Qi Yu made a list of every item he wanted to take over-newly fired celadon tea ware, plain silk bedding newly presented as tribute by the Jiangnan Weaving Bureau, and several old editions of travelogues filched from the bookshelves in the Imperial Study.
Beneath the list lay a sheet of Xuan paper bearing his own inscription for a plaque. The words "Qingliang Terrace Residence" were written in straight, even strokes, with far more care than he put into the calligraphy assignments the Grand Tutor gave him. After checking the list, he pulled out the paper and looked it over again and again, then suddenly felt that a plaque alone was not enough.
That afternoon, he spread out some Xuan paper, secured its corners with paperweights, and began grinding ink. De'an stood beside him holding a fly whisk. Finding it unusual to see him grinding his own ink, he asked whether His Highness was practicing calligraphy. Qi Yu set the ink stick on the inkstone and said he was not practicing; he was asking his imperial father for some calligraphy. De'an silently made a mental note-whenever His Highness ground ink of his own accord, he wanted something.
When Qi Xiao returned to the West Warm Pavilion after morning court, he found several sheets of Xuan paper neatly spread across the Imperial Desk. The ink in the inkstone had been freshly ground, and wolf-hair brushes of various thicknesses hung from the brush stand. Standing beside the Imperial Desk, Qi Yu offered him a medium-tipped wolf-hair brush with both hands. "Please, Father."
Qi Xiao let the eunuchs remove his court robes, then went behind the Imperial Desk and sat down, looking at him. Qi Yu pushed the paper a little closer and said he wanted his father to write a few pieces of