Cai Lun

Cai Lun, courtesy name Jingzhong, came from Guiyang. The Hou Hanshu places his entry into palace service late in Emperor Ming's reign. He subsequently became a palace attendant and regular attendant, participating in the work surrounding the emperor. His career also included responsibility for the imperial workshops as Shangfang ling, an office concerned with articles made for court use.

The biography specifically praises weapons and other implements manufactured under his supervision for their precision and strength. This workshop setting matters to the account of paper. Selecting materials, organizing fabrication and obtaining official acceptance were practical activities within a larger body of craft labor. The surviving narrative names an official and records his responsibilities; it does not identify every artisan who helped produce the material.

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The biography contrasts the weight of bamboo slips with the cost of silk, then records Cai Lun using bark, hemp waste, old cloth and fishing nets to make paper. In the first year of Yuanxing,105 CE, he presented the method to Emperor He and received approval. The account connects the later expression 'Marquis Cai's paper' with this official recognition.

The National Museum of China places Western Han hemp paper before the Eastern Han improvements associated with Cai Lun. His contribution belongs within a continuing development of plant-fiber paper: widening material sources, improving production and helping establish its use. The date 105 identifies the recorded report and acceptance, rather than the beginning of every form of paper. Bark and discarded textile materials supplied fibers that could be processed into a writing surface.

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Cai Lun later received the title Marquis of Longting and held another senior palace post. When scholars including Liu Zhen were selected to collate classical texts, he was assigned supervisory responsibility. His recorded activities therefore connected manufactured objects, writing materials and the preparation of authoritative texts within court institutions.

After Empress Dowager Deng's death, Emperor An ordered him to face judicial inquiry over his earlier involvement in accusations against Consort Song. The biography records his death by poison. This political ending forms part of his life alongside the technical achievement. Surviving Eastern Han paper, including inscribed fragments held by the National Museum, also documents continuing manufacture and finishing beyond any single biography or commemorative name.

References: [1] [3]