Before choosing a brush, we should first understand the type and properties of the brush.
There are many kinds of writing brushes, and the nib is made of animal hair. Therefore, people often classify pens according to their different elasticity. Generally divided into hard brush, soft brush and double-sided brush.
(1) bristle brush
The bristles of hard bristle pens are elastic, such as rabbit hair, wolf hair, deer hair, rat beard, stone badger hair, mountain horse hair and mane.
1. Rabbit brush: Rabbit brush has a long history, and the Warring States pen unearthed in Changsha is made of rabbit brush. It is made by splitting one end of the pen into several sections, inserting the nib, and then tying it tightly with silk thread. Rabbit hair is divided into purple hair and gray hair. Purple hair is made from the hair on the rabbit's back (also called arrow hair) and the hair on its tail. It is soft and healthy. Gray is better than purple.
2. Wolf Brush: The "wolf" here is not a wolf in the zoo, but a weasel. The pen made of the hair on the weasel's body and tail is slightly softer than the rabbit's brush and harder than the wool pen, but it is brittle and not resistant to friction.
3. Moustache pen: Moustache pen is made of mouse beard, so its performance is firm. According to legend, Wang Xizhi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty wrote Preface to Lanting with a moustache.
Other hard pens, such as mountain horse brush, stone badger brush, bristle brush, etc. , are particularly hard, it is not easy for beginners to choose.
(2) Soft brush
Soft hair brushes are less elastic and softer. Generally made of wool, chicken feathers, fetal hair and other soft hairs.
1. Wool pen: Wool pen is made of goat hair, which is softer than purple wool pen. Because the wool quilt is thinner and longer, it is suitable for writing big letters and characters.
2. Chicken feather brush: The chicken feather brush is made of the hair on the cock's chest, and its performance is softer than wool.
3. Fetal hair brush: Fetal hair brush is the hair of newborn baby, and its performance is extremely soft. Xiao Ziyun in the Southern Dynasties (487-549) used fetal hair brushes, which shows that it has a long history.
(3) Double-sided brush
"Double brush", as the name implies, means to have both. That is to say, hard hair is the core, soft hair is the periphery, and the brushwork is between hard hair and soft hair. Generally, the production ratio of purple wool and sheep wool is different. The scores are "three purple and seven sheep", "seven purple and three sheep" and "five purple and five sheep". There are also brushes made of wool and wolf Mao Shuang, which are divided into "little white cloud", "Zhong Baiyun" and "Da Baiyun" according to their sizes. There are also bristles added to the big wool barrel pen to enhance its elasticity.
The above three kinds of pens with different properties, namely, hard pen, soft pen and double-headed brush, have different uses. Before the Song Dynasty, most calligraphers used hard pen to write. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, calligraphers wrote more and more words, and some pens were changed from hard pen to sheep hair. Because wool is long, it is suitable for making big characters. Generally speaking, writing running script and cursive script with hard pen is refreshing and easy to write, easy to rise and fall: writing regular script, official script and seal script with soft pen is easy to moisten and enrich. Of course, this is not absolute. You can write regular script, seal script and official script with hard pen, or you can write cursive script with sheep hair. Mr. Lin Sanzhi, a contemporary grass sage, writes cursive script with a long and soft brush, which is not only vigorous and upright, but also smart and meaningful. Because the pen tip is long and contains a lot of ink, a few words can be written when dipped in ink, which is easy to show the continuous momentum between words and the change of ink color. Because Changfeng Yang Hao's pen is soft and long, Cai Yong in the Eastern Han Dynasty called it "strange soft pen", so it is easy to produce endless changes and unexpected artistic effects. However, the sheeppaw pen is soft, especially the long-side sheeppaw pen. When the pen is pressed, it will lie flat and spread out, which is difficult to grasp. At this time, it is entirely up to the writer to adjust the nib with the skill of lifting the pen, and the bristle brush is better. Because of its high elastic strength, when the pen is pressed and lifted again, the pen tip can be restored to the original condensed state, so it can be lifted freely and is quite handy. However, due to the hardness and flexibility of the brush, the strokes will appear too sharp and angular, which is the disadvantage of the bristle brush. In short, it is not easy to write vigorous and straight words with a sheep's brush and peaceful and flexible words with a hard pen.
For beginners, if you use a hard brush from the beginning, it will be easier to pick up the pen without much skill, because the pen will help you a lot, but over time, you can only use the hard brush. Once you pick up the sheep's hair, you will feel unable to move. On the contrary, if you practice calligraphy with sheep's hair when you are a beginner, although it is difficult at first, you must change the front by lifting and pressing to write qualified strokes, but you also learn the method of using soft pen. With the increase of contact time, you will gradually become handy and use it freely. At this time, if you pick up a hard brush to write, you will feel relaxed.
The ancients also had a lot of experience in the use of pens. I don't think it is easy to buy a good and expensive pen when I am a beginner, but I advocate using a bad pen, because if you can write good words with a bad pen, you will be more comfortable and write better with a good pen. On the contrary, if you start with a good pen, you will only use a good pen all your life. Once you encounter a poor pen, you will not be able to write well. Of course, you can't practice calligraphy with a rotten pen, which will make it more difficult for beginners. Ou Yangxun, a great calligrapher in the early Tang Dynasty, recorded that "if you don't choose paper or pen, you will achieve your goal", which was praised by Yu Shinan of the same age.
In addition, from the economic point of view, the authentic wolf brush is very expensive, the good "big orchid bamboo" costs one or two hundred yuan, the ordinary sheep brush only costs two or three yuan, and a little better five or six yuan is enough. And because the pen is hard and easy to wear, it is not smooth when used, while the pen is soft and durable. It is economical for beginners to buy a wool pen.
Before buying a pen, you should also know the model of the brush. Brushes are divided into small letters, medium letters and large characters due to different styles, and the biggest ones are screen pens, couplet pens, bucket pens and planting pens. Because the name and brand of each pen factory are different, its size is also different. Beginners can buy a pen with a long front end, about four or five centimeters in length and about one centimeter in diameter. Such a brush can write in block letters 7 cm square. More suitable for people who have just learned calligraphy.
Raw materials of writing brush
Bai Hao
One of the best materials for making pens. It is light yellow gun hair on the back and neck of rabbits and black gun hair on the waist. Feng Ying is long and sharp, which is the best material with purple hair in rabbit hair.
Huahao
One of the best materials for making pens. It is one of the materials of rabbit hair. The tip of the flower is black, the waist is brown or yellowish, and the root is gray. According to the length of its front glume (that is, the black tip of the flower), flowers are divided into one flower, two flowers to seven flowers and eight flowers, with eight grades. Tiger brand pens only take three grades: three flowers, four flowers and five flowers, and are generally used as ink pens. There are also two wool brushes, such as "Seven Purple Three Sheep" and "Five Purple Five Sheep".
Rabbit beard
One of the best materials for making pens. Refers to the fine material made of the beard of a rabbit or hare. The length of rabbit beard is longer than that of other parts of rabbit body. Its roots are thick, its stems are straight and straight, and its elasticity is as strong as bristles. But the number is very small. It is usually used with other materials to make large pieces of wool, large pieces of wolf hair, bucket pens and so on. After adding a small amount of rabbit hair to these pens, it plays a role of "strengthening the body" and can enhance the elasticity of the pen waist.
Huaituhao
One of the best materials for making pens. Made of grass rabbit hair produced in the north of the Yangtze River and Huaihe River, it is called "Huai rabbit hair". Rabbit hair is slightly flat because of its soft roots, and is generally used as secondary hair. It is also used for some small brushes, such as "painting".
Brush made of goat hair
One of the best materials for making pens. Goat wool is used as the first-class material for pen making, and it is called sheep wool. Sheep wool is soft and belongs to the category of soft wool. However, it has certain elasticity, softness and toughness, and can be used in calligraphy to be smooth and durable. It is also used for drying, dyeing and coloring in Chinese painting. It is best to make wool from goats raised in Taihu Lake basin, where sericulture is abundant. Among them, Wangdian and Shi Xia in Jiaxing, Zhejiang have the best quality. Hu pen-makers call it "Benshan wool". Most brush manufacturers all over the country buy wool here, because the goat feed here is mostly mulberry leaves, which is very nutritious, except for sericulture season. At the tip of some wool, there is a transparent sharp point of emerald color, which is called "black spot" by pen makers, which is a sign of high-quality sheep hair. A goat hair can be used as wool, about three taels, and the spotted one is only about six yuan. When making a pen, these hairs with dots should be concentrated to make a high-grade sheep's hoof pen with sharp, round, neat and healthy "four virtues".
Su Yang Hao
Refers to the natural degreasing wool after a period of sun and night dew. "Su" is relative to "fresh", because fresh wool has not been degreased and contains fat, so it has poor ink absorption. The quality of Yang Hao's pen can be measured by cleanliness, purity and tolerance. Pure means white, pure means no impurities, and overnight means degreasing. Therefore, these words are often added before the pen name to show its quality. Such as pure wool quilt, pure wool quilt and pure wool quilt.
Ian Yang
One of the best materials for making pens. Goats' jaws can be used to make pens. Because it is long and hard, it can be made into a bigger pen. It is also useful to mix it into the center of the wool pen, which can enhance the flexibility of the pen. "Ming Shi Feng Fang" said: "Lime soaked bristles for 100 days to make them soft, making them Mo Chi; Zhang Wenfu used a sheep beard, but it has been stagnant for a long time. " "Mo Chi" is a pen. The pens produced by Bizhuang in modern times are mostly made of sheep beard, which is called "the pen raised by sheep beard".
A writing brush made of weasel hair
One of the best materials for making pens. A brush made of weasel's tail is called "wolf brush". The weasel has a body length of about 30CM, a tail length of about 15-20cm, a reddish-brown back and a yellowish-brown chest and abdomen. Its tail is long, sharp and elastic, and it can be used as a fine material for writing brushes. Weasels are widely distributed in China. The length, performance and quality of fur vary greatly due to the different producing areas and hunting seasons. Among them, it is the best material that is produced in the northeast of the Commissioner and hunted in winter, which is called "Northeast Wei Yuan", or "North Tail" and "Winter Tail". The pen made is called "North Wolf Tail" or "Winter Wolf Hair". Except in the northeast, weasels produced all over the country can only be used to make pens in winter, and those hunted in other seasons are not suitable for writing brushes. This is because the weasels produced in the northeast are bigger than those produced in Shanhaiguan, and the snow in the northeast is longer. The weasel walks in the snow, and its tail drags on the snow. Its tail is long and tough, which is obviously different from the weasel in Shanhaiguan. Therefore, brush-making units all over the country need to purchase yellow wolf tails from the northeast. , used to make high-quality wolf brushes. The yellow wolf's tail can be made into a larger brush arrangement or brush with a hairbrush (the long and hard one), and the other shorter hairbrushes can be made into brushes such as "small wolf hair" or "clothes pattern". The Song Dynasty's Xuan He Hua Pu has been published for eight years. "(Gui Hu) Anyone who paints with a horse's back must paint wolf hair to dilute the dye and take over his business." Gui Hu, a native of the Tang Dynasty, knew that there was a wolf hair in the Tang Dynasty.
Mouse beard and wolf hair
Another name for the wolf brush. Made of weasel tail hair. Song history. Foreign biographies. South Korea ""; In the same year, he sent an imperial envoy Guo Yuan to pay tribute. Yuan himself said that his country ... produced dragon beard mats, rattan mats, mouse and wolf pens and so on. "
North-tailed wolf
One of the best materials for making pens. Refers to the weasel tail hair produced in the northeast of Guanwai. It is better to pick in autumn and winter, so it is called "Dong Langhao", which is a fine product of Langhaozhong.
Lu Hao
One of the ancient pen-making materials. Writing with deer hair has a long history. Bao "gu. Interpretation of the question and answer: "Meng Tian started the mission, that is, Qin Bier. Taking wood as the tube, deer hair as the column and wool as the clothing, the so-called pale hair, non-rabbit hair bamboo tube is also the "inscription of the Jin people"; "Whether it is a pen, it will be rabbit hair, the profit is difficult to adjust, and there is deer hair." In addition, Song Renzhuang wrote "Chicken Ribs": "There are no rabbits in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and wool is used as a pen. But Mingxinzhou is the best, the pen is soft and not bent, and the deer hair is also used, but it is crisp and bald. " "Bei Hu Lu" on the highway in the Tang Dynasty: "Deer brush, Jin Zhanghua tasted it, no less than rabbit brush". New Tang book Geography: "Tugong, Qichun County, qi zhou: Tea, Agkistrodon, Wax Snake and Deer Whip". It can be seen that the use of deer hair to make pens began in the Qin Dynasty and was quite common in the Jin and Tang Dynasties, and was listed as a local tribute. But it's rare now, and this shop also has the name of "Deer and Wolf". Actually, there is no deer brush. Deer brush is not suitable for writing because it is too soft and curved and has no sharp edge.
Maho
One of the best materials for making pens. Horse hair, horse mane and ponytail hair can all be used as pens, which are stronger than wool, but not as pure as wool. Because the horse is long, it can be made into a combination pen or plaque pen or a large pen. Shanghai Museum was built in Wanli period of Ming Dynasty. The barrel is blue and white porcelain, painted with the peony dragon pattern on the CD, which is quite exquisite. In addition, in the past, there was a large pen called tiger mane or beard in Bizhuang, which was old and yellow in color, and it was actually made by Ma Hao. There are many kinds of pens on Beihu Road in Tang Dynasty, including horse hair. You can know that pens written with horse hair have been around since the Tang Dynasty.
Miho
The rafter golden monkey is a special cherished animal for me. In ancient times, people used its hair to make pens. Golden monkey, about 70 cm long. The tail length is equal to or slightly longer than the body length. There is long golden hair on the back, which is soft and shiny. The hair on the abdomen and inside of the limbs is brownish yellow, and other parts are dark gray. Living in alpine forests of 2500-3000 meters. Distributed in Sichuan, Gansu and southwestern Shaanxi. Dai Song Huang Tingjian said, "When Lu Dayuan saw the Yu family cut their hair in Guizhou, he used it as a lilac pen, which was easy to deal with!
marten hair
One of the best materials for making pens. Mink is mink, also known as sable and forest mink, whose hair was used to make pens. Mink, shaped like a weasel, has a body length of about 30-40cm and a tail length of about11-19cm. Dark brown fur, produced in northeast China. Its fur is extremely precious and is one of the "three treasures of Kanto". A Qing writer Liang wrote: "Uncle Zang Jinda of the Ming Dynasty used mink as a pen, which made him feel a little fat and stupid." . In modern times, it is rare to achieve an author in this way.
Yan linghao
Goose feathers are used as good materials for making pens. Goose feathers are soft, similar to chicken feathers. Song Lu: "There are chicken feathers and Yanling as pens between Fujian and Guangxi. I tried to use it, but it was weak and almost too strange. " In modern times, there are occasional chicken tricks.
hog bristles
One of the best materials for making pens. Bristles are the hairs on the front of the main back, which are white and black. Bristles are very long and hard, and can be used to make pens. Liang was a native of Qing Dynasty and a great pen maker in history. Wang Zuo's On the Study: At the beginning of Yongle, Zheng Boqing of Jishui used bristles as a pen, which was strong and lovely. Its heart is very long. "Moreover, the modern Song pen produced in Leshan, Sichuan, takes bristles as the main raw material. Bristles can also be used for pens made of sheep whiskers or sheep tail hairs, and the mixed use of several bristles is helpful to keep fit. Because the bristles are hard and thick. It is incompatible with other hairs, so bristles must be divided into four, six and eight. However, it is called "dividing mane", but it is actually "hammer mane". There are more hammers, but less hammers are thicker. Mainly to make the difference between the thickness of mixed bristles and other fine materials not too big.
Qingyanghao
One of the best materials for making pens. Green sheep, also known as impala or goat, looks like a domestic goat, but it doesn't need to be under the chin. Its winter coat is grayish black or dark brown, and its summer coat is dark. With its wool as the first-class material, it is called "green wool". "North Lake Road" cloud on the highway in the Tang Dynasty: many counties in Panyu used Qingyang Hao as a pen; In addition, the rabbit brush made in ancient times mostly used Qingyang hair as auxiliary hair, or mixed Qingyang hair with rabbit hair to make the pen holder, so that the pen holder was both rigid and flexible. For example, Wang Xizhi's "Bi Jing" said, "In all counties, Zhongshan rabbits are only fat and long enough to be used. First, use dozens of human hairs as stems, mix them with blue wool, lick them with rabbits, cut them evenly, and wrap the roots with hemp paper to make them clean. The second time, take luxury and put a thin cloth on the post to make the post disappear.
Feng huhao
One of the best materials for making pens. Rich foxes seal foxes, and big foxes seal foxes. History of Qing Dynasty and Liang Dynasty. The material of the pen ":Wen Hai Pi Sha Ji": There are rich foxes, crickets, dragon's shin, tiger servants, orangutan hair and wolf hair. Although imported, the alcohol content is just right, not as good as Zhongshan rabbit hair. "There is another cloud:" Tree Xuan Lu ":Panyu counties are pens, or mountains and pheasants are rich in foxes. "
Chinese writing brush
Hammer with a thatch, take its stem vein and tie it into a pen, which is called a brush. The biographer is Chen Xianzhang of the Ming Dynasty. "Mr. Baisha's Behavior" was written by Zhang Yu in the Ming Dynasty: Gongfu was able to write letters from home, tied his hair and wrote ghosts, and used them exclusively in his later years, so he became a family of his own, and sometimes he had calligraphy. Chen Xianzhang (1428- 1500), a native of Xinhui, Guangdong Province, is called Mr. Baisha, so his pen is also called "Baisha Maolong Pen". There are several sizes in Guangdong today, and the prices are low. It's interesting to write in big letters.
lanugo hair
The baby's first shaved hair has a sharp edge and can be used as a pen. Fetal hair is soft and not easy to collect, so there are no batch manufacturers, and most of them are entrusted to pen-making factories or made into writing brushes as souvenirs for their parents, which are generally not used.
Choose a good brush according to the purpose.
(1) Design According to the needs of the theme of calligraphy and painting, the wool matching scheme, size specifications and pen length are formulated, and the experiment is finalized.
(2) Material selection pen Material selection workers should be familiar with the different qualities of the same wool, identify the quality, properties and uses of wool, and carefully select the length, color, edge, thickness and straightness of each raw material. For example, pen hair, fur, and architectural hair. , are confidential. Maximize the use of hair, make the best use of it, and be more perfect.
(3) The ingredients meet the requirements of different characteristics according to different products on the basis of material selection. Determine the feeding amount and distribution position of various raw materials, at the same time, master the wool quality to match its product variety, and the wool ratio should be moderate and reasonable to achieve the best use effect.
(4) Tail hair, such as weasel tail and beaver tail, should be pulled from the tail. In order to ensure the length of tail hair and make full use of materials, it can only be pulled but not cut, and the pulled tail hair cannot remain, and the tail hair is neatly packed into a pile, which is convenient to use.
(5) Water basin (also known as hydraulic engineering) is one of the most complicated and critical jobs in making brush. All kinds of bristles are processed into semi-finished bristles by this process. The process of water basin is completed in water, including depilation, material alignment, tire padding, parting, fur coating and other processes. The water delivery man holds the claw comb in one hand and the degreased wool in the other hand for repeated cleaning, sorting, arrangement, combination and classification. Made into blade-like cutter head hair. Then it will be configured into various cutter heads. Remove the hair with broken ends, no front, bent but not straight, flat and not round, brush the hair with "neat pen" and "styling" and cover it with a round pen.
(6) The semi-finished pen made in the knotting basin is sent to the knotting process for ligation, so the knotting pen is also called tying. It seems easy to tie a knot, but it is very important for the pen maker to tie the tips of thousands of hairs together without losing a hair. Therefore, when tying a knot, the bottom of the pen must be flat and the depth of the loop should be appropriate.
(7) The choice of Puton pen is called Puton. Pen makers should master the knowledge of distinguishing the types, specifications, uses and quality of pens to ensure the quality of pens.
(8) Assemble the knotting pen, select the pen holder, and assemble the number according to the assembler's specifications. The assembler should go through the process of matching, moistening, turning, pulling and opening, flatten the two ends of the pen holder, then insert the knife into the fine hole of the pen holder and dig a hole with the same depth, so that the size and depth of the hole are just suitable for the pen tip to cover. (9) Choosing a pen is also called repairing a pen. The quality of choosing a pen has a great relationship with the product. The manufacturing process of pen selection is as fine and complicated as the basin process. From the tip of the pen to the bottom of the pen, pick out different hairs that do not meet the standards and affect the writing effect. The pen holder must be attentive, calm and calm when operating, in order to choose well. Erasing a pen is the process of twisting the pen into the shape of a pen head. Dip the tip of the pen with antlers or glue, and then polish it repeatedly by hand. Rub it to a certain extent and you can set it.
(10) lettering, each process has several small processes, and it takes one or two hundred processes to make a brush.
Types and quality characteristics of writing brushes
Brush types can be roughly divided into three categories.
The first category: pure sheep wool: the performance of sheep wool is soft and healthy. Quality characteristics: pure wool, bright as jade. The painting was sudden, honest and beautiful. Hold a pen in your hand and let it go. If you are encouraged, good things will happen.
The second pure stellera chamaejasme: the performance of stellera chamaejasme is healthy and tough. Quality characteristics: Mao Ying is like a cone, and its front end is like a moon. When you are energetic, things will change, and weeds will make you cry. Holding a pen in your hand, you are radiant. Shake the mountains and move the earth, and the wind will fall on the wrist.
The third category: double double brush category: soft luxury and hard luxury are matched with each other, and both rigidity and softness are combined. Quality characteristics: Both hawthorn and horsehair have their own characteristics and are skillful. Splash ink into god, render vicissitudes of life, sing praises to the peak, and storm the earth. Hold it as drunk as writing, be drunk but care about it, be crazy as singing, be crazy not in sound but in rhyme. Reach the realm of forgetting the pen and ink, and being invisible without me.
The historical formation process of writing brush
Writing depends on the generation of writing brush. The research shows that the writing brush was produced in the Neolithic Age in China, and people in China have used it for thousands of years. Paintings and patterns on painted pottery should be painted on the embryo with brush strokes. Oracle Bone Inscriptions should also write with a brush first, and then carve with sharp tools. However, the earliest brush was found in the Chu tomb in the middle of the Warring States period about 2,500 years ago.
The earliest tombs where brushes were found were the Chu Tomb of Changtaiguan 1 in Xinyang, Henan Province and the Chu Tomb of Zuojiagongshan in Changsha, Hunan Province. Its unearthed brush is similar to the common brush today, but the pen holder is slender and the nib is 2.5 cm, which is slightly longer than the nib of modern low-profile brush. Its manufacturing method is to wrap bristles around one end of the pen holder and tie them tightly with silk thread. Changsha pen is made of fine rabbit arrow hair, which is equivalent to purple hair of later generations. It is sharp and elastic, just as Bai Juyi, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, described it as: "The purple hair nib is like a cone and sharp as a knife." It is precisely because of this kind of brush that we can see that the fonts and strokes on Chu bamboo slips are vigorous and sharp. Changtaiguan 1 Chu Tomb Brush is put in a pencil case with a small copper saw, chisel and knife in the middle. It is conceivable that these bronzes are tools used to finely process bamboo slips and carve triangular notches at braided ropes.
A writing brush was also unearthed in the Qin tomb of the Warring States Period in Yunmeng Shuihudi, Hubei Province, but it was different from the above-mentioned writing brush, and it was inserted in the rod cavity, similar to today's writing method. At the same time, the tomb is also equipped with writing tools such as ink and inkstone, which are called "Four Treasures of the Study" in the Warring States period with pens and bamboo slips. Compared with modern Four Treasures of the Study, only paper and paper reflect the differences between ancient and modern times, and the other three are exactly the same.
Bamboo slips, Mongolian calligraphy and silk calligraphy are all written with brush, so the strokes are elastic, sharp in starting and ending points and slightly thicker in the middle and front, which fully shows the characteristics of brush. They are different from the dignified form of inscriptions on bronze, and their strokes and styles are simpler than inscriptions on bronze. Therefore, the appearance of writing brush is not only a technological revolution, but also an artistic revolution.
In 223 BC, Meng Tian, the general of the State of Qin, led his troops to fight against Chu in Zhongshan. The two sides fought fiercely and the war was protracted. In order to let the king of Qin know the situation on the battlefield in time, Meng Tian should write the situation report regularly and deliver it to the king of Qin. At that time, people usually dipped bamboo slips in ink and then wrote on silk, which was very slow. That pen is hard and hard. If you can't write a few words, you have to stop and dip. If you dip too much ink, it will drip straight down and stain very expensive silk. Meng Tianqian had the idea of changing the pen, and this time he wanted to write a lot of situation reports, and this desire became stronger and stronger.
During the war, Meng Tian liked to go hunting in the wild. One day, he shot some wild rabbits and returned to the barracks. Because the rabbit has been hit many times, it is very heavy in his hand. There is a rabbit's tail on the ground, and the blood is dragging winding traces on the ground. When Meng Tian saw it, he couldn't help but move: "Isn't it better to write with rabbit tail instead of ordinary pen?"
After returning to the barracks, Meng Tian immediately cut off a rabbit's tail and put it on a bamboo tube, trying to write with it, but the rabbit's hair was shiny and didn't absorb ink, and the words written on the silk were intermittent. Meng Tian tried several times to no avail, and a silk was wasted. In a rage, he threw the "rabbit brush" into the rock pit in front of the door.
Meng Tian was not willing to fail, so he took the time to consider other improvement methods. A few days passed, but he still didn't find a suitable method. On this day, he walked out of the barracks and wanted to breathe some fresh air. Walking through the rock pit, he saw the "rabbit brush" he had thrown away. Meng Tian picked it up, pinched the rabbit hair with his fingers, and found that the rabbit hair was wet, and the color became whiter and softer. Meng Tian was greatly inspired and immediately ran back to the barracks to dip in ink. At this time, the rabbit's tail became very obedient, absorbed enough ink, wrote smoothly, and the font became round. It turns out that the water in the rock pit contains calcium, and the rabbit hair becomes soft after being soaked in alkaline water. Because this pen is composed of a bamboo tube and rabbit hair, Meng Tian added a "bamboo" prefix to the popular pen name "Yu" at that time and called it "pen". Today is abbreviated as "pen".
The original brush was used to describe Oracle Bone Inscriptions's strokes, but the real brush writing may begin with the words on bamboo slips and tapestries.
The development of history
The origin of brushes can be traced back to the Neolithic Age. 1980 An ancient tomb dating back more than 5,000 years was excavated in Jiangzhai Village, Lintong, Shaanxi Province. Unearthed cultural relics include concave inkstones, pestles, dyes and pottery cups. From the decorative patterns of painted pottery, we can identify the traces depicted by the brush, which proves that there was a brush or a pen similar to a brush five or six thousand years ago. Pictographs of pens appeared in Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Shang Dynasty, which looked like holding a pen in hand. A bamboo brush was unearthed in Zuojiagongshan, Changsha, Hunan Province and Changtaiguan, Xinyang, Henan Province, respectively, which was the earliest brush found. The pen unearthed in Changsha, Hunan Province, has a bamboo pole of 0.4cm and a length of 18.5cm, and the nib is rabbit arrow hair and is 2.5cm long. The nib is clamped on the split bamboo pole head, wrapped with silk thread and coated with a layer of raw lacquer. Judging from the manufacturing technology of brush and the distribution area of unearthed cultural relics, brush was widely used during the Warring States Period. Just don't have a unified name. In Xu Shen's Shuo Wen Jie Zi in the Eastern Han Dynasty, it is recorded that "Chu refers to Yu, Wu refers to incorrect, Yan refers to strokes" and "Qin refers to pens, from Yu to Zhu".
There is a legend that Meng Tian made pens in the Qin Dynasty. Meng Chuan chose rabbit hair and bamboo control pens. The method of making a pen is to hollow out one end of the pen holder into a hair cavity, and the hair of the pen tip is stuffed in the cavity. There is also a protective bamboo sleeve on the brush, and both sides of the bamboo sleeve are hollowed out to facilitate holding the pen. After Montessori made a pen, it was collectively called a pen, so it has one of its most famous brushes, namely "Meng Pen", also known as "Meng Tian Jing Pen" and "Monkey Pen". The back pen is the writing brush of the back hall, which was called "elephant pen" in ancient times. The pen holder is long and hard, combining rigidity with softness, full of ink, smooth and not stagnant. According to historical records, from 22 1 BC to 207 BC, Meng Tian led 300,000 troops to stick to the northern frontier of Qin Dynasty and passed through Houdian. On March 3rd, he began to write letters with rabbit hair bamboo tubes as pens, and then presented the brushes to Houdian people. Later, Houdian people copied "Meng Tian's fine pen". In the Tang Dynasty, Li, a brush artist from Houdian Village, opened a pen shop in Beijing, and a eunuch who loved calligraphy became his own brother. He often bought his own brush in the palace, which was appreciated by the emperor, so Houdian brush became famous all over the world and was regarded as a royal product. Therefore, on March 3rd every year, pen makers in Houdian area will set off firecrackers and hold a banquet to commemorate Meng Tian, the founder of writing brush. The local pen-making industry flourished during the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, with a history of more than 500 years. This pen is well known. During the Guangxu period, it was also regarded as a royal use because of its exquisite craftsmanship. Emperor Guangxu erected a monument in recognition of it and called it "Imperial Pen". In the early years of the Republic of China, Panama Games won a medal, so Houdian Village in Hengshui was called "Holy Land of Brush Writing" and "Hometown of Writing in the North". The writing brush in the back hall, the inner painting and the palace goldfish are also called "three wonders of balance".
The writing brush entered a new development stage in the Han Dynasty. First, it pioneered the decorative technology of lettering and inlaying on the pen holder. For example, the writing brushes engraved with "White Horse" and "Shi Hu Block" were unearthed in two tombs of the Eastern Han Dynasty in Wuwei, Gansu; Second, there have been works devoted to the production of brush, such as Fu Bi by Cai Yong in the Eastern Han Dynasty, which is the first monograph devoted to the selection, production and function of brush in the history of Chinese writing, ending the history of no written comments before the Han Dynasty; Third, there is a special form of "white pen". In order to play with things conveniently, officials in the Han Dynasty often sharpened the tail of the brush and put it in their hair or hat for later use. Sacrificers often put a pen on their heads to show their respect. On the left side of the tomb owner's head, a white horse writing brush was unearthed.
In the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, a number of pen makers such as Wu Yunhui, Feng Yingke, Lu Wenbao and Tianxi Zhang emerged in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province. Sheep brushes made of goat hair are popular all over the world and are called "lake pens". Huzhou has been the center of brush making in China since the Qing Dynasty. At the same time, many famous brand brushes have appeared in other places, among which Liu Brush in Ruyang, Henan Province, Li Dinghe in Shanghai, Wu Yunhui in Jiangxi Province and Yipin Zhai in Lu 'an, Anhui Province all won prizes at the international fair.