Writing brush
Among all kinds of pens, writing brushes can be regarded as a category unique to China. The traditional writing brush is not only a necessary study tool for the ancients, but also has unique power in expressing the special charm of Chinese calligraphy and painting. Chinese calligraphy and painting are inseparable from the use of brushes.
The writing brush has a very long history as a writing tool. Traces of writing brushes can be found on the painted pottery as early as the Neolithic Age. Although no actual writing brush has been seen since the Western Zhou Dynasty, some signs of the use of brushes can be found in prehistoric painted pottery patterns and oracle bone inscriptions in the Shang Dynasty. In the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, brushes were widely used to write on bamboo slips and silk. It can be seen from this that the writing brush originated before the Yin and Shang Dynasties. The earliest writing brush can be traced back to about 2,000 years ago. A calligraphy brush from the Spring and Autumn Period was discovered in the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng in Leigudun, Suizhou City, Hubei Province. This brush is the earliest brush discovered so far, and is a rare and precious material left over from the ancient times.
In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the names for the pen varied from place to place, including "Bi", "Yu", "Fu" and other names. It was not until the Qin Dynasty implemented "the same text for books and the same track for cars" that the various names of the pen were unified as "pen". According to legend, Qin general Meng Tian once took sheep hair to make brushes in Shanlian Village, and he was regarded as the ancestor of brushes by the local people. It is also said that Mengtian's wife Bu Xianglian was also proficient in pen-making skills and was worshiped as the Empress of the Pen. By the Han Dynasty, pens had become more sophisticated, and Lu Xie was a master of pen-making at that time. In addition to rabbit hair, the raw materials for making pen heads in the Han Dynasty also included wool, deer hair, raccoon hair, wolf hair, etc., with both hard and soft hair used. At the same time, the texture and decoration of the pen tube are also enriched. According to official history books, my country's famous Xuan pen was invented in the Han Dynasty.
The Xuanbi period is an important period in the development of Chinese brushes. During the Jin Dynasty, the purple hair pen made of rabbit hair in Xuanzhou, Anhui Province was famous for its sharp and sharp tip. Chen's writing style in Xuanzhou was highly praised by Wang Xizhi and others. In the Tang Dynasty, Xuanzhou became the center of pen making in the country, and the reputation of Xuan pen was growing. At this time, Xuan pen production techniques, selection of materials, and the carving art of the pen barrel were becoming increasingly perfect. Liu Gongquan, Ouyang Xiu, Mei Yaochen, Su Dongpo and others all spoke highly of Xuan brush. Xuan pens were regarded as tributes and royal pens in the Tang Dynasty. According to the "Old Book of Tang Dynasty? Geography" records: In the second year of Tang Tianbao, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty went up to the building to see the specialties of Xintan and dozens of counties in the south. They were arranged downstairs, including Xuancheng County pen. Chen's and Zhuge's pens spanned the Tang and Song dynasties, and the pen-making skills were passed down from generation to generation. The Wuxin Sanzhuo pens they created have the characteristics of soft performance, solid foundation, long-lasting use, and smooth writing. They are said to be "the best in the country". In the Song Dynasty, in addition to the Zhuge family in Xuanzhou, Lu Daoren from She County, Lu Dayuan from Yixian County, and Wang Boli from Xin'an were all famous for their time.
After the Yuan Dynasty, the pen-making industry centered in Huzhou became increasingly prosperous. my country's writing brush has entered the second important period of development - the Hu brush period. Especially the Yanghao brush is the most famous, loved by scholars and praised by the imperial court. At this time, the Hu brush and the Xuan brush were equally famous, and even surpassed the Xuan brush, becoming the representative of the national brush and famous at home and abroad. Hubi, known as "Mao Ying's skills are the best in the world", originated from Shanlian Town, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province. In ancient times, Shanlian belonged to Huzhou Prefecture, so the brushes produced here were called Hubi, and Shanlian was also known as the "Capital of Brushes." At that time, Hu pen, together with Hui ink, Duan inkstone, and rice paper, were known as the "Four Treasures of the Study", and there were famous pen makers such as Feng Yingke, Zhang Jinzhong, Wu Sheng, Yao Kai, Lu Zhen, Yang Ding, Shen Xiurong, and Pan Youxin.
In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, Shanlianhu pens gradually spread to the outside world, and Shanlian people opened a number of famous pen shops in various places, such as Gu Yuexuan and He Lianqing in Beijing, and Zhou Huchen, Yang Zhenhua, and Li Dinghe in Shanghai. , Bei Songquan, Lu Yitang, etc. in Suzhou. The Ming and Qing Dynasties were the heyday of the development of China's pen-making industry. The imperial pens for the royal family and the official pens were of course exquisite and gorgeous. Even the brushes used by the people paid great attention to decoration and beauty. The materials used for pen barrels at that time included bamboo, jade, carved lacquer, ivory, porcelain, enamel, etc. In the decoration of pen barrels, all possible modifications were made, reaching an unprecedented richness.
Since writing brushes are made of animal fiber and are difficult to preserve for a long time, very few complete ancient writing brushes have been handed down. Except for a few excavated pieces, the Ming and Qing writing brushes that can be seen can also be regarded as rare treasures. .
Fountain pen
Since the invention of the fountain pen based on the quill pen in the mid-1880s, the fountain pen quickly replaced the traditional quill pen and became the main writing instrument in the 20th century.
In the mid-to-late 1990s, computers, printers and the Internet were rapidly popularized, which to a large extent replaced the writing function of fountain pens. Ballpoint pens with better performance were widely used, and they also occupied the market of fountain pens. share. Today, at the beginning of the 21st century, the fountain pen still has irreplaceable characteristics. It is the preferred writing tool for many people, and to some extent, it has become a symbol of the value of the holder. Famous brand pens with increasingly sophisticated production techniques have become high-end and valuable gifts, a pursuit of the upper class, and are expensive.
Fountain pens have attracted many collectors because of their unique charm, so how to choose a good pen has become a science.
Many people like to collect pens. Because there are not only enough new and old brands and styles of pens for collectors to choose from, but also at affordable prices. There is a huge market around the world, making them easy to collect and extremely convenient to resell. Even for rare brands that are exclusively for collection, there are few fakes and there are not many people speculating on them, which makes connoisseurs and investors feel more confident when buying.
Pencil
In 1564, a catastrophic hurricane hit the island of England, and many large trees in the severely affected Cumberland area were uprooted. After the storm, a black mineral was discovered under the roots of the trees. As long as you lightly scratch the object, you can leave a black mark, which is "graphite". Local shepherds often use it to mark their sheep for easy identification. Later, someone made it into a stick shape and sold it to merchants for marking packaging. In 1781, after many experiments, the German chemist Faber mixed graphite powder with sulfur, antimony, and rosin to make a paste and then squeezed it into a bar shape. This was the prototype of the pencil. This kind of pencil has a certain hardness and is much easier to write with than a graphite rod. Inspired by this, people cut graphite blocks into small strips for writing and painting. This is the earliest pencil. Soon, King George II simply took the Barrodale Graphite Mine into the royal family and designated it as a royal exclusive product. However, writing with graphite strips can easily stain your hands and break easily.
The task of putting the wooden shaft jacket on the pencil was completed by the American craftsman Monroe. He first built a machine that could cut out wooden strips, then carved thin grooves on the wooden strips, put the pencil lead into the slot, then aligned and glued the two wooden strips, and the pencil lead was tightly The ground was embedded in the middle, which developed into the pencil we use today.
New members
With the development of the times and the advancement of technology, a lot of technological content has been injected into the manufacturing of pencils. There are retractable mechanical pencils with protective cores, mechanical pencils without residual cores, paper pencils, etc.
The biggest feature of the core-protected retractable mechanical pencil is that its lead core protective tube can retract under a certain pressure. This kind of pen uses a metal chuck and is equipped with a protective spring to prevent heavy pressure. It can semi-automatically remove the core after pressing. Unlike mechanical pencils whose lead can only be used up to 12.4 mm, non-remnant mechanical pencils can still be used even if the lead is used down to the last 1 mm. This is a major innovation in the mechanical pencil in more than 100 years. It mainly uses a double chuck structure in the pen. The front chuck clamps the front end of the lead, and the rear chuck is responsible for clamping and pushing the lead; paper pencils are also known as environmentally friendly pencils. It mainly uses waste paper as raw material (replacing wood in traditional pencil production), and is made by simple cutting and fine processing. Compared with traditional wooden pencils, paper pencils use paper instead of wood and are of better quality. The products come in a variety of colors, are easy to curl and have good usability, and absolutely avoid core breakage and chipping in the shaft that are common with wooden pencils. Disadvantages such as folded core and eccentric core are difficult to overcome.
Symbols
Today we see H, B, and HB marked on pencils, which represent the softness and hardness of the pencil. This also has its origin.
Until the end of the 18th century, only Britain and Germany had pencil supplies in the world. After Napoleon launched a war against neighboring countries, Britain and Germany cut off the supply of pencils to France. Therefore, Napoleon ordered The French chemist Comte found graphite ore in his own country and then made a pencil. However, the quality of graphite ore in France was poor and the reserves were small. Comte mixed clay into the graphite and roasted it in a kiln to make the most durable pencil lead in the world at that time. Different proportions of clay mixed into graphite produce pencil leads with different hardnesses and different color depths. "H" is the initial letter of "Hard" in English, which stands for clay and is used to indicate the hardness of the pencil lead. The larger the number in front of "H" (such as 6H), the harder the pencil lead is, that is, the greater the proportion of clay mixed with graphite in the pencil lead, the less obvious the written words are, and it is often used for copying. "B" is the initial letter of "Black" in English, which stands for graphite and is used to indicate the softness of the pencil lead and the obviousness of writing. "6B" is the softest and has the darkest writing, and is often used for painting. Ordinary pencils are generally marked "HB", and pencils used to mark answer sheets during exams are generally marked "2B".
Special functions
Many people may not know that pencils can also identify the authenticity of diamonds. After the diamond is moistened with water, scratch it with a pencil. The surface of a real diamond will not leave traces of pencil scratches. Fake diamonds made of crystal, glass, tourmaline, etc. will leave traces