Bamboo slips

In the process of human development, people need at least one kind of medium to record their ancestors' knowledge and experience as well as some inventions. During the time when writing was not invented, oral communication was the only means of recording. After the invention of writing, people began to try various kinds of natural material by which to record information.

Historians estimate that the Chinese script first appeared some 6,000 years ago. Initially, it was inscribed on bones, tortoise shells, or stone and later was written on silk or more commonly, inscribed on bamboo or wood.

silk　used for writing

The earliest Chinese books were made from flat strips of bamboo or wood, inscribed and then threaded together. Heavy and bulky, they were inconvenient for reading and carrying. A man of letters called Dong Fangshuo in the Western Han Dynasty (206BC-24AD) was said to have presented a suggestion to the emperor written on 3,000 bamboo strips, which had to be carried into the palace by two strong men.

To lighten their reading material, people eventually began to write on silk, using the newly invented brush and ink. But silk was too expensive to be used often; especially so in the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220), which saw a proliferation of new schools. Therefore, both students and scholars were in urgent need of something cheaper and more convenient on which to write.

For the abovementioned reasons, paper was eventually invented.