🌊 Ripple · counterfactual
What if Paper is invented in Han China had gone differently?
105 · china
Cai Lun standardises a cheap writing surface from pulped fibre.
If it had gone differently: The world writes on skin, silk and bark for another thousand years; the written word stays a luxury.
What it set up
- 1040Movable type in Song China, Printing stays a woodblock craft for the rare classic; no template for cheap mass text reaches anyone.
- 1440Gutenberg's printing press, Books stay hand-copied and rare; literacy spreads at a crawl for another century.
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