Inkstone Making Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
The Sizhou inkstone takes its name from the old name 'Sizhou' for Cen'geng County, while the stone itself had other older names, being anciently called the Manxi inkstone and the Venus inkstone. Xie Shenxiu's Qing-dynasty 'Xie's Inkstone Study, Volume 3, Inkstone Notes' records the 'Manxi Inkstone' as saying that this stone is 'like iron net and coral, and came from the Manxi of the Han'; this ties the stone's origin to the Manxi area of the Han dynasty, which matches the deep-gorge, secluded-valley mountain geology of the present-day Longjiang River and Long'ao River basins of Cen'geng. The water-moistened Venus stone was nurtured in just such geology, showing a bone-needle scale structure, with a stone body hard, moist, and jade-like, and golden star-like specks shimmering within—the unique raw material for making the Sizhou inkstone. This thread from stone vein to inkstone history makes the origin of the Sizhou inkstone appear in literature earlier than ordinary local inkstone types. The succession of names from Manxi inkstone and Venus inkstone to Sizhou inkstone reflects the historical process by which this region went from 'barbarian land' to prefectural administration, and also shows that the inkstone's name changed with its administrative designation; the ancient names Manxi inkstone and Venus inkstone and the present name Sizhou inkstone refer to the same stone vein, the former recording its place of origin and stone-color characteristics, the latter recording its affiliated prefecture and craft affiliation.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Sizhou inkstone making technique is a traditional inkstone making craft circulating in Cen'geng County of the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province, named after Cen'geng County's ancient designation 'Sizhou'. The deep-gorge, secluded-valley karst geology of the Longjiang and Long'ao river basins within Cen'geng, nurtured over hundreds of millions of years, formed the water-moistened Venus stone; this stone shows a bone-needle scale structure, with a body hard, moist, and jade-like, and golden star-like specks shimmering within—the unique raw material for making the Sizhou inkstone. The Sizhou inkstone making process is complex and exquisite, mainly consisting of four steps—quarrying, inkstone making, polishing, and box fitting—and going through fifteen operations such as site selection, stone testing, extraction, stone selection, transport, storage, material selection, blank forming, composition, carving, polishing, burnishing, cleaning, inscription, and box fitting. The making tools are divided into three categories—quarrying, carving, and polishing—nearly forty kinds; among them, the chisel (zan), the main carving tool alone, comes in types such as pointed-mouth, square-mouth, flat-mouth, round-mouth, hooked, and oblique-mouth. During making, according to the differing positions, shapes, sizes, and internal-external appearances of the Venus specks in the stone, one works realistically or freely, striving to keep the Venus specks intact. In carving, traditional relief craft predominates, supplemented by flat carving; the superb technique ensures the three-dimensional effects presented by openwork carving, high relief, and piercing carving. The craftsmen mostly use intaglio relief to open recessed patterns on the inkstone face, and relief (raised) carving to make patterns protrude from the surface, adapting to difficult subjects such as pavilions, terraces, figures, and scenery; the inkstone outline includes lotus-leaf-edged ovals, single- and double-line-edged rectangles, single-line-edged fans, and edgeless natural forms, seeking the unity of practicality and art within variation; the inkstone shapes usually take the three great subjects of dragon-phoenix, birds-beasts, and flowers-plants as three-dimensional images, presenting nearly a hundred patterns such as 'Four Dragons Playing in the Sea', 'Magpies on Plum Blossoms', and the 'Eight Scenes of Sizhou', rich in meaning. The Sizhou inkstone was anciently called the 'Manxi inkstone' and the 'Venus inkstone'. Xie Shenxiu's Qing-dynasty 'Xie's Inkstone Study, Volume 3, Inkstone Notes' records the 'Manxi Inkstone' as saying: 'This stone is like iron net and coral, and came from the Manxi of the Han.' The Sizhou inkstone making technique was nurtured in the ancient Southwest of China and is an emotional bond and cultural symbol of the fusion of the various ethnic groups of that region.
Archival Process Records
The Sizhou inkstone making process is complex and exquisite, mainly consisting of four steps—quarrying, inkstone making, polishing, and box fitting—and going through fifteen operations such as site selection, stone testing, extraction, stone selection, transport, storage, material selection, blank forming, composition, carving, polishing, burnishing, cleaning, inscription, and box fitting.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Its pattern content takes local myths and legends as its subject matter, preserving the cultural symbols of the various ethnic groups, integrating calligraphy, painting, and seal-engraving art, and carrying the local history, humanities, and artistic information, possessing high cultural value.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At present this technique relies mainly on master-apprentice transmission, supplemented by group transmission through workshops and cooperatives. Cen'geng County now has more than 160 people engaged in Sizhou inkstone making; the provincial- and municipal-level representative inheritors of this item and the related inheriting groups have long focused on technique transmission, promoting the project's protection work through taking apprentices, opening factories, and establishing transmission bases. The Sizhou inkstone readily produces ink, the stored ink does not easily dry up, breathing on it produces dew, and it keeps long without odor, possessing high practical value.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Zou Hongli 03-1394
- Lin Yongmao 03-1395
- Li Maodi 03-1396
- Yan Senlin 04-1895
- Lusuozhong 05-2828
- Lin Tao
- Lai Jianhua
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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