history
before the invention of manual ink making, natural ink or semi-natural ink was generally used as writing material. Ink was invented about later than pen. Prehistoric painted pottery patterns, Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Shang and Zhou Dynasties, bamboo and wood slips, silk paintings and so on left traces of original ink everywhere. According to documents, ink was also used in ancient ink punishment (face painting), ink rope (used by carpenters) and ink turtle (divination). Long De Yu Mo
Long De Yu Mo
Archaeological excavations in China have found ink on bones and stone tools in the 14th century BC, and ink blocks in the Warring States Period have also been excavated from Yunmeng County, Hubei Province. There is a sentence of "licking pen and ink" in Zhuangzi, which shows that in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, brush and ink have been used.
The Compilation of Ancient Calligraphy contains: In the Western Zhou Dynasty, "Xing Yi began to make ink, and the characters were made from black soil, soot and earth." In ancient times, when writing, bamboo was painted, and then carbonized for juice, and the book was called graphite. In Qin and Han dynasties, pine smoke and tung coal were used to make ink. The earliest known smoke ink was found in the Qin tomb in Yunmeng, Hubei and the Han tomb in Fenghuang, Jiangling, Shanxi. At that time, the ink was small round pieces, not molded into ingots.
until the Han dynasty, artificial ink finally began to appear. This kind of ink raw material is taken from pine smoke, which was first kneaded by hand and then molded, and the ink quality is solid. According to Ying Shao's "Han Guan Yi" in the Eastern Han Dynasty, "Shang Shuling, Servant, Cheng Lang, gave a large ink to Yumi and a small ink to Yumi every month." Yumi is located in Qianyang County, Shaanxi Province, near Zhongnanshan Mountain. There are many pine trees on the right side of the mountain, and it is very famous for the tobacco used to make ink.
The quality of ink in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties has been continuously improved. Jia Sixie in the Northern Wei Dynasty wrote Qi Min Yao Shu, in which the earliest ink-mixing method in China was written. In the Tang Dynasty, Xi Chao and Xi Tingxuan, famous ink makers, made a good ink that was rich in muscle and greasy, and shiny as paint. In Song Dynasty, Mo Gong Pangu was a master of ink-making, and painters such as Su Dongpo and Huang Shangu highly praised him. In the Ming Dynasty, Shao Gezhi, Cheng Junfang, Fang Yulu, etc. developed their own schools. Shexian and Xiuning made ink, and the fine products they made were still colorful more than 3 years ago. In the Qing Dynasty, ink making mainly developed into "refined ink" (ink for appreciation) and "home-kept ink" (mostly for collection or gift to relatives and friends), which became exquisite arts and crafts.
Method of making ink
Qi Min Yao Shu written by Jia Sixie in the Northern Wei Dynasty first described the method of making ink. Namely: "fine-mash with good smoke and sieve; A catty of cigarette powder and five or two kinds of gum are soaked in the bark juice of the tree, and five egg whites are added. Then one or two cinnabar and two rhinoceros incense are mashed and put into an iron mortar and pounded for 3, times. No more than two or three ounces of ink per ingot, rather small than large. " In the chapter "Ink" in the sixteenth chapter of "Danqing" in the book "Heavenly Creations" written by Song Yingxing in the Ming Dynasty, the method of making ink with oil smoke and pine smoke is described in detail. The raw materials of black tobacco include tung oil, vegetable oil, soybean oil, lard and pine; Among them, pine accounted for nine tenths, and the rest accounted for one tenth.
from the finished tobacco to the final product, there are many processes such as glue filling, blending, steaming and so on, and there is a molding process. The carving of ink mold is an important process and an artistic creation process. The shapes of ink are generally square, rectangular, round, oval and irregular. Ink mold is generally composed of front, back, top, bottom, left and right six blocks, while circular or idol-shaped ink mold only needs four or two plates to synthesize. Built-in ink, close the hammer to smash the finished product. Most of the tips are engraved on the side, so that the ink mold can be easily replaced when it is reused. There are various forms of ink appearance, which can be divided into natural ink, lacquered ink, gold ink and lacquered ink.