Here's something about the brush!
the writing brush is a traditional writing tool originated from China. It is listed as one of the Four Treasures of the Study in China. The picture shows several kinds of writing brushes in stationery stores.
Writing brushes originated around 16-166 BC. Regarding the origin of the brush, there are different opinions in history. The story of Meng Tian making the brush is the most recorded in history, but modern scholars believe that the brush existed long before Meng Tian.
The original brush was used to paint Oracle Bone Inscriptions's strokes, but the real writing with brush may begin with the writing of characters on bamboo slips and brocade.
the classification of brush mainly depends on the size, as well as the type, source and shape of brush hair.
* According to the size, the brush can be simply divided into small letters, medium letters and large letters.
* classified by brush hair
o types: soft hair, hard hair, doubled both brush, etc.
o source: fetal brush, wolf brush, rabbit shoulder brush, deer brush, chicken brush, duck brush, wool brush, pig brush, mouse brush, tiger brush, ox ear brush, etc.
o shape: round, sharp, and so on.
* Pen holder
o Gold, silver, ivory, glass, rosewood and bamboos
At present, the most famous place for producing brush is Huzhou, Shanlian Town, Xing Wu County, Zhejiang Province, which is called Lake Pen.
History
In p>1954, a well-preserved brush was unearthed in the Chu Tomb in the middle of the Warring States Period at No.15 Zuogongshan, Changsha. Taking wood as a pole and putting wool on it with a bamboo tube, this is the original writing brush. Legend has it that the wool brush invented by Meng Tian, the general of Qin Dynasty, first trapped wool into a pen tip and stuffed it into the hole of the pen holder. The improvement of Meng Tian's brush is of great significance to the formation of Xiao Zhuan. Unlike Da Zhuan, Xiao Zhuan's lines are tortuous, which is beyond the reach of hard objects, so it should be written with a brush. Meng Tian was the ancestor of the pen-making industry in later generations. In the pre-Qin period, the writing brush had many names, such as "Yu", "Irregular" and "Fu", which were later collectively referred to as "Pen".
In Xijing Miscellaneous Ji, it is stated that the writing brush used by the Emperor of Han Dynasty was inlaid with precious stones, which were made of autumn rabbit.
painter's comments on pen
* Wen Zhenheng: "sharp", "neat", "round" and "healthy" are the four virtues of pen.
* Zhang Daqian. Zhang Daqian said that a kind of watercolor pen produced in Britain is very valuable. It is made of fine hair from the ears of cattle somewhere in Britain, and only 25 cattle can produce a pound of yellow cattle's ears. The brush made of ox hair is full of water absorption and elastic.
* Pan Tianshou: Sheep's hair is round and delicate, with strong water content and slow pen tip. It has its own specialty in using dry ink and wet ink.