Historical biography states that Qin Mengtian made pens.

In 223 BC, General Meng Tian of the State of Qin led his troops to fight abroad. He would regularly write battle reports and submit them to the King of Qin. At that time, people used bamboo sticks to write, which was very inconvenient. They had to dip in ink again after writing a few times. One day, while hunting, Mengtian saw a rabbit's tail trailing blood on the ground, and he was inspired. He immediately cut off a rabbit tail, inserted it into a bamboo tube, and tried to use it to write.

But rabbit fur is shiny and does not absorb ink. Meng Tian tried a few more times, but it still didn't work, so he threw the "rabbit hair pen" into the lime pit in front of the door.

One day, he accidentally saw the brush he had thrown away. After picking it up, he found that the wet rabbit fur had become whiter. He dipped the rabbit hair pen into the ink pan, and the rabbit tail became very "obedient" and wrote very smoothly. It turns out that the water in the stone pit contains lime. After soaking in alkaline water, the fat of rabbit fur is removed and becomes soft. Legend has it that this is the origin of the brush.

Extended information

For five thousand years, China has formed its own splendid culture. The "Four Treasures of the Study", often called in ancient times, are the external manifestation of traditional culture. The four treasures of the study are "pen, ink, paper and inkstone". The pen, the first of the four treasures, is the writing brush, which is a unique cultural product of China.

During thousands of years of history, Chinese literati have used it to express their thoughts and vent their feelings. The literati used the pen as a hoe and the paper as a field, and kept plowing with their pens. Therefore, the long Chinese history became the "Spring and Autumn Period in the Pen".

The writing brush has a longer history than the ancient Egyptian reed pen and the European quill pen, but the latter has withdrawn from the stage of history. The writing brush, together with the pens, pencils and ballpoint pens that appeared in modern times, are called contemporary The four major brushstrokes are still shining brightly in today's history of calligraphy and painting, and their vitality is breathtaking.

There are different opinions on when the writing brush began. The most telling story is that Meng Tian, ??the general of the Qin State, made the pen. It is recorded in books such as "Historical Records" and "Natural Records" that Meng Tian had the emperor's orders and felt that it was too slow to carve words with a knife, so he "used dead wood as a tube, deer hair as a pillar, and wool as a quilt" to make a writing brush.

Because of this legend, Meng Tian is revered as the ancestor of the brush. Shanlian people in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province built the "Meng Gong Temple" and held a grand sacrificial ceremony on Meng Tian's birthday every year, which is still followed today. However, according to historians' research, the origin of Chinese brushes is much earlier than this, with a history of at least 6,000 years.

Baidu Encyclopedia - Pen

People's Daily Online - Writing Brush: China's Unique Cultural Invention