The traditional papermaking technique of Beizhang Village originated from the era of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty. It has developed through the Tang, Song, Ming and Qing dynasties and is the first batch of intangible cultural heritage in Shaanxi Province. Hemp paper from the era of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty was unearthed in Baqiao, ancient Chang'an, and is now exhibited in the Shaanxi Provincial Museum. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, white hemp paper was also introduced to Korea, Japan and other countries. The white hemp paper made by Beizhang Village has been used for memorials and imperial examinations since the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, and has been regarded as a fine product by successive dynasties. This shows the important position of the traditional papermaking technique of Beizhang Village in history. Papermaking is one of the most important inventions in ancient my country. According to legend, in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cai Lun was implicated because of the mistakes of others. The court wanted to arrest him to Kyoto for trial. Cai Lun was unwilling to endure humiliation and committed suicide by taking poison in Longting County, where papermaking was invented and fiefdom. Cai Lun's family members were also implicated and fled for their lives. Some of them fled to Ankang, crossed the Qinling Mountains via Ziwu Road, and passed on the most advanced plant fiber papermaking technology at the time to Beizhang Village when they walked out of the Qinling Pass to the north. This is just one of the legends that connect Beizhang Village and Cai Lun. Regardless of whether it is verifiable or not, the fact is that the people of Beizhang Village still use the papermaking method invented by Cai Lun using plant fibers as raw materials. This conclusion has been repeatedly verified by experts. For example, it is recorded in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty: "Lun used tree bark, hemp heads, old cloth, and fishnets to make paper. In the first year of Yuanxing (AD 105), he presented it to the emperor, who praised his ability and used it everywhere. Therefore, the world called it "Cai Hou Paper". "Cai Lun made paper but it didn't form a sheet. Guanyin told him the prescription. Zhang Lang burned lime, and Li Lang copied the paper into a sheet." The folk song circulating in Beizhang Village tells the story of Cai Lun's experiment with papermaking and overcoming a technical difficulty. According to research, in the Tang Dynasty, because of the large demand for paper in the capital area, the papermaking skills of Beizhang Village flourished, especially the white hemp paper, which was regarded as a fine product, and was even exported to Korea, Japan and other countries. In the Qing Dynasty, the mulberry paper made by Beizhang Village was selected as paper for memorials and imperial examinations. Before liberation, the handmade white hemp paper of Beizhang Village was popular in Yan'an, and newspapers in the liberated areas and Xi'an area used a large amount of paper produced here. Before the Cultural Revolution, the statue of Cai Lun, the ancestor of papermaking, was enshrined on the wall of almost every papermaking workshop in Beizhang Village. There was also a Cai Lun Temple outside the village, which enshrined the "Paper Saint Cai Lun Patriarch" and accepted the worship of paper workers and villagers. At that time, the village held a grand Cai Lun Temple Fair every year on the 30th day of the lunar year, singing Qinqiang, visiting the market, and the village men, women and children made a fuss at the temple fair. A highlight of the temple fair was to preside over the lottery every three years to determine the "weigher" (i.e. general manager) of Ranghang, and every paper worker came to pay silver to sign up for the lottery. Ranghang played an irreplaceable role in the handmade papermaking industry. The "weigher" purchased paper mulberry bark from the "Rang merchants" in the Qinling Mountains, and the Rang made from the paper mulberry bark into semi-finished paper was uniformly managed by Ranghang, with unified prices, unified purchases or unified storage. During the "People's Commune" period, almost every family in Beizhang Village made paper. The commune gathered the craftsmen together to produce paper, which was then sold by the supply and marketing cooperatives for wrapping paper. The income was considerable and quite prosperous. The papermaking skills of Beizhang Village were passed down from generation to generation in a traditional family-style oral and heart-to-heart way. Before the Western Han Dynasty and Cai Lun, Beizhang Village's production was backward, with one curtain and one paper (see the cover of the novel "The Legend of Chinese Paper"). In the Eastern Han Dynasty, after Cai Lun improved the process, Beizhang Village has been producing one curtain and multiple papers to this day. The traditional papermaking process used in Beizhang Village is all done by hand. This ancient handicraft uses simple tools, but the operation process is complicated. There are 72 processes to produce a finished product, which requires super physical labor. The main processes are: 1. Collecting raw materials: The continuous Qinling Mountains and the banks of the Fenghe River are rich in mulberry trees, wolfberries and hemp, and the bark of these trees and plants is just the best raw material for papermaking. Papermakers in Beizhang Village collect paper twice in spring and winter respectively. Since the quality of bark collected in different seasons is different, the bark collected in spring is tender and easy to take, with white fibers, and the paper made from it is called white paper. The bark collected in winter is old, with black skin and difficult to collect, and the paper made from it is called black paper. 2. Bundle: It means to bundle the collected bark into bunches. 3. Soak: It means to soften the bundled bark fully. 4. Steaming: It means to set up a large steamer, commonly known as a bark pot, to steam and soften the raw materials. The purpose is to separate the black, hard, and fiber-free skin on the bark and remove it. 5. Add quicklime water: The purpose is to generate heat and fully ferment it. 6. Fermentation: Soften and refine the bark fibers, separate them from the black skin fibers, and soften the fibers fully. 7. Rinse: It is to wash in the river to separate the fibers and the fiber-free black skin and fall off. 8. Soak and knead the flesh: Use a panning sheet, wrap it with broken paper tendons, and wash it in water to remove non-fiber impurities. 9. Pedaling: The purpose is to refine the fibers, remove impurities, and form paper. 10. Cutting paper: Stack the treaded fibers layer by layer and chop them. This is one of the key links in traditional papermaking and also a core technology. 11. Mixing the pounder: Pour the paper into the pounder and pound it to form paper fibers. 12. Stirring the trough: Pour the paper fibers into the paper culvert and stir them with tools such as flying sticks to form paper pulp. 13. Papermaking: Use a papermaking shovel to make paper. This is the main link in papermaking. Its core technology is the suction nose, and the yin and yang must be orderly, so that it is easy to peel off the paper. 14. Take the paper: Take the paper off the curtain and stack it into a pile. 15. Press the bar: Remove the moisture from the paper to facilitate peeling, mounting, and drying. 16. Put on the wall: Peel off the paper after removing the moisture and mount it on the wall to dry. 17. Peel off the paper: Tear the connected and dried paper one by one and stack them in a pile. One hundred pieces make one cut. 18. Packing: Packing the paper one by one and preparing it for the market. The process of Beizhang Village's traditional papermaking skills is scientific, meticulous, systematic and complete, and the tools used are primitive, simple and practical. Beizhang Village's traditional papermaking skills have been passed down for a long time without interruption, representing the outstanding achievements of Chinese farming culture.