Ancient China 500-100 BCE

Science & Tools

The Bamboo Miracle

Western and Middle Eastern civilizations started slowly writing on surfaces such as wood, bamboo, stone, bone, pottery, and cloth. Around 3000 BCE the Egyptians began making papyrus “paper” by pulping the flesh of the papyrus reeds. While In the East, China had invented paper made from the pulp of bamboo in 105 BCE.

According to Chinese tradition, Cai Lun invented paper by improving upon previous techniques and developed a process in which a variety of materials could be used. It was discovered that fibers could be formed into a thin sheet on a screen. He worked with numerous fibers mixed with water in a large bin, washed, soaked, and beaten to a pulp. He then submerged a four-sided bamboo-framed cloth screen in the bin and lifted it, catching all the fibers on its surface. When dried and pressed with a covering mold, the thin layer of fiber became paper.

Bamboo paper was soft, smooth, white, and durable and was favoured by Chinese artists and calligraphers in the Tang Dynasty Era. Chinas well-kept secret of paper-making technology was introduced to Vietnam and Tibet in the third century, to Korea in the fourth, and to Japan in the sixth. Paper was incredibly important for China because the government needed to keep records of religion, trade, and inventory; and the more complex those systems became the more there was a need for paper.

Typography

The Evolution of Type In The East

In 1800 BCE writing appears in Asia. The origin of writing comes from China. It was called the Chiku-wen (bone and shell) script because of the engravings on shells and bones. As the legend goes, the writing system in China was created by Cangjie, a servant of the Yellow Emperor, the system was made up of logograms which represent words and phrases, but this way of writing was not adopted all over China. There were many branches of writing that were all different creating a lot of confusion throughout China.

Fast forward to 200 BCE, Chinas Emperor Qin Shi Huang ordered a new writing style to be created, that would spread through all of China and be adopted by all. This writing style is called Chen-Shu which means “regular”. It is crazy when you think about it, but that was created a very long time ago and it is still the writing style that is used in modern-day China.

Some details about Chen-Shu, it has 40-50,000 characters but most people in China only know a fraction of those characters and they just learn enough to get by. Chen-Shu was also the foundation for other countries to create their own script form it, like the Korean alphabet.

Citations:

Oyler, D. W., Arisa, M., Hall, K., Julie-Ann, V., & Aslan, R. (2008). Writing. In P. J. Crabtree, Facts on File library of world history: Encyclopedia of society and culture in the medieval world. Facts On File. Credo Reference: https://ezproxy.capilanou.ca/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/fofsociety/writing/0?institutionId=6884

Schmandt-Besserat, D., & Erard, M. (2008). Writing systems. In D. M. Pearsall (Ed.), Encyclopedia of archaeology. Elsevier Science & Technology. Credo Reference: https://ezproxy.capilanou.ca/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/estarch/writing_systems/0?institutionId=6884