Moshi 墨史

Moshi 墨史 "A history of ink-makers" was written during the Yuan period 元 (1279-1368) by Lu You 陸友, courtesy name Youren 友仁, Zhaizhi 宅之 of Fuzhi 輔之, style Yanbei Sheng 研北生.

Lu hailed from Pingjiang 平江 near modern Suzhou 蘇州, Jiangsu, from a textile trader's family. Lu You was excellent in calligraphy but also mastered the genre of regular poems (shi 詩). He was therefore highly admired by Ke Jiusi 柯九思 (1290-1343), an erudite (boshi 博士) of the Kuizhang Hall 奎章閣, and Yu Ji 虞集 (1272-1348), an attendant academician (shishu xueshi 侍書學士). Both recommended him to Emperor Wenzong 元文宗 (r. 1328; 1329-1331), but Lu You was never given an office. Apart from the Moshi, he also wrote the book Yanshi 硯史 on inkstones, and a text on seals called Yinshi 印史. His collected poems were called Qijuxuan gao 杞菊軒稿, but of all his writings, only the Moshi and the "brush-notes"-style (biji 筆記) essay collection Yanbei zazhi 研北雜志 have survived.

The 3-juan-long Moshi is a collection of all important earlier writings on the production of ink. The text is written chronologically and focuses on 25 masters of ink-production from the Three-Empires period 三國 (220-280) on. Outstanding people are Li Yangbing 李陽冰 (who is also known as an editor of the dictionary Shuowen jiezi 說文解字) from the Tang period 唐 (618-907), Chai Xun 柴殉 from the Song period 宋 (960-1279), Liu Fa 劉法 (d. 1119) and Yang Wenxiu 楊文秀 from the Jin empire 金 (1115-1234), and also some foreign masters of ink-making from Koryŏ 高麗 (Korea), the Khitan 契丹 empire of the Liao dynasty 遼 (907-1125), or from the Western Territories 西域. Lu You carried out a critical revision of his sources so that the Moshi is not only a document on the mastery of the manufacturing of ink, but also a reliable historiographical source with many biographies.

The Moshi is to be found in the series Zhibuzuzhai congshu 知不足齋叢書, Siku quanshu 四庫全書, Gujin wenyi congshu 古今文藝叢書, Sheyuan mocui 涉園墨萃, Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編, and was also printed by Xiang Yaoshi 項葯師 and Liu Maosheng 劉泖生. It is also included in the collection Minqiuji 敏求記.