The four treasures of the study - the land of ink where the pine smoke drifts - ink
The pine smoke drifts out of the clouds and fills the paper, and the faint ink color becomes the mist of the mountains and forests. It is a gift from the cascading pine forests in the distant mountains, a tacit cooperation of glue paint and ink, and a treasured antique for playing on the desk. It is the best delicacy that Wang Xizhi tasted when he was young, and it is the pool of ink blackness left by washing his pen every day. It is as fragrant as tea and won the spring visit from Dongpo, leaving a faint and far-reaching fragrance.
The scholars love it and respect it, wishing they could drink three buckets of ink in one go, for fear of getting the bad name of being ignorant; the scholar-bureaucrats love it and cherish it, even if they go to the workshop and their eyes are full of oil smoke, they still have to control themselves. Collect it carefully. It is indispensable for making eight-part essays, taking imperial examinations, and writing memorials. It is indispensable in temples; it is used everywhere in the world to write famous posts, travel notes, and paint landscapes.
The history of ink
"Shuowen Jiezi" explains: "Ink is also calligraphy ink", revealing the original identity of ink - a pigment used for writing. The history of using ink in China is as old as the brush. There are traces of ink on the painted pottery patterns and symbols in the Yangshao Cultural Site, but the ink at this time was not artificial ink. Some were cuttlefish ink, and some were black mineral pigments.
By the late Shang Dynasty, the pigments used on oracle bones and pottery were already artificial charcoal ink. People in the Zhou Dynasty had already used artificial ink in many fields. For example, in divination, ink is used to write inscriptions; craftsmen dip a rope into ink to draw a straight line, which is called "rope ink"; there is also the humiliating ink punishment, which is to carve the symbol of crime on the prisoner's face and then dye it black with ink, which is called "rope ink". "Tattoo".
In the Qin and Han Dynasties, the technology of making ink was improved. The smoke produced by incomplete burning of pine branches was used as raw material, and then lacquer or glue was added to make it into blocks or pills. This is the famous pine ink. Smokey. Li Tinggui (gui) of the Southern Tang Dynasty improved tung oil smoked ink based on the craft of making pine smoked ink and became very popular. Later, inks made from oils such as animal oil and petroleum appeared, but they were not as high quality as tung oil smoke ink.
After the Opium War, the imperialists invaded China and plundered a large amount of supplies. Even tung oil became a scarce commodity, and the traditional ink-making industry never recovered. Most of the calligraphy inks we use now are ink instead of traditional ink ingots and ink blocks. The production process of ink has also changed from manual production to mechanical production. The ink color is still the same, but it has lost the elegance of the thousand-year-old fragrance.
Types of ink
Ink made by traditional techniques is now very rare. The smoke materials used in ancient ink include pine smoke, tung oil smoke, lacquer smoke and petroleum smoke. Among them, pine smoke has the longest history. This is because ancient people often used pine seeds for lighting.
What is pine tree? After the pine tree dies, it ages and corrodes. The pine tree's own oil penetrates into the wood. After a long geological period, it is eroded by water vapor. The oil and wood blend with each other to form The material structure of the whole body is the pine tree. Because the smoke produced by burning pine tree is very thick, the smoke and dust deposited are also very thick. Many scholars often collect the smoke and make ink by themselves.
The ink was mixed with lacquer and pine smoke. The ink was deep in color. Unfortunately, it would harden over time and damage the inkstone. Later, the process of using glue made from boiled animal skins to mix the ink appeared. After countless times of pestle After beating, the colloid will fully penetrate into the ink, and finally the ink will be kneaded into strips or pills.
Many literati in ancient times liked to make their own ink, and the great writer Su Shi was one of the best. Su Shi loved collecting ink very much. He wrote: "I have seventy pieces of fine ink, but I still keep asking for them. Isn't that foolish? It's ridiculous." He already had seventy pieces of good ink, but he still couldn't bear it. Zhu continued to collect and buy everywhere and couldn't stop at all! Su loved ink so much that he continued to make ink even when he was demoted to Hainan.
After repeated experiments, Su Shi discovered the poor way of "taking pine smoke from the far side" and "taking oil smoke from the near side", and nicknamed his homemade ink "Hainan Pine Smoke Dongpo French Ink". It is said that one year in the twelfth lunar month, Su Shi almost burned down the entire house in order to make ink.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, in terms of ink-making technology, not only the workmanship and materials became more sophisticated, but people also made great efforts in the shape of ink. The richer ink cartridges are decorated with gold and silver, carved and painted, and are extremely gorgeous; the more elegant ink cartridges are decorated with poems, calligraphy, paintings and other patterns on the surface, with far-reaching artistic conception and quaint ideas; more sophisticated ones also need to add bezoar, bezoar, and bezoar when making ink. Musk, rhinoceros horn and other precious medicinal materials are then produced and signed by famous ink craftsmen to show their extraordinary origins.
Some of these hard, shiny and warm jade-like inks are used as tributes and become royal inks; some are collected and enjoyed as precious inks; some can also be used as medicine to treat diseases, which is called medicinal ink; More of them were placed on the desks of literati and became daily stationery.