Today’s <em>Atlantic </em>Trivia: Chinese Science
· The Atlantic
Atlantic Trivia (n.): that quiz which is too easy when one gets three of three correct and too difficult when one correctly answers any fewer.
And by the way, did you know—also a tidbit from Ross’s article—that the Chinese used their newfangled invention of paper only for packing and padding in the early days? It was not used for the dissemination of knowledge until some time later.
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Still, the Chinese used paper for writing before any other society did, and they were pioneers in another of its uses too: TP. The first recorded use of toilet paper comes from the scholar Yan Zhitui in 589 C.E.: “Paper on which there are quotations or commentaries from the Five Classics or the names of sages, I dare not use for toilet purposes.” Implicit here is that less heady stuff was fair game.
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