Ancient inks were all black.

The ink in ancient China was not completely black, and there were other colors of ink, such as Bai Mo, yellow ink, green ink, blue ink, red ink, colored ink and colored gold ink. Ink can be divided into circular ink, oval ink, rectangular ink, half-moon ink, cylindrical ink, octagonal ink, flat ink, Aquarius ink, chime ink, waist ink, bird ink and so on. According to the purpose, it can be divided into ordinary ink, tribute ink, royal ink, homemade ink, rare ink, gift ink and so on.

How is ink made?

As an indispensable member of Four Treasures of the Study, Mohism came into being more than 2,000 years ago. As a country with a long history of 5,000 years, China is recognized as the first country to use ink in the world. According to relevant records, as early as the Western Han Dynasty, China began to use ink, and in the subsequent continuous development process, ink was derived.

In ancient times, ink was made by hand, and the main processes were cigarette refining, blending, making, drying and gold painting.

Smoke extraction: smoke is extracted from pine branches or oil by incomplete combustion to obtain pine smoke and oil fume respectively. When burning, the temperature, inlet and outlet should be strictly controlled, and the smoke collection time should be mastered to ensure the blackness, fineness, oil content and ash content of flue gas. Blending: first boil the glue with slow fire, then add the pigment raw materials and additive raw materials, fully stir and mash evenly. It is said that the mixture must be hammered to "100,000 pestles" repeatedly, so that the tobacco and binder can reach a fine and uniform degree and be made into a blank.

Production: the blank is rolled into seamless ink fruit according to the specifications, pressed into the ink mold to form various shapes, and exquisite decorative patterns and characters are printed on the ink surface.