Liu Youyou, the 66th generation inheritor of Ruyang Liu Brush Co., Ltd.

Liu Youyou, chairman of Shaanxi Ruyang Liu Pen Industry Co., Ltd., uses his personal portrait as the main body, symbolizing the brand's centripetal force and Affinity. As a descendant of the Liu family, Mr. Liu Youyou, who inherited the family's pen-making business, also assumed the attitude of pursuing quality and excellence. A family that can continue to own a brand of products for sixty-six generations is very important to the vitality of a brand. The continuation is of great significance. As the successor of Ruyang Liu Maobi, it continues to add new connotations to the brand, focusing on innovative features while adding international vision and touch. This allows everyone to intuitively understand the history of Ruyang Liu brushes, and carry forward this unique Ruyang Liu culture in work and brand operations.

Liu Haoqin is the 66th generation inheritor of Ruyang Liu Brush Co., Ltd.

Comrade Liu Haoqin is currently the chairman of Ruyang Liu Brush Industry Co., Ltd. in Xiangcheng City. He studied under his father Liu Jiaxiang since he was a child. pen technology. From January 1986 to November 1992, he served as technician of Liu Traditional Brush Factory in Ruyang, Xiangcheng City; from December 1992 to November 1996, he served as deputy director and assistant engineer of the factory; from December 1996 to March 2005, he served as Deputy factory director and engineer; served as factory director from March 2005 to June 2005; served as chairman of Xiangcheng Ruyang Liu Pen Industry Co., Ltd. from July 2005 to present. In July 2005, he was appointed as a director of the Private Economic Research Association of Henan Province; in April 2007, he was awarded the title of Xiangcheng Labor Model (Advanced Worker) by the Xiangcheng City People's Government; in May 2007, he was awarded the title of Xiangcheng City Party Committee He was awarded the Special Contribution Award by the Propaganda Department, Civilization Office, Federation of Literary and Art Circles, Artists Association, and Local Taxation Bureau; in March 2008, he was hired as deputy editor by the editorial department of the Cultural Times "Banner"; in September 2008, he worked at the Henan Provincial Department of Culture, Henan He was awarded the title of Caring Entrepreneur in the charity donation event of the Double Ninth Sunset Red Large-scale Calligraphy and Painting Association jointly organized by the Provincial Zhengqing and Cultural Development Center; in January 2009, Henan Province Industrial Economic Federation, Henan Province Technology Exchange Station, Henan Province Small and Medium-sized Enterprises The Enterprise Technology Innovation Service Center awarded him one of the top ten outstanding technological innovation figures in Henan; in February 2009, he was named an Entrepreneurship Star by the Sundian Town Committee and the Sundian Town People's Government of China in the National Entrepreneurship Activity; he was also re-elected as Xiangcheng City Representatives of the National People's Congress. Liu Haokui, the 66th generation inheritor of Ruyang Liu Brush Writing brush

Has been engaged in brush industry research for 21 years. He is currently the chairman of Henan Ruyang Liu Brush Industry Development Co., Ltd., the director of Zhoukou Art Museum, and a member of the Standing Committee of Zhoukou CPPCC.

Obtained the Henan Province Quality Product Certificate in 1989, the National Ministry of Agriculture Quality Product Certificate in 1990, the "Xingyu Cup" Famous and Excellent Product Special Award in 1991, and the Province's Township Enterprises' Advanced Enterprise Award for Export Earning Foreign Exchange in 1992. In 2004, the first "Four Treasures of the Study" Art Treasures Expo in Kaifeng won the gold medal for the "Benevolence and Righteousness as Friends, Morality as Teachers" pen set and the "Han Mo Yuan" pen set won the gold medal. On November 26, 2006, it was named "Henan Famous Brand Product" by the Henan Provincial Technical Supervision Bureau. In 2007, it was awarded the title of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Henan Province. Ruyang Liu Village was rated as Henan Characteristic Cultural Industry Village, Henan Province's "One Village, One Product" Demonstration Base and "Zhoukou Three Treasures" and other honorary titles. In October 2009, it was awarded the honorary title of China The Calligraphy and Painting Exhibition Hall of the "China's First Brush" Company has been receiving artists from all over the country for a long time, playing a positive role in the exchange of calligraphy and painting in Zhoukou. The current output value of the company is 5 million yuan, and its products are sold in all provinces and cities across the country. It has made certain contributions to expanding the popularity of Zhoukou City and promoting the development of cultural industries. In December 2010, the trademark text and pictures registered by Henan Ruyang Liu Bi Industry Development Co., Ltd. were rated as famous trademarks in Henan Province by the Henan Provincial Administration for Industry and Commerce. In 2011, Henan Ruyang Liu Bi Industry Development Co., Ltd. was approved by the People's Republic of China and the Ministry of Commerce as a Chinese time-honored brand. In 2012, Liu Haokui, chairman of Henan Ruyang Liu Bi Industry Development Co., Ltd., was awarded the 2011 Henan Provincial Cultural and Creative Industry Outstanding Contribution Award by the Henan Provincial Cultural Industry Office.

Liu Haoliang is the 66th generation inheritor of Ruyang Liu Brush Writing Co., Ltd.

Currently the chairman of Ruyang Liu Brush Industry Development Co., Ltd. in Luyi County. He is the eldest child in the family and studied with his father Liu Jiaxiang since he was a child. The pen-making technology has been passed down from the ancestors of the family who "make pens to harmonize the family and build a moral life".

From January 1988 to November 1995, he opened his own workshop to produce brushes; from December 1995 to November 1998, he was transferred to Ruyang Liu Traditional Brush Factory as workshop director and engineer. In 2005, he jointly founded Ruyang with Liu Youyou, Liu Haoqin and Liu Haokui. Yangliu Pen Co., Ltd. serves as the workshop director and focuses on production. In 2007, the company successively obtained the intangible cultural heritage of Henan Province. In 2011, Luyi County Ruyang Liu Bi Industry Development Co., Ltd. was founded in Laozi's hometown in Luyi, Henan. In 2013, Luoyang City won the bronze medal for the "Tao Te Ching Set" at the Central Plains Tourism Commodities Expo.

Liu's village in Ruyang, Xiangcheng, Zhoukou, Henan is an important birthplace of Chinese writing brush

China is an ancient civilization with a long history of 5,000 years. In this long history, the Chinese nation has continued to pioneer and innovate, forming its own unique cultural inheritance system. The tools to maintain the normal operation of this system are the pen, ink, paper, and inkstone, which were hailed by the ancients as the "Four Treasures of the Study." The "Four Treasures of the Study" are one of the symbols of traditional Chinese culture, the carrier of Chinese civilization, the link to inherit the excellent and splendid culture of the Chinese nation, and an important driving force for the development of world culture.

The writing brush ranks first among the "Four Treasures of the Study", and the writing brush can best demonstrate the development of Chinese culture and is also the most important tool for writing history.

The Qin Dynasty was the beginning of the development of brush craftsmanship. During this period, the basic shape of the brush was determined, laying the foundation for later brush production and opening a new chapter in the writing history of the Chinese nation. The biggest feature of the Qin Dynasty writing brush is that it uses bamboo as a tube. It was created by Meng Tian, ??a general of the Qin Dynasty. It was then passed down by his subordinates and gradually spread throughout the country. During this period, some places famous for making brushes appeared, such as Ruyang Liushizhuang is one of them.

Ruyang Liu family's writing brush----originated from the Eastern Han Dynasty court

At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mang usurped the throne and caused chaos in the Central Plains. Wang Mang used troops everywhere to drive out the Liu family. Soon after Liu Yan (Liu Yan), the county magistrate of Dun (today's east of Nanton Town and Shenqiu area) took over, he had to go to his hometown of Chunling in Zaoyang, Hubei Province to take refuge. On the way, he passed by Ruyang Hongxipi Bank (the existing Hongxipi ruins were built in the Western Han Dynasty). It is a large reservoir that mainly produces rice) and took refuge in a farmhouse (today's Liu Village in Ruyang). When Wang Mang's pursuers arrived, Liu Yan's son Liu Yan fell ill and was unable to move, so Liu Yan had no choice but to abandon his son and go south with his family. Under the care of the farmer, Liu Yan married the farmer's daughter after recovering from his illness. Later, Liu Yan and Liu Xiu raised troops in Chunling. After the Battle of Kunyang, they were jealous and killed by Emperor Gengshi. After Liu Xiu established the Eastern Han Dynasty, he searched everywhere for the descendants of his brother Liu Yan, and finally found Liu Yan on the bank of Hongzhibei in Ruyang. Liu Yan lived in the countryside for a long time to avoid chaos. He could not get used to the dangerous officialdom. He was deeply disgusted with official career, but he was proficient in skills. He was very interested in brushes, so Emperor Guangwu named him the "Brush King" and managed the royal brush making. Later, he was repeatedly ostracized for neglecting court etiquette, and he felt depressed. He immediately asked Emperor Guangwu to resign. The emperor asked him what he wanted. Liu Yan said he had no other request but to return to his hometown to farm, and the emperor granted his request. Later, he brought his family back to Hongxipi and taught his descendants the skill of writing brushes, which has been passed down from generation to generation. In order to commemorate Liu's ancestors, later generations named the village where Liu Yan lived "Ruyang Liu's Village". After several wars and changes in the times, Liu's Village in Ruyang has still been used today for two thousand years.

Since then, Liu Yan, the tenth generation grandson of Liu Bang in the Han Dynasty, has inherited, studied and developed the brush technique with his descendants, and has passed it down from generation to generation. It has been passed down to sixty-seven generations so far. For more than two thousand years, Ruyang Liu's village has experienced many wars and dynasty changes, but it has always been passed down without interruption, and the quality of its craftsmanship has become even more sophisticated.

Liu Yin followed the Qin Dynasty general Meng Tian to attack the Chu Zhongshan Mountains to quell the rebellion in Chu. On the way Meng Tian marched, he passed by the Liu family's village in Ruyang, which is now Xiangcheng area and settled down. Liu Yin's position at that time was as a military scribe, recording military deeds, conveying orders, and helping the generals handle military affairs. At that time, paper and brushes had not yet been used. Writing was done with a hard pen, that is, a "character knife", which was time-consuming and labor-intensive. Meng Tian felt very distressed when he saw Liu Yin working hard and tired all day long, and always wanted to make a new tool for writing. One day, a hare ran into a lime pond near the military camp and drowned. Meng Tian was inspecting here and saw a hare in the lime pond. He suddenly thought, why not use the rabbit's tail to write words? So he asked Liu Yin to cut off the rabbit's tail and try to write on the bamboo slips. Liu Yin felt comfortable and relaxed as he wrote, which was much more convenient than using a "word knife" to carve words.

In the days that followed, Meng Tian continued to improve the pen. He soaked animal hair and hemp in lime water, then wrapped it tightly with silk rope, hollowed out one end of the bamboo tube, and inserted the pen tip into the bamboo tube for use. , writing becomes smoother. From then on, Liu Yin used "Mengtian pen" to write characters.

"Mengtian's brush" is Qin's brush. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there was no unified name for writing instruments. It was not until the Qin Dynasty that "pen" officially became the title of writing instruments. This coincides with Xu Shen's explanation of the pen in "Shuowen Jiezi" of the Eastern Han Dynasty. The article says: "Qin called it Zhibi, Chu called it Yu, Wu called it irregularity, and Yan called it Zhifu." From this we can see that the names of brush became unified after the Qin Dynasty.

Liu Yin had a close relationship with Cheng Miao, a philologist of the Qin Dynasty. Cheng Miao was convicted and imprisoned. He worked hard and wrote 3,000 words in official script in ten years. After Qin unified the six kingdoms, it implemented "cars on the same track and books on the same text" to unify measures, quantities, and measures. The Xiaozhuan script originally used by the Qin State was used as a unified script for the whole country. Cheng Miao also created the official script based on Xiaozhuan. Official script is more advanced than Xiaozhuan. Later, official script replaced Xiaozhuan, and Qin official script became popular throughout the country. Prime Minister Li Si asked Qin Shihuang to pardon Cheng Miao and let him write the imperial history in official script, and Liu Yin gave him a "Mengtian pen" as a gift. As a result, "Mengtian's pen" was spread and promoted in both the government and the public.

In 210 BC, Qin Shihuang died of illness in Shaqiu during his eastern tour. At this time, Zhao Gao roped in Li Si and jointly created the "Sandqiu Conspiracy" to tamper with Qin Shihuang's decision to let his eldest son Fusu inherit the throne. According to the emperor's decree, his youngest son Hu Hai succeeded to the throne and was named the Second Emperor. He issued a corrective edict and forced Fusu and Mengtian to commit suicide. After Meng Tian's death, Liu Bang, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, attached great importance to cultural development. He invited Liu Yin, a skilled pen-maker who joined the army of Meng Tian in the Qin Dynasty, into the palace to specialize in pen-making. He also ordered the Liu clan to study with him and further refine it. And the brushes he made were included in the special brushes for the palace. Later, calligraphy became a unique skill in the Han Palace and was passed down from generation to generation, not only to men but also to women. The craftsmanship of "Mengtian Brush" was passed on to Liu's descendants. Starting from Liu Yan, the ancestor of Liu's pen, it has been passed down from generation to generation until today in 2014, there are the 66th generation of grandchildren - contemporary pen-making masters, Liu Youyou, Liu Lanting, Liu Haorong, Liu Haoqin, Liu Haokui, Liu Haoliang and their My younger brother Liu Xuecheng is of this generation.

"Historical Records" records: "General Meng captured the Zhongshan Mountains, and the First Emperor granted him the title of Guanxi City, which became famous in the world." Meng Tian led his troops to attack the Chu Zhongshan Mountains southward, which is now the area of ??Jingxian County, Anhui Province. According to Meng Tian's southern expedition to Chu Zhongshan, Qin Shihuang put down the Chu rebellion, and created the first pen of the Qin Dynasty. With outstanding achievements, he made the Guancheng area Meng Tian's fief. Guancheng is now Zhengzhou City, where the capital of the early Shang Dynasty was built. The Yellow River Basin has been the birthplace of the Chinese nation since ancient times, and Guancheng, located in the center of the Yellow River Basin, is the place where the brilliant Chinese culture blooms. From then on, everyone knew that Meng Tian was a hero who conquered Chu and became famous all over the world. Because Guancheng was Mengtian's fiefdom, "Mengtian's pen" was first widely spread in Guancheng and the Central Plains area, and then spread from the Central Plains to all parts of the country. Everyone knows that Meng Tian is the originator of Chinese pen-making. Because Meng Tian's fiefdom was in Guancheng, in order to commemorate and praise Meng Tian, ??the founder of brush making, later generations also called the brush "Guancheng Hou" and "Guancheng Zi". "Guanchenghou" and "Guanchengzi" have become synonymous with calligraphy brushes and continue to this day.

Xiang Di was a viscounty state enfeoffed during the Western Zhou Dynasty, called Xiang Ziguo. In 225 BC, Chu moved its capital to Chen, with Xiang as its other capital. In the Qin Dynasty, it belonged to Yingchuan County. Xiang County was established in the early Han Dynasty, and was changed to Xiangcheng County in the Liu and Song Dynasties in the Southern Dynasty. For thousands of years, this land has been one of the centers of political, military and cultural activities in the hinterland of the ancient Central Plains. According to the records of Xiangcheng County Chronicle, there are many ancient cultural sites in Xiangcheng, and 13 of them have been discovered as of 2013. Some of these ancient cultural sites belong to the Longshan Cultural Site, and some belong to the Peiligang Cultural Site. There is an ancient site near Liu's Village in Ruyang, called the Sundian Site. The Sundian site is located 35 kilometers southwest of the county, adjacent to the northeast of Sundianji and Zhouzhuang Village to the north. The site is now farmland and is slightly higher than the surrounding ground. It is 180 meters wide from east to west and 200 meters long from north to south. The cultural layer is 70 centimeters thick and covers an area of ??36,000 square meters. Square meters, it is a cultural relic of Longshan Culture and Shang Dynasty. After many surveys of the site, ancient stone tools such as stone axes, stone chisels, and stone arrowheads were discovered. The collection of pottery sherds is mainly from the Longshan Culture. Remaining utensils such as ke feet and jar mouth rims were also found in the site. They were decorated with rope patterns and additional pile patterns. They are cultural relics of the Shang Dynasty. In 1978, the site was announced as a key cultural relic protection unit at the county level. It can be seen that Xiangcheng, located in the hinterland of the Central Plains, is also one of the birthplaces of Chinese culture.

To commemorate Meng Tian, ??the founder of pen-making, and Liu Yin, the "Mengtian pen", Liu people in Ruyang built the Mengtian Temple and the Temple of Mengtian at the east end of Liu's village in Ruyang in the 14th year of the Yuan Dynasty (AD 1354). Liu Yin Temple. In the 23rd year of the Republic of China (1934 AD), it was renovated and expanded. "The world is settled by civilized people, and peace is established by building the Great Wall with martial arts." These are the red lacquer couplets inlaid on both sides of the entrance to the main hall of Mengtian Temple, which fully express Mengtian's historical achievements and the respect and memory of Mengtian among the people of Ruyang. Ruyang Liu people have never forgotten their ancestors and admired them from generation to generation. They also designated March 3rd of the lunar calendar (Mengtian's birthday) as a temple fair every year, and as an auspicious day to worship teachers and apprentices. This continued until the 1960s of the last century. early. Mengtian Temple and Liu Yin Temple were destroyed in the "Cultural Revolution" era of the late 1960s when old things were destroyed and new things were established. In the temple ruins, there is still an ancient inverted locust tree planted by the pen-maker Liu Songshan in the 11th year of Jiaqing of the Qing Dynasty (1806 AD). It is still standing majestically with lush branches and leaves, symbolizing the pen-maker's love for art and spirit. Longevity Sophora japonica lasts forever.

30 kilometers northwest of Liu's Village in Ruyang, there is Mengtian's Tomb in Shuzhuang Township, Shangshui County. It is a key cultural relic protection unit in Henan Province and has a history of more than 2,000 years. . Ruyang Liu's brush makers come to Mengtian's tomb every year during the Qingming Festival to pay homage and offer incense to the tomb. This fully proves the deep historical relationship between Ruyang Liu's brushes and Meng Tian.