The Chinese Writing Brush
Chinese writing brush, invented thousands of years ago, is a tool created for writing and drawing with a similar shape looks like a western painting brush. Though has existed for thousands of years, it is still being used by a large deal of people today with different purposes: recording and showing art. As can be defined as a cultural artifact, not only it can be used as a writing tool but also it can present accuracy precision, even value systems of Chinese culture such as enjoy the life with a low living speed.
Chinese writing brush has existed for quite a long time. As a tool for writing and drawing, the invention of the camel’s hair brush is traditionally attributed to Meng Tian in 250 B.C. But the brushes probably existed much earlier, as evidenced by the decorations on pottery believed to be from the Shang era (ca.1523-1028 B.C.). (Yu Tseng-Tseng 10)
Looks like a small stick, Chinese writing brush actually can be separated into two parts including a straight penholder as well as a tip part fixing hairs to write with. The penholder part can be made from many kinds of materials including bamboo, red sandalwood, glasses, ivory, and sometimes even silver or gold. However, the head part of the brush which has been seen as the most important part should be made from the hair of a wide variety of animals such as wolf, rabbit, deer, chicken, tiger, and sometimes even use the hair of a newborn, as an once-in-a-lifetime souvenir for the child.
Though few people today may choose the Chinese writing brush as a tool for noting, the invention of the brush really brought a great revolution to the recording world at its time. During the Chinese ancient times, thousands of years ago with no typewriter ,no pencil, even with no writing brush, people has to use knife carving characters on the surface of metals as a way of recording events. However, the appearance of the writing brush stopped this kind of “writing” period, more and more people...