The Four Treasures
Chinese culture is very fond of four word couplets, and the Four Treasures is another example: "文房四寶: 筆、墨、紙、硯," (Pinyin: wén fáng sì bǎo: bǐ, mò, zhǐ, yàn) "The four jewels of the study: Brush, Ink, Paper, Inkstone." In the couplet mentioned, each of the Treasures is referred to by a single epithet; however, each of these are usually known by a compound name (i.e. The Brush: 毛筆, literally "hair brush/pen). The individual treasures have a "treasured" form, each being produced in certain areas of China as a speciality for those scholars who would use them.
Read more about this topic: Four Treasures Of The Study
Famous quotes containing the word treasures:
“The book borrower of real stature whom we envisage here proves himself to be an inveterate collector of books not so much by the fervor with which he guards his borrowed treasures and by the deaf ear which he turns to all reminders from the everyday world of legality as by his failure to read these books.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)