Daiyuexuan, A Century of Fine Brushes for Painting, Calligraphy

2008/04/01
text by Rocky Li, photos by Zhou Bin

The fastest way to immerse yourself in the Chinese culture may be to visit the many shops of Liulichang Dongjie in Beijing.

Stroll the shops along what is often also called Liulichang Culture Street for even a day and you will still fall short of seeing all the treasures Liulichang Dongjie’s Chinese-flavour buildings, with their blue bricks, grey tiles and hooked eaves, lanterns, big signboards and cultural articles, contain. Here you will find the “four treasures of the study” (wenfang sibao)—brush, ink sticks, ink slab and paper—along with antiques, artefacts, and collectibles such as calligraphy, ancient Chinese books, carved Chinese seals and many other exclusively traditional Chinese cultural commodities.

You will also get an understanding of how important this prosperous cultural street was and why it lured China’s greatest artists, writers, poets and other literary figures to it in ancient times. In fact, Liulichang Dongjie is one of 850-year-old Beijing’s oldest streets, with a history of more than 780 years.

Daiyuexuan writing brush store, a Zhonghua Laozihao (China Time Honoured Brand), has been part of this long-history and winding street for nearly 100 years.

It was established in 1916 by Dai Bin (pen-name Yue Xuan), who was born in Shanlian Township, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province. When he was young, Dai learned how to make Huzhou-style writing brushes and before setting off for Beijing. After several years’ of work in the Helianqing writing brush store in Beijing, Dai opened his own writing-brush store on Liulichang Dongjie: the Daiyuexuan Writing Brush Store. Over many years, Daiyuexuan became a name brand in Huzhou-style writing-brush making. In fact, the Huzhou style was one of the leading writing-brush styles in China, in addition to the Xuancheng style in Anhui Province, Xiang style (short name of Hunan Province) and North China style.

Writing brushes were used as early as about 1600–1066 BC in China. The early writing brush was not used for writing but for drawing the lines of oracle bone scripts. Later, it was used for writing characters on bamboo slips, brocades and silks. The earliest writing brushes discovered in ancient tombs were used during the Warring States Period (475–221 BC). During the Qin Dynasty (221–206 BC), Meng Tian, a famous Qin general, improved the writing brush. Writing brushes became the main tool used in writing. Through thousands of years, the Xuancheng-style writing brush occupied the top spot in writing brushes, until the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368); the Huzhou-style writing brush replaced the Xuancheng-style. Other than the unique skills used in making writing brushes, the hair used in the Huzhou-style writing brush was also special. The hair came from local animals: goats, yellow weasels and rabbits. The hair of the local animal was also special. Zhejiang Province was famous for its silk products, hence its mulberries too. The animals there also ate mulberries as food, so their hair was silky and limber. The four outstanding characters, sharp brush tip, orderly brush head when it’s loose, round brush body and limber hair, made the Huzhou-style writing brush superior to other products. During the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties, the Huzhou-style writing brush was a famous product. The Huzhou writing brush, Anhui ink, Duan ink stone (Duanzhou is the old name of Zhaoqing City of Guangdong Province) and Xuan paper were considered as the four treasures of study.

Beijing was the cultural and political centre of China; so, naturally, the Huzhou writing brush came to Beijing, and Daiyuexuan was established on Liulichang Jie. Daiyuexuan’s products inherited the excellence of Huzhou-style writing brush and its brilliant characteristics, quickly winning a following. But Daiyuexuan made more than brush heads; it also made shafts for writing brushes. Other than bamboo, ivory and ox horn were used to make brush shafts; some bore beautiful Chinese characters carved on them. Every Daiyuexuan writing brush had its own name: there were regarded as works of art, not just as writing tools.

In not so big a store, Yu Tianying, the president of Beijing Daiyuexuan Huzhou Writing Brush and Anhui Ink Company Limited, showed BTM two of the company's most valuable writing brushes, a goat hair brush and a yellow weasel hair brush. But the two brushes are not as spectacular as you might first expect. You may even doubt their prices if you do not truly understand writing brushes and their value: the goat hair brush is valued at 10,000 yuan (US$1,418) and the yellow weasel hair brush is valued at 80,000 yuan (US$11,348). “They may even be worth more than the prices marked. They are more than just writing brushes: they are rare products of the writing brush industry. Take the yellow weasel brush, for instance: to collect enough hair for this writing brush, hundreds of thousands of yellow weasel tails must be collected. This may take nearly 20 years,” said Yu Tianying. “Sometimes, you cannot find even one piece of long hair on a yellow weasel’s tail. So this is a impossible thing for a store with a brief history.” In fact, the tip of this yellow weasel brush is much longer than any other writing brush, but the long hairs needed for them are rare. The work requires a long time and experienced and responsible technicians.

Daiyuexuan’s products are divided into five categories: goat-, yellow-weasel, rabbit-, and mixed-hair and painting brushes. The rich products can meet all needs of any writer or creator of Chinese characters and Chinese paintings. So it’s no surprise that some very famous painters and calligraphers have come to Daiyuexuan in search of writing brushes fitting their exact requirements, such as the Master Qi Baishi (1863–1957), one of the greatest traditional Chinese artists. Daiyuexuan once was the main suppliers of writing brushes for Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai. Because of its frequent communications with the calligraphers and painters, Daiyuexuan has adapted to the times and has made improvements as well.

However, Daiyuexuan does not focus on high-end products only; they have never shied away from supplying common writing brushes. The small-yellow-weasel writing brush for regular script writing is inexpensive, even though the same procedures are used in making them as with brushes that costs hundreds of yuan more. This business concept has brought fame, trust and respect of its customers to Daiyuexuan. In this fast-paced time of computers and high-tech art, Daiyuexuan’s brush-making factory is still running well; customers come here to look for a writing tool or to peruse its collection of treasures. When watching its technicians—many of them white-haired—at work, you can see them selecting and combing the hair of a brush and skilfully carving characters on the writing brush shafts, with sunshine sometimes reflected by their thick glasses, it seems that the long history of Chinese traditional culture is still in the making in this small store.

Address: 73 Liulichang Dongjie, Xuanwu District, Beijing 100050

北京市东琉璃厂文化街73号

Tel: +86 10 6301 4914

Fax: +86 10 6304 2542

WWW: www.daiyuexuan.com



	Article featured in Beijing This Month, April 2008 Publication sponsored by Information Office of the Beijing Municipal Government, Beijing Municipal Bureau of Tourism