Purple Gold Inkstone by Mi Fu: Text and Writing Guide

A short note about a prized possession becomes an energetic field of black ink. The characters expand, compress and lean as the argument moves forward. Its subject is an inkstone, but the surviving artwork is the writing through which a collector explains why that object should remain among the living.

The Paper Calligraphy Leaf at a Glance

The collection record also uses the English title Inscription of Appreciation. This is the same writing discussed here under its familiar inkstone title.^[1] For its place within a wider practice of writing, painting and collecting, see Mi Fu’s works and artistic legacy.

A Borrowed Inkstone Almost Becomes a Burial Object

The friend named in the note is Su Shi (蘇軾, Sū Shì). In 1101, after returning from Hainan, he visited Mi Fu at Zhenzhou, now Yizheng in Jiangsu. Su borrowed the inkstone and died at Changzhou a little more than a month later. The possibility that it would be buried with him gave the object’s recovery a particular urgency.^[2] More of their literary and artistic setting appears in Su Shi’s life and work.

An inkstone was both a working tool and something a collector could treasure. Rubbing a solid inkstick with water across its surface produces liquid ink; a recessed area can hold the prepared ink.^[3] The guide to Chinese inkstones explains their materials and practical forms.

The note therefore concerns more than the return of an interchangeable writing supply. Mi valued this particular object enough to argue for its survival. At the same time, the occasion involved the death of a friend. Relief at recovery and grief over loss can coexist, giving the writing a more complicated emotional setting than simple delight at getting something back.^[4]

The Text Argues for Keeping the Treasure in the World

The text moves through four connected ideas. The following gives a plain English sense of the original, rather than reproducing a modern published translation:^[1]

• 蘇子瞻攜吾紫金研去。囑其子入棺。: Su took away my purple-gold inkstone and instructed his son to put it into the coffin.
• 吾今得之。不以斂。: Now I have it; it will not be used for burial.
• 傳世之物。: It is an object to be passed down through the generations.
• 豈可與清淨圓明本來妙覺真常之性同去住哉。: How could it share the coming and going of that pure, luminous, originally awakened and enduring nature?

The opening establishes possession and the danger of losing the stone. The middle shifts from “mine” toward the longer life of a treasured object: it should be transmitted beyond one owner. The final rhetorical question gives that practical position a more elevated vocabulary.

Its language draws on Buddhist ideas of purity, illumination and awakening. Here, those terms serve a collector’s argument about what should happen to a material object. The passage should not be reduced to a literal claim that a person’s soul and an inkstone are the same kind of thing.

Notice how the tone changes. A nearly domestic dispute over a borrowed possession becomes a statement about preservation and transmission. That movement gives the brief text a clear shape even before you examine the individual brushstrokes.

Changing Weight and Spacing Animate the Writing

Read each vertical column downward, then move to the column on its left. The characters do not settle into uniform boxes. Some occupy a broad area with dark, assertive strokes; others draw inward and leave larger spaces around them. The columns consequently feel related without being mechanically even.

The inkstone’s name offers a useful point of attention. In the upper portion, some of these characters receive heavier treatment than the quicker, more lightly handled passages nearby. A close reading of the work connects such changes with the text’s shifting emphasis and pace.^[4]

You can also compare strokes within a single character. A broad beginning may narrow into a fine continuation; a turn can release into a longer sweep. These transitions make the writing feel active without requiring every character to be joined to the next. The distinction is explained further in Chinese running script.

The red seals create a separate visual layer around the black writing. They help you notice the leaf’s life as a collected object, but they are not part of the note’s verbal argument. Start with the main columns before allowing the surrounding marks to redirect your attention.

How to Follow the Text and the Brush Together

1. Identify the ink original: Look for black writing on paper rather than a later rubbing.
2. Read the story first: Follow the loan, threatened burial, recovery and argument for preservation.
3. Trace the columns: Move downward within each column and then right to left across the leaf.
4. Compare the emphasis: Notice where heavier strokes or tighter spacing change the rhythm.

FAQs About Purple Gold Inkstone by Mi Fu

Is the work written in cursive script?

Its collection classification is running script. The quick movement and simplified or linked forms can feel cursive, while many character structures remain individually recognizable.^[1]

Does purple gold mean the inkstone was made of gold?

No. The name concerns a type of inkstone material discussed in historical writing about stone, rather than a solid-gold writing tool.^[4]

Is a modelbook rubbing the same as this ink original?

No. Later modelbook versions transmit the calligraphy through another medium. A Three Rarities Hall modelbook entry is catalogued separately from the 28.2 × 39.7 cm ink leaf.^[5]

Fuentes

[1] National Palace Museum, Taipei. Inscription of Appreciation, Also Known as Purple Gold Inkstone

[2] National Palace Museum, Taipei. Purple Gold Inkstone: Historical Context in the Changhua Exhibition

[3] Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art. Ink: Making and Using Ink

[4] He Yenchuan, National Palace Museum. Mi Fu and Purple Gold Inkstone, National Palace Museum Monthly, May 2006

[5] National Palace Museum, Taipei. Modelbooks of the Three Rarities Hall, Volume Fourteen: Purple and Gold Inkstone