The documentary basis for supporting the invention of paper-making by Cai Lun (蔡伦) in the Eastern Han Dynasty is mainly the portion of text in the Biography of Cai Lun (蔡伦传) in the compilation Dongguan hanji (东观汉记, The History of the Eastern Han Dynasty as Recorded at Dongguan). Analyzing various editions of this work such that of Yao Zhiyin (姚之骃), the one found in the Siku quanshu (四库全书, Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature) and that of Wu Shuping (吴树平), it can be determined that text relating to Cai Lun’s invention of papermaking comes from the Tang leihan (唐类函, Summary of Tang Dynasty Classical Books). As well as collecting and merging content from the Yiwen leiju (艺文类聚, Collection of Literary Works), Chuxue ji (初学记, Literary Materials for Beginners), Beitang shuchao (北堂书钞, Class Books Summarised at the North Hall) and Baishi liutie (白氏六帖, Class Books Summarised by Bai Juyi), the Tang leihan also breaks up and moves around a lot of content. The text of Cai Lun’s invention of paper-making was originally cited in Baishi liutie as coming from the Biography of Cai Lun of Houhan shu (后汉书, Book of Later Han Dynasty) but was later changed by the Tang leihan as coming from attribution of it to the Dongguan hanji in the Yiwen leiju. The above compilation did not realize this and resulting in a misclassification. The relevant text from the Biography of Cai Lun of Houhan shu should not be credited as coming from the original Dongguan hanji as recorded in other works such as the Beitang shuchao, Yiwen leiju and Chuxue ji. Clarification of this issue facilitates further research on papermaking.
Weitao GUO (Sat,) studied this question.