There are many types of brushes, and the pen tips are all made of animal hair. Therefore, people often classify pens based on their elasticity. Generally divided into three types: hard centimeter pen, soft centimeter pen and combined centimeter pen.
(1)
Hard-pencils
The bristles of hard-pen pens are more elastic. Common ones include rabbit hairs, wolf hairs, deer hairs, rat whiskers, Stone badger hair, mountain horse hair, pig bristles, etc.
1.
Rabbit hair brush
Rabbit hair brush has a long history. The Warring States brush unearthed in Changsha was made of rabbit hair. It is made by splitting the pen stem into several pieces, inserting the pen tip, and then tightly tying it with silk thread. Rabbit hair is divided into two types: purple hair and white hair. Purple hair is made from the hair on the rabbit's back (also known as arrow hair) and tail. It is soft and strong. The white ones are more sharp and not as soft as the purple hairs.
2. Langhao pen
The "wolf" here is not the kind of wolf in the zoo, but a weasel. The pen made of the hair on the body and tail of the weasel is slightly softer than the rabbit hair pen and harder than the sheep hair pen, but it is brittle and not resistant to friction.
3. Rat whisker pen
The rat whisker pen is made of mouse whiskers, so it has strong performance. According to legend, Wang Xizhi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty wrote "Lanting Preface" with a rat-whisker pen.
Other hard pens, such as mountain horse pens, stone badger pens, bristle pens, etc., are particularly hard in writing. Generally, beginners have not mastered the rules of pen operation and are not easy to use.
(2)
Soft pens
Soft pens are less elastic and softer. It is generally made of soft wool such as sheep hair, chicken hair, and fetus hair.
1.
Sheep hair pen
Sheep hair pen is made of goat hair. Its performance is softer than purple hair pen. Because sheep hair is thinner and longer, Suitable for writing in regular script and large Chinese characters.
2.
Chicken hair pen
Chicken hair pen is made of rooster breast hair, and its performance is softer than sheep hair.
3.
Fetal hair pen
Fetal hair is the hair of newborn babies and its properties are extremely soft. Xiao Ziyun (487-549) of the Southern Dynasty used the fetal brush, which shows its long history.
(3)
Jianhao pen
"Jianhao", as the name suggests, means both. That is to say, with hard hair as the core and soft hair surrounding it, the writing style is between hard hair and soft hair. Generally, purple hair and sheep hair are made in different proportions. The scores include "Three Purples and Seven Sheeps", "Seven Purples and Three Sheeps", and "Five Purples and Five Sheeps". There are also double-hair pens made of sheep hair and wolf hair combined into one, which are divided into "small white clouds", "middle white clouds" and "big white clouds" according to their size. There are also pig bristles added to the large brush pen to enhance its elasticity.