Carbon-black ink stick (India ink)
Tinta de negro de humo en barra (tinta china)
- Date
- c. 250 BCE · confidence low
- Place
- State of Qin (Shaanxi), China
- Credited to
- Chinese scribes of the Warring States and Qin periods
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Pigment of pine soot or oil bound with animal glue and pressed into sticks, ground with water on a stone. A stable, indelible, intensely black ink that defines East Asian calligraphy and painting.
Egypt and Greece used lampblack inks with gum arabic from the 3rd millennium; the solid ink stick is specifically Chinese.
What it led to
- Calligraphy as an art and a criterion for selecting officials
- Uniform-quality woodblock printing
- Ink painting and stone-inscription rubbing (a precedent for printing)
- Preservation of texts across millennia
Built on
- Carbon pigments
- Animal glue
- Bamboo tablets (slips)