who is credited with inventing paper?

Thursday, February 10, 2011

What Was Writing Like and Who Invented it?


The invention of chinese writing is credited to emperor Fixi sometime between 2953-2838 B.C. It used pictoral symbols and was written on tortoise shells before paper. The members of the scholar-gentry class that staffed the imperial bureaucracy used the four treasures. They are a brush, paper, an inkstick, and an inkstone. It is called calligraphy.

What was Paper Made of?



Paper wasn't always wood. Paper started out as silk. Later the Chinese pounded bamboo to a pulp, boiled it with lime for eight days, poured it into a vat, carefully lowered a screen into it, when it came out it was covered with wet fibers which were pressed and dried. Later on they used mulberry bark, straw, hemp, and seaweed. Now it is made of wood which is probably easier to make.

What was paper used for?




Before being used for writing and painting paper had other uses. It was used as cloth for hats, shoes, blankets, shirts, pants, etc. Early on it was used for armour. Thats some amazing origami! After a while it was treated with chemicals for books. It was also used for lanterns which they floated on water at the Bon Festival.

When and Where was Paper Invented?


Have you ever wondered when the thing you doodle on, do homework on, and put in your printer almost every day was invented and where it originally came from? Well the invention of paper is placed in A.D. 105, although nobody knows for sure. Evidence suggests that it was used before that in the first and second centuries B.C. some people suspect it was invented around the beginning of the Han Dynasty. The time may be unsure but it is a fact that it was invented in China.