Chapter 8 Section 3 Li Mo Hui Mo

In the late Tang Dynasty, wars and turmoil continued in the northern part of the country.Relatively speaking, the Jianghuai area was relatively stable, which caused a large number of people from the Central Plains to move southward in search of livelihood.Xi Chao, a famous ink maker in Yizhou, took his son Xi Tinggui and others, and his family fled to the south of Shezhou.At that time, Shezhou, Xuanzhou and the Jiangnan area had a prosperous economy and a stable society.What's more, there are dense pine forests similar to Yishui area.Especially in this area, the pine trees in Mount Yi (namely Huangshan Mountain), Songluo Mountain (namely Qiyun Mountain) and Jiuhua Mountain are dense and good, suitable for making ink.Therefore, the family of Xi's father and son who "displaced and crossed the river" settled down in Shedi, resumed their old business, and started their ink-making career. "History of Mohism" records: "Ting Yu was born in Yishui, and his father, Chao, was displaced across the river at the end of the Tang Dynasty. He saw that he could live in She and make ink." It is this period of history.

"History of Ink" also said: "In the land of Yishe in the south of the Yangtze River, Li Tingyu's ink is especially good." Li's father and son were originally famous ink makers in Yizhou, with outstanding skills. And glue, ingredients, shaping and other technologies have produced "rich skin, smooth texture, luster like lacquer" (Song Li Xiaomei's "Mo Pu"), "It is as firm as jade, and its patterns are like rhinoceros" ("Mo History") Good ink.Li Yu (yuyu), the empress of the Southern Tang Dynasty, was also a writer, and he was also very expert in the four treasures of the study.He respected the ink equipment made by Xi's father and son, loved the house and Wu, loved ink and people, and even gave the surname of the country. Since then, Xi's surname was changed to Li, Xi Chao was changed to Li Chao, and Xi Tinggui was changed to Li Tinggui. "History of Mohism" said: "葢 (that is, the character Gai) was originally from Yan, and his surname was Xi Chu, and later he (migrated) to the south of the Yangtze River. It was not surprising at the beginning, but it became better after a long time. Therefore, Master Li favored his ability and gave him the surname. "Li Chao was later appointed by the court as Wailang, a member of the school's water department. Li Tinggui, his younger brother Tingkuan, his son Chengyan, Chengyan's son Wenyong, Wenyong's son Zhongxuan, Zhongxuan's son Weiyi, Weiqing, etc., were also honored. Court rewards.Later, Li Tinggui's great-grandson Li Weiqing also served as the ink official of the Li Yu Dynasty.Although the Li family did not succeed in producing ink masters, their descendants still served as ink officials until Song Renzong half a century later.This is what is said in the "History of Mok" that "Weiqing Zhongxuan's second son...Shezhou served as an official in ink", "After that, the Li family became unknown. .This shows the prosperity of the Li Mo family in history.Among Li Mo's famous families, Li Chao and Li Tinggui's father and son had the most outstanding achievements, especially Li Tinggui. "History of Mohism" said: "Super-dead, but the industry is better." It also said: "There are many famous products in ancient and modern times, and all the systems made by Li have them. It says: 'There is no one who is the right one out of the court'." Therefore, in In the process of introducing Li Mo below, we will focus on Li Tinggui's ink skills and ink affairs.

The quality of Li Mo is high. First of all, it is in the selection of ingredients. For example, a catty of pine tobacco should be paired with two or three pearls, one each of jade chips (debris of jade), and borneol (borneol resin with a fragrance similar to camphor). Two, and with raw lacquer. "Mo Jing" said: "The Li family in Shezhou all use big glue... If you mix it with lacquer, you can use three qian of raw lacquer and two qian of cooked lacquer to mix it with lacquer. When blending glue, Ting Yu pioneered the method of blending in batches. "Moji" said: "Seeing Ting Yu's ink, saying Chen Tingyu's 'four harmony ink', you know that the method of glue is also contained here. In the ink formula, in addition to the above mentioned, musk (which was added when Wei Dan made ink), camphor, gamboge, rhinoceros horn, croton and so on were added ingeniously.The ink produced in this way is anti-corrosion, anti-moth, and refreshing with rue.It is smooth and not stagnant when writing, and the paper is full of fragrance.Secondly, it is finely made. For example, if the ink is pounded with a pestle, more than 100,000 times are required.With such excellent ingredients and finely crafted Tinggui ink, it is naturally a high-quality top-grade ink.Cai Xiang, a calligrapher in the Song Dynasty, said: "Tinggui ink is the best in the world." ("Mo History")

There are other records about Li Mo's excellence in history.According to legend, during the reign of Song Dazhong Xiangfu (1008-1016 A.D.), "Li Tingyu, a nobleman accidentally left a pill in the pool by mistake. It was suspected that it was damaged by the water, because he did not take it again. After a month, he drank in the pool and dropped a gold vessel. It is to let those who are good at water take it, and get the ink, the light and color will not change, and the outside and inside will be as new. This person will benefit from the treasure." (Song Fan Zhengmin "Dun (that is, the word Dun) Zhai Wenlan").This is a very vivid story. It can be said that Li Mo unintentionally passed a test similar to what is called a "destructive test" today.Although the ink has been soaked for more than a month, its "light and color remain unchanged, and the exterior and interior are as new", which convincingly illustrates the excellent quality of Li ink.Of course, there are other criteria for testing the quality of ink products.However, the damage resistance of ink products should also be one of the important quality standards of ink products.

Another example is Li Mo's amazing durability. "History of Mohism" records: "Xu Xuan, a regular attendant, is too concise. When he was young, he tasted Li Chao's ink, which was no longer than a foot, and cut like a tendon. He shared it with his younger brother Kai. The Japanese book was no less than 5,000 characters, and it took ten years to complete it. "Xu Xuan and Xu Kai were writers of the Five Dynasties and early Song Dynasty. They were brothers with the same name, and they were called "Second Xu".A rough calculation shows that based on 5,000 words per day, the two brothers wrote at least 20 million words in ten years, which is really an astronomical figure.Furthermore, according to records, due to the dense texture of Li Mo, "the edge of the grinding place has an edge, which can cut paper", and even "cut wood".This is also Li Mo's strange performance.

There is also a record: "At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, when Pingjiang was south of the Yangtze River, several ships of Tingyu ink were serialized and imported into the inner library, and Taizong bestowed the ministers with secret pavilions, all using this ink. After that, the Yuqing Zhaoying Palace was built, and it was used for lacquer decoration." Another There is a similar record: "The Taizu went to the Southern Tang Dynasty and obtained the ink of Tinggui's father and son...for the gate tower of Xiangguo Temple, black lacquer was ordered, and the ink was taken from the owner of the Tibetan, and the car was used to give it. All the inks of Tinggui's father and son." "History of Mohism") This refers to the fact that when Zhao Song destroyed the Southern Tang Dynasty, a large amount of Li Mo was plundered, so it was necessary to carry it on a boat.Some of these precious Li inks were used to imitate the "Ta Ta" "Ge Tie" ("Ge Tie" is "Chunhua Ge Fa Tie", and "Chengxintang" paper and Li Tinggui ink were used for extension); It is used to paint the gate tower of Daxiangguo Temple and other palaces.Although this move is violent [tian shy], it does prove that the ink color of Li Mo is not easy to fall off, and the color is like lacquer, which has the effect of oil decoration.

"History of Mohism" also records: "...the son and wife of the empress king, the blood circulation in the childbirth [ru mat] is very dangerous, the doctor asked the ancient ink as medicine, because he took one and threw it into the fire, ground it into the powder and took it with wine and healed. The sons want to prepare their own breast milk, so they take all the ink and divide it, so the Li Shi Mo Shi benefited less." This is as far back as 1,000 years ago, when Li Mo was used to treat puerperal fever and was successful A precious prescription from Li Mo, which shows how wonderful Li Mo is.About the ancient ink can cure diseases, it is mentioned in the Chinese medicine.It is also recorded in the seventh volume of Li Shizhen, a pharmacologist in the Ming Dynasty, that Mo "released the names of Wujin, Chenxuan, Xuanxiang, and Wuyukuai".It also said that ink "smells pungent and warm, non-toxic, and is mainly used for hemostasis, raw skin, and alloy sores. It is used for postpartum haemorrhage, metrorrhagia and stroke, and it is rubbed with vinegar."Chinese ink therapy is also a precious scientific heritage of our motherland.

There are many interesting things about Li Mo in history.For example, "The History of Mok" records that in his later years, Song Renzong feasted on the ministers, chatted and laughed freely with the ministers, and wrote a lot of calligraphy in Feibai style himself, and distributed them to everyone.When the interest reached a climax, he rewarded the officials with fragrant medicine and famous ink.A minister was lucky enough to get an ingot of ink made by Li Chao, and Jun Mo (i.e. Cai Xiang) got ink made by Li Tinggui.Cai Xiang saw that the minister was dissatisfied, so she whispered to him, "Do you want to change it?", because the minister only knew that Li Tinggui's ink was precious, but he didn't know who Li Chao was. The unknown ink was exchanged for Tinggui's famous ink, and he exchanged it immediately if he could take advantage of it.When the banquet was over, the two rode out of the palace from the inner gate, and when they were about to part, Cai Xiang suddenly bowed to the minister unexpectedly on the horse, and said triumphantly: "You don't know, do you? It's just Li Chao's son..."From this story, we can also see how precious Li Mo was at that time.

"History of Mok" also records: "Su Zizhan (that is, Su Shi) and Huang Luzhi (that is, Huang Tingjian) learned from my book, and often used the title of the book at the time. It is full of things. One day I saw it, explored it, and I got Yan Mo's half-up, so I took it away." This means that Huang Tingjian is good at calligraphy, because it is very famous, and some lovers in the world are vying for good paper. Ink comes in exchange for its treasures, and they often bring antique pouches full of good paper, ink, and so on.One day, when Su saw a kit, he reached out to grab it, and got half of Li Chengyan's (nephew Li Tinggui's) ink at once, so he couldn't help himself, and hurriedly snatched it away.This shows that in the Song Dynasty, there were not many left of Li Mocun, so Su took it immediately after seeing it.In the two stories before and after, the same loves Li Mo, but the difference is that Cai is "hands-on" and Su is "extortion".It is also an interesting story of Molin.

It is also because Li Mo is famous and expensive, so there are naturally profiteers and curious people who imitate and forge it. "History of Mohism" records: "There are curious people in the world, who borrow the name of Tingyu and imitate the shape to make it. There are those who are the best, and Gou is not a family of plain storage, so he can't distinguish his ink." This means that there are some curious people in the world who try their best. , imitating Tingyu's ink shape, fake Tinggui's name (here is the trademark brand) "to make it", some imitators, the technology is "excellent", so that the imitated ink is not a well-educated expert, and it is not yet possible Identify the authenticity of its ink.Interestingly, the "History of Ink" also introduced how to identify the words "Shezhou Li Tinggui ink" printed on the back of the ink stand, which serves as both a trademark and an anti-counterfeiting mark, telling the strokes of these words, How to write "true".For example: "The left foot of the character Shepang owes to the middle of the Zhou character, or the middle painting of the Li character and the foot of the Zi character, and the vertical painting of the Ting character Ren, and the right corner of the ink character runs through it. The one that connects up and down is true. .” This allows us to see Li Mo’s prestige from another side.

Due to the high quality of Li Mo, the arrogant consumption, and the extravagance of the royal family, by the Song Dynasty, there were not many Li Mo left. "History of Mohism" said: "In the year of Xuanhe, gold was available, but Li's ink was not available. In Xining...the forbidden Chinese ink has no royal family." At that time, it was really "gold is easy to get, Li Mo is hard to find ".Although the ink made by Tinggui himself is "unobtainable", Li Mo's family has been engaged in the ink business, and his descendants "have quite a family law" ("Mo History"), and it seems that they have also produced ink of a certain quality. In addition, as stated in the "Mojing": "Shezhou has Gengren, Geng Sui, and Wenzheng, Wenshou, the sons of Sui, and Geng De and Geng Sheng are both their families. Xuanzhou (has) Sheng Kuangdao, Sheng Tong, Sheng Zhen, Sheng Zhou, Sheng Xin, Sheng Hao." That is to say, in the She and Xuan areas at that time, in addition to the Li Mo family, there were also the Geng Mo family and the Sheng Mo family.They "made ink and got Li's method" ("Mo History").It can be said that at that time, the Shezhou area had become a professional ink-making area with a solid foundation and many talents.It laid the foundation for the emergence of "Hui ink" in the future. In the third year of Xuanhe in Song Dynasty (1121 A.D.), Shezhou was renamed Huizhou and governed six counties including She, Xiuning, Qimen, Wuyuan, Jixi and Yi.The ink produced in this area has been called "Hui ink" since then, and this year is also the year when "Hui ink" was named.Since "Hui Mo" was developed from "Li Mo", in a broad sense, "Li Mo" is "Hui Mo". The father and son Li Chao and Li Tinggui moved from the banks of Yishui to the hills of Shezhou in the south in the early years. In the long-term and arduous production practice, they gradually developed and perfected the production process of pine smoke ink, and explored and invented the technology of making ink with tung oil, which made South China "Li Mo" in the Tang Dynasty developed into "Hui Mo" later, and Shezhou, later Huizhou, also developed into a sacred place for my country's ink industry.Li Chao, Li Tinggui, especially Li Tinggui's ink-making skills and ink-making career, have written an extremely brilliant page in the history of Chinese ink-making.Li Tinggui is the ancestor of "Hui ink". The Song Dynasty ended the division of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and the country was unified. After a period of recovery, the economy prospered again.The prosperity and development of the economy promotes the development of cultural and artistic undertakings.The rulers of the Song Dynasty attached great importance to the rule of culture, there were many academies all over the country, the imperial examination system was improved, printing technology made outstanding progress, and a period of cultural development appeared.The ink-making industry related to this has naturally been further developed.In particular, "Hui ink" is thriving, almost leading the country's ink industry and the world's ink market. The most outstanding achievement of the ink making industry in the Song Dynasty was the creation of lampblack ink.It can be said that a new era has opened up in the history of Chinese ink making.From the history of ink making, we know that for thousands of years, pine smoke was mainly used as raw material for ink making.In some ink-making areas in ancient times, the pine forests were completely cut down because of burning ancient pine trees.Shen Kuo, a scientist in the Song Dynasty, said in "Mengxi Bi Tan": "Today, the pine forests between Qi and Lu are exhausted, and gradually to Taihang, West Beijing, and Jiangnan, and most of the Songshan Mountains are young." "Mo Jing" also said: "Since the past The pine in Dongshan is fat and greasy in color, heavy in nature, and the quality is superior, but it is no longer there, and its owner is only ten years old." At that time, "the mountains of Yan, Yi, Deng, and Mijian were called Dongshan", which refers to the central area of ​​Shandong Province today.It turns out that the ancient pines in this area are "fatty in color and heavy in nature", and the quality of the trees is very good, "the quality is the best".But due to deforestation, "there is no more today".At that time, the remaining pine trees in Dongshan were only more than ten years old.Due to the massive reduction of pine trees, the problem of ink supply is serious.Shen Kuo even put forward the scientific opinion of using oil to burn smoke.He said: "Oil is the most abundant, and it is born in the ground infinitely, unlike pine wood, which is sometimes exhausted." In short, under the circumstances that pine wood resources are greatly reduced and the demand for ink is increasing, it is imminent to seek new ink-making raw materials.A new raw material for ink-making - soot, came into being under this situation. When did lampblack ink start?Who invented it?There have always been different opinions.Tao Zongyi, a writer at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, said in "Nancun Stop Farming Records": "Song Xi and Feng Jian, Zhang Yu offered imperial ink, used oily smoke into the brain, musk deer, and gold foil, and called it 'Dragon Fragrance'." It is said that during the Xining and Yuanfeng years of Emperor Shenzong of Song Dynasty (1068-1085 A.D.), the ink worker Zhang Yu "used oil fume" to make ink, and the ink made was called "Dragon Fragrance".According to this statement, oil fume ink was invented by Zhang Yu during Song Xining and Yuanfeng years.There have been different opinions about when Zhang Yu lived.For example, it is recorded in the "Mojing": "The Jiang family of the Tang Dynasty, only heard of Zu Min, followed by Yi Shui Xi Nai [nai Nai]..., Yi Shui also had Zhang Yu, Chen Yun [yun halo]." From the tone of voice, It seems to be people from the Five Dynasties or later.But "Moshi" listed Zhang Yu as a person of the Tang Dynasty and Chen Yun as a person of the Song Dynasty.For example, it is said that "when you meet ink, you have a title to inspire the year".Guangqi is the reign title of Emperor Xizong of Tang Dynasty, from 885 to 888 AD.It is also said that "it is said that Zhang Yumo is a thing at the end of Tang Dynasty".From this point of view, Zhang Yu was from the late Tang Dynasty.On the other hand, such as "Moji" and "Mozhi", Zhang Yu is clearly listed as a Song person.In addition, it is not certain whether Zhang Yu is only one person. "History of Mohism" says: "Yu's son is named Gu, but Yunyichuan commoner, so it is suspected that there is someone with the same name." From the above, it is difficult to determine what era Zhang Yu was from and whether he was the same person.But when it comes to Zhang Yu who "used oil fume", it is clear that he "used oil fume" in "Song Xi and Feng Jian". "Siku Quanshu Zongmu" said: "The ancient inks are all pine smoke, and Li Tinggui in the Southern Tang Dynasty began to use tung oil. Later, Yang Zhen and Chen Daozhen all described their methods. Since the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, the system of pine smoke has gradually disappeared, but It is the law alone.” The article clearly pointed out that Li Tinggui in the Southern Tang Dynasty had begun to “use tung oil as well”, and when Li Tinggui’s ink was made, most of them lack historical records, but in the “History of Ink”, there is an ingot of ink that reads: 'It was built by Li Tinggui, an official in Shezhou who entered ink in the first year of Baoda'." "Baoda" is the year name of Li Jing, the leader of the Southern Tang Dynasty.The Southern Tang Dynasty was founded by Li Sheng in 937 AD and died in 975 AD.The first year of Baoda was 943 AD, which belonged to the early Southern Tang Dynasty. "History of Mohism" also said: "In the past, the Li family was famous in the south of the Yangtze River with ink, and met with a wonderful way." In general, Zhang Yu's life will not be earlier than Li Tinggui. , is later than Li Tinggui.Furthermore, and more importantly, "you get the right method when you encounter a wonderful one", does this "method" include the method of "combining tung oil"?From the word "beginning" in the "Siku Quanshu Zongmu" that "Li Tinggui began to use tung oil in the Southern Tang Dynasty", the lampblack ink was invented by Li Tinggui in the early Southern Tang Dynasty.Li Tinggui carried on the past and opened up the future. He is not only the master of pine smoke ink collection, but also the pioneer of a new ink source - lampblack ink.Li Tinggui is actually the ancestor of "Hui ink" and the father of lampblack ink.Li Tinggui is known as the "Mo Sage" in the history of ink.