golden ear

Chapter 351 The Four Treasures of the Study
"Later, China invented ink again, starting with ink pellets and toner powder. Later, coal and glue were mixed into it to make a relatively strong ink block. Japan's Shosoin still preserves Tang ink and Silla ink. Japan's Nara era The method of making ink was introduced from North Korea. In the Heian period of Japan, Hongzhou Fujishiro and Omi Takesaku ink were the most popular."

"Since the Edo period, Nara's Mo-making technology has developed greatly. Ink can be divided into pine smoke ink and oil smoke ink. It is best to use pure oil smoke ink for calligraphy ink. Green ink is pine smoke ink. In addition , as well as Zhu ink and tea ink. China’s ancient ink is very famous.”

"Cheng Junfang of the Ming Dynasty and Qianlong Imperial Ink of the Qing Dynasty are all rare treasures. The deeper the ink, the better. The raw ink that has just been made is of little value. Generally, the ink that has been collected for 30-80 years is the best calligraphy. Chinese ink Pay more attention to the use of thin glue, the adhesion of the ink is poor, and it is very smooth to use. But Japanese ink pays attention to the use of less thick glue, the ink has stronger adhesion, and it is very fast to use.”

Liu Huasheng took out the ink in his collection and asked Wu Tianyuan to compare it, and it was really different.

"Until the Heian period, the Japanese still used ceramic Fengzi inkstones and Yuanrun inkstones. At the end of the Heian period, Chinese inkstones were imported to Japan, and at the same time, stone inkstones began to be produced in Japan. At that time, most of the stone materials for inkstones were selected from Aichi Prefecture. Fenglai stone, Amada Stone from Yamanashi Prefecture, Xuanchang Stone from Miyagi Prefecture, Akama Stone from Yamaguchi Prefecture, and Narutaki Stone from Kyoto. In addition to stone materials, the Japanese also use materials such as clay, pottery, and tiles to make inkstones. Inkstones are round There are face inkstones, square inkstones, and Fengzi inkstones."

"In 610 A.D., Koryo introduced papermaking technology to Japan. After Japanese paper craftsmen studied and pondered, they finally produced tough and elegant washi. From the Nara period to the Heian period, the Japanese mainly used hemp paper. In the Heian period, with various folk The development of crafts and the production of paper industry have also been promoted."

"At that time, the raw materials for papermaking were mainly origami and wild goose skin. Famous washi paper production areas included Mino, Ise, Mikawa, etc. Kyoto also established a government-owned papermaking factory called "Kamiyain". With the development of the paper industry , the types of Japanese paper continued to increase. At that time, Japan was able to manufacture colored paper with patterns and lead-colored paper for scripture writing, and the effect of writing scriptures on it with gold mud and silver mud was excellent. In the Edo period, the culture of town people rose. The demand for paper increased sharply. Echizen, Tosa, Izumo, and Hakuhi have all become famous paper producing areas in Japan, and the types of paper have reached 50.”

"Today's paper production in Japan is still divided into two types: handmade paper and machine-made paper. Handmade paper is made of wild goose skin, origami, and three tree bark. Handmade Japanese paper includes half paper, Mino paper, and Fengshu. Paper, Toriko, etc. Machine-made paper uses wood and Manila hemp pulp as raw materials, and there are strong Izumi paper, pulp half paper, etc. Japanese calligraphy paper is generally based on half paper and huasen paper. Paper, toriko, dun paper, and hemp paper belong to high-grade writing paper, which are regarded as treasures and should not be used lightly."

"So that's the case, it seems that this is really a trick!"

After listening briefly to Liu Huasheng's introduction, Wu Tianyuan was very interested. Tianyuantang now has porcelain, seal stones, furniture, agarwood, and purple sand pots.
"You have already started to make seal stones and seals. Signing is a form to indicate the completion of calligraphy writing. There is no uniform rule for signing. You can write your real name, character, elegant name, year, month, stem and branch, place, and the name of the giver. "

"The Japanese pay more attention to signing with "number", and some people are only used to signing with seals. The materials of seals are various, including stone, wood, teeth, horns, crystal, pottery, metal and so on. The ancient Japanese hardly used calligraphy and painting. It was only in the Kamakura period that the Japanese accepted the influence of the Zen culture of the Song Dynasty in our country, so they had the habit of signing after writing."

"If you write your own poems, only write your name or number in the signature. If you copy someone else's work, you must indicate the source. For ordinary occasions, you need to use three seals, namely Guanyin, a long and thin seal, a name seal, and a number seal. The writing is mainly in seal script. However, the Japanese tend to put more effort into improving the overall beauty of the paper, but they don’t stick to a specific calligraphy form.”

"That is to say, the four treasures of a good study are also treasures in Japan?"

Liu Huasheng smiled and said: "That's natural. The Japanese have three ways, the tea ceremony is the first, the calligraphy is the second, and the incense is the third. Although calligraphy is not a compulsory course, everyone with status should learn a little bit. As long as it is some brushes Words, where is the pen, ink, paper and inkstone missing?"

"Okay, this time when I go back, I will monopolize the four treasures of the study!"

Wu Tianyuan laughed out loud, and he has a new project, which also has a ready-made network, Dai Yuexuan from Liulichang, the old Dai is a big expert, and the family has passed down the four treasures of the study for decades, he is the right one to find!
Wu Tianyuan returned to the capital the next day, and Liu Meizi's side was considered a budding figure, and the rest was to continue to improve her level.Waiting for Hainan Agarwood to have the first batch of products and officially enter the Japanese incense market.

"You finally remembered me?"

Lao Dai looked at Wu Tianyuan with some resentment, and said unhappily: "I heard that your Tianyuantang is recruiting troops everywhere, and it is also porcelain, seal stone, furniture, and later even purple sand pots? I wonder when it will be our turn to the Four Treasures of the Study" ?”

"Isn't this coming to you?"

Wu Tianyuan smiled and said, "Everything has to be done one by one, right? Since you are already prepared, Lao Dai, why don't you talk about it?"

"Okay, since you want to do it, do it!"

Old Dai has been holding his breath for a long time. Seeing Tianyuantang wantonly revitalize the national brand, after a long time, it is finally time to write, paper and inkstone, right?
"Let's talk about the pen first! Huzhou pen is the first choice!"

Lao Dai excitedly said: "Pay attention to the "tip, round and healthy". The so-called tip means that when the pen is aggregated, the tip of the pen should be able to retract. Qi: dip the tip of the pen in water and squeeze it flat, and the hair on the tip of the pen will be neat without unevenness. , The pen is full and round, conical, neither flat nor thin. Healthy: The brush hairs are elastic, easy to gather when they are spread out, and the brush strokes must be strong."

He took out a lot of pens and demonstrated them to Wu Tianyuan: "Generally, brushes on the market can be used if they are more than 20 yuan. If the brushes are genuine, they are too expensive, no less than 200 yuan each. They belong to the right part of the hair and are very expensive. 90% of the current brushes are made of hair, mainly made of artificial hair, hemp and bristle. Artificial hair is very good, cheap but healthier, but it cannot be done purely with artificial hair There is a writing brush that can write, so animal hair must be added.”

"Look at this pen, the pen barrel should not be thick or thin, 0.7-1cm is the most suitable. Don't pick a pen with a good-looking pen barrel, which is heavy when you hold it. It seems to be a very expensive pen. The hair is used for writing instead of the pen barrel, which looks expensive. The pen holders are often made by very bad brushwork, because there is no good craftsmanship without good hair, so you can only work hard on the pen holder."

"The three pens with different functions, hard pen, soft pen, and combined pen, have different uses. Calligraphers before the Song Dynasty mostly used hard pens to write. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, calligraphers wrote larger and larger characters, and the pens also had hard pens. The pen has been transformed into a brush pen. Because the brush is longer, it is suitable for making large characters."

"In general, when writing running script and cursive script, hard pens are generally more refreshing, easy to sway, and easy to rise and fall. Writing regular script, official script, and seal script use soft pens, which are easy to moisten and plump. Of course, this is not absolute. Hard pens can be used You can use a pen to write regular script, seal script and official script, and you can also use a brush to write running cursive."

"Mr. Lin Sanzhi, the contemporary cursive sage, writes cursive script with a long-point brush, which can not only be strong and upright, but also flexible and connotative. Because the pen is long and has a lot of ink, it can write several characters once dipped in ink, and it is easy to express characters. The continuous momentum between words and characters and the change of dark, light, dry and wet ink color."

"However, Yanghao pens are soft, especially long-point Yanghao pens. After the pen is pressed down, it falls apart and cannot be picked up. It is difficult to master. At this time, it is all up to the writer to use the skill of the pen to adjust the stroke, and the hard brush is better. , due to its high elastic strength, when the pen is pressed down and lifted up again, the pen edge can return to the original cohesive state, so it can be lifted up and down freely, which is quite handy."

(End of this chapter)