Mòpǔ fǎshì 墨譜法式
Treatise on Ink: Methods and Forms by 李孝美 (Lǐ Xiàoměi, 撰)
About the work
The first systematic monograph on the technology and connoisseurship of Chinese ink — the foundational text of the mòpǔ 墨譜 (ink-treatise) tradition. Composed by the otherwise-obscure Lǐ Xiàoměi 李孝美 zì Bóyáng 伯揚 with prefatorial date Shàoshèng 2 (1095). The work survives in three juàn: the first on the practical processes of ink-making (collection of pine-wood, kiln-construction, fire-starting, smoke-collection, blending, mould-pressing, lime-treatment, polishing, testing — eight illustrated procedures); the second on sixteen makers’ marks (the seal-and-decoration patterns of the sixteen most famous historical ink-makers, including Zǔshì 祖氏, Xī Tíngguī 奚庭珪, Lǐ Chāo 李超, Lǐ Tíngguī 李廷珪, etc.); the third on eleven formulas (the recipes for ox-hide glue, deer-horn glue, reduced glue, Jìgōng formula, Wéi Zhòngjiāng formula, Tíngguī formula, old-ink, oil-soot ink, etc. — totaling actually twenty distinct recipes when each variant is counted).
Tiyao
We submit that the Mòpǔ fǎshì is in three juàn by Lǐ Xiàoměi of the Sòng. Xiàoměi, zì Bóyáng, self-styled himself a man of Zhàojùn — apparently following the Táng custom of citing the clan-place — we cannot know which place he actually came from; his career-and-office is likewise not detailed. The work has a preface by Mǎ Juān 馬涓 of the Shàoshèng yǐhài year (1095) and a preface by Lǐ Yuányīng 李元膺, agreeing with what the Wénxiàn tōngkǎo records. However, both prefaces give the title as Mòpǔ, while the Tōngkǎo gives it as Mòyuàn 墨苑 — the two are mutually contradictory. Now within the book the two sections on “ash-removal” (chūhuī 出灰) and “polishing-testing” (móshì 磨試) are annotated as “from the Mòyuàn” — so the Mòyuàn is a separate work, and the Tōngkǎo is mistaken. The upper juàn contains the eight illustrations: pine-collection, kiln-making, fire-starting, smoke-collection, blending, mould-pressing, ash-stewing, ash-removal, polishing-and-testing. The middle juàn contains sixteen makers — Zǔshì, Xī Tíngguī 奚庭珪, Lǐ Chāo 李超, Lǐ Tíngguī 李庭珪, Lǐ Chéngyàn 李承宴, Lǐ Wényòng 李文用, Lǐ Wéiqìng 李惟慶, Chén Yún 陳贇, Zhāng Yù 張遇, Shèngshì 盛氏, Chái Xún 柴珣, Xuāndào 宣道, Xuāndé 宣德, Měngzhōu tribute-ink, Shùnzhōu tribute-ink, and unknown-makers — each with an illustration of the seal-face (miàn tú 面圖) and worn-face (màn tú 漫圖). It distinguishes Xī Tíngguī and Lǐ Tíngguī as two different persons, holding that Xī falls far below Lǐ — strongly opposing the Nántángshū report that Xī Tíngguī was bestowed the surname Lǐ (i.e., they are the same person). The basis for this is unclear; we merely record it for the sake of broader-knowledge. The lower juàn records ox-hide glue, deer-horn glue, reduced-glue, the Jìgōng formula, the Yì Zhòngjiāng formula, the Tíngguī ink, old ink, oil-soot ink — describing medicinal-ingredients and glue, eleven methods (but ox-hide glue has two methods, Tíngguī ink has two methods, old ink has three, and oil-soot ink has six — totaling twenty methods in fact). His discussion is everywhere refined-and-exact, with subtle principle. Since the Míng, oil-soot has become dominant and pine-soot manufacture has long disappeared; what Xiàoměi discusses cannot be used by present persons, but the old methods and old forms are preserved by means of it — what a broadly-learned person ought to know. Submitted Qiánlóng 46 month 10 (1781). (Note: the Sìkù combined tíyào covers this work plus the following Mòjīng by Cháo Guànyī, KR3i0011. The Mòjīng portion of the tíyào is preserved in KR3i0011.)
Abstract
The Lǐ Yuányīng preface gives us the personal-biographical context: Lǐ Bóyáng “loves ink: he hears of someone with fine ink and seeks to see it without regard for distance; he has collected nearly one hundred pieces of old ink, finely-textured and sounding clear when struck, glossy as lacquer when tested; he has personally gone to Lǔshān 魯山 (in Hénán) to interview the ink-makers and field-workers on the methods of collection-and-manufacture.” This direct field-research grounds the work; the technical descriptions of juàn 1 are first-person witness reports.
The composition date is firmly 1095 (Shàoshèng 2) from the Mǎ Juān preface. The eight illustrations of juàn 1 are foundational documents of Chinese ink-making technology; the jǔmò (mould-pressing) and rùhuī (lime-treatment) procedures, with the technique of placing the soft pre-set ink-cakes in dry lime-ash to absorb residual moisture, are first illustrated here.
The work is later but in the same tradition as Sū Yìjiǎn’s Wénfáng sìpǔ 文房四譜 KR3i0002 (the mòpǔ portion of which is one juàn); but Lǐ’s coverage is far more technical and detailed. It is the principal source for the lineage of Sòng ink-makers, especially the Lǐ Tíngguī 李廷珪 / Xī Tíngguī 奚廷珪 question (the Nántángshū tradition that Xī Tíngguī was a Southern Tang Lǐ Yù courtier who received the imperial surname Lǐ — and so was renamed Lǐ Tíngguī — is here independently rejected, perhaps incorrectly, on the basis of Lǐ Xiàoměi’s personal evaluation of the surviving Tíngguī marks).
Translations and research
- Franke, Herbert. 1962. “Ein chinesischer Beitrag zur Tuschebereitung im 12. Jahrhundert”. Oriens Extremus 9.
- Tsien Tsuen-hsuin 錢存訓. 1985. Paper and Printing. Vol. V part 1 of Joseph Needham’s Science and Civilisation in China. Cambridge UP. The standard treatment of the Sòng ink-treatises.
- Mèng Fànjūn 孟繁君. 2008. Zhōng-guó gǔ-dài mò-shǐ 中國古代墨史. Běijīng: Wén-wù chū-bǎn-shè.
Other points of interest
The work is one of three principal Sòng mòpǔ — alongside KR3i0011 Mòjīng by Cháo Guànyī and KR3i0012 Mòshǐ by Lù Yǒu (元) — and the only one with technical illustrations. The eight illustrations are the standard source for Sòng ink-making procedure. The reference to Lǔshān 魯山 as a centre of ink-making is notable: the Hénán pine-soot industry, centred on Lǔshān (in modern Píngdǐngshān 平頂山) and the Yīluò 伊洛 region, was the leading northern producer until eclipsed by the Huīzhōu (oil-soot) industry in the Míng.