About the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, China produced the earliest real paper. Because of the poor quality and low output of early paper, it is obviously not suitable for folding.

There is no record of origami in documents and unearthed cultural relics, so it is impossible to verify when origami originated, which has become indirect evidence that many Japanese believe that origami originated in Japan today.

In the sixth year of Yang Di the Great's reign, paper first appeared in Japan. Tan Zheng, a versatile Koguryo monk, introduced papermaking to Japan, and Tan Zheng himself was called the "paper god" by the Japanese. Since then, origami has risen rapidly in Japan and has been widely used in Buddhist etiquette.

Around 1200, a more complicated paper model appeared in Japan. At that time, it was popular for Japanese samurai to exchange their knives and paper flowers folded in a special way to prove friendship. Paper models are used to celebrate weddings.

During the Muromachi shogunate period, paper became a cheap product, and origami began to spread to all walks of life. During this period, during the traditional Japanese festival Daughter's Day, mothers began to fold out various paper dolls for sacrifice, which has been popular until today.

In Japan, the earliest record of origami cultural relics was after18th century, and some ukiyo-e paintings in the Edo period reflected the situation of Japanese origami. 1797, monk yidaoquan, mayor of Sanming city, Mie Prefecture, wrote and published the world's first origami book, The Secret Story of Thousand Feathers Crane.

In the middle of the 7th century, the Tang Dynasty became the most powerful, open and civilized country in the world. At that time, the art of origami spread to more countries in the world with the good wishes of the people of China.

In the tenth year of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, China's army was surrounded by Arab troops and Turkish allied forces in the battle of Walaas, and about 20,000 soldiers were captured, including many paper craftsmen. At this time, papermaking technology was introduced into the Muslim world.

In the following century, Arabs in the heyday of culture independently developed the art of origami. Their greatest contribution to origami was to apply European geometric principles to origami and study geometry with origami, which was the beginning of the combination of origami and mathematics. However, due to religious relations, Arabs who prohibit idolatry are not allowed to origami, while in Japan at the same time, paper dolls were the main form of origami.

In the 8th century AD, the Moors entered Europe and spread advanced cultural science to Iberian Peninsula, which was still under the brutal rule of Visigoths. It was at that time that Europeans first learned origami. Spanish people like origami art learned from Moors very much, and developed it into a part of their own culture, even spread to the vast western colonies. Today, Argentines' enthusiasm for origami began during the Spanish rule.

Ismael Adolfo Cerceda was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was once a famous actor who performed flying knives and kept calm by origami. However, his gift in origami made him one of the few founders of modern western origami movement and inspired more Argentines to learn origami.

Since the19th century, origami and natural science have also come together and become the tools of western teaching and scientific research. Laszlo moholy nagy of Bauhaus School of Architecture created an architectural design method with origami. Friedrich Froebel, the founder of preschool education and an outstanding German educator, believes that origami can enlighten wisdom well and combine origami with his own educational theory. In the first kindergarten he founded in the world, Bob,

Solving some mathematical problems found in origami has developed into a branch of modern geometry. Robert Harbin, the first chairman of the British Origami Association and a famous magician in South Africa, used origami in magic performances. His book "Paper Magic" was published in 1956, which was very popular in the west and had a great influence on magic and origami.

Around the late19th century, the first international origami conference was held in Paris. Later, the second and third meetings were held in Argentina and new york respectively. /kloc-from the late 9th century to the 20th century, the modern origami art developed rapidly, and many great origami masters appeared, such as Ji and Bendogon in Japan and Liguia Montoya and Adolf Celseda in the west. ..

Ji, known as the "national treasure master" in Japan, created a large number of origami works full of artistic charm and innovative spirit around 1950, which completely changed the world's view of origami. Together with Sam Randlett of the United States, he developed a set of internationally used graphic terms for origami, which made it easy for origami to spread through illustrations without text barriers. Under his influence, westerners are enthusiastic about origami, and many countries have quickly established their own origami art.

In the 1980s, Ji, who has entered his twilight years, created the wet folding method, which wetted the paper before folding, shaped it and dried it. This method greatly improves the accuracy of origami, makes some folding methods that seemed difficult to complete before possible, and origami has entered a new realm.

Today, although origami is widely used all over the world, the most popular place is Japan. The Japanese regard origami as the quintessence of the country, and compulsory courses of origami have been set up in primary and secondary schools. In Japanese eyes, origami is very beneficial to cultivate artistic quality and creativity. In Japanese pronunciation, "ori" and "gami" are used. Except for Koreans who have enemies with Japan, they stick to the English name of "origami".

But to be fair, the origami level of our neighboring country, separated only by a strip of water, has indeed far exceeded our hometown. However, with the reform and opening up in the past 20 years, origami art has slowly returned to the motherland. Although this change is not enough, it is indeed a good start. I believe that in the near future, more people in China will like origami, and the level of origami in China will also be improved to catch up with the pace of the world.

Note (1): It is obviously wrong to describe Koguryo as a Korean monk in many books, and confuse Koguryo with North Korea. Koguryo is a country in the north of Korea, Baekje and Silla in the three countries of the Korean Peninsula, and its territory is basically in the northeast of China. After its demise, most of it was incorporated into the Manchu people today. Therefore, Koguryo monk, Tan Zheng, the Japanese "paper god", should be regarded as a Korean, not a Korean.