In the Qin dynasty, the practice of using a pen was improved. It chisels one end of the pen into a small nest and inserts the nib into the nest. The pen cover is also wrapped in a bamboo tube, with a small hole on each side for holding the pen.
There is a tradition in China that the writing brush was created by Meng Tian in Qin Dynasty. Meng Tian may have improved the writing brush, but how to improve it is not recorded. The name "pen" was used in the Qin Dynasty. This pen made of two kinds of wool with different hardness can be both rigid and flexible, which is convenient for writing and is a great progress. A pen unearthed from a tomb in the middle Eastern Han Dynasty in Mozuizi, Wuwei, Gansu Province, has a black-purple hard hair and a yellow soft hair outside, which is exactly the same as that in ancient and modern notes. This pen can be regarded as Meng Tian's improved writing brush.
According to the front wall of a stone tomb of the Eastern Han Dynasty in Yinan, Shandong Province, there is a sacrificial picture engraved with a pen on the water crown held by the worshipper. According to the "Ximen Bao's Pen Broken" in Biography of Li Ji and Ji Hua, and the sharpening of one end of the Qin pen, it may have been a long time ago.
After the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the pen became short, or because there were no high tables and chairs at that time, the writer knelt on the mat. There are several short cases in front of me, so I have to write them with my elbows down. Therefore, the requirement for writing is "waist-high on the front", which is what Liu Gongquan called "the shape of a circle like a cone". It is said that Ou Yangxun is also very particular about writing brushes, and the pens used are raccoon hair and autumn rabbit hair.
The pens from the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty were known as "moustache" and "chicken distance". According to Bi Jing, Zhong You, Zhang Zhi and Wang Xizhi all used moustaches. The chicken distance is used to describe the shape of the short front pen, and Bai Juyi's "Chicken Distance Pen Fu" is used to describe the firmness of the pen. At present, the Tang pen written by Masakura Institute in Japan is short and almost triangular, which is said to be a kind of chicken pen. Because it is similar to the shape described by Bai Juyi. This short and hard writing style had a great influence on calligraphy in the Tang Dynasty. Xu Anbi made by Zhuge in Xuancheng, Anhui Province in the Tang Dynasty is the most famous writing brush.
In the Song Dynasty, people sat on chairs to write, and the hardness of the pen tip was different from before, but the raw materials for making pens were roughly the same as those in the Tang Dynasty. In the Yuan Dynasty, Huzhou pen makers used goat hair to make brush characters, or used wool, rabbit hair and wolf hair to make double-stranded brushes. In the Ming dynasty, sharpness, uniformity, roundness and health were the four elements of pen making. The handwriting is required to be round and full, and the elasticity is moderate. When the pen hangs down, it naturally folds into a front end and is easy to use. Although it is softer than Xu Anbi, it has replaced Xu Anbi as the most famous variety. Huzhou was the center of pen-making industry in Ming and Qing Dynasties. As for the material of the pen holder, in addition to the bamboo tube, there are materials such as ivory, rhinoceros horn, jade, rosewood or rosewood, which shows that it is precious and has nothing to do with the writing itself.
Today's pens are almost the same as in the past, and the lake pen is still the most famous. As far as performance is concerned, there are three kinds: soft brush, hard brush and double brush. Wool is soft, and chicken feathers are the softest. Soft, its advantage is that it can take more ink and turn round; The disadvantage is that the strokes are weak and the fonts are bloated when used improperly. Wolf hair and purple hair (that is, rabbit hair) are both hard hairs. Hard, the advantage is sharp and steep; The disadvantage is barren and angular. Double brush is a compromise of semi-soft, semi-hard, rigid and flexible. Due to different ingredients, there are five-purple five-sheep, seven-purple three-sheep and three-purple seven-sheep. Calligraphers love to use double brushes, and they also customize certain kinds of pens according to their own habits. This is an exception.