Mòjīng 墨經
The Ink Classic by 晁貫一 (Cháo Guànyī / Jìyī, 撰)
About the work
A one-juàn Northern-Sòng monograph on ink, attributed by Hé Wèi 何薳 (in his Chūnzhǔ jìwén) to Cháo Guànyī 晁貫一 (zì Jìyī 季一). One of the three principal Sòng mòpǔ — alongside KR3i0010 Mòpǔ fǎshì by Lǐ Xiàoměi and KR3i0012 Mòshǐ by Lù Yǒu — and the most theoretical of the three, with extensive discussion of materials (the various pines, the various glues), techniques, and the underlying chemistry of ink-formation. Preserved through Máo Jìn’s 毛晉 Jīndài mìshū 津逮祕書 (Míng), which gives the author only as “Cháoshì” 晁氏 — the identification with Jìyī rests on Hé Wèi’s report and on internal evidence about glue-craft, on both of which the Sìkù editors place reasonable confidence.
Tiyao
The tíyào for this work is part of the combined two-text tíyào introducing KR3i0010 Mòpǔ fǎshì; the Mòjīng portion (translated) reads: We submit that the Mòjīng in one juàn is in Máo Jìn’s Jīndài mìshū under the title “by Cháoshì 晁氏”, without giving the time-period or name. Various works that cite it likewise only say “Cháoshì Mòjīng*.” Investigating Hé Wèi’s* Chūnzhǔ jìwén*: “Cháo Jìyī had no other tastes in his life save that ink delighted him; the marks of his manufacture were inscribed* ‘Cháo Jìyī, Jìjìxuān manufacture’ — not inferior to Pān’s and Chén’s. He is also said to have, together with Hè Fānghuí, Zhāng Bǐngdào, and Kāng Wéizhāng, finely investigated the methods of glue-blending; his manufactures were all jade-disc-shaped (rú bì 如璧).” Now this book in discussing glue says: “If there be top-grade soot but the glue does not follow the method, the ink is also not good; if one obtains the method of glue, even though the soot be second-rate, it becomes fine ink.” This agrees with [Hé Wèi’s] statement of “finely-investigated glue-blending”. We suspect therefore that it is the work of Cháo Jìyī. However, Cháo Gōngwǔ’s [Cháo Jìyī’s nephew’s] Jùnzhāi dúshū hòuzhì records only a Dǒng Chéng mòpǔ in one juàn and not this book — it would seem improbable that he should not see his father’s-brother’s work. Investigating: the Hòuzhì catalog of the zǐbù section lists nine xiǎoshuō (novella), ten tiānwén lìsuàn (astronomy-and-calendrics), eleven bīngjiā (military), twelve lèijiā (category-books), thirteen záyì (miscellaneous-arts), fourteen yīshū (medical), fifteen shénxiān (immortal), sixteen shìshū (Buddhist); but the present recension after xiǎoshuō attaches Wángshì’s Shénxiān zhuàn and Gě Hóng’s Shénxiān zhuàn — without listing shénxiān in the headings — and immediately moves to the shìshū heading. This means the present text is missing five subdivisions of the zǐbù, including lèijiā — which is precisely where Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Mòpǔ note (the Hòuzhì records the Mòpǔ in lèishū) would have been. So its non-appearance is not unreasonable. Cháo Jìyī’s given name is Guànyī; he is of the brother-cohort of Cháo Shuōzhī. Zhū Biàn’s Fēngyuè táng shīhuà records his office once as jiǎntǎo, once as cháyuàn; we do not know what office he finally held. His career-and-affairs are likewise untraceable.
Abstract
The Mòjīng is — as its title proclaims — a quasi-canonical (jīng 經) treatment of its subject, modelled in form on the great TángSòng manuals of medicine and viticulture. Its theoretical seriousness — the chemistry of glue-and-soot — distinguishes it from Lǐ Xiàoměi’s more empirically-procedural KR3i0010 and from the later more biographical-historical Lù Yǒu Mòshǐ (KR3i0012). It is roughly contemporary with Lǐ Xiàoměi’s work (early Yuányòu through Chóngníng, c. 1080–1110), but predates it in its theoretical character.
The work is shaped by the Cháo family’s broader intellectual setting: the Cháo brothers were closely tied to the Sū Shì 蘇軾 circle (Cháo Bǔzhī 晁補之 was one of the Sūmén liù jūnzǐ 蘇門六君子, Sū’s “six gentleman-disciples”), and the technical-aesthetic sophistication of the Mòjīng reflects the Northern-Sòng elite ideal of the cultivated literatus who pursues a single material craft to its highest theoretical and practical expression. Cháo Jìyī’s own ink-marks, Cháo Jìyī Jìjìxuān zào 晁季一寄寂軒造, would have been familiar to Sū Shì, Mǐ Fú, and Huáng Tíngjiān; they are cited (always with high praise) in the connoisseurship literature of the next two centuries.
The work is also a major source on the Tang-Sòng ink-makers: the Chénshì 陳氏 (Chén Yún 陳贇), the Pānshì 潘氏 (Pān Gǔ 潘谷, the most famous Northern-Sòng commercial ink-maker, mentioned in Sū Shì’s poetry), the Zhāng Yù 張遇, and the family of Lǐ Tíngguī 李廷珪 are all discussed.
Translations and research
- Franke, Herbert. 1962. “Ein chinesischer Beitrag zur Tuschebereitung im 12. Jahrhundert”. Oriens Extremus 9. The principal Western-language study.
- Tsien Tsuen-hsuin 錢存訓. 1985. Paper and Printing. Vol. V part 1 of Needham’s Science and Civilisation in China. Cambridge UP. Treats the Mò-jīng extensively as a source.
- 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’s title Mòjīng (ink-classic) directly imitates the canonical title Chájīng 茶經 (Tea-Classic) of Lù Yǔ (KR3i0019) — establishing the convention by which a single-object monograph could claim jīng (classic) status. Later imitators include the Sòng Sǔnpǔ by Zànníng (KR3i0041) and several YuánMíng treatises.