Cai Lun

Also known as Ts'ai Lun, Jingzhong

Chinese official credited with inventing paper (died 121)

AI overview

Cai Lun was a Chinese official who is credited with inventing paper around the early 2nd century. His invention of an affordable writing material made from plant fibers became foundational to the spread of written knowledge and communication throughout Asia and eventually the world.

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Wikidata facts

Instance of: human
Family name: Cai
Gender: male
Citizenship: Han dynasty
Place of birth: Leiyang
Place of death: Luoyang
Occupation: eunuch
Languages spoken: Chinese
Image: Cai-lun.jpg

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courtesy name: 敬仲
subject has role: eunuch
Commons category: Cai Lun
date of death: 0121-00-00
manner of death: Suicide
date of birth: 0048-00-00
name in native language: 蔡伦
described by source: Dongguan Han Ji

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Encyclopedic overview

Jingzhong (courtesy name) Traditional Chinese敬仲 Simplified Chinese敬仲

Cai Lun (Chinese: 蔡伦; courtesy name: Jingzhong (敬仲); c. 50–62 – 121 CE), formerly romanized as Ts'ai Lun, was a Chinese eunuch court official of the Eastern Han dynasty. He occupies a pivotal place in the history of paper due to his addition of pulp via tree bark and hemp ends which resulted in the large-scale manufacture and worldwide spread of paper. Although traditionally regarded as the inventor of paper, earlier forms of paper have existed since the 3rd century BCE, so Cai's contributions are limited to innovation, rather than invention.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Cai Lun” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Cai Lun

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