Early independent ancient civilizations all had unique literature carriers, such as: Chinese civilization (Oracle Bone Inscriptions, bronze inscriptions, bamboo slips and silk scripts), ancient Indian civilization (Bayeux), ancient Egyptian civilization (papyrus) and ancient Babylonian civilization (clay tablets). The so-called "ancient Greece" has no independent literary carrier. "Ancient Greece" has no independent literature carrier, so it is impossible to have so-called "ancient Greece" manuscripts handed down from generation to generation. Frederic George kenyon (1863- 193 1), a former curator of the British Museum and the chief librarian of the library, argued in the book Books and Readers of Ancient Greece and Rome that it has been widely used in Greek land since the 6th century BC. Kenyon also listed many examples of papyrus classical literature in ancient Greek and Roman books and readers, but kenyon himself was the first suspect to forge "classical papyrus literature". There are two kinds of materials that may be used as literary carriers in the western "classical period", one is "papyrus" produced in Egypt, and the other is so-called "parchment". In most climatic conditions in Europe, "papyrus" is difficult to preserve. Under the climatic conditions of ancient Greece, it will be moldy and sticky if it is preserved for less than a few decades, and a piece of paper cannot be handed down. In Egypt, the so-called "ancient papyrus scrolls" are limited to the remains found in graves. [see] George? Sutton's Ancient Science in the Golden Age of Greece, Chinese version, page 30, Elephant Publishing House, May 2065 438+00] And parchment can only appear after the 2nd century BC. [ibid., page 30] In addition, parchment is expensive, and it takes about 300 sheepskins to copy a New Testament. ["When Gothenburg movable type printing was invented, the first set of books was the New Testament printed on European homemade paper and parchment. It is said that each book uses 300 sheepskins. (Note: Dard Hunt: Papermaking-History and Technology of an Ancient Craft) [Taiwan] Chen Dachuan's Paper from Luoyang to Rome, p. 98, Paper Culture Foundation of Tree Fire Memorial Society, a consortium legal person, 102 10 edition]. The New Testament translated into Chinese is about 225,000 words, and the Old Testament translated into Chinese is 705,000 words, more than three times the number of words in the New Testament. If the New Testament uses 300 sheepskins, the Old Testament needs 900 sheepskins, and the old and new ones need more than 1200 sheepskins. Preserving a large number of documents with parchment, even the royal family of a big country may not have the financial resources, let alone a small city-state.
In fact, parchment is not paper, papyrus is just grass. Parchment and kraft paper are long-term writing materials used in western countries. Parchment refers to writing materials made of sheepskin. It is not appropriate to translate it into "parchment" because it is not paper. Can it be translated as "sheepskin fragments"? Parchemin in English and Parchemin in French refer to documents written on sheepskin boards, which originated from Pergamum and was originally named Mysia, an ancient city in Asia Minor. ..... sheepskin later became one of the main writing materials in Europe, and was even used to print books when printing spread to the west after the Renaissance. We can still see the manuscripts of16th century to17th century in western libraries. Papyrus paper is also widely used in the west together with sheepskin board. It is also inappropriate to translate this western word into papyrus, because it is not paper. [Pan Jixing's Paper History of China, page 43, Shanghai People's Publishing House, 2009, 1 1]
Judging from the processing flow, the "Cyperus esculenta" is simply shaped without any distillation or combination process, and it is still the original form of "grass".
"The traditional method of making papyrus paper is: first, peel off the green skin of papyrus, leave pith, cut into thin slices, soak them in water for a few days, take them out, beat them with a mallet, press off the water, repeat for many times, cut the two ends of the slices horizontally, side by side, then arrange them vertically, press them with stones, and squeeze out the sugar cat liquid, so that the grass slices can be tied together. After drying, smooth the surface of the grass with ivory or shells, and it becomes papyrus. " [Sun and Guo, "On the rise and fall of papyrus and its historical influence", Collected Works of History, No.3, July 2005]
In fact, this "sedge tablet" is not unusual in Egypt. Hundreds of years before Europeans came to America, the Mayans and Aztecs in America made bark into thin slices to write words and pictures, which they called huun or amatl. The method is to peel off the bark, remove the colored outer skin, tear the inner skin into strips one inch wide, put it in a pot and add plant ash to boil. Then they are stacked on a flat plate, hammered into thin slices, dried and polished with stones. Now Otomi Indians in Mexico are still using this method to make bark slices as writing materials.
Aboriginal people in Pacific islands such as Hawaii, Fiji, Hokkaido, Indonesia and Taiwan Province Province of China. It is also hammered into thin slices with bark, commonly known as Tapa. Hawaiians call it kappa, which means beating. Indian huun or amatl, or Pacific Island indigenous tapa or Kappa, have similar manufacturing methods and materials, and can be collectively called "bark felt". [Pan Jixing's Paper History in China, page 45, Shanghai People's Publishing House, 2009, 1 1]
"Hunter, an American paper expert and paper historian, went to the site to inspect the manufacturing methods of sedge tablets, huun and tapa, and came to the correct conclusion. These three are technically a category. Although they can be used as writing materials, they can't be called real paper. " [ibid., p. 45]
Pan Jixing, a paper expert in China, experienced "Cyperus tablets"
198 1 year, when I lived in Virginia, I got a sedge made by traditional methods. The surface is not smooth, so I need to apply a layer of white powder to draw a color picture on it. " [ibid., p. 44]
This kind of "sedge slice" is crisp, slightly damaged, and even difficult to bear the bumps of land transportation. [See Sun, Guo's On the Rise and Fall of Papyrus and Its Historical Influence, in Collected Works of History, No.3, July 2005]
What kind of pen and ink are used to write papyrus and sheepskin board?
"Black ink is made of carbon deposits, such as soot scraped from the head of an oil lamp or the bottom of a pot, and ground into fine carbon powder with charcoal and burnt bones. No matter what carbon is made of, it must be mixed with a binder such as Arabic gum, which is the water-soluble sap of Arabic tree. Dry the mixture and make it into small pieces. When you are ready to write, use a wet brush ink block. Scribes often use red ink, which is made of iron oxide, red ochre or other minerals in the soil. " [[America] Steven Miller and Robert huber's History of the Bible-The Process and Historical Influence of Bible Writing, p. 29, Central Compilation and Publishing House, March 2008 1]
"The earliest pen used to write on papyrus paper is more like a small oil painting pen, made of rushes or small plants growing in swamps. These pens vary in length, usually ranging from 15 to 45 cm (6 to 15 inch). The scribe chewed up one end of the pen to expose tiny fibers and made a fiber brush. ...... In the New Testament era, people cut reeds into pointed tubular pens. " [ibid., p. 30]
We know that any plant material will carbonize. Any plant material, no matter what kind of pigment it is coated with, will gradually fade, deteriorate, disintegrate and destroy after decades, not to mention a "brittle and fragile, slightly damaged" material. No matter what kind of plant or mineral ink or pigment is used to draw it on Egyptian papyrus, Indian huun and indigenous tapa of Pacific islands, it is impossible to preserve it for a long time under natural conditions. People can understand that China's paper "paper lives for a thousand years", but the western "Millennium papyrus" can't explain it anyway.
The "cypress monument" began to appear about 80 years after Napoleon attacked Egypt, which was equivalent to Manson's later years; Prior to this, the whole western academic community did not know the existence of Cyperus esculentus tablets. For example, there is no trace of papyrus in Voltaire or Gibbon's works. Before that, when we talked about "paper", we meant "China paper", and the concept of confusing "sheepskin slices" with "paper" was called "parchment roll".
Whether it is 1793, the papyrus literature appeared in Herculaneum [[German] Classic History of Villamovitz, 1 Edition, 130 Page, Sanlian Bookstore, June 2008], or Pliny's "Natural History", a document related to the production method of papyrus in ancient Rome. Frederick George kenyon (1863- 1952), former director of the British Museum and chief librarian of the library, was one of the earliest western scholars suspected of producing "fake papyrus documents". [It is this man who concocted the so-called Aristotle's Athens political system. ]
George, the authority of contemporary American history of science and technology? Sutton believed that the writing carrier of the ancient Greeks was stone carving.
"If words can only be carved on stone (obviously, this situation has been going on in Greece for centuries), then its scope can only be limited to recording what is considered very important. Literary works are too long to be engraved on stone or metal. " [[America] George? Sutton's Ancient Science in the Golden Age of Greece, page 29, Elephant Press, 2065 438+00 May]
However, people only saw a large number of ancient Greek "stone carvings", but did not see the "primitive stone carvings", which were all concocted around18th century.
Since Confucianism came to power, China has generally divided the world into domestic and foreign countries, East and West. It is obviously too empty to cover the foreign world with the west. It is intentional or unintentional to call the cultural history of different countries the history of western culture.