About the author
Tang Ji is known as the author of the Xinzhou Inkstone Manual (Shezhou Yanpu). Beyond this, no public sources provide information about his nationality, dates of birth and death, courtesy name, or life history, and available public material is limited. Judging from the surviving work, Tang Ji focused on the origins, pits, stone varieties, and quarrying and crafting techniques of inkstones from Xinzhou, writing in a descriptive mode that combines the tradition of scholar's studio objects with local products. The Xinzhou Inkstone Manual records inkstone materials' appearance, color, grain, and means of judging quality in an itemized manner; its language is concise and plain, with little elaboration, reflecting an approach that values factual record and practical experience. Manuals of this kind served in literati culture both as practical guides and as references for connoisseurship, providing a basis for making and selecting inkstones while reflecting the sustained literati interest in studio implements from the Song dynasty onward. Owing to the scarcity of historical sources, Tang Ji's other activities and associations cannot be established, and his influence is chiefly visible in later copying and citation of this manual.