The "four treasures of the study" include a brush pen, an ink stick, paper , and an inkstone, which are indispensable to any Chinese painter or calligrapher. Only through these four tools can they create the beauty of traditional Chinese art. As a result, much importance has been attached to the "four treasures of the study."

   Writing Brush

The writing brush was invented very early in China's history. The use of writing brush dates to at least three thousand years ago. The prehistoric painted-pottery, the inscriptions on oracle bones, the bamboo slips and silk are all believed to be writing materials for the brush. Ancient writing brushes have also been excavated in the graves of the Spring and Autumn Period, the Warring States, the Qin and Han Dynasties. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, Xuanzhou became the national writing-brush-manufacturing center, whose products were called "Xuan-bi". "Zhuge-bi" was the best in quality in Xuanzhou. After the Yuan Dynasty , the brush-manufacturing industry of Huzhou boomed. "Hu-bi" hence replaced "Xuan-bi" to become the best-known writing brushes, with sharp, neat, round and tough characteristics.

The writing brushes are adapted to a specific purpose such as painting or calligraphy, and for desired effect to be achieved such as clearly defined characters or blurred ones. And unlike conventional pens with a metal point, the writing brush is made from fine, soft animal hair. The resulting flexibility of the point of the brush pen is perhaps its most unique feature. A writing brush can be manipulated not only to the left and right on a two-dimensional plane, but can also be raised up and down, creating lines of varying thickness and endless variations. Many aspects of Chinese painting and calligraphy developed as a result of the special characteristics of the writing brush.

The writing brushes are classified by the type of hair used: goat hair, wolf hair, and purple hair. Wolf hair brushes are actually made from weasel hair and purple hair brushes from rabbit hair. Goat hair brushes are soft, flexible, and absorbent. Purple hair brushes produce bold lines and are best suited to calligraphy. Sometimes, to achieve a balance between steely and feathery lines, a brush that combines hair from two different types of animals is used.

The handle is not only made from bamboo, wood, lacquer, and porcelain, but also from precious materials including mother-of-pearl inlay, ivory, and jade . Usually, painters and calligraphers have several types of brushes on hand to adapt to individual purposes and preferences.

  Ink stick

The ink stick is a unique pigment of Chinese traditional painting and calligraphy. At the initial stage natural ink or half-natural ink was generally used. It was during the Han that artificial ink appeared. At that time the most famous ink-stick was "Yumi-mo" produced at Qianyang , Shaanxi. The raw materials of ink stick were pine, oil and lacquer.

Before the Five Dynasties the ink-producing center was in the North, then it reached the South. The most celebrated South ink-stick was "Hui mo", which was produced in Huizhou of Anhui Province .

  Paper

Paper is one of the four famous Chinese inventions. It is widely accepted that paper was invented by Cai Lun in the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) . However the archaeologists have discovered paper of Western Han such as "Fang-ma-tan" paper, "Ba-quao" paper, "Xuan-quan" paper, "Ma-quan-wan" paper, "Ju-yan" paper and "Han-tan-po" paper.

After the Eastern Jin Dynasty , paper was extensively used instead of traditional writing materials such as bamboo slips and silks. Various methods of producing paper emerged one after another.

In the Tang and Song Dynasties, the paper producing industry thrived, with the appearance of
many quality products. During the Qing Dynasty , "Xuan zhi (xuan paper)" produced in Jing
Prefecture of Anhui (Xuanzhou) Province became the special paper for painting and calligraphy,
and was regarded as "the king of paper."

  Inkstone

To use the traditional ink stick, an inkstone is required. As the name suggests, most inkstones are made of stone. The stone used must be of relatively fine whetstone materials so the bristles of the brush pen are not damaged and to facilitate the grinding of the ink stick could.

In the ruins of primitive times, archaeologists discovered simple stone ink-slab that needed a pestle to grind pigments. After artificial ink-sticks appeared in Han, pestle gradually disappeared. There were pottery ink-slab, lacquer ink-slab and copper ink-slab in the Han Dynasty as well as stone ink-slab. Among the stone ink-slabs, the round tripod pieces were the most typical. During the Wei, Jin and Northern-and-Southern Dynasties, round tripod porcelain ink-slabs were in vogue. It was in the Sui and Tang dynasties that "Piyong" inkstone having circular legs appeared.

A little water is added to the inkstone, and the ink stick is ground. The result is ink, and the inkstone acts as an inkwell. Inkstones are extremely durable. In ancient times, artisans would have their names or other words engraved on their inkstones to be passed on to future generations.

  Other tools of calligraphy

Ancient tools of calligraphy included not only brush, ink-stick, paper and inkstone, but also some accessories such as penholder, brush pot, ink box, paperweight, seal, seal box. The raw materials of these tools varied from pottery, porcelain, copper, iron, lacquer, wood, bamboo, stone, jade, jadeite, agate and coral.

Author: Jessie