It had to be said that the appearance of the paper shocked Dongfang Shuo.
During the day, when Liu Che wrote on the white paper, he could see it clearly.
Hundreds of words were written on a piece of paper that was only three to five inches in length and width. It was as thin as a cicada's wing, but it was still incomplete.
Moreover, compared to silk, white paper was not only smoother and smoother, but even when writing, there was no sign of black ink seeping through. It was simply a divine item bestowed by the heavens to scholars.
Most importantly, according to Xu Yan, the cost of making white paper was actually cheaper than bamboo slips.
This made Dongfang Shuo crave paper even more.
Therefore, after he left the palace with Xu Yan, the first thing he did was to shamelessly ask Xu Yan for some paper. For this reason, he even found an excuse to make a copy of the letter of recommendation he had given to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Liu Che, as soon as possible.
In fact, he couldn't wait to write on the paper and experience the feeling of writing on white paper.
Dongfang Shuo's thoughts naturally couldn't be hidden from Xu Yan.
However, Xu Yan did not expose him. He only smiled and said,"No problem. Tomorrow, I'll get someone to stab you a few times.”
Paper was nothing to Xu Yan.
In fact, not only did he set up several paper making workshops in the Land of Yan, but he also had two small paper making workshops in Chang 'an.
However, with the strength of the Xu family of Yan, they were not strong enough to protect the interests of the paper-making technique.
Therefore, most of the white paper that he had people create in private was for his own use and not for sale.
Now, he had offered the art of paper making to the Han Dynasty's Emperor Liu Che as a stepping stone. At the same time, he had also become Liu Che's teacher. His status could not be mentioned in the same breath. Naturally, there was no need to keep it a secret anymore. He could openly use and sell paper.
With his identity as the emperor's teacher, he was more or less able to protect the interests of the paper-making technique.
Therefore, after hearing Dongfang Shuo's words, she promised him a few cuts.
In any case, compared to his years of paper making, a few cuts of paper was just a drop in the ocean.
"How many times?"
Dongfang Shuo heard such a strange unit of measurement and could not help but ask curiously,""Brother Treeman, what does this 'knife' mean? How many pieces of paper does one knife make?”
"Brother Manqian, you might not know this, but because paper has different sizes, it's difficult to simply use 'sheets' and 'pages' to measure it.
Therefore, I used the knife used by craftsmen to cut paper as the measurement unit, and the length and width of the paper that had not been cut were used as the measurement unit.”
"Therefore, a knife of paper is a hundred pieces of paper that are one foot long and one foot wide, and two hundred pieces of white paper that are one foot long and half a foot wide.”
Xu Yan said with a smile, explaining the source and quantity of the "One Knife Paper".
During the Han Dynasty, one foot was 23.1 centimeters.
If it was one foot long and half a foot wide, it would be impossible for him to be a god.
The size of the paper was about the same as the size of books in the future.
It was also easy to write.
As for why Xu Yan used the measurement units of length from the Western Han Dynasty instead of the later 'millimeters',' centimeters','meters' and other measurement units.
There was also a reason.
One reason was that the people of this era were already used to the measurement units of " inch, foot, zhang, and lead ".
Secondly, Xu Yan had no way to explain the origin of the measurement units such as centimeters, centimeters, and meters.
This was because the unit of measurement " meter " was also developed by later generations. It first originated in France. The length of one meter was defined as one millionth of the distance from the equator to the North Pole on the meridian through Paris.
If Xu Yan used meters as a unit of measurement, how could he explain the origin of meters?
He couldn't possibly tell the world that he had measured the distance from the equator to the North Pole of the blue planet and then took a thousandth of its length to formulate a unit of measurement for length, right?
If he really said that, people would think that he was crazy.
Therefore, Xu Yan did not have the intention of promoting the measurement units of the future in this era.
"I see. Brother Treeman is indeed a genius!”
Dongfang Shuo listened to Xu Yan's explanation and quickly understood the benefits of using knives as a unit of measurement.
This was because the paper was easy to cut and the sizes were different.
Using " a piece of paper " and " a page of paper " to calculate, it was difficult to achieve a unified result.
Using the " knife " to calculate was very fair and convenient for statistics. There was no need to worry about being fooled by the merchants who sold the paper.
After Dongfang Shuo finished speaking, he bowed to Xu Yan and thanked him,""Brother Shuren was able to create paper and set a strict measurement unit for it. This is a blessing for the scholars of the world.”
Xu Yan bowed to Dongfang Shuo and quickly dodged to the side. He then teased,""Brother Manqian, are you representing all the scholars in the world to thank me?
I don't dare to accept such a big gift.
Brother Manqian, if you really want to thank someone, then thank the people at the bottom. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't have been able to improve the paper.”
If this paper making technique was really invented by Xu Yan…
Then he would definitely be able to accept Dongfang Shuo's worship with a clear conscience.
Most importantly, he wasn't the one who invented the paper making technique!
The real paper-making technique had been successfully developed by generations of Chinese sages in his previous life.
How could Xu Yan dare to steal this merit and achievement with a clear conscience?
Therefore, during the day, when Liu Che, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, asked him about the origin of the paper-making technique, he would push the credit of the paper-making technique to the people of the world, claiming that he had only improved the existing hemp clothes and did not take the credit of the paper-making technique for himself.
Dongfang Shuo was stunned by Xu Yan's reaction. He then said in admiration,""Brother Treeman, Dongfang Shuo is far inferior to you.”
Such a paper-making technique could be said to have merit in the present and benefit in the future. It was enough to make people go down in history and be worshipped by scholars all over the world.
Dongfang Shuo knew that if it were him, he would not push away such a credit. He would even try his best to take it for himself.
However, Xu Yan had so easily pushed the credit of the paper making technique to the lower class people.
Dongfang Shuo couldn't help but be impressed by her behavior.
Luckily, Dongfang Shuo was Dongfang Shuo.
In an instant, he smiled and cupped his hands at Xu Yan."Brother Treeman, don't misunderstand. How can I represent the scholars of the world? I only represent Dongfang Shuo.
Thanks to Brother Treeman's paper-making skills, I've lightened my burden by dozens of pounds. I don't have to carry dozens of pounds of bamboo slips on my back anymore.”
The appearance of paper had lightened the heavy burden on the students and scholars of this era by dozens of pounds, or even hundreds of pounds!
This was not a joke, it was true.
He only needed a small roll of 100 new sheets of paper, which weighed less than 500 grams, to copy a 100-roll bamboo scroll book that weighed more than 50 grams.
From then on, all the students in the world could easily carry a paper book. They no longer had to carry dozens of kilograms of bamboo slips to school every day.
Wouldn't this reduce the burden of dozens of pounds?
Most importantly, the appearance of paper would undoubtedly make it easier for knowledge and books to spread.
A thin book was worth a hundred bamboo scrolls.
Didn't this mean that a book was equivalent to an ox cart's worth of bamboo slips? How convenient was this?
Even the rich and powerful families no longer needed to hire dozens of oxen to carry a house full of bamboo slips. They only needed to bring dozens of paper books to move.
It was much easier for scholars like them to borrow books from wealthy families.
Therefore, Dongfang Shuo's gratitude towards Xu Yan was genuine.
This book comes from：m.funovel.com。