Things, Place, Self From “Four Things” to “Four Friends” in the Studio

Abstract

Through the dual keywords—I 文房 and “four friends” (siyou 四友)—this essay examines the inextricable interrelationship among material things, a place, and the self that was initiated during the Song dynasty (960–1279). Song literati displayed unprecedented interest in scholarly things, particularly four specific things in the studio—the writing brush, inkstone, paper, and ink. Through literary representations, this article investigates the changing nature of the literati’s relation to these “four things” in the studio. Rather than framing their bond as the ruler and ministers or the owner and his possessions, from the early Northern Song to the Southern Song, writers transformed their relationship to these four things gradually to that between friends and peers, or from pure ownership to an imaginary friendship, and in turn, these four things supported the construction of both the personal studio and the collective identity of the new elites in the Song. This transformation from “four things” or “four treasures” to “four friends” represented a distinctive model of the observation and conception of material things that Song scholars developed, which provided intriguing insights into the relationship between humans and things in premodern China.