The four treasures of the study in my country are: pen, ink, paper, and inkstone.
1. Pen
The pen among the Four Treasures of the Study generally refers to the writing brush. The holder of the writing brush is usually made of bamboo. For more sophisticated ones, it is made of mottled bamboo. It can also be made of rhinoceros horn, ivory or gold and silver. Yes, that is arts and crafts.
The animal hair used in the pen tip is divided into two categories: soft (soft) and hard (hard). The soft hair is mainly made of goat hair; the hard hair is made of rabbit spine hair and weasel tail hair. The soft hair is made of goat hair. Mixed with Jianhao, it is called Jianhao.
The pen tip is made of a cluster of long hairs in the middle called the front, which is the pen tip; it is surrounded by shorter hairs called side hairs. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was replaced by Hu brushes with strict selection of materials and excellent production produced in Shanlian Town, Huzhou, Zhejiang, and they are still used today.
2. Ink
The appearance of ink is very early. "Shu Zai Calligraphy Compilation" says: Xing Yi in the Western Zhou Dynasty began to make ink. It is said that it was made of soot, but it was not until after the Western Han Dynasty. thing. The raw materials are different and can be divided into oil smoke ink, lacquer smoke ink, and pine smoke ink. They are made of tung oil, raw lacquer, and soot burned from pine branches, plus yellow gelatin, musk, and borneol to make the ink of Yizhou and Shan County in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. The paper is very famous.
3. Paper
Paper is one of the four great inventions in ancient my country. Hemp paper has appeared in the cultural relics unearthed from the tombs of the Western Han Dynasty, but it is very rough. Since the Han Dynasty, all calligraphy and paintings that have survived in the world have been done on mulberry paper. Cai Lun in the Eastern Han Dynasty used a variety of raw materials and improved papermaking methods to greatly improve the quality and output of paper.
Due to the widespread use of paper, Emperor Jin'an ordered the abolition of the bamboo and wooden slips that had been used since ancient times, pushing history into an era of comprehensive paper use. The papermaking industry in the Tang Dynasty was very developed. Xuanzhou produced rice paper, Jiangxi Linchuan produced thin slippery paper, Yangzhou produced Liuhe paper, Guangzhou produced bamboo paper, etc., all of which were of high quality.
4. Inkstones
Inkstones have been used in the Western Han Dynasty. Inkstones were unearthed from the Western Han Dynasty tomb in Fenghuang Mountain, Jingzhou, Hubei Province. There are four traditional inkstones in my country, namely Duan inkstone, She inkstone and Tao inkstone. , clear mud inkstone.