Cai Lun and the invention of paper
Cheap pulp from rags and bark replaces bamboo and silk
The court eunuch Cai Lun presented the Han emperor with a method of making paper from bark, hemp, rags and old fishing nets. The cheap, light material replaced bamboo slips and silk, and later spread through the Islamic world to Europe.
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Did you know
China had paper by the early 2nd century, but according to tradition it reached the Islamic world only after the Battle of Talas in 751, via Chinese captives.
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Africa
- c. 100 The rise of Aksum — 5 years earlier
Alive at the time
- Claudius Ptolemy (aged 5)
- Ban Zhao (aged 60)
- Zhang Heng (aged 27)