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 Lintongzhai Village, 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. Bamboo brushes were unearthed in Zuojiagongshan, Changsha, Hunan Province and Changtaiguan, Xinyang, Henan Province, respectively, which were the earliest brushes found.
According to legend, at the end of the Warring States period, when Meng Tian, the general of Qin State, was guarding the north, he saw that the Xiongnu painted with animal hair, and the situation ahead was critical, so he changed the seal-cutting bamboo slips into silk rolls to write military information. Therefore, Meng Tian was the ancestor of the pen-making industry in later generations, saying that Meng Tian's wife Bu Xianglian was also proficient in pen-making skills and was enshrined as the pen queen. In the pre-Qin period, the brush had many names, such as "Yu", "Yu" and "Fu", which were collectively called "pen".
With the great development of economy and culture in Han dynasty, the invention of paper promoted the further improvement of writing brush and made it enter a new stage of development. The earliest development of writing brush is to create the decorative technology of lettering and inlaying on the pen holder. For example, two Eastern Han tombs in Mozizi, Wuwei, Gansu, have unearthed brushes engraved with "White Horse" and "Stone". 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.
The style of calligraphy in Wei and Jin dynasties is no longer fashionable, and the pen container is gradually becoming shorter. During the Three Kingdoms period, there was a man named Zhong You in the state of Wei, who was from (present-day Shaanxi 'an). He is a literary talent and good at writing words, and is famous for his pen and ink. At that time, his pen was called Shan Wei's pen, and he wrote a volume of "Pen Jing". In Qi Yao Min Shu, Jia Sixie introduced Dan Wei's pen-making method in detail: "First, comb rabbit hair and wool with iron to remove their dirty hair, pat them all neatly with the comb palm, flatten the ends of hair tips to make them all flat, and the wool shrinks to the bottom of rabbit hair, and then roll them flat to make them extremely round, which makes the whole hair painful." From the above records, we can see Dan Wei's pen-making method, which also reflects the process and characteristics of pen-making in Wei and Jin Dynasties.
In the Jin Dynasty, the purple brush made of rabbit hair in Xuanzhou, Anhui Province was famous for its sharp nib. Xuanzhou Chen's pen is highly praised by Wang Xizhi and others.
In the Tang Dynasty, rabbit hair was the main brush, mostly from Xuanzhou. The materials are carefully selected and of high quality. They are highly valued by the government and the royal family and become the "tribute" of the emperor every year. At present, Masakura Hospital in Nara, Japan has China's Tang pens, such as spotted bamboo tubes, spotted bamboo tubes inlaid with ivory, full ivory tubes and blue tubes. This shows that the pens in the Tang Dynasty are colorful and exquisite.
The pen-making technology in Song Dynasty changed the old style before Jin Dynasty, and gradually tended to be blurred and scattered. There were many famous pen makers at that time. Zhuge Gao was born in Xuancheng, Anhui. Su Shi, a calligrapher, once said: "If Zhuge is angry, others and literati will feel alike and unable. Instead, it is not as good as regular writing. For example, if you study Du Fu's poem, you will find it very vulgar. "
After the Yuan Dynasty, the pen-making industry centered on Huzhou became increasingly prosperous. Chinese brush has entered the second important period of development-the period of lake brush. Among them, Yang Haobi is the most famous, deeply loved by scholars and appreciated by the court. At this time, Huxi Pen is as famous as Xu Anbi, even surpassing Xu Anbi, and has become a famous representative of Chinese painting at home and abroad. Tiger skin, known as "the best in the world", was originally from Shanlian Town, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province. In ancient times, Shanlian belonged to Huzhou Prefecture, so the brush produced here was called Hubi, and Shanlian was also called "Pen Capital". At that time, Hubi was called "Four Treasures of the Study" together with Huimo, Duanyan and Xuan Paper, and there appeared such pen-making masters as Feng Yingke, Wu Sheng, Lu Zhen, Shen Xiurong and Pan.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Shanlian Lake Pen gradually spread abroad, and Shanlian people opened a number of famous pen shops in various places, such as Gu and He Lianqing in Beijing, Zhou Huchen, Li Dinghe in Shanghai, and Bei Songquan and Lu in Suzhou. The Ming and Qing Dynasties were the heyday of the pen-making industry in China. It goes without saying that it is used by the royal family and the government to make exquisite and gorgeous pens. Even the brush used by the people pays great attention to decoration and beauty. At that time, the materials used as pen holders were bamboo, jade, carved lacquer, ivory, porcelain, enamel and so on. , reached an unprecedented level of richness. As a tool, the production of brushes reached its peak in this period.