What worries Yuan Hengtong is that it is too hard to engage in ancient papermaking, and young people are unwilling to learn, and now they can only use family members as the backbone:

"When I was young, nearly 700 of the more than 1,000 households in Tangao were engaged in the papermaking business, and now, only one of us is left!" The 82-year-old Yuan Hengtong looked at a piece of Tangao bamboo paper and muttered to himself, a trace of loneliness flashed in his eyes.

He is the inheritor of Tangao paper-making skills, a provincial-level intangible cultural heritage project in Zhejiang, and he hopes that this ancient technique can be passed on and let this paper enter more museums and libraries.

In Tangao Village, Xiaowangmiao Street, Fenghua, Ningbo, the crystal clear Quanxi River passes through the village, and the continuous bamboo mountains on both sides appear to be full of vitality.

The Yuan family's papermaking workshop is located by the stream, which is divided into three areas: pulp, paper drying room, and papermaking shed. According to the local historical records of Fenghua, Tangao bamboo paper originated in the Zhengde period of the Ming Dynasty and has been 500 years so far. At its peak, there were more than 300 paper troughs in the village.

82-year-old Yuan Hengtong is still idle, picking up the stored papermaking raw material bitter bamboo in the warehouse. Papermaking is one of the four major inventions in China, which has lasted for nearly 2,000 years since the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Tangao bamboo paper originated in the Ming Zhengde period and has a history of 500 years. It used to be a necessary place for the ancient trade road, and the Tangao bamboo paper produced here walked out of this small mountain with the merchants who came and went, and some even became tributes into the palace.

At the age of 17, Yuan Hengtong apprenticed to learn the skills of bamboo paper making, and after more than a year of training, he officially became a teacher. At the end of the 80s of the 20th century, with the rapid development of modern science and technology and the rise of mechanized manufacturing, handmade paper mills were closed.

In the end, Yuan Hengtong was the only one left in the village, and he became the last watchman of Tangao Papermaking. In 1997, by chance, the small workshop was brought back to life.

Lao Yuan's paper made of bitter bamboo is delicate and flexible, and it can be preserved for a long time, "it can be preserved for 1,000 years". Researchers from the Tianyi Pavilion Museum came to Tangao and asked Lao Yuan to develop special paper for the restoration of ancient books.

In early summer every year, moso bamboo and bitter bamboo are not soft or hard fibers, which is the best harvest season as a raw material for papermaking. The bitter bamboo material in the vat is generally soaked for three months before it can be processed into pulp.

In addition to the best bitter bamboo, mulberry bark, cotton and linen and other essential raw materials, Yuan Hengtong also creatively added wild kiwi vine, cold rice bun vine, tofu residue leaves and other accessories, this unique formula has no written records, all by his own exploration.

More than 60 years have passed in a flash, and Yuan Hengtong, who has dealt with paper all his life, is already in his old age. The laborious work of making paper and drying paper was no longer bearable, and the old man Yuan Hengtong passed on the skills to his son, daughter and son-in-law.

But he still can't do without the workshop and papermaking, and he always has to do some work within his ability, such as cleaning up bamboo materials and mixing pulp, so that he can feel at ease.

Yuan Hengtong's youngest son-in-law, Jiang Renyao, is adding pulp to the papermaking trough. From a bamboo tree to a piece of bamboo paper, it needs to go through 72 processes such as raw material stacking, tamping, pulping, bleaching, filtration, papermaking, and paper drying, and the whole process takes up to 3 or 4 months.

Papermaking is the most magical step in the process of turning pulp into paper. In the simple papermaking room, Jiang Renyao held the curtain bed, and with a lift, a lift, and the bamboo paper as thin as a cicada's wings came out of water.

"It's easy to make paper, but it's hard to learn. The strength should be balanced when making paper, otherwise the thickness of the paper will be uneven. "Jiang Renyao-->>