1986, a writing brush was unearthed from the Chu tomb at Baoshan No.2, Jingmen City, Hubei Province, and placed in a bamboo tube with a cork.
The end of the bamboo pen tube is sharpened, the front end has a cavity, the brush head has a sharp point, and the upper end is tied tightly with silk thread and inserted into the bamboo tube. The manufacturing method of inserting the nib into the inner cavity of the pen tube is an innovative manufacturing method.
1986, two brushes and a pencil case were unearthed from TombNo. 1 and TombNo. 14 in Fangmatan, Tianshui, Gansu Province, in the late Warring States period. The pencil case unearthed from tomb 1 is quite interesting. It is a double-barrel box made of two bamboo tubes, both of which are hollow in the middle, and can hold two brushes.
The brush is also a bamboo pole, one end of which is cut into a slope, and the other end is hollowed out into a hair cavity and inserted into the nib.
To sum up, at present, five writing brushes have been unearthed in the tombs of the pre-Qin period, all of which were in the Warring States period.
Regarding the origin of the brush, people often say that "Meng Tian made the pen". Meng Tian was a general under Qin Shihuang. Archaeological findings have overturned Meng Tian's theory of writing a pen.
In fact, the ancients also knew that Cui Bao of Jin Dynasty said in Notes on Ancient and Modern Times: "Meng Tian is the ear of Qin pen, with zhe [zhè] wood as the tube, deer hair as the column and wool as the quilt."
That is to say, Meng Tian improved the method of making Qin brush, and his brushwork was based on deer hair with wool outside. "Hanging column method" is a great innovation in the manufacturing process of brush, which has been used up to now.
Brush unearthed in Qin dynasty:
1975 Qin TombNo. Shuihudi1kloc-0/excavated in Yunmeng County, Hubei Province was buried in the 30th year of Qin Shihuang (2 17 BC). Three writing brushes and bamboo pens were unearthed at one time, with the upper end sharpened and the nib in the lower cavity. The brush is stored in a bamboo pen cover, and both sides of the bamboo pen cover are hollowed out to facilitate holding the pen.
The owner of this tomb is called "Xi", who held many official positions related to law before his death. Qin law is recorded in Qin bamboo slips buried with him, and his story is staged in National Treasure.
There are more than ten brushes unearthed in the Han Dynasty, which cannot be recorded.
Tomb No.6 of Yinwan, Donghai County, Jiangsu Province, was buried in 10 BC. The unearthed brush of the Western Han Dynasty is 23 cm long and well-made. It was identified as rabbit arrow hair. Although it has lasted for 2000 years, this pen is immersed in water, and when it is lifted, the nib immediately gathers, so it can write small characters with a diameter of 2 mm on wooden slips. Words the size of wheat grains have clear strokes and neat handwriting.
The most famous writing brush in Han Dynasty is "Baimazuo" writing brush.
A complete writing brush of the Eastern Han Dynasty was unearthed from the Mozuizi Han Tomb in Wuwei City, Gansu Province, which was located on the left side of the head of the male tomb owner. The length of the pen holder is 2 1.9 cm, the diameter is 0.6 cm, the length of the pen tip is 1.6 cm, and the overall length is 23.5 cm, which is roughly one foot long made in China, which is consistent with the "one-foot pen" mentioned by Wang Chong in Lun Heng.
The refill and front are black and purple, covered with yellow-brown wolf hair, and there is ink at the root. This is the earliest double-barrel brush found so far.
The front end of the bamboo pen is tied with silk thread and painted.
The middle and lower part of the pen is engraved with the words "White Horse Works", which reflects the handicraft management system of "Wu Le Gong Ming" at that time. "White Horse" is the name of the craftsman who made this kind of writing brush. He was the first person to leave a name in the history of writing brush making.
A writing brush engraved with "stone" was unearthed from another Eastern Han tomb in Mozuizi, Wuwei, Gansu.
Cai Yong's "Fu Bi" in the Eastern Han Dynasty is the earliest monograph on writing brush, which discusses the selection, manufacture and function of writing brush.
Zhang Zhi in the Eastern Han Dynasty, who was good at cursive script, was the first generation of grass saints, and his calligraphy style was coherent, so he was called "a stroke". It is said that Zhang Zhi is good at making moustaches, but there is no evidence.
There is another custom in the Han Dynasty, that is, putting a pen in a bun or hat is called a "hairpin [zān] pen", so we can see that the pen holder of the writing brush in the Han Dynasty is slender, and the end is sharpened, which is convenient for hairpin. The writing brush of "white horse writing" appeared on the left side of the tomb owner's head, which also confirmed the custom of calligraphy.
"New Tang Book" records that officials used white pen instead of hairpin for more than seven grades, and there is still the custom of hairpin in Tang Dynasty.