*Baisha Maolong Brush Making Technique

92.*Baisha Maolong Brush Making Technique

Nominating Unit: City of Jiangmen

Baisha Maolong Brush, originating in the Ming Dynasty with a history of more than 500 years, was invented by Chen Baisha(1428-1500), China’s famous ancient Neo-Confucian, poet and calligrapher. Guangdong Xin Yu (Cantonese Neo-analects), written by Qu Dajun in the Qing Dynasty, has a detailed description: “Baisha prefers using maolong brush. The couch grass, the material for making maolong brush, on the Gui Mountain where he lives often grows on the stones. It is white and sturdy. The characters written with maolong brush are vigorous and forceful. Baisha should be called Mao Jun(gentleman)... and also called Mao Long”. In order to memorize Chen Baisha, the later generation named the brush as Baisha Maolong Brush. Today, the brushes mainly distribute in Pengjiang District and Huicheng Town in Xinhui District in City of Jiangmen.

Baisha Maolong Brush adopts couch grass specially produced in Xinhui Gui Mountain which is a national forest park. Its process flow is as follows: selecting and clipping, hammering and smashing, immersing, scraping green and shaving, binding and decorating, etc. There are some unique requirements in selecting couch grass: at the lee side, exposed to the sun, medium tender, stout stem and suitable length. After clipping, one should smash the stems to flat and then dry them through sunlight before immersing them for 2-3 days. The next step is scraping green and shaving, that is, to scrape and shave the couch grass quickly with sharp knife and rasp and form the brush body. This is the most crucial step directly related to the final shape and the effect of Maolong Brush. After gum dipping, air drying and combing, the brush should be tied up by the red and white velvet. Adding some other ornaments like brush cap and riband, a Maolong Brush is completed. Characterized by a slender front part, The Maolong Brush turns out to be simple and elegant with a sense of natural beauty.(https://www.daowen.com)

Baisha Maolong Brush, made from special material with unique manufacture craft, is featured with well-distributed fi bers, moderate hardness, good ink receptivity, springiness, fl uent writing, toughness and long-term durability. Since there is no tip at the front part of the Maolong brush, when one writes, the brush leaves gaps in the stroke, which forms “Feibai” that is rare in other calligraphy. Therefore, it is particularly appropriate for Xing Shu (semi-cursive script )and Cao Shu(cursive writing) as well as the drawing of Lu Bai lines (lines which have tiny gaps ) in traditional Chinese painting. Ever since the invention of Maolong Brush, the works done by it, characterized by heavy stroke full of vicissitudes, precipitousness and irregularity with Feibai, boldness and unconstrainedness, were called Maolong Calligraphy and even valued as the works which “swept the weak and dispirited type of calligraphy in the past”. Ci Yuan Miao Bei (Ci Yuan Temple Monument), the stone inscription of Xing Shu left by Chen Baisha, is praised as “the No. 1 Monument in Lingnan”. Zhong Bi Ma Shi Juan(the poetry anthology of planting castor ) has been designated as “Class A Cultural Property Under National Protection”. The two are classics of Maolong Calligraphy. Different from the traditional brush making, Maolong Brush is made of plant fibers, which is unique in China’s history of brush-making. While the calligraphy works written with it are also distinguished and unique. The special effects of splash-ink and Feibai have been highly valued by the painters through the ages. Maolong Brush has a significant impact on the Chinese painting art. It was enlisted into the list of the second batch of state-level intangible cultural heritage in 2008.

Early in the years of Emperor Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty, there was a brush store called Jie Yuan Zhai in Xinhui specialized in Maolong Brush making. From the late Qing Dynasty to the Anti-Japanese War, there appeared a lot of “Brush-Making Streets”. Maolong Brushes were exported to Japan, Southeast Asia as well as Australia. But due to the successive years of war, the brush making industry declined. It was not until the reform and opening up in the late 1970s when the local government issued policies to inherit the Maolong Brush Making technique and developed Maolong Brush specialized for traditional Chinese paintings that Maolong Brush regained its development. However, because of the long process fl ow and the high production cost, there are only 4-5 people involved in brush making. Maolong Brush Making Technique is faced with a plight of no succession and the danger of being lost. There is an urgent need to save and protect it.