At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, there was a calligrapher, Mr. Ai Chen, whose most famous work was writing signboards.
When he first wrote the name of the store to others, he had to use a tablecloth as a pen because he had no money to buy a vat of pens. However, because of his profound skill and powerful and charming words, he became famous in one fell swoop. People in the city of Nanjing flocked to beg him to write slogans. Mr Ai Chen's price is getting higher and higher, but there are still endless seekers.
After Ai Chen earned a lot of money by selling words, she still used tablecloths to write shop signs.
Why?
Because he writes it as a habit.
After becoming famous, he tore up his broken trousers and coat, sewed them into a ball and dipped them in thick ink. Soon he could fly like a pen and do it in one go like a dragonfly, which is necessary. Because of the high price, only the rich can get Ai Chen's pen in Nanjing for decades. In many big shops, the brush strokes are written by Ai Chen with "wiping the tablecloth".