Research On Graphite Of Song Dynasty

Graphite was the writing instrument in ancient China.The ancient use of graphite experienced the use of natural graphite to the development of artificial graphite.Ancient people first discovered and used natural graphite,including mineral graphite,plant graphite and animal graphite.The use of mineral graphite can be traced back to the Neolithic age.No later than the end of the warring states period,the rise of artificial graphite began to develop to the Han Dynasty.Wei Jin Northern and Southern Dynasties is the development and maturity of artificial graphite-making technology.During the Sui,Tang and five dynasties,the flourishing period of graphite making,the area of graphite making was extended to the whole country.The focus of graphite making industry shifted from the north to the south in the late tang and five dynasties.Then,Xi Zhou of Anhui became the graphite making center.With the continuous improvement of graphite-making technology,some graphite-making masters emerge,such as Li Chao and his son,Li Ting gui and Li Ting kuan,etc.Li Ting gui and Li Ting kuan inherit their father's skills,which promotes the development of graphite-making industry.From the unearthed materials,it can be seen that in the Sui,Tang and five dynasties,the shape of graphite tended to standardize and finalize,to both ends of a circular strip of graphite for the main shape.The size of graphite ingot is larger.Graphite surface in ddition to stenciled patterns,but also a new feature of stenciled text.The system of Chinese graphite culture was perfected in the Song Dynasty.The production and consumption of graphite is the special basis of its cultural expression.In the Song Dynasty,pine-soot graphite and lampblack graphite both emerged.The production process of graphite is divided into two stages: the raw material preparation stage and the shaping stage.The raw materials for making graphite are principal raw materials and auxiliary materials.The principal raw materials are soot and glue.Auxiliary materials mainly have a variety of spices,Chinese herbal medicine,gold foil,jade,and so on.The quality of soot and glue on the quality of graphite plays a decisive role.To make pine-soot,first of all to choose good pine wood.After a long period of exploration,song people found that pine wood withhigh turpentine content is more conducive to soot production.Pine-soot is soot formed by the incomplete burning of pine.The production of pine-soot requires kilns,and there were planar kilns,vertical kilns and horizontal kilns in song dynasty.These three types of kiln-shaped horizontal kiln relatively more scientific.Song people realized in the practice of making pine-soot that the granularity of pine-soot is an important index of the quality of pine-soot.The smaller the granularity of pine-soot,the better the quality,the higher the blackness and the better the permeability of the graphite.And the main factors affecting the particle size are the content of pine resin in pine wood,the number of pine branches during ignition,the duration of ignition,and the distance to the source of soot.These valuable experiences and understandings were proved correct by people after the Song Dynasty and today's science and technology.The use of lampblack graphite slightly later than the use of pine-soot graphite.There are three steps for the preparation of lampblack: selecting oil,lighting soot and getting soot.Oil generally includes Tung oil,boiled oil,asphalt and sesame oil.The appliance that makes lampblack place to need has thick bowl,wick and crock this 3 kinds.Coarse bowl oil storage,and the wick together constitute a lamp.The crock is covered over the lamp for getting soot.The firing method may generalize for four kinds,namely the crock pit getting soot method,the crock(or the pot,the bowl)getting soot method,the cistern method and the paper getting sootmethod.The preparation and making of glue on the quality of graphite also plays an important role,it can not only bond colloidal particles,but also can make the graphite solution is not easy to precipitate,forming a suspension,but also can make the graphite relatively stable adhesion to the paper,and increase the grinding and writing lubrication,enhance the sense of gloss.On the other hand,since the northern Wei Dynasty,commonly used cattle hide glue and deer glue follow toSong Dynasty,and developed system of fish glue,icthyocolla and other types of glue.Under the same condition of soot,the decoction of glue and glue play a decisive role for the quality of the graphite.Deer glue is the best raw material for making glue,and cow glue is the most commonly used,which often used in combination with fish glue.Decocting glue appropriate in spring and autumn,avoid heat and cold.Adding auxiliary materials is the traditional characteristics of Chinese graphiteindustry,auxiliary materials function is nothing more than to add luster,color auxiliary,get soot these three functions.The blending and processing of soot,glue and auxiliary materials to make ingot is the second stage of the production technology of graphite,which can be summarized as six steps: screening smoke,mixing materials,pestle,kneading pills,moulding and drying graphite.Screening smoke is to ensure the purity of smoke material without impurities.The proportion of glue and tobacco varies according to the need.For quick sale,the proportion of glue should be small,and for long storage,the proportion of glue should be large.After blending,pound the pestle as much as possible.When kneading into pills,emergency hand speed knead.After molding,or natural shade dry,or dry in the carbon ash.The production of graphite in the Song Dynasty was commercial.It is reflected in the emergence of private graphite-making workshops,the commercialization of production and processing,and the production purpose of profit from sales.In the song dynasty,graphite was mainly circulated in cities and buddhist temples.And there are two ways of circulation.One is to set up shops specializing in graphite in the city,and the other is to sell the graphite on the back of a suitcase carried by a graphite maker or a dealer.In the Song Dynasty,graphite was mainly used to write on all kinds of paper products,walls,porcelain and other utensils,as well as books printing,inscription rubbings,etc.graphite was used in the government,families,schools,temples,etc.The use and consumption of graphite in social life was more extensive than the previous generation,and the demand increased significantly.Among them,books and other paper products woodblock printing in this area with the largest amount of graphite.The consumption graphite used by the court and the government is mainly reflected in the ink used for official document writing and office work.The writing of poetry,calligraphy,painting and collection are the main forms of ink consumption by literati.The use of ink for transcription and printing is mainly reflected in printed books and banknotes.The flourishing of Song Dynasty culture especially the flourishing of block printing industry made the total amount of graphite used surge in Song Dynasty.The rapid increase of the total amount of ink used in the song dynasty caused a large amount of consumption and destruction of ancient pine forest resources,which promoted the improvement ofgraphite-making technology,namely the rise of lampblack graphite-making,and also promoted the transfer of graphite-making center.The weight of one Hu graphite in the Song Dynasty ranges from 156.25 grams to 206.25 grams,which is about 100 wen.Due to supply and demand or brand effect and other factors,one Hu graphite can also be worth 10,000 wen,even more than the price of gold.The amount of ink used in the Song Dynasty increased sharply compared with the previous dynasties,in which books and woodblock printing accounted for the largest proportion.In addition,calligraphy,painting,architecture and pharmaceutical graphite also make the consumption of ink in the song dynasty be very surprising.In the Northern Song Dynasty,the area of graphite making is more extensive than the previous generation,which is throughout the north and south.Shaanxi ZhongnanMountain,Hebei Yizhou area continued to decline,Hebei Zhending,Shandong Yanzhou suddenly newly-developed,Anhui Xizhou continued to the five dynasties as the graphite center.In Southern Song Dynasty,the graphite-making industry developed rapidly in Jiangnan area,covering Jiangsu,Zhejiang,Fujian,Hunan,Sichuan,Guangxi and other places,especially Hangzhou,Fujian and Sichuan.In the Song Dynasty,the graphite making industry consumed a large amount of ancient pine forest resources,which limited the further development of the graphite making industry and damaged the ecological environment.The vicissitude of the graphite-making area in the Southern Song Dynasty was caused by the objective political factors,and was also related to the consumption and shortage of the pine forests in the north,as well as closely related to that of block printing industry.In the Song Dynasty,the literati not only regarded ink as an indispensable tool and pigment,but also put a lot of emotions into it.Graphite added a lot of fun,interest and sense to their daily life.Graphite was a good gift of the people in the Song Dynasty.People gave graphite,seized graphite,fought with graphite,played withgraphite,tasted graphite,hid graphite,and understood the truth from graphite.The appreciation and love for graphite became popular.In the Song Dynasty,there was a strong taste for graphiteamong the literati,writing variety of articles about graphite.These articles form short,or the pros and cons of the graphite,or on the high and low graphite,or the rational taste of graphite,and so on.The styleof the people in Song Dynasty is the reflection of the flourishing of the graphite making industry in Song Dynasty,and also reflects the level,quality and grade of the graphite making in Song Dynasty.Thegraphite of the Song Dynasty had many cultural values,such as practicality,collection,literature and medicine.Graphitemade a great contribution to the inheritance of civilization in the Song Dynasty and had a profound influence on the development of ink culture in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.