There are four things necessary to the traditional Chinese study: brushes, ink, paper, and inkstone. Chinese use these four things to write and paint For a pen, we use a brush. The paper isn’t regular paper. It’s a special rice paper. It’s thinner than ordinary paper and very absorbent. Inkstone is used for grinding ink. There was a stone inkstone found in a 5,000-year-old archeological site in Shanxi Province. And Chinese ink comes in a stick.
The Four Treasures of the Study are of many kinds. But Hu brushes, Xuan paper, Hui ink and Duan inkstone have been considered best throughout the ages for Chinese calligraphy. The names came from the places where the brushes, paper, ink and inkstone were produced. For example, Xuan paper was produced in xuanzhou in anhui province. The paper is soft and fine textured, suitable for conveying the artistic expression of both Chinese calligraphy and painting. On the International Exposition held in Panama in 1915, Xuan paper got the first prize and hence made its fame worldwide.
