There are many types of writing brushes. Generally, writing pens can be roughly divided into three categories: soft, hard, and neutral. Soft pens include sheep hair, chicken hair, etc. Rigid pens include purple hair (rabbit hair), wolf hair, rat hair, etc. The neutral (neither soft nor hard) pen is called "Jianhao", and there are two types: Sheep Zi Jian and Sheep Wolf Jian.

1. Types of writing brushes:

●Hard brush: strong writing style. Such as: wolf hair, mountain horse, ox ear hair, rat whiskers, mountain rabbit, deer hair brush.

●Soft pen: soft pen. Such as: Yanghao pen.

●Combined brush: use hard and soft brushes together, combining hardness and softness. The writing style is between hard and soft. Such as: Changliu, Ruyi, suitable for beginners.

2. Selection of writing brush:

A good writing brush must have the four virtues of "point, neatness, roundness and health".

●Point - When the pen hairs are gathered together, the tip of the pen should be able to close to the point.

●Qi - Dip the tip of the pen in water and flatten it. The hair on the end of the pen should be neat and uneven.

●Round - around the belly of the pen, the pen is full and round, cone-shaped, neither flat nor thin.

●Strong - The bristles are elastic and easy to gather when spread out, and the writing power should be strong.

For beginners, if you use a hard pen at the beginning, it will be easier to use the pen without much skill, because the pen will help you a lot, but over time, you can only use a hard pen. Once you pick up the pen, When the brush comes, I feel that I can't move even a single step. On the contrary, if you use a soft brush to practice calligraphy when you first learn, although it is more difficult at the beginning and you have to use the method of lifting and changing the edge to write qualified strokes, you will also learn how to use a soft brush. As the practice time increases, you will gradually become more comfortable and apply it freely. At this time, if you pick up a pen to write, you will feel relaxed and comfortable.

The ancients also had a lot of experience in using pens. I think it is not easy to buy a good and expensive pen when you are a beginner, but I advocate using a bad pen, because if you can write good characters with a bad pen, your hand will be more comfortable and you can write better with a good pen. On the contrary, if you use a good pen from the beginning, you will only be able to use good pens throughout your life. Once you encounter a bad pen, you will not be able to write well. Of course, you cannot use a bad pen to practice calligraphy, which will increase the difficulty for beginners. Ouyang Xun, a great calligrapher in the early Tang Dynasty, recorded that "no matter whether he chooses paper or pen, he will achieve his goals", which was highly praised by his contemporary Yu Shinan.

In addition, from an economic point of view, authentic langhao pens are very expensive. A good "big orchid bamboo" one costs one or two hundred yuan, while an ordinary langhao pen only costs two or three yuan, which is slightly better. Five or six yuan per piece is enough. Moreover, because the wolf hair pen is hard and easy to wear, it does not last long, while the sheep hair pen is soft and durable. It is economical and economical for beginners to buy a brush pen.

Before buying a pen, you should also know the model of the brush. Due to different styles, calligraphy brushes are divided into small regular script, medium regular script, and large regular script. The larger ones are screen brush, joint brush, douban brush, and planting brush, etc. Due to the different names and brands of each pen factory, the sizes also vary. Beginners can buy a long-edge brush with a length of about four to five centimeters and a diameter of about one centimeter. This kind of brush can write regular characters up to seven centimeters square. It is more suitable for people who are just learning calligraphy.

Learning calligraphy is a very good thing. I have been teaching myself for more than ten years since I was 12 years old, and I have benefited a lot. I hope you can pass on this hobby and I wish you success! You must keep practicing, watch more and practice more.