One feature common to all four kinds of ink slabs is that the stone is hard and fine. Though hard, the stone is not dry. Though fine, it is not slippery. With a hard, smooth stone you can produce liquid ink easily by rubbing the ink stick against the stone. Because the stone is fine, but not slippery, it yields ink very quickly.
The ink slab’s fame lies in its beauty and style and good quality, usually decorated with various fancy pictures of things like dragons, phoenix, tortoises, mountains and water, figures, flowers and birds. In the past, it was a favorite collectable of celebrities. The Gansu authorities choose Tao Ink Slab as a present to the Special Administrative Government when Hong Kong officially returned to China in 1997. The most famous aspect of the ink slab is that when its lid is on, the lines and patterns of the original stone merge with the lid line to give the impression that the stone is whole.
Guangdong Duan Ink Slab
Produced in Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province in south China, duan ink slabs are another of the Four Famous Ink Stones.
According to historical documents, duan ink slabs were first produced during the Wude reign (618-626) of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). They are made of duan stone from the Duanxi River running along the foot of Lanke Mountain, hence the name. Famed for their fineness and for not harming the brush, duan ink slabs have earned a high reputation among Chinese scholars.
The procedure to make a duan ink slab has four steps: stone picking, selection, engraving and box matching; of which stone picking and engraving are the two most important. It is very hard to handpick flawless stones, and other alternative tools such as dynamite are forbidden. Engraving stresses the good origin and fine shape of the stones. Engravings are usually of flying dragons, flowers, birds, figures, mountains and water. The matching boxes are also very delicately chosen, and are often made of purple sandalwood and rosewood.
Duan ink slabs have various styles, and new-style products are designed one after another, such as doufang ink slabs -, engraved rectangular ink slabs and engraved natural ink slabs, etc. In recent years, lots of ink slabs with an old look have been produced to meet increased export demands.
Shanxi Chengni Ink slab
Last but not least are chengni ink slabs, produced in Xinjiang County, Shanxi Province in northern China. They differ from most other ink slabs because of the production methods. Instead of using a big chunk of hard rock, the stone is made from the soft soil from local riverbeds.
Chengni ink slabs originated in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and were then a precious tribute item. Unfortunately by the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the craft of kilning the once famous chengni ink slabs had already been lost for various reasons. It has regained its past prosperity after unremitting effort by craftsmen in recent years.
The very fine mud under the bed of the Fenhe River is filtered, mixed with binding material, dried and carved into ink slabs, then fired in the kiln. Because of the different minerals in the mud and also the different temperatures used in firing, the final products have different colors. The process has nine steps: mud selection, filtrating, depositing, molding, baking, carving, firing, waxing and polishing. chengni ink slabs have the following characteristics: they generate ink easily, they don’t harm the brush, and they are portable.
In terms of artistic design, chengni ink slabs now come in about a hundred different designs, with stress on patterns and shapes, using elegant and simple but beautiful colors.
Author: Jeff
(Source: chinaculture.org)
