Inkstone Illustrating the Gathering of Literati at Lanting Full view

This substantial, rectangular inkstone is engraved all over, unfolding the enjoyable scenes of Wang Xizhi (303–361) with his friends and the geese. The top of this rectangular inkstone is decorated around its rim with figures in a landscape and a band of angular "meanders". The water-and ink-pools are distinctly divided by a bridge, and beside the water-pool, two scholars can be seen in a pavilion. There are many more scholars on the vertical sides, representing the renowned literary gathering at the Lanting, or Orchid Pavilion, in which Wang and other scholars composed poems while drinking wine for a riverside purifying rite. On the underside, a flock of geese is swimming under willow trees, alluding to the great calligrapher’s fondness for the bird. The designs are done primarily with finely incised lines, highlighted by low relief carving.

The inkstone is one of the four treasures of the scholar's studio, and of the four great centres for the production of inkstones, Duan reigns supreme. Usually purplish brown in colour, the one presented here is of a rare green, with tints of a pale yellowish green. Highly praised by Song to Qing scholars, the quarrying of green Duan stone began in the Northern Song era, first in the area around Mt. Beiling and later along the Duan River, which are known respectively as "dry" and "water" quarry.