Huizhou Ink Making Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
According to extant historical records, the production of Huimo (Anhui ink) can be traced back to the late Tang dynasty, and it reached its zenith through the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. Among the four great ink-making masters of the Qing dynasty, two—Wang Jinsheng and Hu Kaiwen—hailed from Jixi County, and Hu Guobin, the renowned ink-mold woodcarving artisan of the late Qing and early Republican era, was also a native of Shangzhuang in Jixi County. They were representative bearers of the Huimo ink-making craft during the Qing and Republican periods, and their descendants continue to this day to carry forward the essence of the Huimo craft in the local area.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The invention of ink was a major contribution of our ancestors to Chinese culture and indeed to world civilization. Fine Huimo ink made with traditional craftsmanship has many merits: some is 'as hard as jade, with grain like rhinoceros horn, able to write dozens of scrolls without consuming a fraction of an inch'; some is 'fragrant to the very marrow, its scent undiminished even when ground to the last'; some is 'made from pine soot, with chosen fine glue, pounded with pestle force… leaving no residue in the inkstone'; some is 'hard as stone, grained like rhinoceros, black as lacquer, one spiral worth ten thousand coins'; some is 'so lustrous it can be used as a mirror, so sharp it can cut, its virtue comparable to jade, dense and unyielding. The carving workmanship and the ingenuity of its mounting are all perfectly beautiful.' The Huimo ink-making craft is complex; different schools have their own unique secret techniques that are not passed on to outsiders, and even within one school, different production processes are used for different ink-making raw materials. For instance, tung oil, hemp-seed oil, and raw lacquer each have their own distinctive methods of refining, smoke tapping, cooling, collection, and storage; the construction of the pine-soot kiln, the firing, the timing and quantity of pine-branch addition, the smoke collection, glue selection, glue boiling, ingredient mixing, and compounding each have their own secret formulas. Thus produced, Huimo ink is characterized as light to pick up, clean to grind, fragrant to smell, hard as jade, silent when ground, inky as lacquer in a single touch, and able to preserve its true color for millennia.
Burning and collecting the smoke
Each of tung oil, sesame oil and raw lacquer has its own burning, cooling, collecting and storing method; Wang Aijun kept the traditional lamp method.
Firing the pine-soot kiln
The kiln's design, firing method and the timing and quantity of pine branches are each a trade secret; a little heat shifts the quality of the soot.
Selecting and boiling the glue
After the soot is gathered, glue is selected and boiled; its clarity and thickness decide whether the ink stays hard and leaves no residue in the inkstone.
Mixing and forming the ink cake
After mixing, the paste is pounded into a cake; without enough pounding the ink stays loose, and the finest pure-oil-soot inks depend on this stage.
Carving the ink moulds
The carved mould determines the shape and pattern; comparing old collected moulds with modern ones is what yielded his dense, lustrous inks.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Huimo is a unique flower among China's ink-making crafts; it has distinctive features, unique techniques, a great variety of schools and types, and rich scientific and technological content, and occupies an important place in the history of Chinese ink-making.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Huizhou Ink Making Craftsmanship · Huizhou Ink Making Craftsmanship · Huizhou Ink Making Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
However, owing to insufficient raw materials and a lack of succeeding craftsmen, the future of Huimo production is worrying, and the related craftsmanship is in danger of being lost, urgently requiring rescue and protection. Wang Aijun (from the official archive of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in February 1965, from Jixi County, Anhui Province. Representative inheritor of the national-level intangible cultural heritage item 'Huimo Ink-Making Craft' (third batch). From childhood he was immersed in the craft and developed a strong interest in ink-making. In 1983 he joined the Jixi County Hu Kaiwen Ink Factory to work on Huimo production, and soon mastered multiple process steps including glue making, smoke refining, ingredient mixing, formulation, and ink forming. To promote the ink-making craft, while inheriting the traditional lamp-oil smoke refining and handmade ink methods, he collected and organized ancient ink molds, compared them with modern molds, and developed a superfine pure oil-soot ink of fine quality—its color lustrous enough to serve as a mirror, firm to the touch, and firm and moist on paper—bringing the Huimo craft to a high level. As a folk artisan carrying forward the Huimo craft, he has long devoted himself to the making and transmission of Huimo and the training of succeeding talent.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Zhou Meihong 01-0186
- Wang Aijun 03-1334
- Lu Jianqing 04-1859
- Wang Peikun 05-2769
- Xiang Desheng
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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