Yang Xi
Although no autograph copies of Yang Xi's famous calligraphy have survived, one well-documented stone rubbing version of the revealed "Huangting jing" (黃庭經, Yellow Court Scripture) has been given special attention. The Song dynasty connoisseur and critic Mi Fu (1051-1107) analyzed four manuscripts of the "Huangting jing", and said the best one was written on a silk scroll with a provenance that he traced back to the early 8th century. Mi disagreed with a former owner Tao Gu (陶穀, 903-970) who said that Wang Xizhi wrote the manuscript, and concluded it was a superb example of calligraphy from the Six Dynasties period. The Ming dynasty calligrapher and painter Dong Qichang (1555-1636) was so impressed by the Mi Fu manuscript that he made a copy, recommend it as the best model for studying "kaishu" script, and included it as the first example in his classic "Xihong tang fatie" (戲鴻堂法帖, Calligraphy Compendium of the Hall of the Playful Goose). Dong's colophon attributed the calligraphy to Yang Xi himself and described it as "the traces of a holy immortal" (Ledderose 1984: 262-263, who calls Dong's attribution to Yang "extremely optimistic").
Qalam
Calligraphy holds a central position in the Islamic artistic tradition, and because of this there exist a large variety of accessories to accompany the "qalam" and its user, such as pen boxes, ink wells, and knives for cutting the reeds. These tools were often very ornamented and cherished objects and reflected countless hours of other artists and craftsmen. The ink used to write with in antiquity was most frequently black or dark brown, and was made from gum arabic, soot, gallnuts, or vitriol. Some Qurans, however, are written entirely in gold, and more contemporary calligraphers may use a wider variety of colors. Abu Ali Muhammad ibn Muqla, a Persian official of the Abbasid caliphate, developed a standardized system of writing calligraphy based on the marks made with the point of a reed pen, in combination with other geometric principles. As far as other aspects of ornamentation go, metallic inks on colored parchment passed from Byzantium to Muslim Spain, and Arabic calligraphy in turn made its way back to Europe.