The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

Today, Qin Shi Huang put down his busy work for the first time. The two or three hundred kilograms of bamboo slips piled up like a small mountain in the palace were removed from the table and moved to the side. They were replaced by neatly cut light yellow hemp paper and neatly placed on Qin Shi Huang's imperial desk.

The emperor picked up a piece of hemp paper that was two feet and two inches wide and one foot long. It was as light as silk, but finer and tougher than silk. Because it was carefully selected, it looked even and clean, smooth to the touch, and the edges were cut very neatly.

Looking at another piece of paper covered with dense seal characters, the First Emperor saw that the handwriting was familiar, so he asked:

"Is it Meng Tian's handwriting?"

Meng Tian, the Junior Supervisor of the Ministry of Finance, bowed and said: "The paper is newly made, I don't know if it can be written on. You dare not offer it rashly, so I will try the pen..."

The brush was definitely not invented by Meng Tian. A few years ago, Hei Fu knew it when he saw that the clerks in the court of Anlu County had a brush in their hands. This thing appeared very early. Confucius had already said "use a pen as a pen and use a sharpener as a sharpener". It became more popular in the Warring States Period. Different places have different names. Qin called it a pen, Chu called it a yu, Jiangdong called it a bulv, Yanzhao called it a fu...

However, these "brush" are still very different from later generations. The hair of the brush head is wrapped outside the pen holder, and then it is fixed with lacquer, which is exactly the opposite of later brushes.

In his past and present lives, Heifu was not good at calligraphy, and his handwriting was barely legible. In addition, he had been fighting for many years, so he didn't think of improving it.

When he arrived in Xianyang, he was surprised to find that a new type of brush, which was quite similar to that of later generations, had become popular in the palace and government offices. It was made of dead wood as the tube, deer hair as the column, and wool as the cover, which was called "Canghao"!

After asking, he learned that this brush was also called "Meng Tian Brush". It was made during the years when Meng Tian was demoted to Shangjun and Yanmen to guard the border because of his defeat in the war against Chu...

So Meng Tian just improved the brush, and later generations spread rumors and turned it into an invention.

It can be seen from this that although Meng Tian was famous for his martial arts, he was also a person who liked to play with words in private. He did not refuse and wrote a memorial on the spot. "

In this way, it can be proved that paper can indeed be written with ink.

The emperor was pleased in his heart that such a thin paper, which was as light as a feather and weighed no more than ten zhu, had the same content as a roll of bamboo slips weighing two kilograms...

Qin has always been particular about "document administration". Replacing bamboo slips with paper can greatly improve the efficiency of Qin officials. Even Qin Shihuang himself, who reads light paper documents on the couch every day, is much more relaxed than holding heavy bamboo slips. With the unification of the world, the government affairs he has to deal with every day have increased rapidly. Even though the emperor is diligent, he can't be happy looking at the mountains of bamboo slips and the paperwork every day.

As a writing medium, hemp paper is undoubtedly qualified. The only problem is the cost.

"How much money does it cost to make hemp paper? "The emperor asked, and Hei Fu presented Zhang Cang's account book on paper.

"Your Majesty, we collected rags and hemp heads from the Shaofu and the shops in Xianyang. One stone is worth 120 coins. Including the cost of transportation, firewood, process, and manpower, the cost is no more than 500 coins."

"One stone of rags and hemp heads can make a thousand sheets of hemp paper with a width of 2 feet and 2 inches and a length of 1 foot! This is also the daily output of the workshop."

In other words, the cost of a piece of hemp paper is only half a coin!

"General Zuocheng." The emperor called the Shaofu General Zuocheng, who had a gloomy face at the end of the hall.

"How much is a bamboo slip with 300 or 400 words written on it? "

The Chief of Works wanted to see Heifu laugh, but he turned out to be a genius, using rags and rotten edges to make paper for writing.

If Meng Tian had not personally inspected every process and could testify for Heifu, the Chief of Works would have even suspected that Heifu was just offering some finer cloth...

Faced with the ironclad facts, he could only honestly answer the emperor's question: "Due to the different materials used, the bamboo book is worth two to three coins, while the willow wood tablet is worth one coin. "

Bamboo itself is not expensive, but the process is very time-consuming. In addition, the price of cowhide and leather belts is not as cheap as imagined.

If it is replaced with silk, a piece of silk with a width of two feet and two inches and a length of four feet is worth 500 coins, and it is also worth about 10 coins when cut to one foot long.

Everything is clear. With the same width and the same number of words, the price of a piece of hemp paper is half of that of a wooden slip, one-fifth of that of a bamboo book, and one-twentieth of that of a plain silk... It is not unreasonable that paper can replace bamboo slips and silk books.

Hei Fu can finally breathe a sigh of relief. It is true that he proposed the idea of papermaking, but in the process of papermaking, they encounter some troubles every day. Fortunately, this technology is not beyond the times, and all processes can be solved with ready-made methods. Besides, with the help of Cheng Shang and Qin Mo, all problems can be solved.

At this time, Meng Tian raised a sharp question: "Now the Shaofu has collected hundreds of stones of cloth and hemp in Xianyang, and produced more than a thousand sheets of hemp paper every day, which can be made for a year. But after a year, the cloth and hemp are all gone. What should we do?"

"The Shaofu Shaojian's concerns are reasonable. "Hei Fu did not avoid the question and took it up.

This was not groundless worry. Hei Fu had heard an interesting story in his previous life. It was said that after papermaking was introduced to Europe from the Middle East, the first thing Europeans learned was to make paper with old linen.

Relying solely on old linen as raw material, there was a shortage of supply. Europeans sent almost all the old cloth, fragments and broken hemp heads they could collect to paper mills, resulting in a shortage of cloth. In the end, the British government even issued a decree prohibiting the use of shrouds to wrap corpses for burial in order to save cloth.

Countries on the European continent also offered high prices to snatch rags from each other, and even smuggled rags. At that time, many countries prohibited individuals from collecting "old clothes, old flags, rags and cloth, fur and parchment fragments, and other similar materials used for papermaking", and strictly prohibited them from being shipped abroad. Violators would be severely punished...

Heifu didn't know whether this was true or not, but it was definitely not possible to make paper with rags alone. No matter how many people there were in Xianyang City, if it really reached the point of "fresh clothes in the morning and worn clothes in the evening", there would be limited rags. Moreover, those poor families recycled rags and took turns wearing them. Even if they were broken, they could be used to pad the soles of shoes or something. The wealthy and luxurious families didn't care about the money they got from rags and just threw them away.

There are two solutions. One is to let the lidian forcibly collect rags like in later generations, and the other is to expand the source of raw materials as he had been planning for a long time...

So Heifu said: "Your Majesty, in addition to using cloth and hemp heads, papermaking can also use rattan, mulberry, paper mulberry bark, etc., with the same process as hemp paper, and it can be made by the end of September, and the cost may be lower than hemp paper..."

The Minister of Works suddenly realized why Heifu did nothing last month and asked the Minister of the Imperial Household for a lot of paper mulberry bark to soak in the hoe pond!

This statement also solved the doubts of Meng Tian, the Junior Supervisor of the Ministry of Finance. He secretly thought that Heifu was a man who could think ahead and nod his head, indicating that he had no more doubts.

"When Heifu requested to make paper, he promised me that the things he made would be good quality and cheap."

Qin Shihuang lit the hemp paper and said with satisfaction: "This is true!"

He walked up to Heifu and encouraged him: "Since last month, many people in the court and the public have called you "rags and cloth minister". This is because people who come out of remote alleys are surprised by what they see. People with shallow knowledge slander the wise. The fools laugh, the wise mourn, the crazy are happy, and the wise are sad! Don't care about those comments and words that are bound by secular prejudices!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your trust. "Heifu choked up and bowed, while the Shaofu Jiangzuocheng and others beside him showed shame. This nickname was given to Heifu by them, and now they dared not even breathe.

Qin Shihuang then asked Meng Tian to come forward to help grind the ink, and asked Cheng Miao, who had been promoted to the position of Imperial Censor, to use the "Canghao" made by Meng Tian to write the imperial edict on a piece of hemp paper.

The emperor also specifically instructed Cheng Miao: "Use official script, not seal script! "

Although this did not conform to the law of "using seal script for imperial edicts" set a few days ago, the emperor was more important than the law, and Cheng Miao could only nod and obey.

Qin Shihuang did have his intentions.

Poetry says: Although Zhou was an old country, its mission was to reform, and so was Qin!

Governing the world is not the same, benefiting the country does not follow the old, daring to forge ahead, and constantly bringing forth the new, this is why Qin became increasingly powerful and annexed the world and the sea.

Qin Shihuang seemed to be able to see that the official script documents written on the Canghao hemp paper were constantly being passed between the counties. The people of Shandong also had to learn seal script and official script from the Qin officials, throw away the heavy bamboo slips they wrote poems and books on, and copy the Qin laws on brand new paper...

This is the new policy and new atmosphere he brought to the world!

"Heifu paper, Meng Tian pen, Cheng Miao official script, new pen, new paper, new characters, all work for the new policy, it is a good story. With these three things, writing can be the same as the text of the world, and it can be accelerated a bit! "

Upon hearing this, Hei Fu secretly thought that the name of this paper was not very nice, and it might be misrepresented as "black paper" in the future, and a strange idiom "black paper with black words" would be created, but since the emperor had spoken the truth, he could only shout: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for the name!"

Qin Shi Huang paced up to the palace again and recited the imperial edict: "The ancients said that the work of all craftsmen, such as melting gold to make blades, solidifying earth to make tools, making cars to travel on land, and making boats to travel on water, are all done by wise men. The sky has its time, the earth has its air, the materials have beauty, and the craftsmen have their skills. Only when these four are combined can it be good. "

"Since ancient times, most books and contracts have been compiled on bamboo slips, and those that use plain silk are called silk books. Silk is expensive and the slips are heavy, which is not convenient for people. Now there is a temporary Shaofu Cheng Hei Fu, who has received my intention. Although he is initially supervising the work of all craftsmen, he has the heart of a good craftsman. He buys hemp heads, old cloth, and fish nets to make paper. It is good quality and cheap, and can replace bamboo slips and silk and spread throughout the world. I am pleased with his ability and commend his achievements, and now I grant Heifu a mansion and promote him to the rank of Right Minister!"