As one of the "four treasures of study" in traditional Chinese culture, the Huzhou writing brush (the other three are xuan paper, duan ink stone and hui ink) earned its fame as early as the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). Developed in Huzhou in East China's Zhejiang province, the writing brush is still an important contributor to the local economy.

Since 2015, Shanlian town in Huzhou city has invested more than 3 billion yuan (about $423 million) to build a special zone to produce Huzhou writing brushes. Now there are 358 enterprises specializing in Huzhou writing brush-related businesses. The craft of making a Huzhou writing brush was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2006.