Chapter 12 Section 7 Types and Production of Ink

The types of ink can be generally divided into two categories, namely practical ink and ornamental ink. Practical ink can be divided into calligraphy and painting ink and medicinal ink that can also be used for medical purposes.In calligraphy and painting ink, it can be divided into black ink and colored ink.Black ink is the ink commonly used in calligraphy and painting; colored ink includes cinnabar ink, colorful ink, etc., which are inks in a broad sense. Regarding the production of ancient ink, Wei Dan's "Combining Ink Method" has been introduced earlier.Books such as Li Xiaomei's "Mo Pu" in the Song Dynasty and Chao Guanzhi's "Mo Jing" in the Song Dynasty mainly introduced the production methods of pine smoke ink; books such as Shen Jisun's "Ink Law Collection" in the Ming Dynasty introduced the production methods of oily smoke ink.Some are accompanied by illustrations.

Ancient ink making is roughly divided into the following steps: collecting materials, kiln building, coal (smoke) extraction, mixing agent, forming, ash in, ash out, and trial grinding, a total of eight processes.The first three processes are to place raw materials such as pine and paulownia in a closed and airtight kiln room, so that they are not fully burned and the smoke is gasified.Then it is condensed into "smoke"; the fourth compounding agent is to add various ingredients in a certain proportion according to a certain formula, and stir evenly; forming is to pound the stirred billet into powder and extrude; Ash-in and ash-out is to put the newly made ink ingot into grass ash to "shade (yinyin) ink" and let it dry slowly; the last item is to test the quality of the ink after grinding.

The ink-making process introduced in "Mo Pu" is: picking pine, kiln building, firing, coal extraction, blending, ash in, ash out, and trial grinding. "Mofa Collection" is divided into more detailed, including: soaking oil, water basin, oil lamp, smoke bowl, lamp plant, burning smoke, sifting smoke, melting glue, using medicine, searching smoke, steaming agent, pestle pounding, weighing There are 21 processes including agent, tempering, ball rolling, sample making, ash in, ash out, pool, research and test, and printing off.

The two books "Mopu" and "Mofa Jiyao" discuss the methods and theories of ancient ink making. An invaluable document on craft technology.