ABSTRACT
The date traditionally assigned to the invention of paper is 105 CE, and is credited to Ts’ai Lun, a court official in the Eastern Han dynasty of China. The earliest paper fragments were made from expensive materials such as silk. In eastern Asia, paper manufacture spread from China to Japan and Korea by the 6th century CE. Paper production began in Baghdad in 794 CE, and then in Damascus, which became the main supplier of paper to Europe for the next several centuries, where it was known as Charta Damascena. Paper can be made from any fibrous cellulose material: cotton, rice, hemp, flax, bamboo or tree bark, and also from rags, rope and fishing nets—any material that can be shredded into individual fibers. The technique of writing with an ink brush has long been respected as an art form in China and Japan, and was facilitated by the invention of paper.
