In his description of ink-stones he showed the same strong characteris-ties as he showed in his jiterery style, his calligraphs and his paintings, not being influenced by others. What he wrote about was the result of his own very careful investigations and not that which had been borrowed from other books as has been the habit of so many Chinese writers pert base aeon with my own eves, have classified
Bad i have collected and used miy-Self. "Those about which I have mere-heard, even ff it be a great deal, nave not put in my record."
In describing a certain kind of rock used in making ink-stones he Dr. Van Gulik has made an admirable rendering of a most difficult prose style that the self-minded Mi Fu used in his treatise, This meant a very considerable amount of research work and study in order to arrive at an English version that would truthfully convey the intended meaning without over-doing it. Dr. Van Gulik's book is not only worth reading but is a valuable reference book for those interested in Chinese subjects and we look forward to more such books from his pen—
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.