In this essay, translated from Chinese, the critic and curator Hu Bin approaches the much-discussed “New Ink Art” (xin shuimo) from the opposite direction, asking how the “old ink” it is defined against should be understood. He notes that New Ink, a broad category embracing three decades of experiments that depart from traditional and academic realist ink painting, gained momentum after the 2013 exhibition Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and that its appeal lies in linking Chinese tradition with contemporary change in a “non-Western-centric” art. Yet the emphasis on novelty has produced formulaic strategies, such as turning brushwork into repetitive marks or assembling traditional motifs in modern spaces. Drawing on recent exhibitions of ancient painting, Pi Daojian and Lu Mingjun’s view of the contemporary as a mode of perception, and the archetype-based sections of the 8th Shenzhen International Ink Art Biennale, the author argues that ancient works and discourses can be reactivated in the present. Reviewing the realist ink tradition shaped by Xu Beihong and Jiang Zhaohe, he concludes that “old ink” may become new at any moment, whereas routines lacking thought do not become new merely by adding contemporary symbols.