For more than 1000 years, paper makers in Chang 'an North Zhang Cun have been using primitive and simple tools to produce pure natural paperbacks according to the complicated and complete technology invented by Cai Lun in the Eastern Han Dynasty. This process is called a living fossil by experts to study the evolution of hand-made paper technology. However, the paper market has shrunk, the income of workshops has decreased, and there are few successors.
Starting from Xi 'an, it is more than 20 kilometers to the south. In the west, there is the Fenghe River flowing with soup, which flows into the Weihe River from south to north. In the east, there is an artificial river named Fenghuiqu. Chang 'an North Zhang Cun lies between two flowing waters. The Qinling Mountains in the south are densely covered with shrubs, and Broussonetia papyrifera and mulberry trees can be seen everywhere, which has become an inexhaustible high-quality raw material for papermaking. The turbulent river also provides convenient conditions for soaking, fermentation, rinsing and pulping of Broussonetia papyrifera bark. North Zhang Cun has a large population and a small population since ancient times. Handmade paper has been the main source of local villagers' life for a long period of time. "Cang Xie Ci, Leigongwa, Feng Chu Paper, Shui Piao Curtains." Folk songs handed down from northern Zhang Cun not only describe the birth of the earliest paper, but also become strong evidence of the long history of papermaking in Fenghe area. For the first time, Zhang Fengxue, the inheritor of papermaking technology, saw his daughter-in-law sticking to the wall, tearing off thin sheets from a pile of 30cm-thick wet paper bricks and sticking them on the wall to dry. This scene immediately reminds people of the old folk song: "Don't marry North Zhang Cun if you have a daughter, get up in the middle of the night and stand on the wall." It is said that this is the last process of paper drying.
Zhang Fengxue, a 69-year-old man, warmly greeted us to sit down, took out several barks and said, "This is the bark of a holly, and its scientific name is Jun bark. The two here are made of holly. In summer, the skin of holly is called tooth skin, which is easy to peel off from the tree and make it black; The bark of the twelfth lunar month sticks to the trunk, and when you peel it, you take something from the trunk, so that the hair becomes white. Because it is black and white, the paper made is also black and white. "
According to Zhang Fengxue, the production of pulp goes through several processes: preparation, cutting, trampling, beating and washing. The specific process is as follows: firstly, fresh Ilex rotunda soaked in clear water is screened out, soaked in lime water for 2-3 days, and then steamed in a cauldron for one day and one night. When the fiber is completely softened, it is taken to the river to wash the impurities such as lime thoroughly, then put on a stone mill and ground into grates, then chopped with a straw cutter, pressed into a loose shape with a tool, then put into a stone jar and beaten with a stone tool to make the plant fiber softer and finer, and finally put into a stone trough to make it into a uniform slurry.
There is a 5-meter-long and 3-meter-wide pool in the backyard of the Zhangjia family, which is used to soak paper pulp. It is said that this sink must be built of stone to ensure that the water does not stink. Zhang Jianchang, the son of Zhang Fengxue, stood in a hole 1 m square by the pool, and stirred back and forth in the water with a flying rod, so that the fibers were evenly distributed in the water. Then the fibers in the pulp are skillfully covered on the paper curtain to form wet paper, which is stacked on the paper bed one by one. After reaching a certain thickness, put this stack of wet paper on the fulcrum by lever method, and gradually remove a lot of water from the wet paper to form paper bricks. Finally, I saw the scene when I first entered the door. I tore off the papers one by one and stuck them on the wall to dry.
The old man opened a big cloth bag and a thick pile of leather paper was displayed in front of him. This kind of pure natural paper is bright, white, clean and flexible. You can rub it hard with your hands before unfolding, and it is basically as flat as before. It is said that this kind of paper is resistant to preservation, and the paintings and calligraphy works after a hundred years are still the same as those just painted. Unfortunately, modern rice paper is mostly used for calligraphy and painting, while white linen paper is basically not used by many people. Occasionally, some teachers and students of Xi 'an Academy of Fine Arts or some old painters of Chang 'an Painting School use it for painting and calligraphy, and some foreign tourists and overseas Chinese who come to visit buy it back as paper works of art. Although each piece of white linen paper produced in North Zhang Cun costs only 0.25 RMB in Xi, it can be sold for 6-7 USD in foreign exhibitions. According to legend, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cai Lun was implicated because of other people's faults, and the court wanted to take him to Kyoto for trial. Unwilling to endure humiliation, Cai Lun committed suicide by taking poison in his own paper-making invention and fief in Long Ting County. Cai Lun's family was also implicated in running for their lives and hiding everywhere. Some of them fled to Ankang, crossed the Qinling Mountains through the meridian passage, and passed the most advanced plant fiber papermaking technology to northern Zhang Cun when they walked out of the mountain pass at the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains.
This is just a legend connecting northern Zhang Cun and Cai Lun. Whether it can be tested or not, people in northern Zhang Cun are still using the paper-making method based on plant fiber invented by Cai Lun. This conclusion has been repeatedly demonstrated by experts. For example, it is recorded in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty: "The bark, hemp head, cloth and fishing net are used as paper. It was played in the first year of Yuan Xing (A.D. 105), and the emperor had great ability, so he didn't have to worry about it, so it was called' Cai Hou Paper' in the world.
"Cai Lun paper can't make a piece, Guanyin mother said prescription. Zhang Lang burned lime and Li Lang made a piece of paper. " Folk songs circulating in northern Zhang Cun tell the story of Cai Lun's experiment in papermaking and overcoming a technical difficulty.
Zhang Fengxue recalled that before the Cultural Revolution, almost every paper mill in the village had a statue of Cai Lun, a paper-making grandfather, and there was a Cai Lun Temple outside the village, which was dedicated to the "Father of Paper Saint Cai Lun" and was worshipped by paper workers and villagers. At that time, the village also held a grand Cai Lun temple fair on New Year's Eve every year, shouting Shaanxi opera, visiting the market, and holding temple fairs among men, women and children in the village. One of the highlights of the temple fair is the "scale" (the general manager) who presides over the lucky draw every three years. Every paper mill worker comes to Yin Na to sign up for the lucky draw. This industry plays an irreplaceable role in the handmade paper industry. "Weigher" buys paper skins from Qinling merchants, and makes semi-finished paper from paper skins, which is managed by the same trade, with unified price, unified purchase or unified storage. According to research, in the Tang Dynasty, due to the large demand for paper in Gyeonggi area, the papermaking skills in northern Zhang Cun flourished, especially the white hemp paper regarded as a fine product was even exported to North Korea, Japan and other countries. In the Qing Dynasty, the paper made in North Zhang Cun was selected as the paper for memorial and imperial examination.
Before liberation, white linen paper made by hand in northern Zhang Cun was very popular in Yan 'an, and newspapers in the liberated areas and Xi used a lot of paper produced here.
During the "People's Commune" period, almost every household in North Zhang Cun near Fenghe made paper, and the commune concentrated on the unified production of craftsmen, and the supply and marketing cooperatives sold it as wrapping paper. The income is considerable and quite prosperous. Paper-making skills in northern Zhang Cun have been passed down from generation to generation through traditional family oral communication. Zhang Fengxue and Ma Songsheng still use it to make this famous historical paper-white hemp paper. Zhang Feng's scientists see more recycled paper made of waste paper made of wood pulp, and paper will only be made if there are a large number of orders. According to villagers, in order to reduce the cost, hand-made paper workshops in northern Zhang Cun generally produce recycled paper. Scraps bought from the printing factory can be copied for one month in one day by pulping with a machine, which is simple, convenient and low in cost. However, the process of producing paper is very complicated, and the pulp prepared in half a month can only be copied for 5 days. "Recycled paper" is often used as cheap "burning paper" in rural areas of southern Shaanxi, because it has good water absorption and can also be used as absorbent paper for hospital delivery rooms. Few people care about high-value white linen paper.
When modern and advanced paper-making machines output paper on the production line at a speed of 900 meters long and more than 8 meters wide per minute, the paper makers in northern Zhang Cun still repeat these ancient paper-making processes that have lasted for more than 65,438+0,000 years year after year, and can produce about 12 or 3 knives of paper (65,438+0,000 sheets/knife) every day. Zhang Jianchang said that this family of three worked more than 10 hours every day from morning till night. According to the calculation of 6 cents for a piece of recycled paper, the daily income without any problems is usually 70 yuan, and the actual income is basically 40-50. A month 1000 yuan to support five people, life is very tight. Since the reform and opening up, many young people have given up traditional handicraft production and engaged in business services, transportation and other industries because of too little profit. Only 10 households have 12 people engaged in traditional manual papermaking.
/kloc-at the age of 0/2, Zhang Fengxue began to learn traditional papermaking technology with his father Bird. Under the guidance of his father, he mastered the traditional production technology of leather paper passed down from generation to generation. In 2002, he was invited to attend the 36th Smithsonian Folk Culture and Art Festival in Washington, USA. Since then, he has also participated in various cultural activities in China to show this traditional skill to the world. But what is worrying is that Zhang Fengxue is the only inheritor in the village who has mastered the key technology of pulping, and the artist who can weave fine bamboo curtains for papermaking has long passed away. After the 1980s, especially after the death of some old folk artists, there were fewer and fewer descendants, and the once enviable profession of "paper maker" gradually declined. According to Zhang Feng's theory, his son Zhang Jianchang didn't master the pulping technology either, because it can't be learned in two or three years, and it takes a lot of time and energy. Zhang Jianchang is the main labor force in the family, mainly dealing with the production of recycled paper to support his family. He has no energy to learn pulping skills.
The use and economic income of hand-made paper are greatly reduced, which leads to the extinction of this ancient technology. Abandoned stone mills and mortars can be seen everywhere in northern Zhang Cun, which has become a historical relic. Maybe in a few years, there will be only one memorial archway in North Zhang Cun that introduces the history of "Paper Village". ...