Toilet Paper in Ancient China

Toilet Paper in Ancient China
As historians make new discoveries we are finding more and more that things which were once considered western inventions are merely re-discoveries of ancient Chinese technology.  One invention, perhaps one of the most important inventions of modern day civilizations, is the development of toilet paper.  Seriously, imagine the burden of living without such an amenity.  Before the introduction of toilet paper people wiped their bottoms with a wide variety of items, including leaves, grass, corn cobs, snow, seashells, sponges, sticks, and rags.  Sometimes even the trusty old bare hand was used.

The Chinese are credited with the invention of paper in the early 2nd century AD. The first recorded instance of paper being used for hygiene purposes occurred in 589 AD when the scholar Yan Zhitui wrote, “Paper on which there are quotations or commentaries from the Five Classics or the names of sages, I dare not use for toilet purposes”.  By 851 an Arab traveler notes that the use of toilet paper was quite common in China. 
An incredibly useful commodity, by the late middle ages records show that toilet paper was being mass produced by the Chinese.  In Zhejiang Province paper makers were producing 10 million packages (consisting of 1,000-10,000 2x3 ft. sheets) annually.  Records also show that the court of Nanjing consumed 720,000 specially perfumed sheets per year, of which the Imperial family used 15,000 sheets.
Incredibly the introduction of toilet paper in the West didn’t occur until the mid 19th century. 

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_paper
Images via Wikipedia Commons