The Origin of Yangcheng Tissue

In the area around Xiakong Village, Dongcheng Subdistrict, Yangcheng County, an ancient craft—papermaking—is still preserved to this day. The cotton paper produced here is renowned for its excellent quality and wide range of uses, attracting attention far and wide. Today, let's journey into Xiakong Village to explore this time-honored craft. Located downstream of the Reed River, Xiakong Village serves as the eastern gateway to Yangcheng County. Abundant water sources and dense mulberry groves provide uniquely favorable conditions for the rise and development of its papermaking industry. While the exact origins of Yangcheng cotton paper remain unverifiable, the poem “Xiakong Journey” by Zhu Zhang, Prefect of Zezhou during the Yongzheng era of the Qing Dynasty, already mentions: "Beyond the jade railings, pear blossoms bloom heavy, White plaster walls low, silk paper dries.“ The poet added a marginal note after ”silk paper“: ”Many villagers earn their living from papermaking," indicating the thriving papermaking industry in Xiakong at that time. This suggests that by at least the Yongzheng era, handmade papermaking in Xiakong Village was already highly prosperous. At that time, Xiakong Village also preserved an ancient temple from the Ming Dynasty. Within it stood a stone stele and a full-body statue of Cai Lun, the inventor of Chinese paper. Villagers revered it as divine, offering incense year-round, reflecting the profound importance and esteem accorded to papermaking in those days.

By the Republican era, the paper industry in the Xiakong area flourished further, reaching its zenith. Virtually every household had its own vat and produced paper, yielding an annual output of over 100,000 bundles of various types of handmade paper, cotton paper, and yellow mounting paper. The primary raw material for Yangcheng's handmade paper was mulberry bark, supplemented by lime, oil glue, and other ingredients. Tools used included felt, screens, tail presses, beater hammers, bark cutters, bamboo mats, and blue dye vats—all specialized implements for manual papermaking.