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Kangxi Wu Tianzhang "Longbin Ten Friends" ink

Source | Wenhui scholar, author of "China in Craftsmanship" | Li Wuwang shared | Shuyi Commune (ID: shufaorg)

As one of the four treasures of the study, ink is an important carrier for the continuation and inheritance of Chinese culture. However, there has been no precise statement as to when the Chinese began to use ink for writing. If you open the documents of the pre-Qin period, you will find that there are records of the use of ink for punishment, divination, measurement, etc., but there is no clear record of its form and production process. Our ancestors first used natural graphite, which could be used directly for writing, and it was not until the Qin and Han dynasties that there was a trace of artificial ink.

Tobacco and glue are the main raw materials for Chinese ink, and tobacco materials are divided into two categories: pine tobacco and oil smoke. In 1975, the ink block unearthed from the Qin tomb of Sleeping Tiger in Yunmeng County, Hubei Province is the earliest existing artificial ink object in mainland China. These early man-made ink blocks were made from pine smoke obtained from burning pine trees, and then kneaded by hand to form ink pellets and ink pillars with irregular shapes. Due to the small size of the finished product, it is necessary to grind it with a stone stone on a stone inkstone with water before it can be used. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, molded ink appeared with pressed molding. The ink ingots of this period can be ground directly and are easy to carry. The application of ink molds is a major progress in the history of ink making, and the process of ink making has been basically determined. Thanks to the ancient pine of Zhongnan Mountain, most of the famous ink production areas at that time were in Shaanxi Province, and the most famous of them was the Huangmi ink produced in Qianyang County.

Pine tower shaped ink

During the Three Kingdoms period, Wei Dan, a famous ink maker of the Wei State, added a variety of precious medicines such as pearls and musk to the ingredients of pine smoke ink, and the ink he produced was good in color and aroma, and was well received in the cultural circles. Most of the glue used in ink making is taken from animal skins that are susceptible to environmental deterioration, and Wei Dan's practice of adding traditional Chinese medicine to the ingredients of ink making solves this problem, and the resulting ink is not easy to deteriorate and adds fragrance. Since then, the ink-making process has been further matured, and ink-makers have been committed to exploring and innovating their own ingredients. The political center of gravity of the Eastern Jin Dynasty shifted southward, and Jiangxi Province became the new ink production area because of the dense pine forest of Lushan, and the female calligrapher Mrs. Wei was a loyal fan of Lushan pine smoke ink. During the Northern Dynasties, the representative of high-quality ink in the north was Yi ink produced in Yizhou, Hebei Province (now Yi County, Hebei Province), and the most famous ink was made by the local Xi family. During this period, the ink-making process was further matured, and the volume of artificial ink gradually increased, and the texture was dense, and it no longer relied on grinding stones, but could be directly dipped in water and ground into ink.

Hu Kaiwen's Earth Ink Replica

During the Sui and Tang dynasties, under the combined effect of various factors such as the prosperity of calligraphy and painting, the invention of engraving and printing, the establishment of government-run ink factories, and the professionalization of ink workers, the ink industry ushered in a prosperous period. The ink-making process is becoming more and more sophisticated, the selection of materials is becoming more and more exquisite, and the shapes are becoming more and more diverse. The Tang Dynasty also appeared color ink used for annotation and revision of manuscripts, such as yellow ink with orpiment and cinnabar ink made from grinding cinnabar. Yizhou, Luzhou (present-day Changzhi City, Shanxi Province) and Jiangzhou (present-day Xinjiang County, Shanxi Province) were the main ink-producing areas of the Tang Dynasty, and a large amount of imperial tribute ink was produced from these places every year, and the northern ink monopolized almost the entire market. Zu Min was the most famous ink official at that time, and his method of making ink with antler glue greatly improved the technique of making ink. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, in order to escape the long-term war in the north, many famous ink makers fled to the south. Among them, the famous Xi family in Yizhou moved south to the area of Shezhou in the south of the Yangtze River (now Shexian County, Anhui Province). Xi Chao, Xi Tingqi father and son devoted themselves to the study of ink-making methods, and the two were later appreciated by Li Yu, the queen of the Southern Tang Dynasty, and were rewarded with the honor of "national surname Li". The superb ink-making technology brought by the northern inksmiths, coupled with the old pines and high-quality water sources of the Yellow Mountain, the Shezhou area has become the largest ink producing area in China since the end of the Tang Dynasty.

The Song Dynasty was a peak in the history of ink making. The most important contribution of the ink industry in the Song Dynasty was the emergence of oil smoke ink. The production of pine smoke ink required the cutting of a large number of ancient pines, and the forest resources were seriously damaged, and the development of new ink-making raw materials was urgent for the inksmiths at that time. The famous craftsman Zhang Yu used the smoke fired by tung oil as the raw material for ink making, and added musk, camphor, gold leaf, etc. to make the imperial ink, which was called "dragon incense". Shen Kuo, an official and literati of the Northern Song Dynasty, proposed burning oil to make oil smoke ink, and Shen Kuo, who loved scientific research, personally experimented and produced the "Yanchuan Stone Liquid", which was well received by many people, and was also greatly appreciated by Su Shi. One of the signs of the prosperity of the ink-making industry in the Song Dynasty was the increasingly important role played by the literati in the ink-making industry. Literati homemade ink was the fashion at that time, from Song Huizong, down to Su Shi, Huang Tingjian, Lu You, all of them were keen on ink making, Tibetan ink, and ink tasting. Another sign of the prosperity of the ink-making industry in the Song Dynasty was the increase in monographs on ink, such as Chao Guanzhi's The Book of Ink, Li Xiaomei's Ink Spectrum, and Su Yijian's Four Scores of Study, which not only introduced the ink-making process, but also recorded anecdotes about ink. In the Song Dynasty, there were high-quality ink producing areas in the north and south, but the ink-making center gradually shifted to the south. At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, Shezhou was renamed Huizhou, and its production of Huizhou ink was even more famous all over the world. The Yuan Dynasty was an era dominated by ethnic minorities, and the ink-making industry was relatively at a low ebb, and the ink-making process was basically inherited from the Song Dynasty.

In the context of the relative recession of the previous dynasty, the ink industry gradually revived in the Ming Dynasty, pine smoke ink, oil smoke ink at the same time, among which tung ink, lacquer ink was widely used. The area around Huizhou became the undoubted ink-making center at that time, and the local market-oriented competition was fierce and talents were produced, and the situation of the three factions of Shezhou, Wuyuan, and Xiuning factions was further formed. The leading figures of Huimo include Luo Xiaohua, Shao Gezhi, Ye Xuanqing, Fang Yulu, and Cheng Junfang, and the latter two also left valuable historical materials such as "Fang's Ink Spectrum" and "Cheng's Ink Garden". The ink collection of the Ming Dynasty was higher, the patterns of the ink ingots were more abundant and exquisite, and a complete set of collection ink also appeared. The ink-making industry of the Qing Dynasty was more perfect and diversified, and the collection of ink was more varied, and there were "four masters of ink-making" Hu Kaiwen, Cao Sugong, Wang Jie'an and Wang Jinsheng. However, the ink-making industry at the end of the Qing Dynasty gradually declined with the change of social environment.

Structure

1. Tobacco refining.

To burn pine smoke, you should choose rotten 100-year-old pine roots, because the roots of old pine trees carry the most pine oil. The grease in the branches and roots of the pine tree is smoked by fire, and the smoke lasts for at least three days at a time. The fire in the smoke shed should not be too strong, if the fire is too strong, there will be more ash and less smoke, and the ink color will be light.

Song Yingxing's "Heavenly Creation" burns pine wood to make smoke

To make oil smoke, animal or vegetable oil is obtained in the form of lighting oil lamps in a confined space. Put the grease in the chisel, light the fire with lamp grass, and cover it with a porcelain bowl to collect the smoke.

2. Take a cigarette.

After the temperature in the smoke shed has cooled, you can go in and sweep the smoke. The smoke furthest from the fire crater is of the best quality, with a delicate texture and no impurities. Fifty kilograms of pine roots can only produce two to three kilograms of pine smoke, and only the pine smoke obtained in this way can ensure that the ink made is black and restrained, and the beauty of different forms of ink can be presented in calligraphy and painting, such as dry, wet, thick, light, and dry.

Oily smoke needs to be swept every four to five minutes to collect it, the timing is very important, if the smoke is late, the smoke will be yellow, and the ink will be dull and not black.

3. Sieve the smoke.

The collected cigarettes are screened layer by layer with fine silk to remove impurities and sieved into a clean container.

Sift the smoke

4. Boil the glue.

Glue is the most indispensable basic raw material in ink making, which can condense the granular pine smoke and make the ink a solid that is easy to grind. Glue is also the key to the longevity of ink. The ink manufacturer will decide the type of glue and the proportion of glue.

5. Mix materials.

This is one of the most important processes in the ink making process, because the ingredients are directly related to the final quality of the ink, determining the gloss, adhesion, and color of the ink. In addition to glue, other ingredients in each ink production are also different, and each ingredient has its own role, or to prevent insects and moths or to increase the level of ink. In this step, various ingredients and hot glue are kneaded into an ink dough like a dough.

6. Whacking.

The kneaded ink ball needs to be beaten tens of thousands of times to become a fine, soft and compact ink embryo.

7. Compression mold.

The beaten and weighed ink embryo is placed into the ink mold made in advance, which is called a stamping mold. At the beginning of ink making, it is necessary to carve the ink mold first, and the beautiful pattern on the ink mold determines the artistic value of the ink.

8. Dry the ink.

After demolding, the ingots are dried for up to a year, and in order to prevent the ingots from warping when they evaporate, the ink maker has to turn the ingots over every day.

9. Trimming.

After the ink has dried, it is time for fine trimming. The ink maker needs to cut off the excess scraps of the ink ingot and smooth out the corners.

10. Drawing.

Gold painting is the use of a brush to write words or depict patterns on the surface of the ink ingot, and the color is generally gold and silver, so it is called "gold painting". This process is mainly used as a decoration and needs to be carried out carefully and patiently.

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