Bǐjīng 筆經
Classic of the Brush by 王羲之 (Wáng Xīzhī, 303–361, 東晉, zhuàn 撰; attributed)
About the work
A short collection of notes on the manufacture, history, and selection of writing brushes, traditionally attributed to Wáng Xīzhī 王羲之 (303–361). The text is in eleven loose paragraphs, each a self-contained note on one aspect of the brush: (1) the Hàn-period preference for hare-fur from Zhàoguó 趙國 (Héběi) over the Hóngdū tribute-fur of other commanderies, with the proverb tùháo wú yōuliè, guǎnshǒu yǒu qiǎozhuō “hare-fur has no good or bad — only the maker’s hand has skill or clumsiness”; (2) the use of green-lacquered bamboo shafts and engraved shafts as practical (and humble) ornament against the convention of jade and gold; (3) the dictum that the brush must be qīngbiàn 輕便 (light and convenient) — overweight shafts of glass and ivory “cause the brush to stumble”; (4) the technical recipe for making a brush from Zhōngshān 中山 hare-fur — first a few dozen strands of human hair scalp-tip, mixed with green sheep-wool and the fine cuì under-fur of the hare, the bristles trimmed flat, root wrapped in hemp-paper for cleanliness, and the long over-fur thinly laid over the central pillar so that the pillar (zhù) cannot be seen; (5) a sceptical note on the claim that Zhāng Zhī 張芝 and Zhōng Yáo 鍾繇 used rat-whisker brushes (“I do not believe it; rat-whisker is not necessarily fine, and is very hard to obtain”); (6) the use of chicken-feathers in Lǐngnán where hares are scarce; (7) the use of the 鼠-fur of Sìchuān stone-rats (called qí 𪕞); (8) the excellence of brushes made from human-beard hair; (9) the Hàn-period imperial brush mounted with inlaid jewels at the ferrule (fū 跗); (10) Jìn Wǔdì’s gift to Zhāng Huá 張華 of a línjiǎo (unicorn-horn) brush-shaft; and (11) the closing summary of brush-method (the firmest hairs in front, the down behind; the strong as the blade, the essential as the support; combined with hemp, bound in the shaft, fixed with lacquer, smoothed with seaweed, tested in ink — straight to the line, hooked to the hook, square and round to compass and rule, held all day without failure: “this is what is called the marvel of the brush”).
Abstract
The Bǐjīng is the principal premodern Chinese treatise specifically on brush manufacture and selection, parallel in genre to Lǐ Tíngguī’s 李廷珪 lost ink-treatises and to Mí Fèi’s 米芾 Yànshǐ 硯史 on inkstones. Its attribution to Wáng Xīzhī is conventional but not secure: the text is not cited under his name in Suí shū · Jīngjí zhì nor in the early-Táng Yìwén lèijù, and the first secure citations occur in mid-and-late-Táng compendia such as Bǐshǐ 筆史 attributed-tradition and the Yìwén lèijù. The internal evidence — the proverb-form, the explicit reference to Jìn Wǔdì sì Zhāng Huá línjiǎo bǐguǎn (Jìn Wǔdì’s gift to Zhāng Huá), and the technical detail of pillar-and-overfur brush-making which matches Táng rather than Eastern-Jìn brush construction — together suggest a Táng-period composition placed under Wáng’s name, in the same way as the Bǐzhèn tú (KR3h0093). The text is nevertheless of considerable historical interest as the earliest preserved systematic Chinese statement on brush-types, regional specialities, and recipe; it is the foundational document for the entire premodern Chinese literature on the wénfáng sìbǎo 文房四寶 (the four treasures of the studio: brush, ink, paper, inkstone). The composition window is given as 320–700: from Wáng’s earliest plausible authorship to the latest plausible Táng terminus before its first secure citation.
Translations and research
- Tsien, Tsuen-hsuin. Written on Bamboo and Silk: The Beginnings of Chinese Books and Inscriptions. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004 (orig. 1962). [Standard reference; treats the Bǐ-jīng in chapter on writing tools.]
- Tsien, Tsuen-hsuin. Paper and Printing. Science and Civilisation in China vol. V, part 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985. [Section on writing implements with full survey of premodern Chinese sources, the Bǐ-jīng among them.]
- McCausland, Shane. The Mosaic of Chinese Brush. London: British Museum, 2007.
- Su Bai 宿白. Zhōng-guó gǔ-dài zhì-bǐ kǎo 中國古代製筆考. Beijing: Wén-wù chū-bǎn-shè, 1987.
Other points of interest
The text’s mention of Zhōngshān 中山 (Héběi) hare-fur as the canonical brush-fur is the locus classicus for the Chinese cultural valorisation of Zhōngshān tùháo 中山兔毫 — Hán Yù’s 韓愈 famous MáoYǐng zhuàn 毛穎傳 (“Biography of Mr Brush-Tip”), the fūtǐ allegory of an anthropomorphised brush, depends on this attribution.