TS'AI LUN ± 105

Ts'ai Lun inventor of paper material most likely a foreign name sounded in the ears of readers. Considering how important a discovery, it is very surprising that the Western people underestimate it for granted. Not a few of the free stuff does not put their name a word. This is really outrageous. Judging from the point of the importance of usability is very scarce Ts'ai Lun paper cited can lead to suspicion lest Ts'ai Lun, an uncertain figure can not be trusted and the presence or absence. However, close scrutiny to prove with absolute certainly that Ts'ai Lun was really there and not the kind of genie in a fairy tale.
He was a civil servant at the royal court in the year 105 AD to present a sample to the Emperor Ho Ti. Chinese records of the discovery of this Ts'ai Lun (included in the writing of official history of Han dynasty) completely forthright and trustworthy, there are no traces of the smell of magic or fairy tales. Chinese people always associate a name with Ts'ai Lun inventor of paper and his name famous throughout China.
Not much is known about the life of Ts'ai Lun, unless there were people calling him kebirian. Recorded also very excited by the discovery of the emperor Ts'ai Lun, and he made up the ranks, and can be knighted by itself be a baron. However, later he was involved in a plot that dragged into the palace anti downfall. Chinese records mention - after he kicked - Ts'ai Lun clean bathroom, wearing a beautiful dress, and then drank the poison.
The use of paper spread across China in the 2nd century, and in a few centuries the Chinese have been capable of exporting paper to countries in Asia. China's long time secret of how to fabricate this paper. In the year 751, what is immoral, some expert paper maker captured by the Arabs that in a short paper is in Baghdad and Sarmarkand diprodusir. Fabrication techniques of paper spread across the Arab world and the new in the 12th century the Europeans learned this technique. After that began widespread use of paper and after Gutenberg invented the modern printing press, paper replaced the goat skin as a means of writing in the West.
Now the use of paper is so general, so no one could imagine a world without paper forms. In China before the discovery of Ts'ai Lun, general books made of bamboo. Just awful kind of book it was too heavy and clunky. There is also a book made of silk but the price is very expensive for the public. While in the West - before there was paper - books written on goat skin or cow. This material as a substitute for papyrus favored by the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians. Both leather and papyrus include not only scarce but also difficult at affordable prices.
Now, whether some books and other writings can diprodusir goods cheaply and well in great quantities. This is all thanks to the paper. Indeed, the significance of the paper is not so prominent in the absence of printing machines, printing machines, but otherwise was not much meaning without the presence of so much paper and so cheap.
Rather abstruse question now: Who should be the order of the upper level between Gutenberg and Ts'ai Lun? Though I too complicated to determine who among these two people are equally important since, but I finally took the decision of the Ts'ai Lun was slightly higher in order than Gutenberg. My reasons for this: (1) The paper used a lot solely for writing materials. (2) Ts'ai Lun probably predates Gutenberg and Gutenberg printing press to make the unthinkable if the paper was not found. (3) If only one of them to creation, I suspect that even without the engine of creation Gutenberg books can still be diprodusir through block printing system (which has long been known to people long before Gutenberg) through a combination of paper rather than through a combination of a sheepskin.
Is it appropriate to include both Gutenberg and Ts'ai Lun in the order of those most influential in the world? To explore the significance of the discovery of the perfect paper and printing, it is necessary to understand the development of Western and Chinese culture. Before entering the 2nd century AD Chinese culture is still in tarap lower than Western culture. But in a thousand years BC, the progress of western China has exceeded even in the 7th century and to-8 Chinese culture in many ways is the most advanced cultures in the world. After the 15th century AD, West China speeding left behind. Various cultural settlement of these changes has been developed, but the theory seems to preach the lessons of the important aspects that it seems to me merely an explanation of the simplest nature.

Bamboo strips were washed and dipped in water rights as a beginning step fabrication of paper preparation.
Certainly true, farming and writing developed more duIu Middle East than China. But this does not explain why the Chinese culture is so slow and behind the West. An abstruse problem, in my opinion, is before the Ts'ai Lun paper grade no one else in China. In the Western world papyrus there, and although the material had its drawbacks, writing in the form of an infinite number of rolls and books of better quality than is written on wood or bamboo. Shortage of material to write a major inhibiting factor of progress of Chinese culture. A Chinese scholar needs a cart to carry a number of books it deems useful. Imagine the difficulty of trying to regulate the administration of government with such circumstances.
The invention of paper by Ts'ai Lun overhauled condition. With a number of written materials available, the Chinese culture surged up so fast that in just a few centuries the West has been able to keep up. Of course, the political divisions in the West to be an important cause, but this was not the main cause. In the 4th century AD China was politically fragmented, but let me keep moving forward with a culture so quickly. In the centuries that followed, while progress in halting the West, China actually managed to achieve important discoveries such as the compass, gunpowder, and block printing. Since the paper fell cheaper than goat skin and can be obtained in large numbers, the situation is now reversed.
After the Western people began to use paper, they were able to sit face to China, and even succeeded in narrowing the cultural gap. Marco Polo's writings emphasized his belief that even in the 13th century AD China was far ahead of Europe in terms of prosperity.
Why, then, China is behind the Europeans? Variety of complex cultural explanations have been tried, but perhaps a simple technology that can find the answer. In the 15th century in Europe, a genius named Johann Gutenberg invented a way to produce a book as much as possible. As a result of that discovery, European culture thrive. Because China does not have the likes of Gutenberg, the Chinese stayed with block printing their culture progressed more slowly.



If one accepts the analysis above, we can not but have to accept the conclusion that Ts'ai Lun and Gutenberg are two human beings is the central figure in the history of the world.
Indeed, Ts'ai Lun was in the front row of the other inventors for several reasons. Most inventions are a product of the times and would have occurred even if the person who actually invented them had never lived. However, this situation is not entirely applicable to the issues paper. The Europeans did not begin producing it until a thousand years after Ts'ai Lun. They just open your mind and after the learning process membikinnya pembikinannya of the Arabs. In this connection, even after they had seen how the Chinese manufacture of paper, other Asian nations were never able to produce it. Clearly, the invention of paper is not to produce an easy job, can not simply be implemented by the advanced culture, but rather closely related to the contribution of individuals who have outstanding advantages. Ts'ai Lun was the model that sort of person, and how to make paper that is done (in addition to the modernization that was introduced about 1800 AD) basically the same as what people are doing today.
This is why I put both Gutenberg and Ts'ai Lun both on the order of the first ten influential people in this book, by placing the Ts'ai Lun more than Gutenberg.