Beijing "Yi De Ge" is famous for producing ink and it already has a history of over 100 years. During the reign of Emperor Tongzhi in Qing Dynasty, a literator named Xie Songdai from Anhui province went to Beijing to take the imperial examinations but failed. In his opinion, it took him too much time in rubbing the ink stick, which made him have fewer time to finish the examinations. At that time, Xie Songdai thought that it would be so convenient if a kind of ink with which to write directly could be produced. The whole world would benefit from it. After lots of experiments, he finally made a kind of ink with the same writing results as ink stick with lampblack and other auxiliary materials. The ink won great popularity among poets and literary men instantly after its launch. In the fourth year of the reign of Emperor Tongzhi in Qing Dynasty, Xie Songdai set up the first Chinese ink production store with the name of "Yi De Ge" in Beijing in No. 44, Liu Li Chang. The tablet hung on the front door of the store was written by Xie Songdai himself. This is the history of "Yi De Ge" ink.

Xie Songdai had no son, so the store was passed down to his apprentice after he passed away. Later, with greater reputation and larger business scale, branches of "Yi De Ge" were set up in Tianjin, Shanghai, Shanxi, Zhengzhou and other big cities. The business of "Yi De Ge" became more thriving. The ink of "Yi De Ge" is made of Sichuan high color black, bone glue, borneol, muskiness and phenol with traditional technique of refining processing. Sichuan high color black makes the ink jet black; bone glue makes the ink not sink into the paper with its lifting capacity; borneol and muskiness give strong fragrance to the ink; phenol is a kind of preservative, which makes the ink last for a long time and be available for use all the year round.