Getting a good ink stick is even harder than getting gold.
There were 4 families in the Qing dynasty (1636-1912)
that were famous for making Hui ink sticks.
Cao Sugong’s family was the best.
We are Cao Sugong’s 15th generation descendants.
Ink, along with brush, paper, and inkstone,
are called the “Four Treasures of the Study.”
No Chinese calligrapher or painter can work without them.
Traditionally, people in China
used a solid ink stick instead of liquid ink.
This way, the ink lasts longer.
We are in Jixi to visit one of the country’s
most famous ink stick makers.
My name is Wang Guoping.
I’ve been making ink sticks for almost 40 years.
His ancestors, like many ink makers,
settled here during the Tang dynasty (618-907).
They moved from the center of China
to the Mount Huangshan area.
Trees here are rich in lacquer and oil,
which are used to make ink.
Wang started his ink factory in 1983,
when his second son Wang Nan was born.
Wang Nan is now the factory’s manager.
A good ink stick must be as hard as stone.
Its texture should be as smooth as a rhino’s skin,
and its surface as pure as jade.
A 50g (0.11 lb) ink stick takes about a year to make.
A 100g (0.22 lb) ink stick takes more than a year.
Ash is the main ingredient in ink sticks.
Ink makers collect the ash by burning candles
and trapping the ash it produces with a bowl.
The oil and lacquer from the trees are mixed
with lard to make candle wax.
The most important thing is to control the heat.
The size of the fire should be as big as a broad bean,
and then you just let it burn slowly.
We collect the ash after the candle burns for 25 to 30 minutes.
Otherwise the ash will become too hard,
and we can’t use it to make ink anymore.
There are about 200 oil lamps in this factory.
1 person can only manage around 100 lamps.
It’s a cycle. After you collect ash from the first bowl,
you have to pull the wick out a little bit and add some oil.
When you’re done with the hundredth lamp,
it’s time to collect ash from the first bowl.
So we can make 400g (0.88 lb) of ink
with the ash we collect in a day.
One other main ingredient is the glue made from cowhide.
Every few months,
the factories will stew cowhide to make the glue.
Traditional Chinese medicine
are used in 2 steps.
When the cowhide glue is ready,
we mix it with water brewed
with traditional Chinese medicine
instead of tap or purified water.
Some medicines add an aroma,
like comfrey, vanilla, lilac, and musk.
More expensive medicine
are ground and added when we pound the ingredients.
Bear bile makes the ink blacker and brighter.
We add gold leaves to brighten it,
and tuber fleeceflower to darken it.
Every type of medicine has its function.
Here’s a key step in the entire process:
Mixing and pounding the mixture.
This makes a difference to the quality of the ink sticks.
When we mix, we try to use less glue.
We use as little glue as we can,
but we need to make sure it's mixed well.
We use a traditional pounding method
to blend the ash and glue.
When a master pounds a piece of ink, it should become flat.
If you don't hold the hammer properly, or you don’t know
how much strength to use, the ink will turn out uneven.
Just by listening to the pounding sound,
even if you’re more than 10m away,
you can tell if this person is an experienced
or new ink maker.
To shape the ink, they use molds with patterns on them.
Drying the ink sticks
is like taking care of a newborn baby every day.
You have to watch how it changes.
It's good to do it in winter
because the moisture in the glue evaporates faster.
When the rainy season comes, they absorb a bit of moisture.
Then in autumn they’ll be dry.
Letting the ink sticks dry over the year is the best way.
After the ink sticks are dried,
they trim the edges and polish the ink sticks.
Finally, they decorate the ink sticks.
The paint is a mix of glue and powdered paint.
I've been around ink for as long as I can remember.
When my father opened this ink factory,
the brand name he used was my brother's name and my name.
My name is Wang Nan and my brother's name is Wang Min.
So our brand name is Minnan.
I started working here in 2006.
At first I worked for BYD.
I worked in a department where I did research
on raw materials for batteries.
Carbon and glue are raw materials used in batteries.
When I took over,
my experience helped me a lot
when I tried to improve the formula we use to make our inks.
I've been doing this for 9 years.
Even if you have a lot of money,
taking up a skill is still better.
We should learn this skill and continue what our ancestors did.
Not only do I need to work hard,
I also ask my two sons to do their best.
Actually, finding joy in doing traditional craftwork is very simple.
I make it, and someone else recognizes my hard work.
That’s the part that makes me the happiest.