Basic Hair of Making Brush
Goat’s Hair: Generally, we use the hairs from goat’s tail or its mustache to make brushes. The characteristic of goat’s hair brush is its soft, and it is easy to save up the ink.
Wolf’s Tail: Here, the “wolf” is weasel in fact, in China, we called weasel as yellow wolf. Generally speaking, the wolf’s tail is more forceful than goat’s hair, but it is expensive and not durable.
Rabbit’s Hair: The rabbit’s hair is most forceful; sometimes we could say it is sharp. The rabbit’s hairs are usually color in purple. We use hairs from rabbit’s ridge and tail makes brush.
Mix hair: As its hair has its own characteristic, both its strongpoint and shortcoming, we mix them to make brush for different use. We could mix two or three or more kind of hair together, we adjust its flexibility by change their proportion.
The Four Virtues of Brush
The earliest brush in China was appeared 3000 years ago, our ancient were very regard its actual function. So, for a good brush, it must have four virtues: Pointed, Regular, Roundish and Flexible.
The Pointed That is to say, when the hairs are together, the tip must be pointed like a needle. When use it for writing, it is easily to form character’s edge and corner. It will make your works more vivid.
The Regular That is to say, when the hairs are parted, the tip must be regular; the ends of the hair are in order. When use it for writing, all the hairs are collective.
The Roundish That is to say, the hairs are enough and formed a roundish body; the shape is just like a bamboo shoot. When use it for writing, you could write as you wishes.
The Flexible That is to say, the hairs are flexible, after you stress it for writing; it could be get back original shape. Generally, rabbit’s hair and weasel’s tail are more flexible.
About Confucius:
Confucius (551-479B.C.), a famous philosopher, was born in Qufu during the late Spring and Autumn Period. Confucius is the founder of the Confucian School. His thoughts have penetrated into the mind of almost everyone in the east.
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