Illustration of the brush making process (detailed explanation of the brush making process)
Qiming note: I once published an article on the Qiming calligraphy blog titled "Going to Wengang to see the brushes on May Day is worthy of the visit." "For the Capital of Chinese Brushes", which details what I saw and heard in Wengang during the May Day holiday, including a set of photos of the brush making process that I took at the brush making site of teacher Li Xiaoping of Chun'an Hall.
To be honest, I have been learning to write with brushes since I was a child, but this is the first time I have seen the making process of brushes with my own eyes. At that time, I was really shocked by the complexity of this process. You must know that the hairs contained in the brushes we use are almost screened out by the naked eye of the brush maker.
In Huang Jian’s elementary calligraphy tutorial, teacher Huang Jian also dedicated an episode to talk about the process of making brushes. Let’s take a look together below.
——Qiming special dividing line——
In ancient times, many calligraphers made their own brushes, such as Wei Dan, Zhang Zhi, Wang Xizhi, Zhiyong, etc. For calligraphers, the writing brush is like the sword of a samurai, and one must strive for excellence. But now many people have never seen how a brush is made. If you understand a little about the process of making brushes, it will definitely be of great help to you when choosing brushes in the future.
4.1 Material preparation - water basin operation.
The first step is to prepare materials, which is to prepare wool. Chinese wool selection is done in a water basin, which is very detailed work.
For basin work, in addition to a basin of water, the main tool is a bone comb. Usually made of cow shoulder blades, it can be used to comb vellus hair, pat hair roots, etc.
Plucking hair means pulling the hair out of the skin. Then soak the vellus hair in lime water to remove grease and fishy smell, and disinfect it at the same time. This step is called cooked vellus hair. (Qiming Note: The soaking time in lime water needs to be carefully controlled. If soaked for too long, the service life of the wool will be shortened.)
The third step is very critical, which is called millimeter selection. Divide the hair into different grades. A hair is like a leather bag, which is divided into three layers. The pocket itself is the cortex layer. Inside the pocket is the bone marrow, which is fibrous and this is the medulla layer. On the outside of the pocket, there are scales called scale layers. The filled-in part of the hair tip is called ying, and insiders call it sunspot. The elasticity of the hair is related to the thickness of the cortex and the length of the spine.
The truly intact hairs are round and straight, and there are only three to five hairs in a hundred. Others often have shortcomings, such as split ends, no sharp edges, damaged or bent hair rods, etc. When selecting hairs, wash them repeatedly in a water basin, select them one by one, remove the defective hairs, and then classify them according to color, hardness, length, thickness, etc. This is a very delicate process.
According to experts, there are only about four taels of wool from a sheep that can be used to make pens, and the "spots" among them are no more than one tael or six taels. An excellent hair-picking master can divide these four or two strokes of material into ten grades according to length, thickness, hardness and softness, and use them for various parts of the brush.
Bai Juyi, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem called "Purple Hair Brush": "There is an old rabbit on the rocks in the south of the Yangtze River. It eats bamboo and drinks from the spring to produce purple hair. The people in Xuancheng pick it for a pen and pick one of the thousands of hairs." "Horizontal." describes the difficulty of choosing cents.
The next step is to remove the fluff. Hold the root of the wool material tightly with one hand and comb it with a bone comb with the other hand to remove the fluff. A hair has three layers. The so-called villi are the outermost layer of scales.
Under a microscope, you can see that the outer wall of the hair rod is not smooth, but scale-like. The brush can store ink, and it is these scales that prevent the ink from flowing down all at once. After combing, part of these scales will be combed off. But be careful, if all the scales fall off, the hair rod will become smooth, the ink will not be stored, and the flow rate will be very fast. Therefore, there cannot be too many scales, nor can there be no scales. If you buy a brush yourself, don't comb it all day long.
This is the selected rabbit hair, black-pointed rabbit hair.
This is the selected hair.
The next step is Qi Maofeng. Qi Maofeng is to arrange the tips of the vellus hairs, align the hairs with one side of the bone comb, press the hair tips with one hand, and gently pull back with the other hand, repeat this process to arrange the hair tips neatly.
The vellus hair has two ends, one end is a sharp edge, and the sharp edges are aligned to form one piece. However, at this time, the other end of the vellus hair, which is the hair barrel, is not neatly arranged.
So, it is necessary to cut all the roots according to the length required. In this way, the length of each vellus hair is the same.
After cutting all the hair roots, hold the tip of the hair with one hand and use a bone comb with the other hand to comb the hair roots and comb out all the broken hair and broken hair inside.
4.2 Ingredients
After the wool is prepared, you need to prepare the ingredients. What kind of brush do you want to make? Is it soft or hard, long or short? What is the use of the pie, what words are written on it, and the various hairs are matched together, these are the ingredients. (Qiming’s note: For example, the ingredient ratio of Qiming’s custom-made Qingquan brush is: 85% wool, 12% bristles, 3% nylon. Taken together, the brush is moderately soft and hard, very suitable for writing, and many fine strokes can be easily done).
The ingredients are mainly divided into two parts: the main hair is used to make the pen core, so it needs to be matched with some harder hair, and the secondary hair is used to make the quilt. It doesn’t matter if it is softer. .
The wool materials should not be too many or too mixed, usually two to four types of wool. There is an article in history that is said to be written by Wang Xizhi, but it is not actually called "Bi Jing". "Bi Jing" talks about the matching of hair, it is: first use dozens of stems of human hair, mixed with green wool and rabbit hair. Here is a note: Any rabbit hair that is long and strong is called hair, and those that are short and weak are called hair. . Just make it flush and arrange the three types of hair neatly. You see, this recipe uses three types of hair. Human hair is small hair, as well as green wool and rabbit silk.
The writing brush used by Mr. Sha Menghai of Hangzhou has short hairs and a few boar bristles in the center of the pen. The bristles are hard and thick and cannot be used as a pen alone. Split it into four pieces and insert them into the core of the pen to enhance the elasticity.
The brush used by Mr. Qi Gong when he was 86 years old used more wool materials. According to Mr. Li Zhaozhi's book "Qi Gong and Brushwork": First, use thin Guangfeng, Coarse Guangfeng and Lao Guangfeng as the main materials (these three are sheep hair with different thicknesses), and add a small amount of raccoon guard hair , using mulberry and bristles as padding. In this way, sheep hair, raccoon dog guard hair, amaranth and boar bristles were used, four types of hair in one ***.
The wool material is prepared and mixed thoroughly. This is a piece of wool that has been cut off and mixed with wool. The preparations for making the brush are now roughly completed.
4.3 Roll the pen core and add a quilt.
The wool is ready, and then the writing process begins. As far as the Sanzhuo brush is concerned (Qiming Note: Regarding what a Sanzhuo brush is, please refer to another article on the Qiming Calligraphy Blog "What are ancient brushes like? Do you use a deliberate brush or a Sanzhuo brush?"), the tip of the brush is only divided into three parts. Two parts: one is the center of the pen, and the other is the quilt.
A tool is used here, called a pen knife.
Look at this diagram and use a pen knife to pick out the required layer of wool.
Then roll up the rough piece, and then the pen center is completed.
This is the hair piece of Langhao and the rolled pen tip.
Then add the quilt. In the Sanduo pen, the quilt is just a thin layer of wool, and most of it is a single wool material. There is no need to mix other hairs. The quilt's hair is long, usually a little shorter than the center of the pen. . This is an introduction to the Hu pen. It not only aligns the pen tip, it actually aligns the hair. This is a very unique production process. The quilt can not only protect the pen core, but also have the function of polishing.
It should be noted that if the master stroker picks a layer of hair every time, no matter how experienced he is, there will always be a slight difference in weight.
This is the same batch of pens I customized. You can see that the tip of the pen on the left is fuller, while the one on the right is thinner. When you buy a brush, you should also compare several brushes. Thicker ones are easier to use than thinner ones. (Qiming Note: I feel that thicker ones are easier to use than thinner ones. I don’t think it can be generalized. This has something to do with everyone’s pen-using habits.)
4.4 Tie the tip of the pen.
After the pen tip is ready, wait until the pen tip is dry and then tie it tightly with thread. If the brush bristles are not dry and the inside is wet, the brush will become moldy and break in the future. The most difficult thing about this step is that the pen tip must be absolutely round.
Therefore, when tying, the force should be even, otherwise it will deform if it is heavy or heavy.
The tools for binding pen tips, counting from the left, include: alcohol lamp, pen ruler, rosin, and wax thread.
Alcohol lamps are used to dissolve rosin. Why use rosin? The bottom of the pen tip is required to be flat, and it can be fixed with rosin.
I once took apart a lot of pens for research to see how many circles the master made. Usually there are two circles, and there are also three circles. For large pens, four circles will be inserted.
The hair in the center of the brush is called life hair in Japan. If a few strands of the outer hair are lost, it's not a big problem and you'll still be alive. If even one of his life hairs falls out, the disaster will begin, because he will keep losing it, and eventually he will be dead.
That’s why Liu Gongquan, the great calligrapher of the Tang Dynasty, said: If the pen tip is tied so tightly that a hair comes out, it cannot be used. You drop one and it starts to loosen.
According to Wei Yan's "Bi Fang", when Wei Dan made a pen, the core of the pen had to be tied once first, and after adding the second hair, it had to be tied once, and twice on the inside and outside. Not to mention tying twice, there are a lot of loops to tie each time, and a "neck" needs to be tied. The so-called "neck" originally means the back of the head and neck. A neck should be pierced behind the pen tip, which will certainly prevent hair from falling off.
I really hope that the master can pierce it a few more times. It is best to pierce it once with the center of the pen like Wei Dan's pen, and then pierce it again after adding quilt. I think it is much safer that way. .
5. Pen tube
Next, let’s talk about the pen tube. The pen tube is also very complicated, so I can only talk about it briefly here.
5.1 Materials
The first is the material of the pen barrel. In ancient times, pen holders had both bamboo and wood. During the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties, some pens used wooden holders. It may be that there was more wood in the north and less bamboo. Historical records indicate that Meng Tian also used wooden rods when making pens. Bamboo is called "pen tube". After the Wei and Jin Dynasties, tubes were basically used.
Wen Zhenheng, the great-grandson of Wen Zhengming in the Ming Dynasty, wrote in "Zhi Long Wu Zhi": "In ancient times, there were gold and silver tubes, elephant tubes, tortoise shell tubes, glass tubes, engraved gold and green immersed tubes, and recently there are red sandalwood tubes. All the carved pipes are vulgar and cannot be used. Only the spotted pipes are elegant, otherwise white bamboo is used." This passage talks about the issue of elegance and vulgarity, that is, taste. Bamboo has the meaning of a gentleman, it is cheap and high-quality, and ancient literati basically used bamboo tubes for pens.
Mottled bamboo is also called Xiangfei Bamboo. There are dark spots on the bamboo poles. There are several Chinese calligraphy brushes from the Tang Dynasty in Japan's Shosoin Temple, as well as ancient brushes made in Japan. Most of them are mottled bamboo.
Nowadays, there are generally green tubes and red tubes on the market. The red tubes are dyed. "The Book of Songs: Jing Nu" has a chapter: "Jing Nu's promiscuity makes me Tong Guan." Tong Guan is a red tube. The female historians in ancient imperial palaces, and the ministers Cheng and Ling of the Han Dynasty all used red tubes. Qiming Note: There is currently no exact explanation for the "Tong Guan" mentioned here. One theory is that the pen is a red tube, and the other is that it is a red tube (pronounced "tí", White Mao, the birth of Mao. It symbolizes marriage.) It should be one thing. Some plants are red when they are first born or have just sprouted. Not only are they bright in color, but some of them are also edible. But it may also refer to wind instruments painted in red.
5.2 Thickness
Let’s talk about the thickness of the pen barrel. Why are the pens of the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties so small and thin? There are two reasons: First, the pen size at that time was small and there were few or no layers. Second, it was customary at that time to insert the pen into the hair, so the pen barrel was very thin.
The ancients had hair buns in which they could insert their pens. Later, the pen tip became larger and the pen barrel became thicker, so this habit gradually disappeared.
This is an unearthed Western Han Dynasty writing brush. The pen tip has been enlarged and the pen barrel is thicker. However, one end is still sharpened to make it easier to insert into the bun. After Zhang Zhi and Wei Dan at the end of the Han Dynasty, real calligraphy pens appeared, and hollow bamboo tubes gradually began to be used.
There is a problem with the bamboo tube. It is thick and difficult to grasp. If the pen tip is large, you need to add a bucket instead of using a big bamboo tube.
Speaking of this, Qiming would also like to explain to you why Qiming’s custom-made Qingmei brushes do not use only bamboo tubes like Qingquan brushes. This is because Qingquan brushes (old Yuzhu models) can withstand the maximum The cutting edge is just that big. If it were bigger, bigger bamboo would be needed, but this would inevitably make the pen barrel too thick and difficult to hold.
This is a Qingquan brush customized by Qiming, without a pen barrel
Look at the middle one. The barrel is very thick, and the hole is larger than the diameter of the pen tip. So I installed a smaller black tube in front to store the pen tip. The real bucket pen is the one below. The pen barrel is not thick, because with the bucket, a large pen tip can be installed.
If the pen tip is small, it is not to change the pen holder into a very thin bamboo tube, but to use a sleeve, which can sometimes be covered with several layers. After adding the sleeve, the advantage is that the gripping part of the pen barrel does not need to be made very thin.
You see this is an example of using a cannula. The pen tip can be very small.
5.3 The length of the pen tube.
How long should the pen barrel be?
Wang Chong of the Han Dynasty, the author of "Lunheng", said: "A person who knows and can have a tongue of three inches and a pen of one foot." A smart and capable person must be able to speak and write articles. A foot in the Han Dynasty was about 23 centimeters. Judging from the unearthed pen holders of the Han Dynasty, the length is indeed fixed, which is about 23 centimeters. By the Tang Dynasty, the brushes became thicker and without plugs, the brushes became shorter.
Yu Shinan's "Brush Essence Theory" of the Tang Dynasty said: "The length of the pen is no more than six inches."
Judging from the dozen or so Tang brushes collected by Shosoin in Japan, the length is about 17cm to 19cm, which is equivalent to the current Chinese market ruler of five and a half to six inches.
The green pole currently on the market is about 18 centimeters, and the red pole is about 21 centimeters, which is similar to the Tang pen and slightly shorter than the Han pen by two centimeters. The longer the pen barrel, the easier it is to bend. Look at the one below, it's too long and obviously bent.
The length of the Qingquan writing brush customized by Qiming is 21.3 cm
The writing brush must be straight. When you buy a writing brush, the inspection method is also very simple. Put it on the table or glass Scroll up and you can feel if it is straight. If there is a clicking sound when you roll it, it means it is not straight. (Qiming Note: Regarding this point, Qiming believes that the brush should mainly be round. Even if the pen barrel is slightly bent, it is not a big problem and will not have a big impact on writing.)
6. Acceptance.
The last step is to manage it. Naibuan refers to the combination of the pen tip and the pen tube. In layman's terms, it is how to install the pen tip.
6.1 Pipe entry depth.
How deep should the pen tip be inserted into the pen barrel? Wei Dan said: "If you are in charge, you would rather follow the leader and make it deeper." I'd rather have it penetrated deeply. Exactly how deep he inserted it, he didn't say.
As mentioned just now, Wei Dan's pen needs to be tied twice with thread, once after the pen core is made, and again after adding the pen post and quilt. In this way, a pen tip is inserted, and the entire pen tip is inserted into the pen barrel.
In 1993, two writing brushes from the middle and late Western Han Dynasty were unearthed in Wenquan Town, Donghai County, Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province. The end of the pen tip is wrapped with thread to form a pen tip. One of the pen tips is 2.3 cm long and inserted into the pen barrel 0.9 cm. The other is 3.2 cm long and inserted into the pen barrel 0.1 cm. In other words, the inserted part takes up one third of the length of the pen tip.
In 1995, a writing brush was unearthed from the Wangtuan Han Tomb in Haizhou, Lianyungang City. It was 4.1 centimeters long and had two centimeters inserted into the tube. That is, almost halfway inserted, well beyond modern standards.
Huang Tingjian has specific records of the Sanzhuo pen of the Song Dynasty. He said: "Zhuge Gao of Xuancheng used a Sanzhuo pen. The pen is about an inch and a half long, and one inch is hidden in the tube."
That is to say, two-thirds of a pen tip must be tied into a pen tip and inserted into the pen tube. The cannula is deep, and the pen tip and pen tube are easily integrated, making it easy to use. And it doesn’t shed easily, and the pen tip doesn’t fall off easily either.
This is a brush I ordered more than ten years ago. My request is very simple, that is, insert the pen tip at least one third of the way. Instead of inserting a little bit, I did it later. This brush is very obedient and does not shed any hair at all.
6.2 Naming
When a fixed-preparation brush is made, it will also have a nice name, just like Chinese patent medicines, such as Liuwei Dihuang Pills, Wuji Baifeng Pills, etc. wait.
Our Chinese dishes also include Kung Pao Chicken, Mapo Tofu and so on. The name of the brush is also very literary. If there is a kind of brush that suits you and you remember the name, it will be easier to buy it next time.
There are some things on the pen tube. On top of the brush, there is a label. This is the brand, and then the pen name, which means you can choose your own name. I am just thinking of "sweeping thousands of armies" here. Some ordinary brushes are not engraved with names, but are engraved with instructions.
For example, the common "Su Yanghao Dakai" means that the sheep hair used has been naturally degreased over the years. Another example is "Northern Wolf Hair in Winter." As mentioned last time, weasel hair from the north in winter is used. Another example is "No. 2 Jingti". The holding pen is a larger bucket pen. No. 1, 2 and 3 are divided into different sizes. Under the pen name, the name of the manufacturer is often engraved. For example, here I randomly think of a "Chinese Writing Brush Factory" ". The manufacturer's name is usually in small letters.
6.3 Shaping the plastic tip
Finally, shape the pen tip, as if someone had made a beautiful hairstyle. Use hairspray to secure it. The brush is fixed by soaking seaweed in water. Boil it into a gel and apply it on the tip of the pen. This method existed at the time of Wei Dan.
Wei Dan's "Bi Fang" said: "Bundle it with tubes, solidify it with lacquer liquid, and use seaweed to hydrate it." When the seaweed glue dries, it can fix the shape of the pen and prevent the bristles from loosening. Don't wash off the seaweed until you buy it and start using the pen. How to do it specifically? My next presentation. Wei Dan's method has been used to this day. But this way, when you buy a pen, you won’t be able to see what hair is inside. If you still want to try its softness and hardness, I'm afraid the boss won't let you.
Key points of this section
1. Have a preliminary understanding of the process of making brushes.
2. Points of attention when selecting materials, batching, forming, and tube handling.
Thinking Questions
1. What are the advantages of the small center of the Weidan pen and the large center of the Sanzhuo pen?
2. If you already have a brush, will the hair fall out? Is there any way to prevent or improve it?
Note: This article is the notes compiled by Qiming based on the ninth episode of "Huang Jian's Elementary Tutorial on Calligraphy" "Understanding the Brush 2". Qiming will also compile other notes one after another. Everyone is welcome to continue to pay attention