雙語科技百科(化學) 第42期:造紙術

Papermaking

造紙術

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.

造紙術是中國古代“四大發明”之一。在造紙術發明以前，人們把字刻寫在龜甲、獸骨、竹片、木片和絹帛上。甲骨、木片很笨重，用起來不方便；絹帛太貴，一般人用不起。大約在西漢初期，人們用大麻和苧麻造出了紙。這種早期的紙比較粗糙，不太適合寫字。

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.

到了東漢時期，在朝廷做官的蔡倫，經過長期的試驗，改進了造紙方法。他用樹皮、破布、破魚網等多種植物纖維作原料，加水蒸煮，搗爛成漿，再均勻地攤在細簾子上晾乾，造成了一種薄薄的紙。這種紙便於寫字，而且便宜，受到了人們的歡迎。造紙技術得到不斷的改進，因爲原料不同，紙也有了各種不同的種類和用途。安徽省宣州生產的宣紙，就是聞名中外的上等紙張，是用於中國書法、繪畫的珍品。

The technology spread to Korea and n 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.

中國的造紙術於隋末唐初傳到朝鮮和日本，後來又傳到阿拉伯地區和其他國家。紙的發明，極大地方便了信息的儲存和交流，對於推動世界文明的發展具有劃時代的意義。