Study On The Processing Technology Of The Early Colored Stationeries Centered On Xue Tao Stationery

Xue Tao Stationery is the most famous,influential but controversial ancient colored stationery in China.It is the beginning of the specific type of paper for poetry(letters).The study of Xue Tao Stationery can give us a glimpse of the formation and development of early art paper.In order to understand and reproduce Xue Tao Stationery as much as possible,this paper reorganizes and interprets the relevant literature,and thereby initially forms the overall impression of Xue Tao Stationery.Subsequently,it conducts a general survey and a key investigation on the existing imitating Xue Tao Stationery cultural relics.Howerver,the results seem unsatisfactory because their reference significance for reproducing Xue Tao Stationery of Tang Dynasty is limited.Since Xue Tao Stationery’s appearance and production will match the overall paper-making technology level of Tang Dynasty,the paper-making technology system of China from Wei,Jin to Song and Yuan Dynasty,especially Tan g Dynasty are inspected.The colored paper processing technology of Japan from Nara to Heian period is also inspected as an auxiliary reference.The origin and inheritance relationship between the Chinese early paper-making,including the making of Xue Tao Stationery and the processing technology of Japanese paper is discussed.The specialization and generation of the type of poem(letter)paper are discussed as well.The upper limit of Xue Tao Stationery’s appearance and the paper making technology is thus further understood.In order to reproduce Xue Tao Stationery in the next step,more than ten modern colored paper and pattern processing studios are visited and investigated,and the paper makers’experiences and suggestions are summarized.The results of the reproduction experiments show that paper-making raw material "Hibiscus Mutabilis Bark" for Xue Tao Stationery mentioned in ancient literature is a kind of good paper-making material.Hibiscus Mutabilis flower juice does not contain red pigments and can not dye red paper.Finally,the author tried to use the popular red vegetable dyes and pattern processing technology in Tang Dynasty to carry out the printing and dyeing practice of the paper,and completed the reproduction of Xue Tao Stationery.The specific conclusions drawn from the research are as follows:The color of Xue Tao Stationery is pine in the early stage,then red,with a small amount of blue or red and blue.There may be hidden,en gravin g or hand-drawn patterns on the paper.Xue Tao Stationery is about 25 to 26 centimeters in length and 18 to 36 centimeters in width.It is feasible that Xue Tao Stationery is made of Hibiscus Mutabilis Bark.Safflower,sappan wood or India madder root should be used for dyeing red.Wei,Jin,the Northern and Southern Dynasties are the embryonic period of Chinese colored paper technology.Tang and the Five Dynasties are the development period,during which most of the ancient paper processing technologies have taken shape at this time.Besides Xue Tao Stationery,marble paper(suminagashi in Japanese),cloud and blue paper and five-color striped paper are the representatives of the dyeing technology in this period.Paper decoration in Song and Yuan Dynasty is more complicated and gorgeous on the basis of previous dynasties.The appearance and processing technologies of the colored paper in Tang and Song Dynasties are the reference upper limits for Xue Tao Stationery.After the spread of papermaking technologies from China to Japan,the Janpanese papermakers have made a small amount of localization of their transformation and innovation,but Japan’s major early paper processing technologies and paper culture still inherit from the tradition of China’s Tang and Song Dynasties.