Wei Dan, a calligrapher from the Wei state during the Three Kingdoms period, quoted the famous saying "If a worker wants to do his job well, he must first sharpen his tools" (Confucius' "The Analects") when evaluating the importance of choosing a writing brush (Chen Si's "The Analects of Confucius") "Short History of Calligraphy"); Wang Xizhi, a great calligrapher of the Jin Dynasty who was revered as the "Sage of Calligraphy", said after inscribing Mrs. Wei's "Picture of the Brush Formation": "The paper is the formation, and the author's sword is also the sword" (Wang Ting's "The Essence of Calligraphy") "Words"), comparing the brush to the invincible knife and spear that charge into battle. "Guangchuan Book Postscript" records: "When I ask my predecessors to discuss books, I must first choose a pen... Wei Chang is good at calligraphy, but he is better than his pen." It can be seen that writing and painting not only require the author to have deep artistic attainments, but also need to choose a brush that can be used freely and skillfully to help the author achieve the artistic conception he is pursuing, express the style he is pursuing, and achieve the desired effect. The so-called "those who are good at writing do not choose pens" are just a joke.

Written brushes used as tools for calligraphy and painting, whether in the past, present or future, must first be practical, "high quality" and "affordable", even if people are financially well off. For brush producers, they should first focus on improving the quality of the brush head, use real "kung fu" on the brush head, make the various raw materials that make up the brush head reasonably selected, make the best use of them, and then make them with precision and production. A variety of high-quality brushes are produced to meet the requirements of different users. You must not put the cart before the horse. The pen head is shoddy and the pen barrel is gorgeous. The cost of the pen barrel is several times or even dozens of times that of the pen head. This flashy approach tramples on the traditional craftsmanship of the brush. The best pen holder should be bamboo, which is easy to use and low in cost. If necessary, if the pen tip is particularly well-made, a high-end pen holder should be prepared.

A well-made brush is a precious work of art. This sounds a bit "mysterious" and a bit like "Old Wang sells melons" - because I was born in a family of calligraphers with generations of ancestors. They all play with brushes. In fact, I am not bragging about the brush. For a long time, although the brush has been known as one of the "Four Treasures of the Study", it has not really been regarded as a "treasure". In the minds of ordinary people, it is nothing more than buying one in the overwhelming brush market. That’s all. Therefore, the awareness of this "treasure" and the proliferation of fake and inferior writing brushes have resulted in the low market price of writing brushes, which has restricted the development of the writing brush industry and the improvement of quality.

Actually, it is not easy to make a fine writing brush. This is a comprehensive system project. All links must be meticulous and cooperate carefully to "work together as one." The various raw materials for making fine brushes are precious animal and plant resources, and they are also relatively expensive. From the beginning of material selection, it is "selecting one millimeter out of millions", which requires strict and precise material selection. After more than a hundred manual processes by pen craftsmen, the semi-finished pen tip is made. In the early 1960s, when I was discussing brushes with famous calligraphers Mr. Ouyang Zhongshi, Mr. Shen Peng, Mr. Liu Bingsen and other famous calligraphers, when they understood the production process of brushes, they said to me with emotion: "A small and light brush looks simple. , it’s really not easy to do. More than a hundred processes, all done by hand, it’s really amazing.” They immediately took advantage of the excitement and wrote down “Yihong Brush Shop”, “Jianghu Brush”, “Yihong Hu Brush” and “Striving for Excellence”. Wait for good words to encourage. In fact, a precious celebrity calligraphy and painting is a precious work of art, and the fine brushes used to create these precious works of art are of course also precious works of art. There is no doubt about this.