For thousands of years, scholars occupied a position of special esteem in Chinese society, and their values are reflected in tools such as this ingenious inkstone, which combines utility and artistry. In this small sculpture, a dragon emerges from a chain of mountains—the traditional home of the immortals. Hidden behind the textured, craggy mountains, a bowl for water is connected by a hole to the dragon’s mouth. To use the inkstone, the writer would tilt it forward, allowing water to flow from the dragon’s mouth onto the smooth, flat incline. Next, an ink stick was rubbed against the wet surface to make the ink before taking it onto a brush.
This inkstone documents an important technical transformation. China’s earliest known ink was made from pine soot, which was formed into small pellets that had to be crushed upon a hard surface—the inkstone—then diluted with water. Centuries later, artisans used glue to shape the pine soot into sticks or cakes, an innovation probably inspired by an imported method for making cosmetics. Rubbing the end of the stick on a wet surface dissolved the glue, creating a fluid ink. The inclined surface here suggests that this may be one of the first inkstones designed for the new technology. It is an extremely rare type, one of only three known in the world; its maker’s fingerprint is preserved on the underside.
Brush, ink, inkstone, and paper are known as the Four Treasures of a Scholar’s Study.
