FOUR DIMENSIONS
TV documentary sheds light on tools of scholarship in ancient China. Xu Fan reports.
Few people may connect the writing brush, a vital tool of ancient Chinese calligraphy, to the whiskers of a mouse.
But a hit TV documentary, The Four Treasures of Chinese Study, shows a veteran brushmaker obtaining a few such mice-whisker strands to make a pen’s head and accounts of ancient calligraphers using such pens to write their masterpieces.
The six-episode documentary, with 50 minutes for each chapter, was aired on China Central Television over July 17-22.
It is still running on the provincial channel Anhui Satellite TV.
Weaving China’s ancient legends into modern ink brushes, ink sticks, paper and ink slabs, which were traditionally hailed as a scholar’s “four jewels”, the documentary takes an insightful look into the Middle Kingdom’s cultural legacies and their influences on today’s society.
People can also watch the documentary online on leading streaming site iQiyi.
With a budget of nearly 10 million yuan ($1.5 million), provided mainly by the Anhui Broadcasting Corp, the crew traveled to nearly 20 provinces, regions and municipalities across China, as well as Japan, South Korea and Italy, to trace the footprints of the four tools of Chinese scholarship.
The documentary that re-creates the legends of nearly 30 historical figures, took more than 450 days to shoot, during which around 60 people were interviewed — from producers and researchers to collectors.
“Many documentaries have featured the tools that Chinese scholars used in earlier times. Our biggest challenge was to seek a breakthrough,” says Yu Chengming, deputy editor-inchief of Anhui Broadcasting Corp.
“The ‘four treasures’ are still objects. We needed to add human interest to make the content attractive to modern audiences,” says Yu, a veteran who has produced more than 30 TV documentaries in his career.
Seeking to explain the history, culture and emotional connections of such tools to modern society, the crew visited a number of museums, the descendants of prominent calligraphers, painters and makers of calligraphy materials. They harvested a lot of novel sequences in the episodes.
Wu Si, the documentary’s director, says that in one episode highlighting the craft of making paper, more than 40 men immerse a giant bamboo sifter in white pulp and lift it out altogether. They are making a piece of Chinese rice paper — 11 meters long and 3.3 meters wide — that is listed as thelargesthandmadepaperby Guinness World Records.
In another take, a veteran maker of ink slabs is reminding transport workers to cautiously load a gigantic slab, with a diameter of 2.1 meters and weighing 7 tons, which took him six years to carve out from a rock.
Despite typing dominating the digital era, writing with ink brushes remains a hobby for the enthusiasts of Chinese traditional culture.
In the documentary, viewers can see many such instances: A calligrapher insists on using centuries-old ink slabs for the best strokes; a researcher scatters golden powder on flower-soaked rice paper to produce a special type of paper meant for writing letters, which is said to have been invented by a Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) female poet.
In the chapter that introduces the international spread of the “four treasures”, Chinese may feel proud to see paper, one of the country’s greatest inventions, travel from its neighboring countries to Europe.
To seek the best visual effects, Wu says they used a high-resolution photography technique which provides clearer images.
“It’s worthy. We hope the series will arouse public interest in traditional Chinese culture,” says Yu of Anhui Broadcasting Corp.
The documentary also lifted CCTV Channel 9’s audience rating to 5.3 percent compared to the week before its debut, says Yu.
The producers are considering its overseas distribution, too.
The Four Treasures of Chinese Study also garnered attention at this year’s MIPTV, a content market event held annually.