Chinese scholars always have four pieces of stationery in their study rooms - pen, paper, ink, and inkstone, which are collectively called the Four Treasures of the Study. They are another special condition for cultivating the art of calligraphy in addition to Chinese characters.
The pens used in pen calligraphy are mainly brushes. It is made of sheep hair, weasel tail hair or hare hair and is packed in bamboo or wooden tubes to make the four treasures of the study. It is soft and elastic. When dipped in ink, it will also produce capillary action: when the paper is pressed hard, the ink will flow down and lift up slightly. The ink is contained in the pen, and this capillary action is caused by hundreds of hairs bundled together.
The history of using brushes in China can be traced back to six thousand years ago. The earliest pens were very crude, but they could be used to draw thick and thin patterns of human faces, fish, animals, and vegetation on pottery, as well as writing on oracle bones and pottery. Among the remains of oracle bone inscriptions are some uncarved red and ink-colored writings. The strokes vary from thick, thin, square, and round, which look very much like they were written with a brush and black ink.
The earliest writing brush we can see now was made around the 5th century BC. It was unearthed from two Chu tombs in 1958, along with a large number of bamboo slips and thousands of other magnificent burial objects.
By the 4th century, the pen-making technology had made great progress, and the performance of the brush made it easier for calligraphers to display their artistic talents. The ancients summarized the four major advantages of the brush. The first is sharp, which can show the subtle changes of the strokes; the second is straight, the front end of the brush is even when the brush is spread out, which can spread the brush tip on the paper and write full and powerful ink; the third is round, the brush is always kept long The long conical shape makes it easy to apply force in all directions and contact the paper surface as desired; fourthly, it is strong, durable and can maintain elasticity and flexibility. Using a calligraphy brush, calligraphy writers can write characters with different postures, strength, elasticity, rhythm, and momentum. They are not just stipples of uniform thickness, these stipples also have area; they even have volume, which is the three-dimensional effect created by the different levels of ink.
Anhui, Jiangsu, and Jiangxi provinces in the south and Henan Province in the north are the most famous for manufacturing brushes. The largest brush was produced in a factory in Tianjin in 1979, with a total length of 157 cm, a pen length of 20 cm, a pen weight of 5 kg, and an ink absorption capacity of 1 kg. On the morning of September 14 that year, Beijing calligrapher Yang Xuanting used this large pen to write the four characters "Long Live the Motherland" on a piece of rice paper 100 cm long and 150 cm wide to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The incident was a sensation in the newspapers.
In ancient times, there were pens made from hair shaved off shortly after birth. More than 1,400 years ago, an old woman in the south who was good at making brushes tried to use fetal hair as the center of the brush and tie it with rabbit hair to make a brush. It is said that Xiao Ziyun, a famous calligrapher at that time, loved to use this special brush with both hard and soft brushes. To this day, some people still cut their babies' fetal hair and ask pen makers to make them into writing brushes. However, they are only used as souvenirs in the hope that their children will be inspired to become educated people when they become sensible. .
Paper, the compass, gunpowder, and printing are known as the four great inventions of China. For thousands of years, people have believed that the inventor of paper was Cai Lun (? - 121) of the Eastern Han Dynasty. The basis for this comes from an ancient historical book, "Book of the Later Han", which has a clear record of the invention of papermaking. However, starting from the second half of the 20th century, ancient paper from the Western Han Dynasty (206-25 BC) before the Eastern Han Dynasty has been unearthed in Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. Although its texture is relatively rough and its structure is loose, it proves that as early as the Western Han Dynasty , China has real paper made of plant fibers.
It is said that after Cai Lun's death, his disciple Kong Dan wanted to create a paper with better quality and longer preservation from bamboo slips to portrait him in memory of his teacher. But it’s always hard to do so. One day, Kong Dan came across an old green sandalwood tree that had fallen by the river. Due to long-term exposure to the sun and water, the bark has rotted, revealing long strands of fibers inside. He retrieved these fibers and made paper with excellent texture, finally fulfilling his long-cherished wish. From then on, people used green sandalwood as raw material to make the best paper.
The paper used in Chinese calligraphy and painting art is rice paper - the main production areas are Xuancheng and Jingxian, Anhui, and it is named after it.
In addition to green sandalwood, the raw materials of this paper include straw. Their fibers are treated with lime, bleached by sunlight, and beaten into paper by hand. The texture of rice paper is white, delicate, soft, strong in pulling force, not easy to be corroded, and will not change color after being stored for a long time. It is highly absorbent, so the ink written on the paper can take on a variety of colors. If the pen is full of thin ink and the writing speed is slightly slower, the ink color in the middle part of the stroke will be thicker, while the ink on the outside of the stroke will slowly spread out into a lighter color, forming a plush-like substance, and a sense of layering will appear. If the ink is lightly dipped in ink, especially dry and thick ink, and the writing is faster, lines with white threads in the middle will be formed, which is called "flying white". When people write the last vertical stroke of a calligraphy, they often intentionally lengthen it, so that the long "flying white" is like a waterfall flowing down and making waves, adding momentum and interest to the entire calligraphy.
Ink and Inkstone The traditional Chinese ink used for calligraphy and painting is also very special. It is made by mixing a rectangular or cylindrical ink ingot with water in an inkstone and grinding it. The raw materials for making ink tablets are tung oil smoke, coal smoke or pine smoke, plus animal glue and spices. Although it is sticky, writing is smooth but not stagnant. It also has the advantage of never fading. Ancient calligraphy treasures have been passed down to this day thousands of years later, and the ink color is still as fresh as when they were written. Ink color Originally, the patterns on the painted pottery in Banpo Village, Xi'an were only black. However, because the ink can be divided into shades, shades, wet and dry, light and dark, it is expressed on paper, especially in the psychology of the viewer. Different shades.
The application of ink can be traced back to ancient times. In the Neolithic ruins discovered in Banpo Village, Xi'an, which were about 5,000 to 7,000 years ago, archaeologists unearthed many pottery vessels in four colors: red, black, white, and gray. It can be seen that charcoal ink was already used in craft production at that time.
When people write calligraphy today, they often use ink prepared by manufacturers, because it can be used right out of the bottle, saving time and convenience. However, many calligraphers prefer to use ink ingots to grind their own ink when they have enough free time. Grinding ink has its own fun, and it is also a way to rest. In addition, grinding ink is also an indispensable habit for him when conceiving how to write a good calligraphy.
Beginning around the Jin Dynasty, calligraphy works were often stamped with the author's name to prove that they were his own works. Later, in the Song Dynasty, some people used "Xianzhang". There were not many words on it, and the main content was to show their elegance and interests. If a work is by a famous artist, later generations of collectors will stamp their name on the blank space. As time goes by, there may be as many as ten or even more owners who have collected this work, so many seals can be seen on this famous work. I saw more than 60 stamps on a masterpiece. The scarlet ink pad shines in the black ink words, giving the paper a pearlescent look, which is really beautiful.
The appearance of inkstones obviously occurred after the use of ink pills and ink ingots began in the 3rd to 4th centuries AD. However, the original grinders appeared very early and were used for grinding paint and food. The oldest such grinders found were used six or seven thousand years ago and are still intact today. Many ancient inkstones have been unearthed after the 3rd century AD, indicating that the use of inkstones was very common at that time. Many ancient inkstones are carefully carved, and some have the image of a turtle or a harp carved on them, which are called turtle inkstones and harp inkstones. They have beautiful shapes. Today, many people are still collecting and studying ancient inkstones.
Most inkstones are made of stone, but there are also porcelain inkstones, pottery inkstones, copper inkstones, and iron inkstones. There is a kind of stone inkstone called "jade inkstone", which is exquisitely clear and has natural jade quality. It is said that the ink produced by using it will not freeze. Many provinces produce stone inkstones. The most famous ones are Lu inkstone from Shandong, Duan inkstone from Guangdong, She inkstone from Anhui, and Tao inkstone from Gansu.