 Battle of Talas spread the knowledge to Arabs. Unlike many Chinese inventions that were created independently in Western Europe, the modern paper making process was wholly Chinese and gradually spread by the Arabs to Europe, where it saw widespread manufacturing by the 12th-century. In August 2010, the International Astronomical Union honored his legacy by naming a crater on the Moon after him.

Deification and influence in China

Cai as the patron of papermaking

Modern Chinese culture celebrates the Four Great Inventions of the ancient world. Of these (the compass, gunpowder, papermaking and printing), only the inventor of papermaking, Cai Lun, is known. After his death in 121 a shrine with his grave was built in his native Leiyang, but was soon neglected and damaged by floods, while his name was largely forgotten. The Tang dynasty of the late 7th-century saw the deification of many national heroes, like Li Bai and Guan Yu as the gods of wine and war respectively. Cai was among the important people declared gods, being deified as the national god of papermaking. Cai also became a patron saint for papermakers, with his image often being painted or printed onto paper mills and paper shops in not only China, but also Japan. In 1267, a man named Chen Tsunghsi raised funds to repair the long-damaged shrine, and renovated it to include a statue of Cai and a mausoleum. Chen stated that "Tsai Lung's [Cai Lun's] extraordinary talent and his achievement are exemplary to all ages." A stone mortar, which legends claim Cai used to make paper, may have been brought to the mausoleum, although other sources say it was brought to the Imperial Museum in the capital of Lin'an. A great ceremony was held for the new mausoleum, although it eventually fell into ruin again and had to be restored in 1955. Today, the temple still stands in Leiyang as the Cai Lun Temple near a pool, renamed the "Cai Lun Pool", that was thought to be near Cai's home. In the Song Dynasty, Fei Chu (fl. 1265) said there was a temple in Chengdu where hundreds of families in the papermaking business would come to worship Cai.

During the late Qing dynasty, papermakers created religious groups, know as either "spirit-money associations" (shenfubang) or "Cai Lun associations" (Cai Lun hui). In 1839, the shenfubang from the town of Yingjiang, was sued by shenfubangs in Macun and Zhongxing of the Jiajiang County, Sichuan. The conflict had began when the shenfubang of Yingjiang claimed that their statue of Cai—which they carried throughout Jiajiang County annually—gave them ritual supremacy over the papermakers of Macun and Zhongxing, whom they demanded pay for and take part in their celebrations. The shenfubangs of Macun and Zhongxing denied the demand, citing their long history of worshipping Cai, which resulted in ever increasing conflict between the sides and eventually a law suit. The county magistrate reproached both parties for descending into conflict and said: "Did they not understand that all of them owed their livelihood to Lord Cai, who had taught them the art of papermaking? Were they not all disciples of Lord Cai, who wanted them to share the benefits of the trade?".

In the 21st-century, Leiyang is still famous as Cai's birthplace and has active paper production. In modern day China Cai's name is closely associated with paper, with three roads and the Cai Lun Paper Culture Museum being named after him.

Bibliography

Books

Early

• Fan Ye (5th century). "蔡伦 [Cai Lun]". 後漢書 [Book of the Later Han].
• Sima Guang (1084). 資治通鑑 [Zizhi Tongjian]. Vol. 49, 50.

Modern

• Blake, C. Fred (2011). "Chapter 3: Origins". Burning Money: The Material Spirit of the Chinese Lifeworld. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press. pp. 53–75. ISBN 978-0-674-03288-0. JSTOR j.ctt6wqgqz.
• Carter, Thomas Francis (1925). The Invention of Printing in China and Its Spread Westward. New York, New York, US: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-8260-1835-9.
• Crespigny, Rafe de (2007). A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Publishers. ISBN 978-90-474-1184-0.
• Day, Lance; McNeil, Ian (1996). Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology. New York, New York, US: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-06042-4.
• Eliot, Simon; Rose, Jonathan (2009). A Companion to the History of the Book. Hoboken, New Jersey, US: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-4051-9278-1.
• Eyferth, Jacob (2009). "4: Artisans into Peasants". Eating Rice from Bamboo Roots: The Social History of a Community of Handicraft Papermakers in Rural Sichuan, 1920–2000. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Harvard University Asia Center. pp. 92–115. doi:10.2307/j.ctt1x07xz5.10. ISBN 978-0-674-03288-0. JSTOR j.ctt1x07xz5.
• Eyferth, Jacob (2019). "Afterword: Making and Using Paper in Late Imperial China: Comparative Reflections on Working and Knowing beyond the Page". Working with Paper: Gendered Practices in the History of Knowledge. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 208–224. doi:10.2307/j.ctvk8w0tg.18. ISBN 978-0-8229-4559-8. JSTOR j.ctvk8w0tg.
• Hart, Michael H. (2000). The 100: A Ranking Of The Most Influential Persons In History (2nd ed.). New York, New York, US: Citadel. ISBN 978-0-8065-1350-8.
• Hunter, Dard; Hunter, Cornell (1978) [1943]. Papermaking: The History and Technique of an Ancient Craft (2nd ed.). New York, New York, US: Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0-486-23619-3.
• Holdstock, Nick (2018). Chasing the Chinese Dream: Stories from Modern China. London, England, UK: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-78453-373-1.
• Monro, Alexander (2016). The Paper Trail: An Unexpected History of a Revolutionary Invention. New York, New York, US: Vintage Books. ISBN 978-0-307-96230-0.
• Mu-chou, Poo (2018). Daily Life in Ancient China. Cambridge, England, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-02117-4.
• Narita, Kiyofusa (1966). Life of Ts'ai Lung and Japanese Paper-Making. Tokyo, Japan: Dainihon Press. OCLC 8310445.
• Tsien Tsuen-Hsuin (1962). Written on bamboo and silk: The beginnings of Chinese books and inscriptions. Chicago, Illinois, US: University of Chicago Press. OCLC 1153461323.
• Tsien Tsuen-Hsuin (1985). Needham, Joseph (ed.). Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 1, Paper and Printing. Taipei, Taiwan: Caves Books. ISBN 978-0-521-08690-5.
• Tsien Tsuen-Hsuin (2011). Collected Writings on Chinese Culture. Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press. ISBN 978-962-996-422-1.
• Peterson, Barbara Bennett (2016). "Part II. The Decline Of The Zhou, The Period Of The Warring States, And The Formation Of The Qin and Han Dynasties". Notable Women of China: Shang Dynasty to the Early Twentieth Century. Oxford, England, UK: Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-317-46372-6.
• Tan, Koon San (2014). Dynastic China: An Elementary History. New York, New York, US: Other Press. ISBN 978-983-9541-88-5.
• Li, Wai-yee; Denecke, Wiebke; Tian, Xiaofei, eds. (2017). The Oxford Handbook of Classical Chinese Literature (1000 BCE-900 CE). Oxford, England, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-935659-1.
• Xiong, Victor Cunrui (2017). Historical Dictionary of Medieval China. Lanham, Maryland, US: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4422-7616-1.
• Yardley, Christopher B. (2015). "Stamps as Communicators of Public Policy". The Representation of Science and Scientists on Postage Stamps: A science communication study. Canberra, Australia: ANU Press. pp. 77–142. ISBN 978-1-925021-80-6. JSTOR j.ctt15hvqxp.7.
• Zhang, Wei (2004). The Four Treasures: Inside the Scholar's Studio. San Francisco, California, US: Long River Press. ISBN 978-1-59265-015-6.

Journals

• Barrett, T. H. (2011). "The Woman Who Invented Notepaper: Towards a Comparative Historiography of Paper and Print". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 21 (2). Cambridge University Press: 199–210. JSTOR 23011493.
• David, Percival (1935). "The Chinese Exhibition". Journal of the Royal Society of Arts. 84 (4333). Royal Society of Arts: 111–121. JSTOR 41360618.
• Kern, Martin (2001). "Ritual, Text, and the Formation of the Canon: Historical Transitions of "Wen" in Early China". T'oung Pao. 87. Brill Publishers: 43–91. JSTOR 4528866.

Online

• Cartwright, Mark (27 July 2017). "Eunuchs in Ancient China". Ancient History Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 10 December 2020. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
• Wang, William (23 April 2015). "Cai Lun Paper Culture Museum: A page out of history". China Internet Information Center. Archived from the original on 9 October 2020. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
• The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica (1 January 2020). "Cai Lun | Biography, Paper & Facts | Britannica". Encyclopædia Britannica. Chicago, Illinois, US: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Archived from the original on 4 October 2020. Retrieved 18 May 2020. {{cite encyclopedia}}: |author= has generic name (help)
• 西嶋の『造紙三神像』の掛け軸 [Hanging scroll with the Three Gods of Paper-making, Nishijima] (in Japanese). Minobu, Japan: Minobu Town Museum of History and Folklore. Archived from the original on 25 August 2019. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
• 历史沿革 [History] (in Chinese). Leiyang, Hunan, China: leiyang.gov.cn. 6 August 2019. Archived from the original on 10 October 2020. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
• "Planetary Names: Crater, craters: Cai Lun on Moon". Flagstaff, Arizona, US: USGS Astrogeology Science Center. 2 August 2010. Archived from the original on 26 June 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2020.

External links

• Cai Lun at the Encyclopædia Britannica