The legend of Cai Lun's papermaking in Longting is spread among the people in Longting, Yang County, Hanzhong City, Shaanxi Province, and the surrounding areas of Cai Lun's fiefdom, burial place, and papermaking experiment site. The legend of Cai Lun's papermaking is an excellent folk literature and is an intangible cultural heritage protection project in Shaanxi Province. The legend of Cai Lun's papermaking in Longting was formed in the Eastern Han Dynasty. In the early 2nd century, the papermaking technique invented by Cai Lun was promoted and spread in the local and surrounding areas by his adopted son, descendants of the Cai family, and villagers in Longting County. It has been passed down from generation to generation and preserved to this day. Many legends about Cai Lun's papermaking in Longting have also been passed down from mouth to mouth and have been preserved to this day. In Longting and some places in the county, there are folk papermaking and dragon beard grass paper and bamboo paper workshops and sites that produce paper using Cai Lun's papermaking method. Almost every one of these workshops and sites has a vivid legend. During the Yongyuan period (89-105) of the Eastern Han Dynasty in my country, Cai Lun, who served as the Shangfang Ling (the royal workshop of the Eastern Han Dynasty1) in the court, arrived in Chang'an from Luoyang, and went to Longting Ancient County (now Longting Town, Yang County, Shaanxi Province) via Ziwu Road to look for raw materials for papermaking and experiment with papermaking methods. Finally, in the first year of Yuanxing (105), he experimented with a complete set of papermaking techniques and developed plant fiber paper using mulberry bark and waste hemp as raw materials. The paper invented by Cai Lun was called "Cai Hou Paper" in society at that time. Cai Lun's invention of papermaking and plant fiber paper was clearly recorded in the official history book "Dongguan Hanji" of the Eastern Han Dynasty and Fan Ye's "Book of the Later Han" of the Southern Song Dynasty. Longting, as Cai Lun's papermaking experimental site, was the first place where the papermaking technique invented by Cai Lun was promoted and widely used. The history of Longting, Yang County, in Chinese papermaking is recorded in local stone tablets and local chronicles. Yang Congyi, a founding marquis who served twice as the prefect of Yangzhou (which governed Longting), wrote in the "Han Longting Marquis Shendao Stele": "Han Longting Marquis Cai Lun was granted a fief here and was buried here after his death." He also said: "The marquis (Longting Marquis Cai Lun) started making paper here, so the foreigners (people from Yangzhou, where Longting is now located) kept the tradition of making paper." He also praised him in the inscription: "The marquis has made great contributions to the people. He allowed the people to open up the fields, cut firewood and make paper, and the paper industry increased and the farmland expanded." Liu Mi, the magistrate of Yang County who served as the head of the Ministry of Revenue in the Ming Dynasty, wrote in the "Han Longting Marquis Tomb Stele": "The marquis started making paper here, and its benefits spread to all directions, and it will prosper from generation to generation." Yang Mingsheng, who served as the official of Hanzhong Prefecture in the 31st year of the Ming Dynasty Wanli (1630), wrote in the "Han Longting Marquis Cai Lun Tomb Stele": "The marquis was granted the title here (Longting) and planted here, and was given a title here at the time." In the 33rd year of the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty (1694) Zou Rong, the governor of Yang County, also wrote on the stone tablet in front of Cai Lun’s tomb in Longting: "Cai Lun, the Marquis of Longting in the Han Dynasty, was granted a fief here and was buried here after his death. In ancient times, books were all made of wood blocks and bamboo slips. The marquis started to make paper, which benefited the world for generations to come." According to the Republic of China's "Yang County Records Preparation", Cao Ye, a Tang Dynasty governor of Yangzhou, said that Cai Lun was in Longting and "started to make paper with mulberry bark (mulberry bark). Today, many Yang people (people of Yangzhou, where Longting County was located) can still make paper, which is the legacy of Lun." The aforementioned Yang Congyi inscription also clearly pointed out: "(Lun) begged to retire and then walked along the road (the road he had walked before)." This record shows that Cai Lun had been to Longting before and came to Longting in his later years to serve his country (country means fiefdom, and Cai Lun was made Marquis of Longting in 114 AD), which provided him with the possibility to further promote papermaking. During his tenure as a minister, Cai Lun organized the people of Longting to reclaim wasteland, collect paper and promote papermaking. He also adopted the son of the former magistrate of Longting County as his adopted son (named Cai Xing). The Cai family genealogy was continued and Cai Lun's papermaking method was well inherited. There are many Eastern Han papermaking workshop sites in the Longting area. For example, there is an Eastern Han papermaking workshop site more than 30 meters northeast of Cai Lun's tomb, and there is a papermaking workshop site 500 meters east of Cai Lun's tomb. There are also the site of the Muzhutan papermaking workshop by the Longxi River, the site of the Yueyachi papermaking workshop, the site of the mulberry bay raw material base, and the site of the Wangkan lime kiln. There are also stone mortars and large iron pots used for papermaking in the Han Dynasty. From the Han Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, handmade papermaking workshops centered on the Longting County Papermaking Workshop were scattered throughout Yang County. In the Han Dynasty, the places where goupi paper was made mainly included Zhifang Street in Zhifang Township in the west, Dawan in Zhongba, Huayang, Hongshiyao Village in Huayang, and Nancunba in Maoping in the north; Yangzhuanghe Street Village, Yangzhuang Yangxigou, Gaoqiao Village in Yangzhuanghe, Songjiayan Village in Yangzhuanghe, Yuecai Village in Yangzhuanghe, and Baiyangou Village in Yangzhuanghe in the northeast; and Yangtian Tiefusi Village in the east. After the Wei and Jin Dynasties, many places in the county used local materials and followed the production method of Caihou paper to make bamboo paper and dragon beard grass rough-edged paper. The more famous bamboo paper-making places at that time included Dongping, Huayang Hanba, Daguping, and Yaoping in the northern mountainous area of the county; Songjiayan in Yangzhuanghe in the northeastern mountainous area; and dragon beard grass rough-edged paper workshops in Huangjiaying, Xinpu Street in Huangjinxia, and Jiagou in Huangjinxia in the eastern mountainous area, and straw paper workshops in Shaxi in the southern mountainous area. Due to the above special historical background and geographical reasons, the legend of Cai Lun's papermaking in Longting and surrounding areas has gradually grown, and has been passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years, and is well-known to everyone, including women and children. There are as many as 13 stories about Cai Lun's papermaking in Longting, including "The Legend of Longting Pig Arching Chicken Cuckoo (qian)", "The Legend of Cai Lun Pounding Paper Pulp", "The Legend of Longting Sow Beach", "The Legend of Ancient Longting Guanyin 0 Talking about Prescriptions", "The Legend of Longting Mr. Chu", "The Legend of Longting Resurrection Paper", "The Legend of Cai Lun and His Apprentices Competing to Uncover Paper", "The Legend of Longting Noodles", "The Legend of the Origin of Longting", "The Story of Cai Lun's Papermaking in Paper Square Street", "The Legend of Cai Gongye Uncovering Paper in Yangzhuang River", "The Legend of Kaizi", "The Legend of Stepping on Pulp to Bake Paper", etc. The distribution points of these stories and legends are centered on the ancient county of Longting and are distributed radially. The legend of Cai Lun's papermaking in Longting has six distinct characteristics: first, it has been passed down for a long time, and has been passed down orally for 1,900 years; second, it is rich in content and has a large number; third, it is popular among the people, known to all women and children, deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and has strong social recognition; fourth, it is original and has no traces of processing by literati; fifth, it is artistic and in line with the psychology of the audience; sixth, it is very scientific, and the plot is in line with the operation of traditional handmade paper. Although the legend of Cai Lun's papermaking in Longting belongs to the category of literature, it has the shadow of history and is a valuable material for my research on the historical facts of Cai Lun's papermaking. The people never get tired of listening to it, and it has a strong artistic charm. In the culture of Hanshui River, the legend of Cai Lun's papermaking in Longting occupies a glorious page. The legend of Cai Lun's papermaking in Longting has a lot of scientific elements, and almost every plot involves the experimental and technical issues of papermaking. The technical links such as pounding, copying and baking reflected in the legend are still the basic links of large-scale machine production of paper. This legend has high historical, cultural and scientific value.