四个亲密的朋友笔、墨、纸、砚不开心，为谁对文人最为重要发生了争执。笔说文人在写书法或画水墨画的时候要拿起自己，没有他，纸将一无是处；纸反驳说没有自己，文人将无处可写、无处可画；墨说只有纸、笔，没有自己的话，文人的书法或绘画会空无一物；而砚真诚地说纸、笔、墨各有特点，都很重要。最后，文人用笔墨纸砚写了一幅字"笔墨纸砚"，结束了争论。| Four close friends, Zhi, Bi, Mo and Yan were not happy. They argued for who was more important for scholar. Bi said when writing traditional Chinese calligraphy or doing wash painting, the scholar would pick him up first; so without him, Zhi would be useless. Zhi claimed without him, there would be nowhere to write or paint on. Mo added that if the scholar had only used Bi and Zhi, his calligraphy or painting would have been empty. Yan said honestly that Zhi, Bi, Mo were all absolutely special important. At last, the scholar decided their argument by completing a piece of calligraphy with Zhi, Bi, Mo and Yan.