Huzhou, as a country of cultural relics, has contributed a splendid culture of Hu Bi to the people who wrote in the bamboo and silk era.
Hubi is not only a wonderful flower in the long history of Chinese civilization, but also the pride and projection of Huzhou culture.
Huzhou writing brush, referred to as "Lake Writing Brush", is a leader among writing brushes. Known at home and abroad for its excellent production and quality, it has become synonymous with brushes.
With a long history and exquisite skills, it is known as "the best in the world".
Shanlian Town, located in Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, is the birthplace and main producing area of Hubi, and is known as the "pen capital".
A little better Lenovo, almost every household can make pens, and there are many homes of lake pens.
Dai from Beijing, Yu Yonghe from Tianjin, Shao Zhiyan from Hangzhou, etc. All of them were founded by Huzhou people, and all of them were advertised by Hu Bi method.
Tracing the origin of lake paintings
Shanlian's pen-making industry began in the Jin Dynasty.
According to the official records of Huzhou Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty, "(Shan Lian) is good at practicing, and ... residents are best at writing. He built himself from a monk named Zhiyong (Ji Wang in Sui Dynasty, the seventh grandson of Wang Xizhi), and connected it with Yongxin Temple, where he extracted pen characters.
"After the development of the Tang and Song Dynasties, the skills of Hu Bi have made great progress.
China's brush originated very early, and the "Lake Pen" was famous in the world, which was in the Yuan Dynasty six or seven hundred years ago.
Before the Yuan Dynasty, Xu Anbi was the most famous city in China.
Su Dongpo and Liu Gongquan both like to use Xuanzhou pen; After the Yuan Dynasty, Xu Anbi was gradually replaced by the Ministry of Household Affairs, and established the status of the crown of writing brush. Hu Bi, Hui Mo, Duan Yan and Xuan Paper are called "Four Treasures of the Study".
According to Huzhou County Records, "Feng Qingke and Lu Wenbao made pens in Yuan Dynasty and practiced in their hometown, so Hu Bi became famous all over the world.
""Huzhou Feng Bimiao incoherent, Shen Rixin can work.
If you meet Yutang waving your hand, you will not hesitate to ask for it like a pearl.
"People are willing to buy high-priced lake pens, which shows their excellent reputation.
Zhao Mengfu, a great painter and calligrapher in the Yuan Dynasty, was very concerned about and attached great importance to the local Hu pen-making skills. According to Huzhou government records, he once asked someone to make a pen for him, even if one pen was not satisfactory, the requirements were very strict. This strict quality requirement has been passed down to this day.
At present, there are nearly 300 varieties in four categories: Yang Hao, Shuangshua, Zihao and Langhao.
1983 Vice Chairman Deng visited Japan and gave hundreds of sets of lake pens as gifts to Japanese friends.
technical characteristics
There are many kinds of pen materials, including nearly 300 kinds of soft millie, double brush and hard millie.
Take Yang Hao as an example. Traditionally, only high-quality goat hair produced in Hangjiahu area is selected. Yang Hao in this area is top grade, tender and clean.
According to the quality grade, these high-quality brushing materials can be divided into more than 40 varieties, such as Fine Bright Front, Coarse Bright Front, Huang Jianfeng, Bai Jianfeng and Huang Gaifeng.
Each variety is divided into several subclasses, as fine as embroidery.
The selection of Hu pen is strict, and goat armpit hair is mainly used. Wool should be dried in the sun to remove dirt, and then dipped in water for classification and combination according to the characteristics of oblate, straight, long and short, with or without sharp glume. Generally, it has to go through more than 70 processes such as soaking, drawing, closing and combing.
Known as the "crown of pens"
The pen holder of Hu Bi is mainly made of feather bamboo at the foot of Lingfeng Mountain at the northern foot of Tianmu Mountain in western Zhejiang. It is thin and straight, with a small gap in bamboo, which is an ideal raw material for making pen containers.
Lake pen is made by hand, and the making process is very complicated.
From the import of raw materials to the factory, a lake pen generally needs to go through twelve major processes, such as material selection, basin, knot, sleeve, pier, embedding, pen selection and lettering, and then subdivided into more than 120 small processes.
Among many processes, the four processes, namely, material selection, birdbath, knotting and pen selection, are the most demanding and particular, especially birdbath and pen selection.
The main working procedure is handled by technicians, with fine materials and exquisite production, with special emphasis on Feng Ying.
Craftsmen adhere to the principle of "precision, purity and beauty" and produce finished lake pens with four virtues of "sharpness, uniformity, roundness and health".
The tiger wall is also called "Tiger Shadow", which is its greatest feature.
The so-called "ying" means that there is a neat and transparent front ying at the tip of the pen, which is called "sunspot" in the industry.
The depth of "sunspot" is the length of the front glume, which is carefully made of fine wool through nearly 100 processes such as soaking, pulling, combing, splicing and closing. It is no exaggeration to say that Bai Juyi, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, once described the fineness and complexity of pen-making skills as "one in a million" and "a hair is light, but it is very important".
1, basin
Water basin is the most complicated and critical process in the production of lake pen.
In the spacious washbasin workshop, rows of wooden basins are neatly placed. The pen maker held a claw comb in one hand and skim wool in the other, and washed them repeatedly. They are classified and combined one by one according to different levels such as color, sharpness and hardness, and made into blade-like cutter head hair. Then they put them in water for analysis, and put the broken, not sharp, curved and not straight ones in.
Step 2 choose a pen
Choosing a pen is also a process of arranging hair. Let the pen tip of the semi-finished writing brush spread out in a dry state, hold the pen holder in one hand and the pen repairing tool in the other, and pick out the hair without sharp edges under the light.
The two processes of basin selection and pen selection also have special requirements for sitting posture. It is advisable to sit sideways, facing south and slightly east, under natural light.
Because the furry front glume can only achieve the best visual effect in natural light.
Choosing a pen also pays great attention to the placement of feet. The instep of the right foot often rotates on the heel of the left foot, and the seat is a bench, so that the pen will not step on the waist during operation and keep the body balanced and straight.
Inheriting meaning
Exquisite skills in making Hu Pen are an important part of Hu Pen culture, with distinctive regional characteristics.
However, the transformation of social culture, the innovation of writing tools and the one-sided pursuit of economic benefits have led to the proliferation of defective products, the loss of craftsmen and the lack of inheritance. The traditional skills of Hu Bi have been greatly impacted, and active measures should be taken to protect them.