The Chinese Ink Stick

I know that THE CHINESE INK STICK is a scholarly academic book, because I discovered it in the stacks of the school library of the elementary school I attended. Others might think of THE CHINESE INK STICK as simply an illustrated children's book. THE CHINESE INK STICK inspired me to start collecting ink sticks while I was still in elementary school. However, the ink sticks I collected at the time were Japanese, because, diplomatically, China did not exist. Now that China exists, almost all of my ink sticks are Chinese. Then, I collected a few ink stones, but they were "student" ink stones. I didn't discover the existence and nature of quality ink stones until 1979, when I discovered a book entitled MI FU ON INK-STONES - now available, in a new printing, on AMAZON. Ink sticks, it turns out, form part of what the Chinese evocatively call the "Four Treasures of the Scholar's Study," i.e., ink sticks, ink stones, brush, and paper. As a result of THE CHINESE INK STICK, since childhood, I became hypnotized by Chinese art. In high school, I took a "college level" course on Chinese history - with a class total of four students. Diplomatically, China still did not exist. In my the last semester of college, I wrote a term paper on "Chinese Landscape Painting in the Southern Sung Dynasty" - considered to be the "golden age" of Chinese landscape painting. China still did not exist. Over my spring break during my final semester, I conducted my research for my term paper at the library of the Cleveland Museum of Art, which is reputed to have a strong collection of Asian art. The then-director of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Sherman E. Lee, was a specialist in Asian and Chinese art, and published books on the subject - available on AMAZON. Then things got dormant, until one of my periodic visits to the Free Gallery of Art on the "Mall' in Washington, D.C., in approximately 1979, at a time when the Freer was staging an exhibition of Chinese calligraphy. I was floored. I had always known about Chinese calligraphy, I had also studied Chinese painting as a hobby, but I never knew that Chinese calligraphy is considered to be an independent form of fine art! That exhibition at the Freer inspired me to an ongoing study of Chinese calligraphy, as a major hobby. During the Freer's exhibit of Chinese calligraphy, I telephoned Shen C. Y. Fu, the curator of Chinese art at the Freer Gallery of Art, who is also an accomplished calligrapher. My question: "Where can I obtain high quality Chinese ink sticks?'' Answer: "Bookstores in New York City's Chinatown." Click. Shen C. Y. Fu's book, TRACES OF THE BRUSH, is available on AMAZON. And all of my life, whenever I am in a new major city, I always visit Chinatown (hunting for ink sticks) - even in Toronto, Canada. All that, folks, from reading THE CHINESE INK STICK.

Interesting book about the "life" of an inkstick. It imagines the inkstick as a character and traces its life from shiny new to tattered remnant in the mud. Appears to have the flavor of a 1950's junior high school reader.

I read this book in 6th or 7th grade. I found it tucked away amidst books that looked like they hadn't been touched in years. The edition was hardcover and yellow in color, very uninteresting to the eyes. But I was drawn to it and I loved it. It was filled with wisdom that as a teenager I had never perceived before and it drew me in deeply. I ended up reading it twice, borrowing it from my school library that year and I've attempted to find a copy to own ever since. The life of the ink stick represents the lessons in life we all travel through. From the exciting to the mundane, happiness and fear. It's quite an adventure and now that I've found this copy I will definitely purchase it! If you want something that makes you think about life this is a great book and it's a great way to get young teens to think of something deeper than video games.