In the Tang Dynasty, writing brush from Xuanzhou was called violet pekoe pen because of its special manufacturing materials—violet pekoe. Xuancheng Zhuge family made pens for generations, which were all of high quality so as to have won high reputation, thus writing brush from Xuanzhou was also known as Zhuge pen. The violet pekoe pen and Zhuge pen became the representatives of writing brushes from Xuanzhou. Violet pekoe came from the middle mountain in Xuanzhou lishui, rather than from the Zhongshan Country in Han Dynasty. The writing brush from Xuanzhou was made excellent, people who used writing brush from Xuanzhou were very extensive, and evaluation about it was very high. Writing brushes from Xuanzhou were used tribute pen at least in the Tianbao years of Tang Dynasty. As a tribute pen, the writing brush from Xuanzhou had to meet more strict quality requirements. However, through the prosperity of the Tang and Northern Song Dynasties, the writing brush from Xuanzhou was in decline for a variety of reasons.% 唐代宣笔，因其使用特殊的制作材料——紫毫，而被称为紫毫笔；又有宣城诸葛氏世代做笔，且质量较高，远近闻名，因而宣笔又被称为诸葛笔。紫毫笔和诸葛笔成了宣笔的代名词。紫毫出自宣州溧水中山兔，而非汉赵之中山郡兔毫。宣笔的制作十分精良，使用宣笔的人群非常广泛，人们对其评价也很高。宣笔作为贡笔最晚当在唐玄宗天宝年间。作为贡笔的宣笔，在质量上有着更为严格的要求。然而，经历了唐北宋的繁华后，宣笔因种种原因走向衰落。
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