ABSTRACT
Before the invention of paper, words were inscribed on such materials as tortoise shells or bones, metal or stone, bamboo strips or silk. Nevertheless, the disadvantages of the materials were only too apparent: They were too hard to engrave, too cumbersome to transport or too expensive to own. It had taken a long time, however, for paper to be popularly used since its invention. For a large part of the period between Eastern Han and the early Six Dynasties, bamboo and wood slips were still the dominant media for writing. But from the time of the Western Jin Dynasty paper became the predominant medium for writing. The universal use of paper made books both easy to write and easy to distribute. It also gave writers more opportunities to study each other's works and to gather together. Another form of literary transmission was writing poems on paintings. Among the scholars of the Tang Dynasty it was fashionable to compete for preferment.
