History and Typology of Paper in Central Asia during the First Millennium AD: Analysis of Chinese Paper Manuscripts

2010 - 2014

Tsien Tsuen-Hsun, Science and Civilization in China: Volume 5, Part 1, Paper and Printing, CUP 1985, from the Calligraphy Museum, Tokyo

Knowledge about paper, one of the most important inventions in human history, is very selective and fragmentary for the first millennium. The invention of paper is traced back to the Chinese sometime in the 2nd-1st centuries B.C. According to written record, paper manufacturing techniques were transferred westward to Arabia via Samarkand after A.D. 751. Papermaking abilities then spread slowly from Islamic Asia to Europe and next, around the world, but there is little evidence for the developments in China and Central Asia. Research on manuscripts dated before the 10th century A.D. and found along the Silk Road will be a valuable source to reconstruct this decisive period in early papermaking history.The goal of this project will be achieved through a multi-faceted approach: a) by studying the ancient manuscripts and creating a paper typology, b) by field study of papermaking plants and their distribution in Central Asia present and past, and c) by developing a terminology on paper production in China with respect to Western professional literature, and compiling a bibliography on papermaking in East Asian languages. Technological aspects such as records of paper components and other features of preserved manuscripts will be used as independent records alternative to written sources. All results achieved will be organised and presented in a data base.