西汉有纸与蔡伦发明权的认知与认定

Was Paper Initiated During the Western Han Dynasty and Could Cai Lun Claim the Invention: An Inquiry into the Origin of Paper

关键词:  造纸术  西汉纸  蔡伦  发明权  认定标准

Key Words:papermaking skills  paper made during the Western Han Dynasty  Cai Lun  authority of invention  identification standard

摘要:从20世纪30年代开始，在我国西北干旱地区的新疆、甘肃、陕西三省区陆续出土了多件西汉时期的“纸质”文物，由此，造纸术起源于东汉蔡伦的经典说法受到质疑，学术界对蔡伦发明权的认识分歧开始出现并逐渐增强。通过对新出土文物的进一步观察与检测，以及再次研究关于蔡伦造纸的早期文献记载，若干重要问题开始突显，如“纸”的定义辨析，飘絮法与捣浆法造纸，蔡伦与树皮等原料捣浆造纸重大发明的关系，蔡伦用抄纸法还是浇纸法造纸，蔡伦发明权的认定标准等。本文对上述早期造纸起源的分歧问题给出了笔者自己的看法。

Abstract:From the 1930s， the Chinese archaeologists successively found paper products made during the Western Han Dynasty in the dry Northwest areas in China， i.e. Xinjiang， Gansu and Shaanxi. The paper relics unearthed challenged the previous accepted view that Cai Lun of the Eastern Han Dynasty initiated the papermaking skills. Some important questions emerged with the research and tests of the newly unearthed relics， and through the literature study of the early documents on Cai Lun and papermaking. The research questions include: the precise definition of paper， different papermaking methods， e.g. Piaoxu method (pulping without hammering) or Daojiang method (pulping by hammering), connection between Cai Lun and beating bark to make pulp, whether Cai Lun made paper with a fixed or movable papermaking screen？ Does Cai Lun own the franchise of papermaking， etc. In this paper， the author proposes his answers to the above questions concerning the early papermaking practice．