Talk:Cai Lun

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[edit] castrated

Does anyone know when exactly this guy was castrated?

Does it matter? - User:DNewhall

I don't think it matters, but anyway some eunuchs were castrated at birth or in childhood by their parents, others were castrated when sold into slavery, and still others underwent castration in order to obtain positions in the Imperial bureaucracy that were only available to eunuchs. Perhaps that's why the other guy asked.

More importantly, we know that the Egyptians had paper in the deep BC (the word paper is in fact derived from the name of the Egyptian reed "papyrus"). I have made the minimum number of corrections to indicate this, but I have serious doubts about the claims to introduction of paper from China to Europe. Medieval Europeans attributed the invention of paper to egypt, and I believe archeology bears this out.

This whole article seems highly suspect to me, but I am not expert in Han history.

The word "paper" may be derived from "papyrus," but this doesn't mean the thing paper itself was derived from papyrus as well. As for whether the Chinese or the Egyptians can claim to have invented paper--that depends on your definition of paper. As I understand it, papyrus was not manufactured the same way as *modern* paper is, whereas Cai Lun's papermaking method is roughly the same as today's. See this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper#History —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 140.247.250.53 (talk) 02:08, 5 December 2006 (UTC).

[edit] Cultural depictions of Cai Lun

I've started an approach that may apply to Wikipedia's Core Biography articles: creating a branching list page based on in popular culture information. I started that last year while I raised Joan of Arc to featured article when I created Cultural depictions of Joan of Arc, which has become a featured list. Recently I also created Cultural depictions of Alexander the Great out of material that had been deleted from the biography article. Since cultural references sometimes get deleted without discussion, I'd like to suggest this approach as a model for the editors here. Regards, Durova 19:03, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Papyrus is not paper - Papyrus is reeds cound together in a cross fashion. Actual paper, which is made from cellulose pulp, was invented in China. After the battle of Talas, technology spread to the Arabs, which was the main factors contributing to the rise of Islam. The Koran/Quran could be produced in mass with this new invention since paper was cheap. The Arabs thus spread paper making technology to Europe. The same goes for moveable type and gunpowder - Europeans intially thought they invented both, but they were actually both invented in China