Ancient Chinese scholars drank ink for poetic inspiration or poor handwriting penalties
While the Chinese idiom, “Having ink in their stomach”, serves as a metaphor to commend the knowledgeable, the act of ingesting ink was a common practice among ancient literati. The earliest documentation of ink drinking dates back to the Northern and Southern dynasties (420–589), where it was used as a sanctioned punishment for scholars with illegible handwriting. According to the Book of Sui,…
We haven't written up this one. South China Morning Post has the full story — the link below goes straight to it.
