What are the historical stories about Four Treasures of the Study?

Tracing back to the historical origin of Four Treasures of the Study, we can't help but mention the Zhou, Qin, Han and Tang Dynasties at the peak of China's history, and the capitals of these four dynasties are all in Shaanxi, and Guanzhong has been the capital of emperors since ancient times!

Let's talk about the first pen in Four Treasures of the Study. There is a saying that "Meng Tian makes a pen". As a general of the Qin Dynasty, Meng Tian is said to have arrived in Zhongshan when Wang Jian destroyed Chu. Seeing that Zhongshan Rabbit is fat and long, and can be used as a raw material for pen making, he changed the original pen making system, unified the name of the brush, and began to call it "Meng Tian Pen". The uploading of history books began in Cang Xie with a history of 5,000 years. As a historian of the Yellow Emperor, Cang Xie is said to have created Chinese characters and is the ancestor of Chinese characters. Cang Xie, a native of Shaanxi, entered Cang Xie Temple, a key cultural relic protection unit in the State Council.

There are different historical legends about pens. The earliest pen is the Spring and Autumn Pen unearthed from the tomb of Zeng Houyi in Suizhou, Hubei Province, followed by the Warring States Pen unearthed from Zuojiagongshan in Changsha, Hunan Province, the Qin Pen unearthed from Yunmeng Shuihudi in Hubei Province and Fangmatan in Tianshui, Gansu Province. However, before the Qin Dynasty, the brush had many names, such as "Fu" and "Stone Method". Even in the later Tang Dynasty, Han Yu nicknamed the brush "Mao Ying". It can be said that after the Qin Dynasty unified the world, the characters, weights and measures, cars on the same track and books in the same language were unified, and the writing tools of characters were collectively called "pens". This work was probably managed by Meng Tian, and it was only in history that the saying "Meng Tian made pens" came into being. Meng Tian, a general of the Qin Dynasty, together with Prince Fu Su, organized troops to guard the Great Wall in northern Shaanxi to resist the Huns, and was later suspended by Hu Hai and Reese. There are Fu Su and Mengtian Tomb in Suide, northern Shaanxi.

The second Four Treasures of the Study is ink. In early application, ink was mainly natural mineral graphite, or semi-natural charcoal and boiler ash. Painted pottery, Oracle Bone Inscriptions, bamboo slips and silk books all have traces of original ink. As for hand-made ink, according to Ying Shao's "Han Guan Yi" in the Eastern Han Dynasty, "Minister, servant, honesty and lang give a lot of ink and a little ink." This "block" almost refers to the present Yuanbao. Bai Weiling is located in Qianyang, Shaanxi, close to Zhong Nanshan, and there are many Gu Song in the mountains. The ink produced here should be from early Song Yanmo.

Of course, the history of ink painting is also very rich. After the Han Dynasty, when there were the Three Kingdoms Wei Dynasty, Wei Xian, who was "a bit like lacquer", made ink. In the Tang dynasty, there were officials and factories, and there were officials and ancestors who specialized in ink. In the Southern Tang Dynasty of the Five Dynasties, the fine ink made by Yi's father and son was "rich in muscle but greasy in reason, and shiny as paint". Appreciated by Li Yu, the queen of the Southern Tang Dynasty, he was named Li, known as "Li Yan Simo" in history. This should be the ancestor of Huimo handed down from generation to generation.

Paper is one of the four great inventions in ancient China, and it is the most brilliant contribution made by China people to the world and human civilization. According to historical records, the history of paper was invented by Cai Lun in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Cai Lun's fief Longting is in Yangxian County, Shaanxi Province, and Cailun Tomb is in Yangxian County. There is a Caihou Temple built in the Eastern Han Dynasty and rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty.

Although many paper cultural relics have been unearthed in archaeological excavations in recent years, Baqiao velvet unearthed in the archaeological excavation of Xi Baqiao in Shaanxi in the middle of the Western Han Dynasty is a kind of plant fiber paper long before Cai Lun. Of course, this can't deny the historical conclusion of Cai Lun's papermaking, because Cai Lun, as an ancient scientist in China, is an innovator of papermaking technology, and the high-quality paper he supervised is called "Cai Hou Paper". However, the appearance of Baqiao Paper undoubtedly proved that Chang 'an, the capital of the Western Han Dynasty, was the political and cultural center at that time, which was the historical source of paper.

Four Treasures of the Study's last treasure is an inkstone. Ink stone is a tool for grinding ink, also known as ink stone. The age of this inkstone has not been verified. In the book of inkstones written by Song Lizhi, "The Yellow Emperor got a new jade buckle and ruled the ink sea. The seal script on it reads:' Di Hong's inkstone' ". It is hard to believe that inkstone originated from the Yellow Emperor. The academic circles basically believe that inkstone originated from the grinding tools of Neolithic Age, namely grinding disc and grinding rod. An inkstone with a cover, a concave surface, a stone pestle and a few pieces of black pigment beside it was unearthed in Jiangzhai primitive tribal site in Lintong, Shaanxi, which should be the earliest prototype of inkstone in China.

The history of Four Treasures of the Study, pen, ink, paper and inkstone has a very deep origin with Shaanxi. When I think about it, I am really proud of Shaanxi's unique and prominent position in the cultural history of China.

In the contemporary traditional sense, Four Treasures of the Study is represented by tiger skin, Hui ink, Xuan paper and Duan inkstone, so the original place of the main picture of stamps is also designated as the origin of the above four kinds. But I don't think it is complete. If we change our thinking and explore the origin from the historical source of Four Treasures of the Study, it will be surprising and unexpected if we can form philatelic products with actual philatelic products.