The term Hubi is dedicated to the Huzhou ink brush (Traditional Chinese: 湖筆; Simplified Chinese: 湖笔; Pinyin: Húbǐ; "Hú" stands for Huzhou, "Bǐ" meaning "ink brush").
Contents
The ink brush
The ink brushes are produced in Huzhou (湖州) of Zhejiang Province, China. Historically, the workshops of ink brushes were congregated in Wuxin (Traditional Chinese: 吳興; Simplified Chinese: 吴兴; Pinyin: Wú Xìng), currently Wuxing District of Huzhou. So it's also named Wuxing Hubi (Traditional Chinese: 吳興湖筆; Simplified Chinese: 吴兴湖笔; Pinyin: Wúxìng Húbǐ).
History
Huzhou has a long history of manufacturing ink brushes, and it can be traced back to Qin Dynasty. Huzhou's ink brush production and manufacture gained prominence in the Ming Dynasty (13th century). Now Hzhou is known as the "Hometown of Ink Brush".
Huzhou also holds annual "Huzhou Ink Brush Festival", and the festival also has some memorial activities dedicated to Meng Tian - the inventor of ink brush pen.
Famous ink brush makers
There are several famous craftsmen in history from Huzhou, the early big five were:
Workshop
The most famous brush pen workshop in Huzhou could be the Shanlian (Traditional Chinese: 善璉; Simplified Chinese: 善琏; Pinyin: Shàn Liǎn), and its brush pens are named Shanlian Hubi (Traditional Chinese: 善璉湖筆; Simplified Chinese: 善琏湖笔; Pinyin: Shànliǎn Húbǐ).
Shanlian is also a local place name, whose ancient name was Mengxi (蒙溪, literally means "the creek of Meng Tian"). Meng Tian made brush pens there.