{
  "id": 8009272,
  "title": "Ancient Chinese scholars drank ink for poetic inspiration or poor handwriting penalties",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/17/ancient-chinese-scholars-drank-ink-for-poetic-inspiration-or-poor",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-09-17T10:27:18.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "South China Morning Post",
    "slug": "south-china-morning-post",
    "url": "https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3367876/ancient-chinese-scholars-drank-ink-poetic-inspiration-or-poor-handwriting-penalties"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "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,…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}