The Four Treasures of the Study: Hu Brush, Micro-ink Rice Paper, and Duan Inkstone
Introduction
The clerical tools in the traditional Chinese Han culture are pen, ink, paper, and inkstone. The name "Four Treasures of the Study" originated from the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Historically, the objects referred to by the "Four Treasures of the Study" have changed frequently. In the Southern Tang Dynasty, the "Four Treasures of the Study" specifically referred to Zhuge's brush in Xuancheng, Anhui, Li Tinggui's ink in Huizhou, Anhui, Chengxintang paper, and dragon tail inkstone in Wuyuan (originally part of Huizhou Prefecture, Anhui, now part of Jiangxi). Since the Song Dynasty, the "Four Treasures of the Study" have specifically referred to Hu brush (Huzhou, Zhejiang Province), Hui ink (Huizhou, now Jixian County, Anhui Province), and rice paper (now Jingxian County, Anhui Province). ), Tao Inkstone (now Zhuoni County, Gansu Province), Duan Inkstone (now Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province, known as Duanzhou in ancient times), She Inkstone (now She County, Anhui Province). Xuancheng City in southern Anhui Province is the only "Hometown of the Four Treasures of the Study" in the country, producing rice paper (Jingxian), Xuanbi (Jingxian/Jingde), Hui ink (Jixi/Jingde), and Xuan inkstone (Jingde).
Relevant etymology
?The four treasures of the study? refers to the four types of calligraphy and painting utensils: paper, ink, pens, and inkstones. It is common knowledge that everyone today. But where did the term "Four Treasures of the Study" come from? When did it originate? There are still unresolved questions. For example, "Cihai" "Four Treasures of the Study" says this: "The old collective name for the four kinds of stationery: paper, ink, pen, and inkstone." The study room is called the study room. Su Yi Jian of the Northern Song Dynasty wrote the "Four Treasures of the Study Room", known as the "Four Treasures of the Study Room", which describes the types and stories of these four kinds of stationery. ?
The ambiguity in the statement of "Cihai" lies in: Who is the author of "Four Treasures of the Study"? Is it someone else? Or is it Su Yijian (958-997) himself? If it is Su himself , then the term "Four Treasures of the Study" should be regarded as proposed by Su Yijian. However, various documents that collect Su Yijian's works, such as "Cong Shu Ji", all use "The Four Books of the Study" as the title, but there is no indication that the author of "The Four Books of the Study" is Su Yijian. In other words, there is no direct relationship between the term "Four Treasures of the Study" and the title of Su Yijian's work.
Su Yijian was not the direct inventor of the term "Four Treasures of the Study". This was recorded in the "Summary of the General Catalog of Sikuquanshu" for Su Yijian's "Four Treasures of the Study": "Song Dynasty" The original biography of "History" is called the Four Music Scores of the Study, which is the same as this version. You Miao wrote the "Four Treasures of the Study" in Sui Chu Tang's Bibliography, and also published the "Four Treasures of the Study". According to Hongmai's "She Yan Shuo Postscript", it is said that the genealogy of the Su family's study was in Sibaotang. Therefore, it was popularly called Sibao. Because the title of the book was added, it was later changed to Er because it was not elegant. ?
Hong Mai (1123-1202) and You Miao (1127-1194) mentioned in "Siku" were born and died in similar years, but both were later than Su Yijian. They are the same as the "Four Treasures of the Study". The words seem to be related. Among them, "Siku", in the summary of Hong Mai's inscriptions and postscripts on "She Yan Shuo" and other books, talks in more detail about the person who revealed the genealogy of the Su family's study in Sibaotang, and it was Hong Mai's brother Hong Shi ( 1117-1184). In other words, "Siku" means that Su Yijian's original work "Four Books of the Study" had no other name. It was because Hong Shi once revealed it in the Sibaotang in Huizhou that someone used the common name "Sibao" to call it "Sibao". "Four Treasures of the Study". Therefore, it is not known that when You Miao, who was in the same period, was making the "Suichutang Bibliography", he included the commonly known "Four Treasures of the Study" and so on.
However, the problem has not been solved here, because in fact, during the Northern Song Dynasty when Su Yijian, who was born more than a hundred years before Hong Shi, lived, the term "Four Treasures of the Study" was already widely used in society. For example, the poet Mei Yaochen (1002-1060) had long written a poem about "The Four Treasures of the Study came out of two counties, and recently I admired the king I loved and gave me."
It can be seen that although the origin of the term "Four Treasures of the Study" is not directly related to the title of Su Yijian's work, the statement about Yu Hongshi's name recorded in "Siku" cannot withstand the test of chronology. But at least in the Northern Song Dynasty, this term has been widely used in society, so there is no problem. Later, in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, Lu You (1125-1210) even called the "Four Treasures of the Study" the "Four Scholars of the Study": "The mountains and rivers are full of visitors, but the four scholars of the study are alone and dependent on each other."
But for some reason, the term "Four Scholars of the Study", which Lu Youjin included in his poems and praised, was not as popular and passed down as the "Four Treasures of the Study". This is probably related to the fact that the latter appeared and was used earlier, more vividly expresses the status of paper, ink, pens, and inkstones in the study room, and has been widely accepted by society.
Pens, ink, paper, and inkstones have become the most important writing and painting tools in the study during the Song Dynasty, as evidenced by archaeological discoveries. For example, in the tomb of Xu Jun of the Southern Song Dynasty discovered in Chayuan Mountain, Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, it was found that a complete set of "Four Treasures of the Study" supplies were buried with him. Another example is the mural tomb of the Zhang Wenzao family of the Liao Dynasty in Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province. There is more than one picture of the earliest "Four Treasures of the Study" that combines pen, ink, paper and inkstone in one place. Among the murals in Tomb No. 7, "Children Playing" (pictured), there is a cabinet in which four children were hiding and playing in the back. The excavators thought it was a food box, but some researchers believe it should be a study utensil that can hold papers and scrolls. , letters, etc. The tomb owner of this painting, Zhang Wenzao, died in the 10th year of Xianyong (1074) in the Liao Dynasty, which was very similar to the time when Su Yijian, Mei Yaochen and others lived. All this shows that if pen, ink, paper, and inkstone had not accumulated over time and gradually formed a broad social practical foundation, then the term "four treasures of the study" would not have finally become a specialized term in the Song Dynasty.
Speaking of which, the genealogy of the "Four Treasures of the Study" among the "Four Treasures of the Study" is still available, but the origin of the "Study" as a special place for writing, reading, etc. is actually much more difficult to verify. As Du Mu of the Tang Dynasty said in "The Poetry of Fenghe's Xianggong and the Prime Minister's Seal to Suppress the Whole of Shu": "The red bow follows the arsenal, and the golden seal goes to the study room", this is the earliest "study room" that we can see so far. Use words. Therefore, it should not cause much objection to say that the term "Wenfang" appeared in the Tang Dynasty, or perhaps even earlier in the Northern and Southern Dynasties. But the problem is that the study room we mentioned here actually mostly belongs to the category of concepts or attributes, because so far there are no direct documentary records, archaeological discoveries and research results that can tell us what the study room in the Tang Dynasty was like. form.
Extending the research on the origin of the Four Treasures of the Study to the related spatial scenes of calligraphy and painting is changing the static discussion of brush, ink, paper, and inkstone into the spatial dynamic investigation of the behavior of calligraphers and painters. Because the research methods and even the view of cultural relics are undergoing a transformation from individual to whole and then to groups, it is necessary to understand and restore the relationship between ancient calligraphy and painting utensils, the study room and even the behavior of literati, so as to have a more comprehensive understanding of the development of calligraphy utensils. History. In other words, if the study room is the spatial carrier of the "Four Treasures of the Study Room", then the literati are the active subjects of the study room. The four treasures of the study without the study room are lonely and scattered utensils, while the study room without the activities of scholars is an empty building without vitality.