A craftsman named Dai Yuexuan worked as an apprentice at Liulichang Street in Beijing over 80 years ago. With highly exquisite experience and skills, Dai Yuexuan was a master of handmaking Chinese calligraphy brush pens of superior quality. Later, he inscribed his name on the brush pens to promote his products. As time went by, the fame Dai Yue Xuan was increasingly growing with more regular customers like calligraphers and painters. In 1916, Dai Yuexuan and some of his colleagues created the pen store Dai Yue Quan. They purchased semi-finished products of brush pens produced in Huzhou of Zhejiang province and then remade it with better tips and tubes.

Daiyuexuan calligraphy brush pens feature diverse types. Brush pens made of goat hair are soft; brush pens made of hare hair are hard and firm while hair of yellow weasel is both soft and hard. Hair of rabbit, wolf, mink are chicken are all used to make Daiyuexuan calligraphy brush pens with diverse functions and features. Some expensive calligraphy pens are equipped with jade or ebony and wrapped into brocade boxes as an elegant gift.

Translator: ZHANG Ruochen