Before the invention of artificial 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, Shang and Zhou Oracle Bone Inscriptions, bamboo slips, silk paintings and so on have left traces of original ink everywhere. According to documents, ink was also used in ancient ink punishment (face painting), ink rope (carpenter's use) and ink turtle (divination). Archaeological excavations in China found bones and ink on stone tools in the14th century BC, and ink blocks in the Warring States Period were also unearthed from Yunmeng County, Hubei Province. There is a phrase "licking pen and ink" in Zhuangzi, which shows that in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, brush and ink were already used.
"Shu Ancient Calligraphy Collection" contains: In the Western Zhou Dynasty, "Xingyi began to make ink, and the characters were made of black soil, soot and earth." In ancient times, when writing, bamboo was first colored, and then carbonized to get juice. 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 Yunmeng Qin Mausoleum in Hubei and Fenghuang Han Tomb in Jiangling, Shanxi. At that time, the ink was small round, not molded into ingots.
In the Han Dynasty, artificial ink finally began to appear. This kind of ink raw material is taken from pine smoke, which is first kneaded by hand and then molded, and the ink quality is solid. According to Ying Shao's "Han" in the Eastern Han Dynasty, "Shang Shuling, Servant Shooting, Cheng Lang, give a large amount of ink and a small amount of ink every month." Bai Weiling is located in Qianyang County, Shaanxi Province, near Zhong Nanshan Mountain. There are many pine trees on the right side of the mountain, which are very famous for the tobacco used to make ink.