Fiber identification is an important work in preserving ancient paper. Exploring a non-destructive fiber identification method of Chinese traditional handmade paper is significant to the research and preservation of ancient Chinese books, archives, and paper cultural relics. In this study, Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) was used to analyze 64 standard Chinese traditional handmade paper samples of 17 categories whose fiber compositions were known.First, the main components in the paper and the attribution of all the infrared peaks were confirmed by referring to the infrared peaks of cellulose and lignin, as well as the X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis results of some paper samples. Then, the comparative analysis of the spectra with very high similarity was carried out to summarize the spectral characteristics of various kinds of paper in the four bands of 4 000~1 800, 1 800~1 500, 1 500~1 200 and 1 200~600 cm-1, respectively. At the same time, by second derivative processing, the second derivative spectrum characteristics of each kind of paper were summarized in the bands of 1 500~1 200 and 1 200~900 cm-1, respectively. Finally, through the numerical calculation results, such as the infrared cry stallinity index and the ratios of the peak heights and the peak areas, a more detailed distinction among different kinds of paper was achieved. The above method was used for a blind test of 16 unknown samples, and the results of the infrared analysis were consistent with the results of the microscopic fiber analysis, which preliminarily proved the feasibility and effectiveness of this method. All the experimental results show that the non-destructive analysis method of ATR-FTIR can be used to make fast and accurate identification of the fiber type of hemp paper, mulberry paper, Wingceltis paper, Xuan paper, Thymelaeaceae paper and bamboo paper, but this method still has some limitations for the identification of the plant materials With closer genetic relationships,such as mulberry and paper mulberry, which are also difficult to distinguish through microscopic analysis.