Chinese calligraphy : an introduction to its aesthetic and technique : with 6 plates and 155 text illustratons

TECHNIQUE

and painting, is different from that used in the West. It is black and not made in liquid form. The soot of burnt pinewood or of oil smoke (lamp-black) is collected and mixed with a kind of gum, warmed and left to solidify. It is then moulded into small flat or round sticks, often decorated with carved designs and characters which make them beautiful objects in themselves. When about to write, the calligrapher grinds this stick upon the ink-stone with a little water. The Chinese ink-stone is an unfamiliar object in the West. It is a flat stone with a hollow scooped out in the middle in which the ink is ground and mixed. One end is rather more deeply gouged than the other to enable the water to flow into it. Inkstones are generally made of a special rock called ‘ redstone’, which can be cut and highly polished. The surface cannot be made as smooth as glass or jade, but more so than ordinary limestone. Bricks and roof-tiles have also been used on occasion. The brick-makers of the Han dynasty were particularly successful in compounding bricks of harmonious colour and shape. When grinding the ink on the ink-stone, we hold the stick perpendicular to the surface of the stone and work it slowly but firmly, using the left hand, so that the right hand is kept

FIG. 91 (a) ink, (b) ink-stone, (c¢) good models of masterpieces

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