Brush, Ink & Inkstone

Brush heads are made from animal hair, including rabbit hair and goat hair, and fitted into handles made from materials such as bamboo or wood. One method begins by combing rabbit hair and blue goat hair, then forming a core of goat hair, wrapping rabbit hair around it, rolling it tightly, and fitting it into the handle. Excavated brushes include examples from a middle Warring States Chu tomb at Zuogongshan in Changsha and Qin tomb 11 at Shuihudi, dating respectively to the middle Warring States period and the Qin dynasty.

Brush decoration can appear on the handle. A gold-painted dragon brush from the Wanli reign of the Ming dynasty has a handle coated with black lacquer and decorated with gold powder and red pigment. Its motifs include two dragons playing with a pearl, rocks, seawater, and clouds. The end bears a regular-script inscription meaning “Made during the Wanli reign of the Great Ming.”

Ink-stick making involves collecting soot, mixing it with glue, pounding it, and shaping it in a mold. Soot can be obtained by burning pine wood or oils such as tung oil and rapeseed oil. It is mixed with glues such as fish-skin or cattle-hide glue, with aromatics and medicinal ingredients added. The mixture is pounded into a mass and pressed into a copper or wooden mold. Ink lumps from the Warring States period have been excavated, and Fufeng and Yanzhou produced ink during the Eastern Han. Huizhou ink is produced in places including Shexian, Xiuning, Qimen, Yixian, and Jixi, and was included in the national intangible cultural heritage list in 2006.

Inkstones are used to grind ink, hold ink, and adjust the ink on a brush, and have flat and recessed portions. Types include Duan, She, Tao, and Chengni inkstones. A Western Han stone inkstone in a lacquer box was excavated at Jinqueshan in Linyi, Shandong, in 1978. Duan inkstones come from the area around Lanke Mountain in Lingyang Gorge, Zhaoqing, Guangdong, and date from the Wude era of the Tang (618 to 626). Their stone is blue-purple. Carving received attention from the middle Tang onward, with techniques including deep carving, shallow carving, line engraving, and openwork; Duan inkstones became tribute items during the Song. Inkstones were also made from lacquer and sand. A late Qing example bearing the name Lu Kuisheng has a thin body of lacquer and sand, a deep purple color imitating stone, and a chaoshou form modeled on Song examples. Its sides bear a clerical-script inscription and seal marks.