How to identify a good inkstone?

The shape and sculpture school of Duanyan are different in different dynasties, which can be roughly divided into three types: natural Duanyan, coarse Duanyan and fine Duanyan. Natural inkstone will slightly change its shape when it is mined. The coarse and fine carvings of Duanyan are mostly based on celestial phenomena, landscapes, figures, animals and plants, and incorporate China's traditional painting and calligraphy skills into the carving art, which has the Lingnan characteristics of being bold and unconstrained in detail.

Guangdong ink stone should be appreciated from four aspects: texture, color, variety and workmanship.

unmerciful/ruthless

Duanyan was a tool for the ancients to grind ink, so the ancients appreciated Duanyan first to see whether it was inked. The key of ink is the quality of inkstone. Song dynasty; surname

Cai Xiang believes that ink is not easy to grind. Shine in the inkstone, rotate with the essay, and become clean, starting from the strength of the stone and not leaving it in the inkstone ear. An old friend uses easy-to-grind ink as ink (ink dropping), and ink is like oil as ink. The best inkstone is both ink and ink. Ji Nan, a Qing Dynasty man, taught people to appreciate stones by tapping the inkstone and distinguishing its sound in Duan Xi inkstone pool. He said: "The tender voice in the stone is clear. Those who are tender as mud are quiet. Dongpo (Su Shi) called it the stone of sound, and Mi Fei (Mi Fei) called it the clear buckle of rock. But the old man has a loud voice and does not send ink. " It can be seen that ink is the condition for appreciating Duan inkstone.

Stone color

The color of Duan inkstone is purple, but the color of inkstones in various pits is different. When observing, comparing and distinguishing the color of Duanyan, it is necessary to use a submerged stone (preferably a submerged view) to see clearly and accurately. For example, if you take a high-quality old pit inkstone and wet it with water, you will find that its color is purple-blue as the main tone of the inkstone. On the purple-blue tone, we can observe that the old pit inkstone is colorful, changeable, clear in texture, bright and pure. And its color seems to come from the inkstone, rather than floating on the surface. Therefore, it gives people the feeling that it is real but not empty, dignified and vigorous but not frivolous.

In addition, in different periods of mining inkstone, the stone layers have different trends and stone colors. The inkstone produced by the same inkstone pool in Duan Xi will not be exactly the same color due to different mining time or period. Even if mining is carried out at the same time, the color of inkstone in the same pit is slightly different due to different stone vein trends or different quarrying surfaces. According to historical records, most of the Duan Xi inkstones collected in the Tang and Song Dynasties are dark purple, so people always think that the color of the end stones is "noble blue" and "pale gray". Shuiyan (Old Pit), excavated in Ming Dynasty, has Daxi Cave and Shuigui Cave, but its stone color cannot be purple. It is based on purple blue, commonly known as sapphire blue, with cyan black, purple red and light yellow. The more colors, the richer and more valuable the purple and blue tones are.

To accurately distinguish, observe and appreciate the color of the end stone, natural light is the best. In addition to the famous "purple" inkstone pit, Duan Xi Stone also has a green end with a green tone and a white Bai Duan (such as the innocent inkstone). Green tail is a minority in Guangdong province, but it has a certain position in Guangdong province. Bai Duan is not suitable for grinding ink, and there is no "inking" or "no inking". It is mostly used to grind cinnabar, stone green, white lead (zinc) powder and other pigments needed for painting, and has not been carved in recent decades.

Listen to the sound of stone: high-quality inkstone materials are silent, some are "wood sound" and some are like "mud sound"

Touch: Touch the inkstone hall with your hands and touch the inkstone pool slowly. If it is a good stone, it feels delicate and moist, and it feels like touching a baby's skin.

Appreciating carving: Duanyan carving has a wide range of themes, but through carving, you can hide the flaws of the inkstone and highlight high-quality patterns, such as carving clouds near the big stone eye to create a poetic landscape with clouds around the moon. Some famous inkstones handed down from ancient times are rich in content, which is also one of the important contents of appreciating Duanyan. Some of them were written by famous calligraphers, adding a lot of color to the inkstone.

Shipin

Fish brain jelly

Fish brain jelly is the most delicate and smooth place in the inkstone, with Huang Lue blue in the white and grayish yellow in the white. The best fish brain jelly should be as white as a clear cloud, with light blue or lavender in the white and clear and thorough color. Artists who carve inkstones usually freeze fish brains in ink museums. The inkstone frozen with fish's brain is noble in texture, and the stone is particularly delicate, smooth and moist.

Banana leaf white

Banana leaf white, also known as banana white, is characterized by delicate color and slightly bluish yellow. The best banana leaf white is dewy and semi-circular.

Underglaze blue

Blue and white are tiny blue spots naturally growing in inkstone, which can only be exposed when it is wet. Fine, live and heavy blue and white flowers are the best, followed by rough, withered and exposed flowers. Those who cover the mirror with fine dust and soak the paper with ink are the best. The blue-and-white Duanyan stone is delicate, smooth and moist.

Horner

Fire, also known as fire, is named after its muscle color resembles fire or burning. Generally, it is distinguished by old and tender; Old people are purple with black, while young people are purple with red. Subdivision is rouge halo fire, ponytail fire, pork liver jelly, money fire and so on.

Red and black

The sky is clear as autumn rain, blue and boundless, and the color in Duanyan stone is slightly gray and pure.

jade

The jadeite in Duanyan Stone is in the shape of jadeite dots, oval dots or stripes, including jadeite patterns, jadeite spots, jadeite dots, jadeite stripes and jadeite jelly.

canning factory

Gold and silver thread, such as thread, stands obliquely or in inkstone. Yellow is gold thread and white is silver thread. The gold and silver thread is a unique stone pattern in the inkstone (Ma keng and Kengzi rock are occasionally found).

Ice particles

Ice lines are like waterfalls on a cliff, pouring down thousands of feet. There is a halo in the white, and it melts to both sides, like a line but not a line, like water. Ice grain is a unique stone grain of water rock (potholes and pockmarked pits are occasionally found, but rarely).

Quail spot

Partridge spot, also known as freckles, is an oval small spot scattered on the inkstone with different densities. Spots are yellow in white, brown in yellow or black in green, just like hair spots on partridges or sparrows, hence the name. Shiyan

Shiyan

This is a "stone core" that naturally grows in Duan Xi inkstone, like the eyes of birds and animals. The stone eyes of Duanyan are green, yellow-green, beige, yellow-white or pink-green, with different sizes ranging from 3 to 5 mm, and some are larger than 7-10 mm.

There are three differences in the eye shape of Duanyan stone: first, it is generally named after its shape, mostly after the eyes of birds and animals. For example, according to the Records of Zhaoqing in Wanli, there are six kinds of eye products, namely bird eye, Ying Ge eye, sparrow eye, corn eye, cat eye and mung bean eye. Second, there are so-called blind eyes, angry eyes, dead eyes, living eyes, tearful eyes and blinking eyes. Third, from the growth position of eyes, there are so-called high eyes, low eyes and bottom eyes. Liu, a bachelor of Ming Dynasty, thinks that living eyes are better than tears, and tears are better than dead eyes. The round bright layer of the living eye is dizzy, or the halo is just a little intermediate color; It is also considered that the upper eye is better than the middle eye and the middle eye is better than the lower eye. My eyes are on the inkstone, and the ink is not that good. The middle eye is in the ink and the lower eye is at the bottom of the pool.