First of all, we classify brushes according to their hardness.
One kind: soft brush.
Made of flexible animal hair. There are mainly wool loops made of wool, chicken feather loops made of chicken feathers and fetal hair loops made of fetal hair. This kind of pen has weak elasticity and large ink content. The strokes it writes are thick and round, and it is easy to exercise wrist strength with a soft pen. But when it was first used, it was often considered weak, and the words written were like "ink pig".
Wool brush: Wool brush is made of high-quality goat hair, which is softer than purple brush. Because wool is thinner and longer. Soft and healthy performance, suitable for writing big characters and breaking big characters. There is a transparent and shiny front glume on the tip of the sheepskin brush. The longer the front glume, the better the quality. This part of Feng Ying can store ink without dripping and keep it together without cracking.
Chicken feather brush: The chicken feather brush is made of the hair on the cock's chest, and the other is a small feather pulled from a big feather, which is softer than wool.
Fetal hair brush: Fetal hair brush is made of newborn hair, and its performance is extremely soft. Xiao Ziyun used tire brushes in the Southern Dynasties, which shows that it has a long history. Nowadays, fetal hair brushes are generally used as souvenirs of newborns, and they are rarely used.
The second type: hard brush.
The hard brush is made of elastic animal hair, mainly wolf brush made of ferret hair and purple brush made of rabbit hair. This kind of pen has strong elasticity, and the stippling written is tall and straight. But when it is not easy to use, stippling will look barren and polygonal, and the font will look bony and flat. Common ones are rabbit hair, wolf hair, deer hair, moustache, stone badger hair, mountain horse hair and bristles.
Rabbit brush: Rabbit brush has a long history, and the Warring States pen unearthed in Changsha is made of rabbit brush. Rabbit brush is divided into purple hair and white hair. Zihao is soft and healthy, preferably gray, not as soft as Zihao.
Wolf pen: A pen made of the hair on the tail of a weasel. Slightly softer than rabbit brush, harder than sheep brush, but softer and not resistant to friction.
Moustache pen: a pen made of mouse beard, which has strong performance. According to legend, Wang Xizhi wrote Preface to Lanting Collection with a moustache.
Other hard pens: horsehair, stone badger, bristles, etc. , are very special. Generally, beginners don't master the writing rules, so they should not choose.
The third type: double-sided brush.
And, as the name implies, there are both. Double brushes are made of a mixture of hard hair and soft hair. Generally, hard hair is the core and soft hair is the periphery, and the brushwork is between hard hair and soft hair. Mainly used are purple wool pens made of purple wool and sheep wool, such as "Big White Cloud", "Three Purple Seven Sheep", "Seven Purple Three Sheep" and "Five Purple Five Sheep". Double the brush made of wolf hair and wolf hair.
Meng Tian's improved brush is "deer hair as the column and wool as the quilt", which belongs to double-stranded brush. Double the brush is healthy and soft, focusing on health, which is called "column"; Taking Rouhao as the deputy and living away from home is called "Bei". The column length is short, that is, the so-called "column with quilt" pen. The quilt also has many layers, such as rabbit hair as a column and short wool quilt, which is as long as the column and has three layers, so the root is extra thick, the tip is thin, and it stores a lot of ink, which is convenient for writing. Moreover, its characteristics can vary according to the mixing ratio, either rigid or soft, or moderate rigid and soft, and it is cheap and labor-saving. In addition, the brush of doubleboth brush is both rigid and flexible, with moderate elasticity, which is easy for beginners to master, especially suitable for beginners.
The above classification of brushes by hardness can be roughly divided into three categories. It is also the three categories that everyone agrees with. Knowing these three classifications, you can generally choose a brush that suits you according to your own preferences. We can't say that hard hair is better than soft hair, nor can we say that double brushing is worse than wolf hair. It varies from person to person, and it is most important to choose the one that suits you.
In the next article, we will discuss another classification of brushes according to their materials. Interested friends can come to see me. I will update my brush every day, from common sense to professional theory, from small stories to big history. If there is anything wrong, please feel free to comment and correct me.
The above is about the eight-character soft and hard comparison table, which is about the sharing of writing brushes. I read the book "People who live a hard life will live a hard life", I hope this can help everyone!