The classification of brushes mainly depends on the size, as well as the type, source and shape of bristles.
According to the written materials, it can be divided into: tire brush, wolf brush, rabbit shoulder purple brush, deer brush, chicken brush, duck brush, hair brush, pig brush, mouse brush, tiger brush, ox ear brush and so on.
According to the size, the brush can be simply divided into: lower case, middle case and upper case.
According to the types of bristles, they can be divided into soft hair, hard hair and double-stranded brush.
According to the purpose, it can be divided into brush and paint brush.
According to the shape, it can be divided into round type, pointed type and luxurious type.
(1) The wool brush is made of the beard or tail of a green sheep or antelope. Textual research began before the Northern and Southern Dynasties. By the Qin Dynasty, Meng Tian's improved new pen had become a pen-making material. Calligraphy is the most important thing, sheep are soft and have no front, and books are "weak and boneless", so calligraphers in past dynasties rarely use them. Sheep hair became popular only after the Southern Song Dynasty. But it was widely used after the early Qing Dynasty. Because the Qing Dynasty paid attention to roundness and delicacy and was not allowed to show off talents, only soft wool could meet the requirements and was widely used at that time. The softness of wool is also poor. If it is properly combined with paper and ink, it can also show a plump and gentle style, and it is cheap and easy to get. Wool is so long that it can be written in large letters more than half a foot.
Wool pen is soft in texture and absorbs a large amount of ink, which is suitable for writing with round and solid stippling. More durable than a wolf's brush. Most of these pens are lake pens, which are relatively cheap. Generally, there are big pens, Jingti (or pen lifting), Lianfeng, Feng Ping, Ding Feng, Gaifeng, flagpole, Jade Bamboo Shoots, Yulanrui and Jingzha.
(2) The wolfsbane pen literally means made of wolfsbane. The previous generation did make pens with wolf hair; But today's wolf hair is the hair of the weasel "wolf", not the hair of the wolf. What Langhao saw was recorded very late, and some people used "parallel pen", that is, Langhao's use can be pushed back to before Wang Xizhi's Jin Dynasty, but it is not certain. Weasels can only use the tip of their tails as pens. They are tough by nature, second only to rabbits but too woolly, and they are also healthy pens. Disadvantages are similar to those of Zihao, not too big.
The rat tail produced in Northeast China is the most common wolf hair, which is called "Northern Wolf Hair" and "Kanto Liao Wei". Wolf hair is stronger than wool pen and suitable for writing and drawing, but it is not as durable as wool pen and more expensive. Common varieties are Zhu Lan, freehand brushwork, landscape, flowers, Ye Jin, costume patterns, red beans, small seiko, deer and wolf hair calligraphy and painting (made of wolf hair and deer hair), leopard and wolf hair (made of wolf hair and leopard hair), special long-peak wolf hair, super long-peak wolf hair and so on.
(3) The purple brush is made of the hair on the back of the rabbit's neck, so it is named after its dark purple color. The strength of rabbits in the north and south of China is different, and some rabbits are made in the north and south. The tenacity of rabbits is called health brush, which is better than that of the north. It is long and sharp, suitable for writing straight Fang Zhengzhi characters, and is valued by calligraphers. Bai Juyi's Purple Pen Yuefu says, "A purple pen is like a cone and sharp as a knife." Describe the characteristics of Zihao pen very completely. However, because only the hair on the back of the rabbit's neck is available, it is expensive and heroic, so you can't write big characters on the plaque.
Purple brush is tall, sharp and sharp, and its elasticity is stronger than that of wolf hair. Rabbit hair produced in Anhui is the best.
(4) The moustache pen uses mouse sideburns, and the strokes are pure, smooth and sharp, and the writing font is both rigid and soft.
(5) The chicken hair brush is made of chicken chest hair, which is quite soft and difficult for beginners to master, so it is not suitable for use.
(6) The bristle pen is processed and steamed with bristles and used for writing large plaques.
(7) Double the number of brushes with two or more types, and name them according to their mixing ratio, such as three Ziqi sheep and five Ziwuyang sheep. Meng Tian's improved pen, with "deer hair as the column and wool as the quilt", belongs to a double-stranded brush. Double double brush takes one more health value and one more softness value to match, with health value as the main factor, which is called "column"; Softness is external and vice-versa, which is called "having". The length of the column is short, and the quilt is short, which is called a pen with one column and one quilt. The quilt also has many layers, such as rabbit hair as a column, short wool quilt, and three layers of * * * are the same length as the column, so the root is extra thick, the pen tip is thin, and more ink is stored, which is convenient for writing. The characteristics are different according to the mixing ratio, either rigid or soft, or moderate in hardness, and cheap and labor-saving, all of which are advantages.
Common two-strand brush pens include two-strand brush wolves and two-strand brush purple sheep, such as five purple sheep and seven purple sheep. This pen has the advantages of both sheep and wolves, moderate rigidity and moderate price, and is commonly used by painters and painters. There are two types: harmonic type and quilt type.
In addition, according to the length of strokes, the brush has different performances such as long strokes, middle strokes and short strokes. Long front is easy to draw beautiful lines, short front is easy to make lines dignified and heavy, and it is appropriate to draw mountains and rivers with centers. According to the size of the nib, brushes are divided into three types: small, medium and large. Various models of landscape painting should be prepared. Generally, it is enough to prepare a small landscape (little wolf hair), a little white cloud, a big white cloud and a bigger wool "bucket pen". How sharp the new pen is, it is only suitable for drawing thin lines, and the effect of rubbing, wiping and knocking the old pen is good. Some painters like to use a bald pen, and the dotted line is not vigorous and simple.
What we often use is nothing more than wool, wolf hair and two brushes.