[MUSIC] While speaking about the writing materials of course, we have to speak about the ink itself. However, the good brush can be but without ink no result of our work can be ever seen on whatever we write. So the ink goes a long way and the production of this ink once invented once, well, in that indeed China, it hasn't changed a lot during the ages up to the 20th centuries. The traditional Chinese ink was produced from the especially procedure tar of different trees and bushes and prepared in a certain way. And the result of this procedure was this kind of a thing, so the traditional, The traditional ink, the traditional Chinese ink looks like that. So these piece of ink is called an Ink Cake. I don't know if it really resembles a cake, but it's called like a cake, okay? So the traditional way of writing then goes like that, you take the ink stone, we will speak about different kinds of ink stones but the most simple ink stone always is on our table stands here. So the traditional ink stones are made of actual stone has some solid material and you pour several drops of water inside the ink stone. Then you take the ink cake and start moving it slowly and smoothly along the bottom of the the ink stone and it takes quite a time for you to dissolve a certain amount of ink in this water. So it's quite a process. It wouldn't take you a minute or several minutes, it can be ten minutes or more. And while dissolving the ink inside this several drops of water you are going to prepare yourself to writing. So it's a sort of a meditation before the actual writing starts. Thus you have to deal with this ink cake for a long time. And then this ink cake must be done in perfection. It has to be very decorative, it has to be beautiful, just have a look at this ink cake. Here is an inscription, a golden inscription saying where it was produced. Here is the actual indication that this is the ink for calligraphy and painting. And here, if you see, here is the same thing, but engraved inside the ink cake itself. So it is beautifully done, it's very decorative. It's very, very, Marvelously, Done, notice that's a good thing. It is very pleasant to deal with. And when you do all this dissolving procedure when you prepare the ink, you are dealing with such a beautiful thing and you feel inspired somehow. To tell the truth the kinds of this ink are numerous, some kinds of Ink have this recipe so when they dry the surface of the character has a sort of vaguely on it. Some of them on the contra are producing this mate structure on the paper. Some of them are a bit lighter, some of them are a bit darker. And the professional calligraphers they know all that and they choose the kind of ink that is needed for their actual work. But not only the black ink is used, sometimes you need other colors and the most significant color that is used in calligraphy is red. This ink cake is rather old, it is more than 200 years old, it's done in the 19th century. And this is red ink, and see how marvelously it is done. Here is a dragon and here are bat, why a bat? Because the bat in Chinese will be fruit and the same pronunciation has the word happiness, it is also true. So drawing a bat here you are wishing happiness to the owner of this ink cake. And besides that here are the decorations made in the shape of the traditional mushroom, of a very special mushroom, which is called Lingzhi. So this Lingzhi mushroom is sort of a remedy in the traditional Chinese medicine. And it is used in many kinds of recipes for medicine from the different kinds of diseases. And even they say that this Lingzhi may be used in a special potion that gives immortality. So the legends say this and to tell the truth not only this Lingzhi but the ink, the traditional ink itself was also a part of the traditional Chinese medicine. Because in some recipes they are using some small portions of ink to be dissolved in something and then used as a medicine. This also is a piece of the traditional ink cake, but on that red one you saw the dragon and here you see a part of the Phoenix. Of course, this is not the phoenix in the way we understand what phoenix must be. But the fantastic legendary Chinese bird, which is traditionally called a phoenix is also the symbol of the Imperial power and also symbol of the virtue. The red ink could be used by Emperor himself because some ethics he was writing with the red ink and when he was going to sign the sentence, especially the death sentence, he always used the red ink. Nowadays, ink is produced in two ways, one is traditional when you see the ink produced in a cake like that, but also along with this we have the liquid ink. This liquid ink is suitable for calligraphy and for painting in the very way the traditional kind of ink can be used. The production of the liquid ink firstly was used only for amateurs. The specialist didn't use this liquid ink, because the quality was not suitable for the professional work. Now, for the last two decades the quality of the good liquid ink is absolutely comparable with the traditional ink and a lot of professional calligraphers are using this kind of ink, it is very good. And especially this one Either Agra, which is the name of the traditional company that made this ink. The only thing is that the ink cake can be kept for centuries and liquid ink can go wrong in several years, so you have to buy a new one. So the liquid and the traditional ink for the Chinese calligraphy.
