Bretschneider is certainly right
in saying that paper is made from the Broussonetia, but he is assuredly
wrong in the assertion that paper is not made in China from mulberry
trees. This fact he could have easily ascertained from S. Julien,[1] who
alludes to mulberry tree paper twice, first, as 'papier de racines et
d'ecorce de murier,' and, second, in speaking of the bark paper from
Broussonetia: 'On emploie aussi pour le meme usage l'ecorce d'Hibiscus
Rosa sinensis et de murier; ce dernier papier sert encore a recueillir
les graines de vers a soie,' What is understood by the latter process may
be seen from Plate I. in Julien's earlier work on sericulture,[2] where
the paper from the bark of the mulberry tree is likewise mentioned.
"The Chi p'u, a treatise on paper, written by Su I-kien toward the close
of the tenth century, enumerates among the various sorts of paper
manufactured during his lifetime paper from the bark of the mulberry tree
(sang p'i) made by the people of the north.[3]
"Chinese paper-money of mulberry bark was known in the Islamic World in the
beginning of the fourteenth century; that is, during the Mongol period.
Accordingly it must have been manufactured in China during the Yuan
Dynasty.
