Rice paper - paper for calligraphy and painting. It was produced in Jingxian County, Xuanzhou, Anhui Province and was named after it was distributed in Xuancheng (today's Anwei). It is made of sandalwood bark and straw as raw materials, treated with lime, bleached and beaten by sunlight, and then made by hand. The paper is white, dense, soft, durable, not easily corroded, and easy to store for a long time. It is the main paper used for calligraphy and painting in my country. It is divided into three categories: special clean material, cotton material and pure leather material. There are distinctions between raw and cooked. "raw xuan" is called "cooked xuan" after boiling, hammering or waxing. It is made by combining several layers into one. It is as strong and moist as jade and is called "jade version".

The characteristics of rice paper are: soft and tough texture, beautiful texture, white and fine, durable, and good at expressing the shades and moistness of pen and ink, with endless changes. Ancient poets transcribed it as: as slippery as spring, as dense as ice and as dense as a cocoon, and is known as the king of paper and the life of paper for thousands of years.

There are as many as fifty or sixty varieties of rice paper, divided into raw Xuan and cooked Xuan. Raw Xuan is suitable for both calligraphy and painting. After raw Xuan is coated with vitriol, it is called cooked Xuan. Because it does not bleed with water and has been dyed many times, it is suitable for painting with fine brushwork and heavy colors.

Speaking of rice paper. Almost everyone who has come into contact with traditional Chinese culture knows that it has a place among the four treasures of the study, including painting, calligraphy, block printing, mounting and cushioning... it is indispensable in everything. It can be said that its emergence is a great contribution to the history of Chinese and world civilization, and it itself is a heavy carrier of traditional culture.

The records of rice paper in historical books were first seen in the Qianfu period of the Tang Dynasty. According to the "Old Tang Book", in the second year of Tianbao in the Tang Dynasty (AD 743), Jiangxi, Sichuan, southern Anhui, and eastern Zhejiang all produced paper as tribute. , the paper presentation in Xuancheng County is particularly exquisite. With the continuous improvement of production technology, rice paper has won the reputation of being "as light as cicada wings and as white as snow, shaking like fine silk but making no sound" due to its pure white and fine texture, clear texture, toughness and strength, and undamaged quality. reputation. And because of its characteristics of being smooth but not slippery, absorbing water and moistening ink, suitable for writing and painting, and not rotting or beetfed, it is known as "paper has a thousand-year lifespan" and "the king of paper". The reason why rice paper has such outstanding quality is because of its unique raw materials and craftsmanship. There are more than 200 processes in the production process, and each process is still done by hand. Since the Tang Dynasty, literati and scholars have had an indissoluble bond with rice paper. Whether it is Ouyang Xun, Yan Zhenqing, Zhang Xu, Li Boshi and other great calligraphers and painters, as well as Li Yu, the later master of the Southern Tang Dynasty, Emperor Shizong and Gaozong of the Ming Dynasty, they all love rice paper.

Xuan paper is often passed down to the world as a carrier of calligraphy and painting. There are not many paper products that are kept purely in the form of study and playware today. The exquisite rice paper handed down from generation to generation is often used for storage and storage. preserved in. For example, Li Yu, the later master of the Southern Tang Dynasty, loved poetry and painting. He once specially made "Chengxintang paper", which was very exquisite. Since the Southern Tang Dynasty, successive generations have regarded it as a treasure and its value is hundreds of times. It is precisely because of the use of rice paper collections that the famous names before the Qing Dynasty have basically disappeared from the market, including the "clear water and cold gold" paper in the early Qing Dynasty, the "Chunhua Xuan Yu Zhi Jian" and the Kangxi year of the Qing Dynasty. "Korean paper", Qianlong patterned paper, "Jade Edition Xuan" from the mid-Qing Dynasty, and "Luhuang Xuan" from the late Qing Dynasty have also become rare items. Most of the rice paper occasionally seen at auction previews in recent years was produced in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, and its prices range from tens of thousands to tens of thousands of yuan per piece. Due to the restriction of storage and use, the rice paper collection market has always been unpopular. Historically, the trade of old rice paper was often hard to come by. Historical data confirms that a small amount of old rice paper was on the market in Liulichang during the Qing Dynasty, and it was also among the "Four Treasures of the Study"; in the "ghost market" outside Chongwen Gate, you can find Nan paper and Song paper, and buyers are either for their own use or for others to calligraphy and painting. Some of them are used for forgery of calligraphy and painting.

The collection of rice paper is meant for use

Different from collections in the general sense, the collection of rice paper is not only reflected in the historical and cultural value of the collection itself, but also in the In terms of use value. This use value increases day by day with the collection time. Because the quality of high-quality rice paper will be more unique through continuous adsorption of moisture and drying during the storage process, and the ink and dyeing will be improved