In 223 BC, Meng Kuo, the general of the State of Qin, led his troops to fight against Chu in Zhongshan. The two sides fought fiercely and the war was protracted. In order to let the king of Qin know the situation on the battlefield in time, Meng Tian should write the situation report regularly and deliver it to the king of Qin. At that time, people usually dipped bamboo slips in ink and then wrote on silk, which was very slow. Although Meng Huo is a military commander, he is full of literary talent. Writing the battle report with the pen mentioned above often makes him feel that it has affected his mind. That pen is hard and hard. If you can't write a few words, you have to stop and dip. If you dip too much ink, it will drip straight down and stain very expensive silk. Meng Tianqian had the idea of changing the pen, and this time he wanted to write a lot of situation reports, and this desire became stronger and stronger.
During the war, Meng Tian liked to go hunting in the wild. One day, he shot some wild rabbits and returned to the barracks. Because the rabbit has been hit many times, it is very heavy in his hand. There is a rabbit's tail on the ground, and the blood is dragging winding traces on the ground. When Meng Tian saw it, he couldn't help but move: "Isn't it better to write with rabbit tail instead of ordinary pen?"
After returning to the barracks, Meng Tian immediately cut off a rabbit's tail and put it on a bamboo tube, trying to write with it, but the rabbit's hair was shiny and didn't absorb ink, and the words written on the silk were intermittent. Meng Tian tried several times to no avail, and a silk was wasted. In a rage, he threw the "rabbit brush" into the rock pit in front of the door.
Meng Tian was not willing to fail, so he took the time to consider other improvement methods. A few days passed, but he still didn't find a suitable method. On this day, he walked out of the barracks and wanted to breathe some fresh air. Walking through the rock pit, he saw the "rabbit brush" he had thrown away. Meng Tian picked it up, pinched the rabbit hair with his fingers, and found that the rabbit hair was wet, and the color became whiter and softer. Meng Tian was greatly inspired and immediately ran back to the barracks to dip in ink. At this time, the rabbit's tail became very obedient, absorbed enough ink, wrote smoothly, and the font became round. It turns out that the water in the rock pit contains calcium, and the rabbit hair becomes soft after being soaked in alkaline water. Because this pen is composed of a bamboo tube and rabbit hair, Meng Tian added a "bamboo" prefix to the popular pen name "Xing" at that time and called it "stupid" (now abbreviated as "pen").
Brush is a unique traditional writing and painting tool in China. China traditional painting and calligraphy can not be separated from the brush. Brush has always been loved by literati, and it is the first of "Four Treasures of the Study". According to legend, the brush was made by Qin Mengtian. Brush was formed in Yangshao culture more than 6000 years ago. The earliest brush found today is 1945, which was unearthed from the Chu Tomb of the Warring States Period in Changsha, Hunan Province. The pen holder is made of bamboo tube, and the pen tip is wound with rabbit hair on the bamboo pole. It was used to write bamboo slips at that time. With the popularization of papermaking, there are many brushes discovered by archaeology, such as two Chinese pens unearthed in Wuwei, Gansu Province, with the names "Baimazuo" and "Shi Hu Zuozuo" engraved on their pens, which are the names of the earliest ancient pen makers in China. According to legend, the writing brush made by Chen, a native of Xuanzhou, Anhui Province in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, was loved by the great calligrapher Wang Xizhi. Xuanzhou became a pen-making center in the Tang Dynasty, Huzhou in Zhejiang Province became a new pen-making center in the Yuan Dynasty, and Laizhou in Shandong Province also had a history of hundreds of years.
Brush is mainly divided into wool and wolf hair, as well as raccoon hair, mouse hair, deer hair, dog hair, chicken feathers and so on.
Famous pen makers of past dynasties:
Tang Dynasty: Huang Hui and Xuanzhou Chen.
Song Dynasty: Zhuge Gao, Cheng Yi, Lu Dayuan and Wang Boli.
Yuan Dynasty: Feng Yingke, Zhang Jinzhong and Zhou Bowen.
Ming Dynasty: Shi Wenyong, Wenbao Zhang and Zhang Wengui.
Qing Dynasty: Zhou Huchen, Sun Zhifa and Wang Yongqing.
Modern: Yang Zhenhua
Types of writing brushes
The classification of brushes mainly depends on the size, as well as the type, source and shape of bristles.
Brushes can be simply divided into small letters, middle letters and capitals according to their sizes.
According to the types of bristles, they can be divided into soft hair, hard hair and double-stranded brush.
According to the source, it can be divided into: tire brush, wolf brush, rabbit shoulder purple brush, deer brush, chicken brush, duck brush, brush, pig brush, mouse brush, tiger brush, ox ear brush and so on.
(1) Ranunculus. This pen is made of goat hair. 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) Wolf brush. This pen is made of the hair on the tail of a weasel. The rat tail produced in Northeast China is the most common, and it is called "North Langhao" and "Guandong 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) font size. The writing pen is made of rabbit hair, so it is named for its purple, black and bright colors. This pen is tall and straight, sharp and sharp, and it is more elastic than wolf hair. Rabbit hair produced in Anhui is the best.
(4) Double-sided brush. This pen is made of two kinds of animal hair with different hardness and softness. Common varieties are double-stranded brush, wolf sheep, double-stranded brush and purple sheep, such as five-purple five-sheep and seven-purple three-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.
According to the shape, it can be divided into round type, pointed type and luxurious 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. All kinds of landscapes should be prepared. Generally, a small landscape, a big landscape, a little white cloud and a big white cloud, and a bigger bucket pen will do. 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. A good brush has four characteristics: round, neat, sharp and healthy, and it is handy to use. Brush should be cleaned in time after use to avoid dry ink damage.
Generally, the raw materials for making pen containers are gold, silver, ivory, glass, rosewood and bamboo.
You must pay attention to the choice of brush. Let me tell you first, the brush made of fetal hair is very good, but it is very expensive. Generally, you can look at the gloss of the brush, and then you can observe whether the purity of the hair on it is appropriate at any time. Then when you press it, it will bounce back immediately, which shows that the brush is soft. If you press it, it will become what it looks like, which is a garbage pen. Let's see if it is not easy to lose hair and whether the brush tip is uniform.