Imre Jakabffy (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 8. (Budapest, 1984)

CHIA-JEN KECSKÉS, Lily: Art and connoisseurship of the ink

connoisseurs for their own collections or inkshop owners for sale. Of the former type are Hsiieh-t'ang mo p'in (Ink Collection of Snow Pavilion) in 1670, and Mant'ang mo p'in (Ink Collection of Man Pavilion) in 1684. Both give the name of the inkmaker for each ink, its title, design, date of manufacture, form, and number of pieces, and weight. The first catalog contains thirty^six items including Ch'eng Chün-fang's fragrant ink, Fang Yü-lu's dragon und unicorn inks. The number of thirty-six pieces was planned purposely in imitation of Su Shih who tested thirty-six inks and selected the best ones to form a set. Wu Shu-ta was said to have collected also thirty-six ink cakes but unfortunately all of them were lost, except the box. The author of Hsiieh-t'ang mo p'in, Chang Jenhsi, bought, in Huang-chou, the same amount of inks and put them in the box Wu left behind, and presented them to Sung Lo (1634—1713) who added thirtyfour more inks and compiled a supplementary catalog entitled Man-t'ang mo p'in, appended with two eulogies, one written by the scholar Wang Yuan and the other by Chang Jen-hsi. Of the other type of ink catalogs we find Mo-shih (Ink History) written by Ch'eng Yi (fl. 1662—1722), a native of Shehsien. An inkshop owner, Ch'eng was also a poet and painter. His catalog contains the titles of the inks, quality as to what kind of material was used, weights and prices, appended with eulogies of his inks by his friends.

28 Catalogs written by connoisseurs have been popular until very recent time Ssu chia ts'ang mo t'u lu (Illustrated Catalog of Four Ink Collections) is such an example. The catalog was handwritten and printed probably in the 1950's by the owners of the four ink collections: Chang Tzukao of Hupeh, Yeh Kung-ch'o of Kwantung, Chang Chiung-po of Chekiang, and Yin Jun-sheng of Peking. A total of eightyfour inks of the Ming and Ch'ing was listed with illustrations, giving descriptions of makers, inscriptions, forms, sizes, weights and decorations. Chang Tzu-kao listed eighteen ink pieces made by eighteen inkmakers, including Fang Yü-lu, Wang Ch'un-yüan and Wu Shu-ta. Yeh Kungch'o listed twenty-one ink pieces, including one piece from the imperial palace of the reign of Hsiian-teh, made by Ch'eng, Fang, and thirteen other inkmakers. The collection of Chang Chiung-po, called Ch'ien-hu-chii (Room of Thousand Tablets), also contained twenty-one pieces made by thirteen inkmakers. Yin Junsheng listed twenty-four ink cakes made by twelve inkmakers, such as Wu Shenpo, Wu Ch'ii ch'en and P'an Chia-k'o. A ten-piece ink set in different forms made by Ch'eng Kung-yü, is also included with the title of ,Clouds and Dew'. * * * Chinese ink for writing and painting is always in solid form, mostly in deep black color of almost an indestructible quality and lasting for thousand of years. From the very early periods ink was kept in leather bags, later from the fourteen century ink sticks were kept in artistically decorated lacquered boxes, not only to decorate the ink, but also to prevent ink from dampness. Chinese ink is rubbed on an inkslab, with little water added to form a thickish fluid and applied with a writing brush. The western inks are in liquid form and are contained in inkbottles or stands and are applied with a feather or metal pen. It was said that an early Greek ink was solid and kept dry and was sold in a dry state, but the ink writings there could easily be removed completely by 155