[Explanation] Pen, ink, paper, and inkstone are known as the "Four Treasures of the Study" in China. As a witness and recorder of the history of Chinese civilization, its birth has brought China into the era of using the "Four Treasures of Study" to record history and express emotions, and Created Chinese-style calligraphy and painting.
What are the contributions of the "Four Treasures of the Study" to the progress of human civilization?
How can it become a "window" for the world to understand China?
Recently, Tang Shukun, director of the Four Treasures Craft Inheritance Base of the Ministry of Education of China and a professor at the University of Science and Technology of China, accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency "East and West Questions".
[Explanation] Tang Shukun said that Chinese brushes are soft pens, made of animal hair, soft and elastic.
In China's written record and expression system, the brush has never left its place, and it has a history of more than 2,000 years.
[Concurrent] Tang Shukun, Director of the Four Treasures of the Chinese Literature Craft Inheritance Base of the Ministry of Education and Professor of the University of Science and Technology of China
China is actually a system of brushes. It is a soft brush and an animal brush.
This animal writing brush has such a soft elastic band and such a way of writing. Even today, we will find that whether it is a pen, a water pen or a pencil, it can't actually replace the writing effect of a brush.
We especially say that in the calligraphy system, the painting system, and the oriental painting system, we now say that the hard pen is definitely irreplaceable.
[Explanation] The earliest paper in the world was born in China.
In 105 AD, Cai Lun systematically summed up the original papermaking technology since the Western Han Dynasty and made substantial improvements to create a plant fiber paper that has reached the practical level of writing, which is called "Caihou Paper" in history.
The emergence of Chinese paper has brought human civilization into the "era of paper".
[Concurrent] Tang Shukun, Director of the Four Treasures of the Chinese Literature Craft Inheritance Base of the Ministry of Education and Professor of the University of Science and Technology of China
Before we passed on paper, we knew that different countries used different things.
Although, for example, sheepskin is also used, and papyrus is also used.
We think that it (Caihou paper) has been pulped, which is very important. In fact, it breaks up the microscopic fiber structure, which is not available in papyrus.
French paper, English paper, German paper are all very good, Italian paper is also good, watercolor paper is also very good, I think it is like this from the system, because it is painted in watercolor, so it is not the same as Chinese paper Yes, because Chinese painting is actually more about moisturizing ink.
The watercolor paper and gouache paper we see now, I said that the paper used for this kind of art is basically wood pulp and cotton pulp paper, so it is basically something of a modern and modern papermaking system. From the raw material to the way it is made into paper, it is not quite the same.
[Explanation] Tang Shukun said that the unique charm of the "Four Treasures of the Study", like other classic Chinese ideological systems, plays an important role in the stability of the Chinese civilization area and the inheritance of elements.
[Concurrent] Tang Shukun, Director of the Four Treasures of the Chinese Literature Craft Inheritance Base of the Ministry of Education and Professor of the University of Science and Technology of China
An expression system like the Four Treasures of the Study, because of its charm, after it has been experienced, it has a unique charm, and there are endless things that can be opened, so we will know that it is actually a classic like China. Like ideological design, I think it has a very big effect on the stability of the civilized area.
Because you have some classic forms, and you keep going down, everyone thinks it’s good, whether it’s insiders or outsiders, so everyone has such a persistence and identification, just like Europeans have always identified with the thinkers of ancient Greece and identified with the ancients. Like the Greek tragedy and comedy, this identity becomes a civilizational force, a spiritual source.
[Explanation] Tang Shukun told reporters that China's "Four Treasures of the Study" plays an important role in the cultural exchange between the East and the West. If people from different cultural areas in the world can actually experience the "Four Treasures of the Study" and the Chinese classic expression system, this will become their An important "window" to understand Chinese culture.
[Concurrent] Tang Shukun, Director of the Four Treasures of the Chinese Literature Craft Inheritance Base of the Ministry of Education and Professor of the University of Science and Technology of China
We are different from many countries. They express it in other ways. It has its own set of carrier forms similar to the Four Treasures of the Chinese Study.
So if you want to get acquainted with Chinese culture, for example, through the Four Treasures of the Study, you can feel it.
If I use this set of expressions to record myself, to present my mood, to reflect my family, to reflect changes, or to reflect something else, if I use a Chinese tool system as we call it, I think you may began to integrate into China.
Reporter Zhang Jun Chu Weiwei reports from Hefei, Anhui
Responsible editor: [Liu Xian]