A Shape Borrowed From an Imperial Academy
辟雍砚 — the Biyong inkstone — borrows its name and its shape from somewhere unexpected: 辟雍, the imperial academy the Zhou court built for the children of nobility, encircled on every side by water, round like a jade disc. A Han-dynasty scholar explained the comparison directly — round to mirror heaven, surrounded by water to represent the flow of teaching outward. The form has been made, on and off, from the Wei-Jin period through to today, nearly two thousand years of the same idea: a round writing-surface set inside a raised, moat-like channel, practical for circling ink around in slow strokes and convenient for dipping a brush at the rim.
This pair — large and small versions, both fitted into an octagonal outer frame — came from the same source as the square inkstone before it in this arc: old Kengzai quarry stock the shop has held onto since the 1960s, shaped by Liang Huanming's brother and finished by the same 1980s factory veteran.
It's a strange thing to hold: an everyday writing tool, shaped like a two-thousand-year-old idea about what a school should look like.