2002-03-20 - 4:59 p.m.

As a continuation of my earlier musings but on an altogether different note:

Today I have visited a place of higher learning, a college even. Whereupon I have studied the Historie of Papermaking, which is a most fascinating subject. To that end, I am enamored with a booke called Papermaking by one Dard Hunter. The facts I find most interesting involve a time line, some of which I will share with you, the goode lords and ladies of the realm:

875 AD Arabs travelling to China report a most interesting product, now called toilet paper.

883 AD Block prints in use in Szechwan, China.

900 AD Chinese papermaking techniques are now being deployed in Egypt. The Arabs were in one of the most renaissance time periods in all of their history.

950 AD Folded books first recorded in China. Previously all books were written on rolls of paper.

972 AD The Buddhist canon, the Tripitaka, all 130,000 pages were printed in China. Several other religious books followed in the years to come, including sayings of Confucious.

969 AD A truly remarkable year - The first playing cards were developed, of course in China. What innovators!

998 AD Paper money was developed in China. The first issue of circulation was 1,130,000 tiao. In 1957 when this book reached its second edition, that amounted to 30 cents for 1,000 tiaos. A second issue of paper money happened in 1022 AD. Imagine money lasting for 24 years! Now adays, the dollar only lasts on an average a single year.

Shortly afterwards, the Chinese also came up with spiritual money that was burned at funerals so that the deseased would have money to spend in the afterlife. Please burn some for me when I die! I like shopping.

1035 AD The Persian travellor, Nasiri Khosrau wrote that he was astonished by a new practise in Cairo. Egyptians were using paper wrappings to hold spices and goods sold in the marketplace. And yes, some were prepackaged. In addition, this paper was not thrown away but sold back to the papermills and recycled or else reused.

This was actually not unique to Egypt. In Japan, reused or recyced paper became known as Kamiya-gami, during the same time period.

1100 AD Egypt no longer held the monopoly on paper, the papermaking techniques spread to Morrocco and to Constantinople.

1116 AD The crafty Chinese developed stitched books. These used printing on one side with what is now called a "French fold" and stitched with linen and cotton thread.

1140 AD The Bedoin and other wandering peoples recycle the mummy bandages of ancient cities that they happen upon. Usually these bandages are stitched together to form new clothing for the findees, however, many stripes of cloth are unsuitable for this purpose. These unsuitable bandages are harvested and sold to the papermills that make grocery wrapping paper. Think twice before asking the cashier for that paper grocery sack!

1041-1049 AD Again the crafty Chinese came up of a wonderful concept called moveable type. Unfortunately, the characters in the Chinese language are not suited for this technology so it was little used.

And that concludes today's history lesson. Please do look up Dard Hunter's book as it is truly a fount of knowledge.

Written this first day of Spring by Lady Ursula.

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