Meng Tian

Meng Tian was the grandson of Meng Ao, a distinguished general of the State of Qin. He led an army of 300,000 men northward to defeat the Xiongnu, reclaimed the Henan region, and supervised the construction of the Great Wall and the Straight Road—achievements that secured the frontier and earned him renown across the borderlands. During the reign of Qin Er Shi, he was ordered to commit suicide at Yangzhou. Legend recounts that while stationed on the frontier, Meng Tian observed soldiers’ difficulty in writing with bamboo slips dipped in ink, prompting him to craft the earliest known ink brush: using bamboo for the shaft and inserting deer-hair and rabbit-hair bristles as the core. Consequently, brush-makers throughout history have honored him as their founding master. The Temple of Lord Meng in Shanshan Town, Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, remains especially active, with brush artisans conducting seasonal rituals there. Other folk traditions associate him with the invention of the pencil and the zither, and his richly layered folklore portrays him as a tragic yet exemplary figure embodying both martial prowess and literary refinement.