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。在造纸术发明以前，人们把字刻写在龟甲、兽骨、竹片、木片和绢帛上。甲骨、木片很笨重，用起来不方便；绢帛太贵，一般人用不起。大约在西汉初期，人们用大麻和苎麻造出了纸。这种早期的纸比较粗糙，不太适合写字。
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，经过长期的试验，改进了造纸方法。他用树皮、破布、破鱼网等多种植物纤维作原料，加水蒸煮，捣烂成浆，再均匀地摊在细帘子上晾干，造成了一种薄薄的纸。这种纸便于写字，而且便宜，受到了人们的欢迎。造纸技术得到不断的改进，因为原料不同，纸也有了各种不同的种类和用途。安徽省宣州生产的宣纸，就是闻名中外的上等纸张，是用于中国书法、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到朝鲜和日本，后来又传到阿拉伯地区和其他国家。纸的发明，极大地方便了信息的储存和交流，对于推动世界文明的发展具有划时代的意义。