"If the ancient technology of traditional hand-made paper is not protected, our descendants will have to go to the museum to recall this great invention." Zhou Jiehua, director of the Jiajiang County Cultural Relics Management Office in Sichuan Province, said anxiously, "So We have declared Jiajiang hand-made paper making technology as a national intangible cultural heritage. Currently, this technique has been included in the first batch of China’s intangible cultural heritage list of the Ministry of Culture that is being announced."
The hand-made papermaking in Jiajiang that Zhou Jiehua said has a history of thousands of years. Although there are still thousands of family workshops in Jiajiang County who are making paper, due to the penetration of industrialization factors and the pressure of market competition, the number of processes has been greatly reduced. Four or five workshops can also make paper in accordance with the 15 steps and 72 processes of traditional Chinese processes, making them the only "out of print" of the ancient Chinese papermaking techniques.
According to Zhou Jiehua, Jiajiang hand-made paper began in the Tang Dynasty and reached its peak during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The county's paper production accounted for more than 30% of the country's total. Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty also designated Jiajiang paper as "wenwei roll paper" and "court paper", which made Jiajiang paper famous and sent to the capital every year for imperial examination and imperial use. At the same time, businessmen from all over the country gathered in Jiajiang, rushing to purchase Jiajiang paper products.
"In the 1930s, Jiajiang had more than 5,000 family workshops engaged in hand-made papermaking, with more than 40,000 employees and an annual output of more than 8,000 tons of paper." Zhou Jiehua said, "In the past few years, the number of hand-made paper-making practitioners in Jiajiang has reached 80,000 people, but the later industrial production reduced the scale of Jiajiang's hand-made paper. Now, Jiajiang paper is mainly concentrated in Ma Cun Township. There are 7 villages in the township engaged in hand-made paper, and there are nearly 7,500 employees, accounting for the total local population. 60% of the total. Now 60% of the painting and calligraphy paper used in the country is produced in Jiajiang."
Shen Liujun, a villager in Huatou Town, Jiajiang County, is one of the farmers who are still using the traditional 72-process manual papermaking process. He can maintain the tradition because he lives in a remote mountain in Jiajiang County. Because it is a family-based workshop-style production, the annual output of paper is only 3 tons, which can only sustain life. Zhou Jiehua said: "His papermaking process was produced in strict accordance with the 72 processes recorded in the "Tiangong Kaiwu" of the Ming Dynasty. It is the "living fossil" of ancient Chinese papermaking."
"But because of the low output, Shen Liujun is at an absolute disadvantage in the market competition." Zhou Jiehua said, "If you can apply for the lower national intangible cultural heritage and subsidize this family workshop from 5,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan per household, you can. To make their lives better, this traditional craft will be maintained."
The reporter visited the largest hand-made paper workshop in Jiajiang County in Fanggou Village, Macun Township. This workshop called "Huayi Paper" is a small company with an annual output value of about 2 million yuan and only has more than 20 workers. The founder Xu Anfu is a villager in Fanggou Village. Xu Anfu told reporters that in order to save time, improve quality, and compete with others, they have greatly reduced the 72 processes, and now there are only more than 20 processes.
"The traditional 72-process production cycle takes half a year, and it takes 7 days and 7 nights to cook twice. Now we use high-pressure strong alkali and combine the two cookings into one. However, the paper produced in this way is not as good as the traditional one. Paper out." Xu Anfu said.
Ma Zhenghua, another large paper maker in the area, said that the wet bamboo retting in the traditional process has been changed to dry bamboo for direct steaming, the color of the two water washes has been changed to direct bleaching, and the traditional stone mortar pounding has also become iron mill output. The changes in the preliminary process of hand-made paper not only seriously affected the quality of the paper, but also made it difficult to find the traditional ancient papermaking techniques.
"In addition to the simplification of the process, due to the changes of the times, Jiajiang Paper is also facing problems such as lack of raw materials, broken talents, and environmental pollution." Zhou Jiehua said.
In the past few years, there were tens of thousands of mu of white oleander and water bamboo suitable for papermaking in Jiajiang, but now there are very few bamboo forests. Now we can only use philippines. Some raw materials need to be sourced from other places or even thousands of miles away in Yunnan Province. Shipped. In addition, young people are reluctant to engage in this industry due to many manual production processes, high labor intensity, and low economic benefits.
Xu Anfu of Huayi Paper said that most of the local people under the age of 40 go out to work, and there are very few young hand-made paper technicians under the age of 30. "For example, the four technicians who produced 4 meters of paper for me are all over 40 years old. They are skills passed down from childhood. If I lose them, I will never find such a good technician."
Due to the primitive production techniques, the local rivers are also heavily polluted. In recent years, the local government has invested RMB 300,000 to relocate all paper steamers in the county, concentrate pulping and implement environmental protection and pollution control. Zhou Jiehua said: "We hope to apply for national regional protection to better solve the pollution problem."
It is reported that the county is currently planning to rebuild some of the handicraft workshops that are not for profit-making purposes and are produced entirely in accordance with traditional techniques. Local villager Yang Zhanyao has invested 100,000 yuan to start the restoration of the ancient papermaking process in 72 processes.
"We have compiled the traditional procedures of hand-made papermaking techniques into documents, and collected a complete set of traditional papermaking machinery and tools." Zhou Jiehua said, "Considering their survival problems, we plan to attract foreigners to travel in the form of farm leisure, tourism, etc. To increase their income channels."