Eunuco cai lun biography
Biography of Cai Lun (61-121) - mobile.chinadaily.com.cn...
Jan 4, 2016 © Ulrich Theobald
Cai Lun 蔡倫 (d.
Eunuco cai lun biography
121 CE), courtesy name Jingzhong 敬仲, was a court eunuch of the Later Han period 後漢 (25-220 CE) and allegedly the inventor of paper.
He hailed from a poor family the commandery of Guiyang 桂陽 (today's Binzhou 郴州, Hunan). With the age of 13 sui he became a palace steward (jishi 給事), but was then castrated and was appointed palace attendant (xiao huangmen 小黃門).
During the reign of Emperor He 漢和帝 (r. 88-105 CE) he rose to the office of Palace Attendant-in-ordinary (zhongchangshi 中常侍), which gave him some influence on political matters.
Cai Lun was then made Director of the Imperial Manufactories (shangfang ling 尚方令) and was responsible for the supply of crafted objects for the imperial household.
In this function he studied the art of papermaking, and suggested to establish an imperial factory for papermaking, whose products could replace the expensive and uncomfortable silk fabric (jianbo 縑帛) or bamboo slips (zhujian 竹簡)