Papermaking, one of the four great inventions in China, has no evidence of which dynasty and which generation invented papermaking, but the advancement of papermaking by the Eastern Han Cailun team is indeed a recognized fact. During the Han and Emperor years, about 2 AD, Cai Lun, who was then the director of the palace handicraft workshop, successfully transformed the burlap paper that had already appeared in the folk, and was born paper for writing. It is inferred from this that the invention of Chinese papermaking has a history of at least 2000 years.
Today's papermaking is highly developed, with a wide variety and a considerable output, but you know that in very few places in China, the ancient papermaking process is still used. The old man Zhang Fengxue in Beizhang Village, Xi'an, Shaanxi, is one of them.
History of paper making in Beizhang Village
According to historical data, since the Eastern Han Dynasty where Cai Lun invented plant fiber paper, the paper industry here has flourished. Take today's Beizhang Village. Chang'an District is located in the southern part of Xi'an City, on the southern edge of the Weihe Plain, and on the northern foot of Qinling Mountains. Beizhang Village is located beside the Feng River in Chang'an. There are more than 7,000 people in the village. Before the liberation of the whole country, every household here was making paper. Even if there are still villagers specializing in paper making, many handmade paper workshops are still in action, and the ancient papermaking process continues here. The cultural heritage here is very deep. The Western Zhou Dynasty ’s Kyoto Hokyo and Fengjing City were built in the northwest of the village not far from the village. On the other side of the village river is the Zhouwen Wangtai, and it is also the 11 dynasty Gyeonggi region since the Western Han Dynasty. Beizhang Village is also very sensitive to major actions of human civilization like papermaking.
