文房四宝 The Four Treasures of Calligraphy Jessica Lu

毛笔 - Writing Brush Stalk - bamboo; gold, silver, ivory, sandalwood Hair Source - 羊毛，狼毛 Hair Texture  Soft ( 软毫 or 羊毫 ) is white-haired and absorbs lots of water and is used for large characters  Mixed ( 兼毫 ) usually contains soft goat or sheep hair with a harder hair at the center  Hard ( 硬毫 or 狼毫 ) is brown wolf hair and used for small or neat characters Hair Size  大楷 for only very large paintings  中楷 for variety  小楷 for designs on seals Hair quality and ink absorption is very important

墨 - Ink Stick stick of solid ink  usually made of pine soot  coated with air-tight glue  steamed or molded how ink is made from the ink stick:  rubbed against ink slab in circular motions  water added during grinding  density can be adjusted by amount of water added resulting ink has an oily shine fresh ground ink is higher quality than liquid bottled ink Chinese ink is reddish

宣纸 - Paper invented by Cai Lun during the 汉朝 called rice paper but named Xuan Paper because of the city it originated from made from rice, mulberry, bamboo, and hemp paperweights used to keep the paper from slipping

砚台 - Ink Slab considered the most important of the Four Treasures can be handed down because of durability  highly prized made of stone, but clay, brick, tile, lacquer, and copper also used sculpted and ornate used as a grindstone and container for ink

Citations ures_of_the_Studyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Asian_calligraphy#Tools_:_The_Four_Treas ures_of_the_Study