Inkstones served a great influence on East Asia as they occupied “a conspicuous place in the early Qing political project” (3). Not only were emperors of the time very materialistic and would do anything to obtain certain materials, but the ink was used by members of the imperial family in their daily transactions. My classmate, Jose, emphasized that the materials were created under sophisticated craftsmanship and the emperors took action in hiring and recruiting experts to work for them. I think that the fact that emperors were for once not afraid of appearing too materialistic exhibits their dedication towards the objects and their utmost desire to produce the most ideal items. The Qing, Ming, and Song emperors spent a great deal of time supervising the making of different projects in art which further shows how much they cared about the material composition of the objects being made.
Inkstones were “most often made from specifically harvested stones, hewn from quarries to be designed, carved, polished, sold, commissioned, used to grind ink, washed, repaired, gifted, sold, stolen, collected, admired, studied, written on, written about, lost, and forgotten” (3). It is commonly known that the Duan quarries produced the highest quality inkstones which consisted of mica, clay and silica. As the process of creating inkstones requires lots of handiwork skills, Dorothy Ko, a well-known author famous inkstone maker herself, stresses the importance of producing the artwork firsthand in order to better understand the art form and adopt a personal aspect as fulfilling the role of a creator of the art form. The fact that there is limited information available about Ko supports the idea of the lack of visibility that the artisans had. I am curious as to if better insight on the creators of the material objects, as opposed to the commissioners, would allow us to learn more about the gender discrimination, as well as the social hierarchy that existed during the time period. I have noticed a common theme across the weeks of the minimal documented records of what occurred during history and I believe that this obscures the knowledge we have of the past.
Three things I learned this week:
- Early Qing emperors were very materialistic and put a lot of time and effort into supervising the making of different art projects.
- Duan quarries were known for producing the highest quality ink stones that consisted of mica, clay and silica.
- Men were known for fulfilling the retail work of the business, whereas women were responsible for making the inkstones.
Works Cited
Podcast: New Books in East Asian Studies, interview with Dorothy Ko, author of The Social Life of Inkstones.
Ko, Dorothy. The Social Life of Inkstones : Artisans and Scholars in Early Qing China. A Study of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute Columbia University. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2017.
