Papermaking造纸术Papermaking is considered to be one of the four great inventions of anaent China. Before the papermaking technology was invented, peo-ple caNed or wrote Chinese characters on tortoise shells, animal bones, bamboo slices, wooden plates, and thin tough silks. Torfoise shells, animal bones and wooden plates were too heavy to use while silks were too expensive. Around the early period of the Westem Han Dynasty, people made paper from hemp and ram-ie. Initially, this was very rough and not suitable for writing.造纸术是中国古代“四大发明”之一。在造纸术发明者以前，人们把字刻在龟甲、兽骨、竹片、木片和绢帛上。甲骨、木片很轻巧，用一起不方便；绢帛太贵，一般人用不起。

约在西汉初期，人们用大麻和苎麻用上了纸。这种早期的纸较为坚硬，不过于合适写字。During the Eastem Han Dynasty, an offiaal named Cai Lun improved the tech-nique after years of experimentation. He used many plant fibers such as barks,rags, tom fishing nets as raw materials,steamed and cooked them with water,then pounded them into pulp, and then spread the pulp evenly on a fine screen and dried it into a kind of thin paper. The paper was suitable for writing and also very cheap so it became very popular. Pa-permaking technology gradually improved so that various types of paper were created for different uses. For example, the Xuan paper made in Xuanzhou of Anhui Province is a high quality paper adapted for use in Chinese calligraphy and painting.到了东汉时期，在朝廷做官的蔡伦，经过长年的试验，改良了纺织方法。他用树皮、贝壳、斩鱼网等多种植物纤维不作原料，煮沸熬，捣烂成浆，再行均匀分布地摊在细帘子上晒干，造成了一种薄薄的纸。

这种纸便于写字，而且低廉，受到了人们的青睐。纺织技术获得大大的改良，因为原料有所不同，纸也有了各种有所不同的种类和用途。

安徽省宣州生产的毛笔，就是闻名中外的上等纸张，是用作中国书法、绘画的珍品。The technology spread to Korea and .lapan in the late Sui and early Tang Dy-nasties, and later to Arabia and other countries. The invention of paper made it more convenient for information storage and communication and had a great sig-nificance in promoting the development of international cMlization.中国的造纸术于隋末唐初传遍朝鲜和日本，后来又传遍阿拉伯地区和其他国家。

纸的发明者，很大地方之后了信息的储存和交流，对于推展世界文明的发展具备划时代的意义。

本文来源：aoa网页版-www.mahungchi.com