In ancient China, orpiment was often used to correct typos. Orpiment is a kind of yellow ore, which is similar in color to paper. It can be used as a pigment when painting, which is not only simple and convenient, but also durable.
Orpiment has a layered structure and produces perfect cleavage along the structural layer. The cleavage group is extremely complete and the lamellae are flexible; Hardness 1.5-2. The relative density is 3.5.
Orpiment is also a pigment.
Orpiment is a yellow mineral pigment, which has a long history in the color history at home and abroad. The ancients also used to call sulfur, orpiment and realgar minerals "three yellows". Among the traditional painting pigments, orpiment, also known as Yellowstone, Lead Yellow and Stone Yellow, was widely used in Dunhuang grottoes murals in the prosperous Tang Dynasty.
Modern archaeologists and scholars have also analyzed the composition of orpiment pigments in the murals of Mogao Grottoes and the silk paintings of the Tang Dynasty in the Tibetan Classics Pavilion. It is also recorded in ancient books that Huang Er area in Dunhuang City, Gansu Province is famous for producing orpiment and cinnabar. Because of the convenience of ancient painters, orpiment became one of the common mineral pigments in ancient cave paintings.