hair
pen
Four treasures of the study room, pen and ink paper.
Brush has a long history in the mainland,
Poetry, calligraphy and painting, literary works, and history books
It is because of the record of the brush that can shine brightly,
The brush is not just a writing instrument
It also represents a culture of writing, calligraphy and painting.
When the ancient Egyptian reed pipe pen,
When the European quill withdrew from the stage of history,
China's brush has not faded to this day,
Shows strong vitality.
quill
History
The inventor of the brush is most widely circulated by the Qin general Meng Tian .
The Chronicle of History records
Qin Shi Huang ordered the crown prince Fu Su and Meng Tian to build the Great Wall to defend the Xiongnu, and Meng Tian took rabbit hair from the mountains to make a pen.
The Naturalist Chronicle records
General Mengtian of Qin took fox fur as a pillar, and rabbits as books. Meng Tian invented the brush shizu almost became a foregone conclusion.
However, the oldest brush that can be seen today belongs to the Warring States period.
A Warring States era brush excavated from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng
In 1954, a brush was excavated from the Warring States Wooden Tomb in Zuojiagongshan, Changsha, Hunan Province, made of bamboo, the pen head was made of rabbit arrow hair, silk thread was entangled, painted and fixed, called "Changsha Chu Pen". This is the earliest brush object found on the mainland.
Xu Shen of the Eastern Han Dynasty's "Explanation of Words and Characters" said
"Qin is called the pen, Chu is called the Nie, Wu is called the irregular, and Yan is called the Buddha." There is no "pen" character in the pre-Qin books, and the word "聿" appeared as early as the Shang Dynasty, and Qin Shi Huang only unified the name of the pen, which shows that the pen existed earlier than the Qin Dynasty.
Production materials and processes
material
The raw materials for making brush pen heads are wool, weasel tail hair, mountain rabbit hair, stone badger hair, and beaver hair, and pig brown, horsetail, oxtail, chicken feather, rat whiskers, fetal hair, etc. are also widely used.
Brush shafts are mostly made of bamboo pipes, such as green bamboo (roasted red), purple bamboo, spotted bamboo (Xiangfei bamboo), Luohan bamboo, etc., and also use mahogany, horn, aggregate, ivory, jade as poles, which are more luxurious.
Process
The production of all kinds of brushes must go through the process of material selection, degreasing, ingredients, grooming, dunbing, rolling, picking, tying, loading, dry repair, sticking, engraving, lanyard and so on.
In summary, it is commonly known as "water basin" (the process of operation in the water basin) and "work" (waterless process such as loading and dry repair).
The basin process is the key to determining the use and quality of the brush, and the tip of the pen is required to reach the tip, qi, round, and jian (historically known as the four virtues).
The tip of the pen should be pointed like a cone, which is conducive to hooking;
After the sharp hairs of the Qi finger pen are spread, the sharp hairs are flat, which is conducive to the uniform spitting of ink;
The round finger pen tip cylinder is round and full, the coat is evenly covered, and the writing is fluent without opening the fork;
The sharp edge of the finger is elastic when writing and painting, and can show the strength of the pen.
The decoration of the brush is the later process of "work".
Including pen shaft engraving, carving, relief, lacquer painting, inlay, filigree, add pen head bowl, tail, lanyard, etc., reflecting the rich elegance of the brush, some accessories also play a role in reinforcing the pen shaft.
Brush classification
The classification of brushes is mainly based on size, as well as the type, source, shape and so on of the brush.
The ancients called Mao "milli", so generally the pen tube is engraved with what is the millimeter, which means what mao is made of.
According to the nature of the raw materials, it can be mainly divided into five categories: sheep milli, concurrent milli, wolf milli, purple (rabbit hair) milli, and chicken millimeter. Among the five categories, there is a distinction between soft millimeter and hard millimeter, sheep millimeter and chicken millimeter belong to soft pen, wolf millimeter and purple millimeter belong to hard millimeter, and concurrent millimeter refers to the characteristics of both soft and hard millimeter.
In terms of the size of the words written, there are also small letters, middle letters, large letters, banners, and buckets.
QingQianlongnian Black lacquer depicts Jin Shou zi zi ti pen
Dynastic development
The shape of the brush and the raw material of the tip of the pen gradually changed with the change of dynasties.
Qin Han
Compared with the Qin Dynasty, the pens of the Han Dynasty were similar, but the pen shaft was slightly longer, no less than 20 centimeters, and the tail was sharpened. This is because Han Dynasty officials went to the imperial court to play things, often inserting the end of an unused pen in their hair. At this time, the brush used was mainly rabbit hair, which was much better than the deer hair and wool of the Qin Dynasty.
Western Han brush
Tang Song Dynasty
The brush of the Tang Dynasty was sharp and short, and it became a triangle. Bai Juyi, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, praised this kind of pen as "purple and sharp as a knife". This is because in the Tang Dynasty and before the Tang Dynasty, tables and chairs were not very popular, and people who wrote had to kneel on a mat and write on small cases had to hang their elbows, and the long and soft pen was not lucky.
Tang Dynasty chicken pitch pen
After the Song Dynasty, people only wrote on the table, so the pen edge developed into soft and long. At that time, the brush produced in Xuanzhou (present-day Licheng, Anhui) was the most famous. Xuanzhou also appeared a professional pen-making household, if there is a family with a surname of Zhuge Ge, it will be a pen-making industry for generations. The poet Huang Tingjian was ecstatic when he received a pipe of Zhuge Pen, saying that it was "a thousand gold to buy in the market".
Southern Song Dynasty brush
Yuan Dynasty
In the Yuan Dynasty, the pen-making industry in Huzhou and Jiaxing, Zhejiang, sprung up, and the prominent position of Xuanbi was replaced by Hubi. Huzhou has long had a pen making industry, especially in Shanlian Town. Although the lake pen uses purple milli, wolf milli, chicken milli, and sheep milli, the main material is sheep millimeter. Because sheep are inexpensive and easy to obtain, it provides favorable conditions for the development of lake pens.
Lake pen
Ming and Qing dynasties
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, with the development of calligraphy and painting art, brush production also developed to its peak, according to the needs of calligraphy and painting, it also innovated large pens such as folding pens, bucket pens, joint pens, and lifting pens, as well as new varieties such as long-edge pens with more ink.
Ming Xuandenian black lacquer depicts the golden cloud dragon pattern and the pen
Not only pay attention to practicality, but also pay more attention to the process decoration, innovative and milli-making pen, that is, the use of more different performance of the milli-collocation to make the pen soft and round, free to wield.
Qianlong Year of the Qing Dynasty Bamboo Carving Lingxian Zhu Shou Pipe Purple Lacquer Dou Zi Hao Ti Pen
Since the Yuan Dynasty, among the many famous pens in the mainland, hubi has maintained its prominent position as a leader for hundreds of years, and has been known as the "Four Treasures of Literature" with Hui Mo, Yi Paper, and Duan Yan.
"The merit of ruling the world, Mo Shang is in the pen",
In the long river of history, with the brush,
Only the form of all things, the nature of nature, can be recorded.
Even if there is the heart of a saint, it cannot be pronounced without a pen.
Brush, as a writing tool,
The inheritance of culture, art and civilization
It has indelible significance.