Uncooked, half-cooked, cooked: unsized and sized Xuan paper for Chinese/Japanese calligraphy

The paper used for Chinese/Japanese calligraphy can be sized or unsized. But first, what is sizing? For paper, sizing is a kind of processing that makes the paper less absorbent. This reduces ink smudging as the ink does not get absorbed into the paper and instead dries on the paper's surface.

We often see the characters 生, 半熟, and 熟 used to describe Xuan paper (or any other calligraphy paper, for that matter). They refer respectively to unsized, partially sized, and sized paper. Some other terms used in English include:

生: unsized, raw, uncooked, unprocessed (未加工 in Japanese)

半熟: partially sized, half-ripe, half-cooked, partially processed (弱加工 in Japanese)

熟: sized, ripe, cooked, processed (加工 in Japanese)

Here are examples of 生, 半熟, and 熟, from left to right.

When you look at the reverse side, you can see that the ink has been absorbed into the paper for unsized paper. For the sized paper, the ink has hardly gone into the paper. Partially sized paper is somewhere in between.

The three types have their own uses. Sized paper is used when you need detailed lines to be seen clearly. Ink is not absorbed into the paper, preventing smudging and thus allowing small details to be seen. Unsized paper smudges a lot more and can be used to express gradation of ink colours. However, the smudging means it may be a bit more difficult for beginners. Therefore, there is the partially sized paper that is somewhere in between.

So how is paper processed? It is usually processed with an alum and gelatin solution. This reduces the absorbency of the paper, but at the same time, reduces the durability of the paper. While Xuan paper is said to last a thousand years, sized Xuan paper may not last as long due to presence of alum. This may be a factor to consider when choosing whether to use unsized or partially sized paper, but most of us do not create works expecting them to survive a thousand years. 😅