Wang Lin and the Chengni Inkstone
Wang Ling is 50 years old now. She has committed half of her life to Chengni Inkstone. Although she has achieved eminence in the art field, she is still low-key and reserved, like her works. People say that her inkstone touches like children’s skin but will make a sound like metal if you knock at it.
In 1986, Wang Ling came to Zhengzhou with her husband Zhang Cunsheng from her hometown Anhui. A bond has been formed between her and the Yellow River culture since then. “The Yellow River is my root and art is my life. My art will have no vitality without the Yellow River”, said Wang.
131 failures make today’s Chengni Inkstone
When ancient people describe the inkstone, they would say they are yellow like the eel, cyan like the crab shell, green like the mung bean, purple like the rose, white like fish maw and red like the shrimp head, which is enough to know its beauty and uniqueness. It appeared in the Tang Dynasty and disappeared in the Qing Dynasty. As a kind of inkstone which were popular with literati and poets and recorded in books, Chengni Inkstone has gradually faded out from people’s sight for hundreds of years.
However, spending nearly three years and experiencing 131 failures, Wang Ling and her husband finally presented this only mud stone of China’s four famous inkstones to the world again in 1991. What she paid is not only her best years but also her husband’s life.
Wang Ling and Zhang Cunsheng were born in Anhui. Zhang began to learn molding clay figures from his father when he was three or four years old. Wang Ling’s family was very poor and she had to mold clay figures to pay for her and her younger brother’s tuition. They got married because of the same hobby in 1985 when Wang Ling was 20 and Zhang Cunsheng was 19. In the next year, Zhengzhou planned to build the Yellow River resort area. They went to Zhengzhou with their parents and opened up an art area along the bank of the Yellow River to continue to study carving skills.
Cohesion of mud and fire along the bank of the mother river
Wang Ling said that the reason she decided to find the “lost” Chengni Inkstone back with her husband was a deep talk with Mr. Lu Guangzhao, the student of Mr. Qi Baishi and the master of traditional Chinese painting.
“He said that what a pity that the Yellow River Chengni Inkstone has been lost”, said Wang Ling. We can say that the Yellow River Chengni Inkstone is the best inkstone. It was rated as the first among inkstones by the literati of Tang Dynasty. According to the legend, the Emperor Qianlong was extremely obsessed with it and wanted to get it very much. More importantly, it is an important part of the Yellow River culture, but it has been lost.
“We felt that it is a real pity so we talked over and decided to make it”, said Wang Ling.
Chengni Inkstone has a very high requirement for its materials. The mud brought from the outside must be stored in the room during the winter. In the following spring, the mud can be poured into a vat. After mixed with clean water, they are filtered until there is no impurity and then poured into a vat for precipitation.
After the sediment process, the mud is neither too hard nor too soft. The surface of the clod is scraped with a knife and the remaining is wrapped with plastic and then they are put in caves for one year. After water is evaporated, they can be used to make mud and semi-finished products.
Better than porcelain and jade even without using glaze
Wang Ling lives in a courtyard hidden in the scenic area. In the courtyard, there is a cave dwelling with a red wooden door where she makes the Chengni Inkstone. Although it is cool in the cave dwelling, she often sweats at work.
Before becoming a finished product, the inkstone needs to go through over thirty manufacturing processes, such as collecting mud, forming shape, engraving, putting into the furnace, burning, cooling, steaming, polishing, etc. Any little omission will make their previous efforts wasted, so the success rate of finished product of Chengni Inkstone is very low.
Chengni Inkstone is made from mud. But it can show the glory and texture of jade without using glaze. Furnace transmutation makes this happen. This ever-changing effect relies on the experience of the producers and the temperature control. Wang Ling and her husband often stay beside the entrance of the furnace chamber for a whole night and keep a close eye on the fire change, and they even do not notice that they have blister on their mouths.
Wang Ling said a Chengni Inkstone may take more than 3 months. But if the inkstone does not meet the requirements, she will throw it away without hesitation. That’s why hundreds of rejected Chengni Inkstones are placed on one side of the entrance of the cave dwelling.
In 1999, Zhang Cunsheng was appointed to design Nine-dragon Dial, a gift Henan Province sent to the Macao Special Administrative Region. He worked for 3 days and 3 nights and fell to the ground on the fourth morning after completing the creation. A few months later, he died of kidney failure.
The rebirth of the mud and the masterpiece of the Yellow River
The Yellow River water flows ahead ceaselessly, with water and mud together. In 2007, the Chengni Inkstone was included in the first batch of intangible cultural heritage list of Henan Province. It is a people-oriented live cultural heritage.
People from of old live on the existing conditions. In the Yellow River, half of its water is mud. Wang Ling dealt with the mud of the Yellow River for so many years. She and her husband not only made large decorative bricks from the Yellow River mud, but also restored the Yellow River Chengni Inkstone, and later they burned out the Yellow River gold mud tea set.
As the business card of the Central Plains culture, the Yellow River gold dust gradually regained its strong vitality. As the witness of “the Central Plains memory”, Wang Ling will continue to promote and display the Yellow River culture.
As the rebirth of the mud and the masterpiece of the Yellow River, the Yellow River Chengni Inkstone will continue to glow with infinite glory in her hands.
