PAPER 



History 



Discovery of 

 Paper-making. 



Wooden Letters. 



Letters on Paper. 



Sized Paper. 

 Kashmir Paper. 



Persian Paper. 



Chinese Paper. 



Paper-mulberry. 



PAPER AND PAPER MATERIALS 



tions of the Niya and other sites. These MSS. consist, for the most part, of 

 two sets: (a) those written in Khotan State itself, and (b) those in China. The 

 materials used are specially prepared strips of wood (presumed by Stein to be 

 .PojmitfM ntba), the older ones being in imitation of bamboo slips ; next, neatly 

 folded pages of leather ; and various kinds of paper ; also, more rarely, birch- 

 bark. Bamboo slips, according to Chavannes (Les livrea Chinoia avant Vin- 

 vention du papier, in As. Journ., 1905, 5-75), were used hi China before the 

 discovery of paper in 105 A.D. [Cf. Raynal, Hist. Phil, et Polit., 1782, iii., 

 146.] In fact, wood had come into use to displace bamboo, but was in- 

 variably cut- to the size and shape of the older bamboo stationery. The 

 Chinese wooden letters discovered by Stein bear out completely the tradition 

 of the early Chinese letters. Why paper should not have reached Khotan 

 until at least a century and a half after its discovery in China is hard to 

 say. Whatever the cause may have been, wood was undoubtedly continued as 

 the stationery of distant Khotan till the latter half of the 3rd century. More- 

 over, the early wooden letters found at Khotan are of two kinds : long, narrow 

 and pointed (kilamudras), and rectangular tablets (likitakas), both being neatly 

 tied up and furnished with seals. The pointed wooden letters were apparently 

 of purely local manufacture, hence deal with local affairs, reports, official orders. 

 The Chinese bamboo-like letters were not pointed nor furnished with seals, 

 but they also convey official orders, and it has been established that they 

 date from the Han epoch ; Jin fact, one bears the actual date of 265 A.D., and 

 is connected with the Wu-ti Emperor, the founder of the Western dynasty of 

 China. While the imperial control of China was thus placed on the Khotan 

 administration, it is quite clear that local self-government was to a large extent 

 retained. 



The letters on paper are all of a later date than those on wood, One picked 

 up at Endere (Stein, I.e. 426) has been examined by Prof. J. Wiesner and de- 

 termined as made of JBjffte bark, and hence it is surmised the letter in question 

 came from Tibet. Moreover, it was ascertained to date from early in the 8th 

 century, and was noted to have had the surface sized and dressed with rice- 

 water in order to render it suited for writing purposes. It ma}' thus be regarded 

 as marking an important advance in the knowledge of paper-making accom- 

 plished by the people of Tibet. In passing, it may be added that the further 

 advance of sizing with gluten was not made until the 14th century. So again 

 it may be added that a dressing with rice-water was and still is the universal 

 practice in the manufacture of the once famed Kashmir paper, an article greatly 

 in demand some centuries ago for making copies of the Koran. Sir Walter 

 Lawrence points out, moreover, that this dressing allowed of passages being 

 readily obliterated with water, and was thus objectionable. 



Another paper mentioned by Stein (I.e. 307-8) dates from 718 A.D., and 

 has been found to be written in Judseo-Persian. This is, in fact, the oldest actual 

 example of that language known. It was written apparently by a Jew resident 

 in Persia, and was addressed to a Khotan official. Wiesner, who apparently 

 examined the paper of this document also, has not determined the material 

 used except that it was different both from the Tibetan letter and from the 

 numerous other examples of paper presumed to be of Khotan manufacture. 

 Stein, commenting on the absence of paper from all the older ruins explored by 

 him, adds, " The fact itself must be considered as certain, for rich though the 

 ruins explored by me at the Niya river site were in rubbish remains of all kinds, 

 not one of them yielded the smallest scrap of paper. This total absence of records 

 on paper is all the more curious in view of the political connection with China, 

 which did not cease, as our Chinese documents plainly prove, even after the 

 close of the Han dynasty. Nor can it be attributed to the possible want of the 

 paper-mulberry tree (iii-oii*nn<-ti>, jj>?/i-7e-), from the bark of which the 

 modern paper of Khotan is extensively manufactured, seeing that the alterna- 

 tive use of rags, hemp and other substances was known in China from the very 

 time of the first invention of paper (105 A.D.)." The MS. found at Dandan- 

 Uiliq (8th century) has been identified as very possibly of Khotan manufacture, 

 and so also those found at Kucha, which, though a little earlier (5th century), 

 are also regarded as made of itrouttttonetia fibre. But as opposed to the id'ea 

 of an ancient local industry in paper-making, there are two circumstances that 

 seem worthy of mention in this place : 



(a) None of the botanists who have collected plants in Turkestan, Mongolia, 

 Yarkhand, Gilgit, Ladakh, Kashmir, Afghanistan, etc., appear to have seen Broiis- 



862 



