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Spreading Ideas

Introduction

Have you ever heard of the “Butterfly effect”? It's the theory that a small change can result in large differences to future events. For example, a butterfly's small movement in Beijing may cause a Hurricane in United States. We can find this theory in the small piece of paper. Paper made our history in the past and in the future, too.

In 105AD Tsi Lun, an official of the imperial court of China invented papermaking. However, historians currently discovered that the first papermaking was 200 years earlier than Tsi Lun's. Before the paper's invention, there were still some ways to record words. For example, Egypt created papyrus writing material, which was produced from the pith of plant and was used to form a thick paper; ancient Egyptians use this material to record words (Wikipidia, 2012). Tibet and Nepal used leaves of palm and wood bark. Other nations utilized Parchment method, Parchment is a thin material made from hide. Parchment was produced in several steps, Flaying, soaking, detailing and stretching (Wikipidia, 2012). This process is time consuming and the price of hide is expensive. In general, to produce a book hundreds of sheep had to be slaughtered. It had been calculated 500 of sheep was slaughtered by making a “Lindisfarne Gospel”.

Discussion

In China, they used Bamboo strips or wooden tablets to record words. Bamboo strips are the long, tapered stripes of forest wood or bamboo normally carry a single column of brush-written text each. It was heavy and hard to translocate. In Qin Emperor, Qin usually read 60kg(132 pound) of officials' report everyday. This is unpractical; also concentrate knowledge in upper class. These record methods were limited in permanence, mobility or convenience. But advent of paper eventually eliminated these problems and also spread ideas in the world (Gale Virtual Reference Library, 2000, pp.774-775).

Renaissance tried to change the human world in that time everything is still ruled under the God's authority. Church incessantly asked worship to its believers. But Church started to corrupt by the Members of the clergy's promiscuous life. The symbol of decadence is the indulgences. Any sins can be forgiven by the indulgences if they had enough money to afford it. People believed that indulgence is the way to heaven. Martin Luther (1483.11.10~1546.02.18) strongly criticized Church indulgence and made 95 Theses. This protests against clerical abuses, especially the sales of indulgences. Luther's thought rapidly spread though out the world. The Vatican excommunicated Luther and defined as Satan. However they can't stop blowout of Reformation. What made this new ideas spread so quickly? It's because of the paper and printing technology. Gutenberg's Metal printing technology can produce text very quickly, it's the speed of revolution. Paper was recognized substitute of Parchment before, but paper became the biggest way to spread the knowledge in 16th century. Paper and Metal printing technology is the Catalyst of the Protestant reformation (Paper Road soul: MBC production, 2009).

Paper not only affect in religious way but also in people's thought. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette executed by ...