This week we listened to a podcast, as opposed to reading new material, and learned about an individual and her own experience/findings with Ancient Chinese practices. Professor Dorothy Ko described her work with inkstones, revealing what led her to become interested in them, and explained the role they played in Ancient China.
What makes Dorothy Ko distinctive from every other researcher is the way she sticks to her ideals for the sake of better understanding. While many would have just researched and read about the inkstone process, not bothering with an on-hand experience, Dorothy Ko would take the extra step and actually create the inkstones herself, stressing the importance of craftsmanship in order to better understand and create a personal connection with the practice/tradition. While she was originally going to research about women who weaved, wanting to write about and connect gender studies with material culture, she found that weaving was very difficult and decided not to do it. Ko later learned that a woman, by the name of Gu Erniang, first created inkstones, and, after discovering that inkstones weren’t hard to make, decided to shift her focus on them. However, not much of the woman, other than her name, was known. The fact that not much is known about Gu Erniang makes it all the more significant that Dorothy Ko researched and introduced her.
Inkstones are considered one of the “Four Treasures of Study”, which honestly makes it more fascinating to understand the role it played over the years. While inkstones are meant to contain ink, the act of creating them has become almost its own form of art.
Things I learned this week:
- Inkstones are considered one of the “Four Treasures of Study”, and the act of creating them has become almost its own form of art
- Gu Erniang first created inkstones; however, not much is known about her.
- Emperors were quite materialistic and would do anything to get certain materials. As these materials were created with more sophisticated craftsmanship, the emperors would hire and recruit experts to work for them.
Bibliography
Podcast: New Books in East Asian Studies, interview with Dorothy Ko, author of The Social Life of Inkstones.
