2020 Essays

Making and Using Fish Glue

Wang, Xinguo (Casa)

Glue is any substance that creates a bond between two separate objects or that prepares the surface for subsequent operations. In Ms. Fr. 640, fish glue in particular plays an important role in glueing delicate items. The author-practitioner, however, especially emphasizes two characteristics—clearness and strength of the glue—throughout the manuscript. Thus, I reconstructed three kinds of fish glue with different parts of the fish based on the recipe on fol. 7r in order to examine the reliability of the author-practitioner’s statements about making fish glue and, further, to demonstrate his comprehensive understanding of its use.