Xuan Paper

This paper is mainly used for writing on painting on with a brush. It has a history of over 1,000 years, being a “tribute paper” for the court as early as the Tang Dynasty (618-907). What we know today as Chinese painting is , for the over whelming part, executed on xuan paper, without which one might say there would be no Chinese painting as it is.

Xuan Paper is known to some Westerners as “rice paper”, which is a misnomer. In fact, it is made from the bark of the wingceltis (Pteroceltis tatarinowii) mixed with rice straw. Its home is Jingxian County, Anhui Province. As the county belonged in ancient times to the prefecture of Xuanzhou and the trading center of the paper was at Xuancheng, so it has always been called xuan paper.

The making of xuan paper is a painstaking 555 involving 18 processes and nearly 100 operations and lasting over 300 days from the selection of materials to the finished product.

The xuan paper is praised as the “King of all papers” and is supposed to “last a thousand years”. This is because it is white as alabaster, soft and firm, resistant to ageing and worms. It absorbs but does not spread the ink from the brush, which goes over it with a feel neither too smooth nor too rough. For these qualities, the xuan paper is not only used for painting and calligraphy, it is increasingly used nowadays for diplomatic notes, important archives and other documents. In addition, it may also be used for blotting, filtering and moisture-proof purposed.