Chinese textual culture: the invention of paper

Let’s take a look at books in ancient China. Before the invention of paper, books were made by stringing together bamboo slips.

Periods of Chinese history that appear in the video:

The asterisk (*) in the English subtitles indicates the name of a historical period. Please refer to the following list of Chinese period names as well as to Step1.3 “East Asian History at a Glance”.

• Zhou dynasty (1046-256 B.C.E).
• Warring States (480-221 B.C.E.)
• Qin (221-206 B.C.E.)
• Han (206 B.C.E.-220 C.E.)
• Later Han (25-220 C.E.)
• Jin dynasty (265-420)
• Northern and Southern Dynasties (439-589)

Keywords introduced in the video

• Cai Lun