Packaging is an ancient and modern topic, and it is also a subject that people have been studying and exploring from beginning to end. From the ancient primitive society, the agricultural era, to the modern society with the development of science and technology, packaging with the evolution of human beings, the emergence of commodities, the development of production and the progress of science and technology and gradually developed, and constantly occurred major breakthroughs. On the whole, packaging has roughly experienced three stages of development: original packaging, traditional packaging and modern packaging.
　　First, the history of human use of packaging can be traced back to ancient times. As early as about 10,000 years ago, in the later period of primitive society, with the improvement of production technology, production was developed, and there were surplus items to be stored and exchanged, so primitive packaging began to appear. In the beginning, people bundled their prey with kudzu vines and wrapped items with plant leaves, shells, animal skins, etc., which was the embryo of the development of the original packaging. Later, with the improvement of labor skills, people made very primitive baskets and baskets with plant fibers, and made mud pots, mud bowls and mud fills with fire calcined stones and clay, which were used to hold and preserve food, drinks and other items, so that the convenient transportation, storage and custody functions of packaging were initially perfected. This is the ancient packaging, i.e. the original packaging.
　　2. Traditional packaging Around 5000 B.C., human beings began to enter the Bronze Age. During the Xia Dynasty of China more than 4,000 years ago, the Chinese were able to smelt copperware, and bronze smelting technology was further developed during the Shang and Zhou dynasties. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, people mastered the technology of cast iron steelmaking and lacquer-making, and a large number of iron containers and lacquered wooden containers appeared. In ancient Egypt, blowing glass vessels began in 3000 BC. Therefore, the processing of various packaging containers with ceramics, glass, wood, and metal has a history of thousands of years, and many of these technologies have been continuously improved and developed and have been used to this day.
　　As early as the Han Dynasty, in 105 BC, Cai Lun invented papermaking. In 61 AD, Chinese papermaking was introduced to Japan through Goryeo; Introduced to Europe in the 13th century, Germany built a large paper mill. In the middle of the 11th century, Bi Sheng of China invented movable type printing. In the 15th century, letterpress printing began to appear in Europe, and the packaging printing and packaging decoration industry began to develop. In the 16th century, the European ceramic industry began to develop; In the United States, a glass factory was built and a variety of glass containers began to be produced. So far, the packaging industry with ceramics, glass, wood, metal and other main materials has begun to develop, and modern traditional packaging has begun to transition to modern packaging.
　　3. Since the 16th century, due to the rapid development of industrial production, especially the European industrial revolution in the 19th century, the development of the packaging industry has been greatly promoted, thus laying the foundation for the emergence and establishment of modern packaging industry and packaging technology.
　　At the end of the century, French scientists invented the sterilization method to package and store food, which led to the emergence of canned glass food and tinplate food canned food in the early 19th century, which made food packaging science develop rapidly. Entering the 19th century, the packaging industry began to develop in many aspects, in 1800 the mechanism of wooden boxes appeared, in 1814 the British long net paper machine appeared, in 1818 tinned metal cans appeared, in 1856, the United States invented corrugated paper, in 1860 Europe made a bag machine, in 1868 the United States invented a synthetic plastic bag - celluloid, in 1890 the United States Railroad Yard Transportation Committee began to recognize the corrugated box officially as a transport packaging container. 　　 In the 20th century, the development of science and technology is changing with each passing day, new materials and new technologies continue to appear, polyethylene, paper, glass, aluminum foil, various plastics, composite materials and other packaging materials are widely used, aseptic packaging, shockproof packaging, anti-theft packaging, insurance packaging, combined packaging, composite packaging and other technologies are becoming more and more mature, strengthening the function of packaging from many aspects.
　　Since the middle and late 20th century, the rapid development of international trade, packaging has been valued by all countries in the world, about 90% of the goods need to go through different degrees, different types of packaging, packaging has become an indispensable part of the production and circulation of goods. At present, electronic technology, laser technology, microwave technology are widely used in the packaging industry, packaging design has realized computer-aided design (CAD), packaging production has also achieved mechanization and automated production.
　　The development of packaging industry and technology has promoted the formation of packaging science research and packaging science. Packaging discipline covers physics, chemistry, biology, humanities, art and other aspects of knowledge, belongs to the interdisciplinary group of comprehensive science, it organically absorbs, integrates different disciplines of new theories, new materials, new technologies and new processes, from the perspective of systems engineering to solve the comprehensive problems in the circulation process of commodity protection, storage, transportation and sales promotion. The classification of packaging disciplines is relatively diverse, and it is usually classified into packaging materials, packaging transportation, packaging technology, packaging design, packaging management, packaging decoration, packaging testing, packaging machinery and other sub-disciplines. At present, more than 40 colleges and universities in China have opened packaging engineering majors, and the team of packaging talents is growing day by day.