Gao Heng: The root carving of the Jingxing mining area

Gao Heng, 55, lives in the Jingxing Mining Area of Shijiazhuang City. He has worked as a worker, clerk and taxi driver in Shijiazhuang, Beijing and Shenzhen. In 2007, a chance to create a successful root carving, so that he entered the world of root carving, more than ten years of bold exploration, not only created his own first root carving factory, and selflessly passed on the art, led to the surrounding replication of nearly 30 root enterprises, successfully the local root carving batch into Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, driving the local root carving economy. Gao Heng became a blockbuster, and his legendary experience was praised by people very exaggerated. In 2015, he built a "Gao Heng root carving art museum", and now serves as the president of the root carving association of the Jingxin mining area, the honorary president of the Hebei root carving enterprise industry association, and the president of the first Yabai Art Exhibition Federation in China.

Obsessed with root carving, he traveled to many places and entered the world of root carving after 30 years

Gao Heng's father, a well-known surgeon in the Jingxing Mining Bureau Hospital, is proficient in medical skills, thoughtful and patient with patients, and often treats neighbors and friends after retirement, and has a very good reputation. His father often told Gao Heng: "You must work hard and learn a good skill!" ”

Gao Heng loved art in his childhood, loved to read villain books, and could not put it down when he saw it. After graduating from junior high school, he studied Chinese painting with his art teacher Gao Yuedong. In 1983, the Jingxing Mining District Materials Bureau established a root carving factory, which was also the first root carving factory in Hebei Province. Gao Heng was curious and wanted to know the processing of root carving, and often used the excuse of finding friends to "play" in the root carving factory. Gao Heng said with a smile, "The basic process of root carving processing was secretly learned at that time. ”

In the 1990s, the economy of Gao Heng's ceramic factory was in decline, and he drove a taxi to Shijiazhuang when he drove well, during which Gao Heng traveled to Beijing and Shenzhen to develop. In 2003, Gao Heng went to Shenzhen to help his relatives take care of business, and by chance he found a street of root carving in Shenzhen, and a variety of root carving works surprised Gao Heng. He squatted in the market when he had time, watching endlessly. After a long period of exploration, he found that the south attaches great importance to root carving, root carving has high artistic value, but in the north, it has always been valuable and marketless, and Jingxing is rich in resources, I must try it! Gao Heng recalled, "The strong interest in root sculpture deeply attracted me. ”

In 2005, Gao Heng rented a farmyard next to the highway and opened a root carving bonsai shop at the foot of Qingliang Mountain in the Jingxing mining area. Every day he got up early in the morning and squatted in the courtyard, scraping the bark of trees and polishing root carvings. When others were tired, they went to bed; when Gao Heng was tired, he put on his camera and went to climb the mountain to collect wind and shoot the beautiful scenery of Taihang Mountain.

Entering the mountains to collect wind, encountering the "mound", creating a huge "tree wrapping stone" root carving

Gao Heng is a veteran photography enthusiast who goes to the deep mountains of western Jingxing to collect wind in his free time.

In March 2007, he was tired of walking and sitting on the stone in front of the farmer's door, inadvertently turned his head, found a mound more than 2 meters high, weighing about a ton, Gao Heng was curious, circled around the mound, only to see that it was a huge tree root, according to the farmer, the local persimmon is rich, after the dead tree was sawn, the root of the tree was placed in front of the door with mud and soil, talking about the age of the tree, the locals said that this persimmon root may have a history of more than 600 years. Gao Heng negotiated with the owner to buy it, and the farmer was very happy, "The mound is too big to burn firewood, it is not easy to split, let it occupy too much place, you pull it away!" In order to transport the roots home, Gao Heng rented a crane and tractor to pull the roots home and put them in front of his root carving bonsai shop.

The mound was left in the wind and rain for two months, for the reason: Gao Heng was not optimistic about this tree root, and he was curious to pull it back. When he had time, he used his tools to clean the mounds, the soil was too thick, cleared several times, and the roots of the tree gradually revealed their true faces: the persimmon roots were 2.4 meters high, 1.5 meters wide, and weighed more than 1 ton. The roots of the tree are vigorous and exquisite, the top resembles two circling dragons, and what is more, the center of the root is inlaid with two boulders weighing more than 100 kilograms, each stone weighing more than 100 kilograms, and the root carving is also wrapped in scattered rubble. The root friends heard the news and rushed to see the magic of nature.

The onlookers offered advice and suggestions, and some people said that the stone must be broken and taken out in order to be complete. It is also said that the stone wrapped in the roots of the tree should be carved, engraved with patterns and words. Gao Heng thought that reducing man-made processing and maintaining the integrity of tree roots, root carving works should maintain the original appearance of nature, which is a fine product. As a result, Gao Heng refused to manually crush or carve.

Chen Yaolin, vice president of the Hebei Collectors Association, introduced that "tree wrapping stones" is a peculiar phenomenon, which is that in the process of tree growth, the roots of trees wrap the stones inside, which has great collection value. The collection value of "Tree Wrapped Stones" is related to the type of stone wrapped. If you wrap a relatively good stone such as bluestone, the value is greater. Chen Yaolin believes that Gao Heng's naturally formed such a huge "tree bag stone" root carving is quite peculiar and has great collection value. In the same year, the Hebei Youth Daily reported on the title of "Huge Trees and Stones Shocking the Well". The following year, the Yanzhao Elderly Annual Report was reported under the title of "The Stone Root Carving of the Giant Tree Bag of Regret". It caused quite a stir in the local area.

A blockbuster, selfless transmission of art, the local root carving into Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan

Gao Heng did not expect that because of this accidental success, he had since entered the world of root carving.

Located in the belly of Taihang Mountain, jingxing mining area is rich in resources and has many enthusiasts who make root carvings. Although there are many works, there is no market for price, the reason: the works cannot be sold, and they can only participate in the exhibition or give away relatives and friends to contact feelings. Unable to support the family, naturally no one professionally made, always staying in the amateur state. Local roots have been carved into a synonym for pastime and ornamentation.

In 2007, Gao Heng spent more than 20 days, taking the train to the car, stringing manufacturers to visit the market. Run all over Yunnan, Fujian, Guangxi, Zhejiang and other places to examine the root carving market. He eventually found that the south lacks resources and works are easy to sell; the north has resources, no good works; the south is mostly mechanical processing, and the north is purely manual processing, so the price difference between the north and the south market is huge, and it has become a bottleneck for the north to have no market. When he returned, he bought tools such as chainsaws, engraving machines, angle grinders, high-pressure spray guns, and several samples. The root carvings in the Jingxing mining area have a long history, but they are all inefficient by hand. Now the introduction of mechanical grinding, the use of high-pressure water gun to do the root of the soil, peeling work, greatly saving the creation time. After preparation, in October 2008, we rented 5 acres of land to buy a computer to build a website and set up the first local root carving processing factory. He used cymechanical processing root carving, tried to make several works, and successfully entered the Guangzhou market.

The news came out that many roots and friends inside and outside the region visited and learned from the scriptures, and Gao Hengkou was unobstructed and never conservative. The blunt words were passed on to visitors, and several root friends were also helped to reform tools and process works as agents. Some people said behind his back that he was stupid, that he had worked hard and painstakingly, opened the market, and told others with one mouth. Gao Heng smiled and often said a sentence: "Everyone collects firewood and the flame is high, and only when the scale is formed can there be a market." Under his leadership, nearly 30 root carving factories in the surrounding area were lifted. "Yanzhao Evening News" was titled "Many Years of Root Carving Complex, Achieving Entrepreneurial Dreams", and "Hebei Pictorial" made a report with the title of "CleverLy Borrowing Natural Magic Carving - Gao Heng's Cliff Cypress Root Carving".

Gao Heng traveled all over the country to capture information at any cost. The product has a market, an as usual, he should stay in the factory and produce more works. Every once in a while, Gao Heng threw away the work in his hand, went out to investigate, and driving thousands of miles a day was already the norm, and every time he came back, people lost a circle. He has only been buying the car for three years, and the journey has reached 150,000 kilometers. In order to save time, he often needs to take a plane, in 2014, a Taiwanese root friend asked him, he flew to Taiwan, the Taiwan side did not let go of the airport, the reason: less documents, he returned the same way. After returning to the stone, he quickly re-applied for his documents, and boarded the plane to meet with Taiwan's root friends on time.

Gao Heng, a small person, boldly pioneering, selflessly passing on his art, is a blockbuster. The local root carving was successfully pushed into the market, and sold in batches to Guangzhou and Hong Kong, Austria, and Taiwan, which drove the local root carving economy and supported a blue sky for the mountain roots.

Do not cut down live trees, use dead trees to rot roots, and turn decay into magic

Gao Heng adheres to the principle: do not cut down live trees, do not use live bodies, turn the rotten roots of dead trees into treasures, and turn decay into deep wonder. The worthless dead roots became priceless treasures in Gao Heng's eyes.

In March 2013, Gao Heng drove through a village and saw the clutter and dust, and passers-by dodged Rao Xing, and it turned out that the villagers had demolished the old house. Thoughtfully, he parked the car aside, approached the construction site, and found a section of broken cypress beams, lying in the ash, more than a meter long. He immediately consulted with the homeowner, who saw that it was smashed and could not be used to build a new house, so he sold it to him happily and was pulled home by Gao Heng.

Jingxing Coal Mine has a century of history, the landmark building of the coal mine is: 36 meters high, covers an area of 38 square meters of crown water tower, the shape of the octagonal shape, red brick, the top shape resembles a German crown, so called the crown water tower, built in 1915, after a hundred years of Cangsang, is a provincial key protected cultural relics. Gao Heng used a camera to photograph the Crown Water Tower, and the photo was reduced to a scale, and after 7 days of hard work, it was carved into a work 1,2 meters high. Gao Heng said, "Using a century-old wooden beam to make a landmark building for a century-old mine is really the right number to enter the seat." "The lifelike works stand in the courtyard, and no one thinks that they are made of discarded wood.

In 2015, Gao Heng was collecting wind in the Taihang Mountains, there was a pile of construction waste on the side of the village, covered with mud and weeds, he stopped to look closely, it was abandoned behind the wall of the farmer's renovation, Gao Heng went into the village to find the farmer, people said, "That's waste, don't want it!" He gave people 100 yuan, rented a tractor to pull the stones back, and built the dirt road in the courtyard into an antique stone road. People praised the unique style of the road, but no one knew that this road was "picked up".

In March 2014, Gao Heng printed a picture album, and in order to improve the effect, the editor downloaded a beautiful picture of the living cliff cypress on the Internet, without consulting Gao Heng's opinion, it was arranged in the album, and Gao Heng found that the album had been printed. "To cut down a living tree is to cut off the children and grandchildren." Gao Heng resolutely discarded hundreds of albums.

In November 2007, Gao Heng was collecting wind in the mountains at the junction of Hebei and Jin, and picked up a tree root on the side of the road, which was very dirty and rotten, and it was estimated that someone had discarded it unsatisfactorily, so he put it in the trunk. After going home to clean up the dirt, throw it in the corner, and a few days later your eyes will light up, hey! When the roots of the tree are found upside down, they resemble burning flames. Look again, "This is the root of the cedar tree, which according to the annual rings is estimated to be more than two hundred years." ”

He signed the "torch", which is 65 cm high, 55 cm wide and weighs more than 7 kg. It is light brown, and the zigzag texture is polished like a burning flame. Cedar wood is not only rare, but also simple and elegant, bright color, clear wood grain and hard texture is very rare. The torch must be accompanied by a base, for the right base, he searched for half a year, and finally found a cedar root, shaped like a cloud in the sky, emitting a refreshing aroma, making a base is too good. Gao Heng judged that the cedar used for the base was estimated to be more than 600 years old.

At that time, the whole country was preparing for the arrival of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Gao Heng hopes to dedicate this Olympic "torch" work to the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee. At that time, the Hebei Youth Daily reported on the title of "Root Carving 'Torch' to Welcome the Olympic Games", and "Yanzhao Metropolis Daily" reported on the title "The cedar used in the base of the Xiangyun Root Carving is 600 years old".

Root carving is a strange person, with the help of the sage, and his works have won many awards

In the early morning, Gao Heng walked around the factory area and took a wooden stool to sit in front of the root carving raw materials. Without a word, quietly conceiving and pondering, composing a "sketch" in the mind, and then creating according to the "sketch", each work is conceived and completed in this way. Gao Heng has not systematically studied art, he can put a mess of tree roots, ponder people's praise of the shape of the creativity, is a talent, is a person with artistic background.

Gao Heng said, "Using a knife to carve out any work of wood is not art." "The carving must go with the flow, the minimum standard is three points of carver and seven points of nature, and the top art only needs to use one or two points of carving to express creativity." Divorced from the natural form of raw materials, the work is not called root carving, and there will be no collectors who like it. ”

In Gao Henggen's carving studio, the works of Wei Weixiao are arranged in an orderly manner. Each root sculpture has a unique name, "Dance", "Rhyme", "Torch", "Love Yin and Yang", "Alien Visitor" and so on. Each root sculpture is derived from an insight into life, and "Torch" was carved before the 2008 Olympic Games, and the twists and turns of the texture move like a burning Olympic flame. "Dance" is like a lifelike fairy, the slender robe flutters with the wind, and the long sleeves are intertwined left and right, which is beautiful and flowing. Gao Heng caressed the works created with painstaking efforts, just like loving his own children, his face was full of relief.

Gao Heng is a director of Hebei Bonsai Yashi Association and a member of China Root Art Association. In recent years, he has made great achievements in the art of root carving, and his works have won the first prize for three consecutive years at the Hebei Bonsai Yashi Exhibition from 2009 to 2011. He has won many awards in exhibitions such as "Hebei Horticultural Expo", "The 14th China Root Art Stone Art Exposition", "International Horticultural Exposition" and so on. The three works of "Snake", "Dance" and "Torch" are collected in the Xisan Folk Museum in Hebei Province. In the same year, the Yanzhao Evening News reported on the title of "Gao Heng: Obsessed with Root Art, Shaping Life".

Gao Heng's success in pioneering and entrepreneurship has a well-known reason. Behind him, there was a woman who was silently dedicated. His wife, Liu Lina, is an intellectual talent, originally from the hometown of Quyang Stone Carvings in Hebei Province. Liu Lina has been deeply influenced by the art of stone carving since she was a child, can endure hardships, is good at studying, and has a delicate personality. The website, the email, the image processing are all done by her. Picking up and dropping off daughters to school, taking her six-year-old son, doing laundry and cooking, managing flower rooms, receiving clients, and not having free time for a day. Many fine carvings are soaked with her hard work. In particular, Gao Heng spends a third of her time out every year, and the affairs of the factory are pressed on her shoulders, and the two form a husband and wife root carving partner. Friends who know about it all say, "Your wife Liu Lina is too tired!" Gao Heng replied, "Who doesn't she do?" But there was a deep apology on his face.

Bold innovation, dreams come true, the establishment of "Gao Henggen Sculpture Art Museum"

Gao Heng traveled with a camera around the Taihang Mountains and many famous mountains, watching the mountains and stones to take pictures of the scenery, absorbing the novelty of nature, infiltrating traditional works into the elements of the times, and enhancing the creativity of ideas. He traveled all over the Taihang Mountains, and found the roots of yellow wattles, persimmon wood, rhododendrons, and cliff cypresses from farmhouses, quarries, engineering sites, etc. to create. "Brother, don't burn this 'dead wood'!" The fellow thought it was a joke, Gao Heng smiled slightly, and reached out to pick out a "dry branch" from the firewood pile, which was more meaningful than throwing it into the stove and burning it. These curved twisted branches are rare treasures in Gao Heng's eyes.

Gao Heng originally built a small exhibition hall in the factory area to display his own works, such as "Dance", "Torch", "Love Yin and Yang" are all fine works. The works range from "treasure in the palm" to "Big Mac", small and exquisite, can be placed on the desk and in the palm of the hand to play, the large one is more than two meters high, majestic and simple. Stay in the small exhibition hall for friends to see. At that time, "Shijiazhuang TV" made a report under the title of "Gao Heng's Root Sculpture Museum".

In February 2015, the shotgun was replaced! Gao Heng started his business for more than ten years, his dream came true, and he built a root carving art museum. It has been prepared for half a year, consisting of a small two-story building of 500 square meters, with a collection of nearly 100 works. Above the main entrance, "Gao Henggen Sculpture Art Museum" seven big characters hanging high, the museum sign is written by ordinary local calligraphy enthusiasts, Gao Heng said, "I am a small person, taking the road of civilians!" In the same year, the Yanzhao Evening News reported on the title of "Gao Heng's Chinese Dream: Creating the Art Museum of Yabaigen Sculpture".

Walking into the "Gao Henggen Sculpture Art Museum", a burst of mellow cypress fragrance. The exhibition hall has become an art world that will be firmly controlled by the hidden dragons and tigers, birds and beasts and the gods of heavenly soldiers. Behind each work, there is a touching story. Some roots, even without moving a knife or sharpening a little, are directly placed in the exhibition hall. It fully demonstrates the magnificent majesty of the natural features of the majestic Taihang Mountain. Since the opening of the museum, local roots friends and roots friends from other provinces and cities have visited one after another. There were more than 30 people in October last year and more than 50 people in March this year, all of whom were representatives of national root carving enterprises who attended the rally in Beijing and rushed to the "GaoHeng root carving art museum" twice to feast their eyes.

Gao Heng said, "Not a single piece of the collection works is sold! "All of them are masterpieces that turn decay into magic, in order to show the beauty of root carving art, enhance the development space of the root carving industry in the north, and promote the root carving economy in mountainous areas." Let our taihang mountain root carving also be famous in the world! ”

Success in entrepreneurship, Gao Heng's sense of responsibility for friends and society has not changed

Gao Heng has been starting a business for more than ten years on the bumpy road. He has endured countless hardships and turned from an ugly duckling into a white swan. But Gao Heng's friendship with his friends has not changed, his sense of responsibility to society has not changed, and he loves the lingyan thick soil of his hometown more deeply. When people talked about Gao Heng, they all gave a thumbs up: "Gao Heng, true friend!" ”

That day, a friend in Shijiazhuang surnamed Li called Gao Heng, "Tomorrow, I will take a bus to the Jingxin mining area to do business, after getting off the bus, please drive me to Jiazhuang Village, are you free?" He replied, "No problem! Unexpectedly, the next day, Gao Heng suddenly had an accident, and in the early morning he drove straight to Shanxi, he drove into the Shitai Expressway, increased the throttle to quickly overtake several cars, and entered the Yangquan area of Shanxi between the conversations. At this time, Gao Heng suddenly remembered, "Broken! What should I do when my friends in Shijiazhuang get off the bus? He called his friend and asked if he had walked there, while looking for an exit to return to the Jingxing mining area. When Gao Heng received a friend, he explained the reason, and the friend complained to him: "I took a taxi to Jiazhuang Village for 10 yuan, you entered Shanxi, why do you have to come back?" Gao Heng said bluntly: "Talk about credit to your friends, 100 miles must also be returned, value!" ”

One day, Zhang Zhi, 78, of Shijiazhuang, visited Gao Heng in the Jingxin Mining Area, and Gao Heng asked, "What have you been doing lately?" Zhang Zhi said: "To Xingtang, Lingshou, Yuanshi to send warmth to out-of-school children ------" Originally, Zhang Zhi was a celebrity in the provincial capital, he retired for 24 years, taught himself to pinch clay people to draw faces, and the money sold selflessly funded more than 30 poor students. In recent years, he has led the establishment of the "Love Commune," more than 100 members, all of whom have donated funds and materials voluntarily, traveled to various places, and sent them to poor mountain villages in Shijiazhuang counties to support children and the elderly. After Gao Heng learned of the situation, he immediately took out 500 yuan and handed it to Zhang Zhi, "I don't have time, I can't go, you can fulfill my wish instead of me!" Zhang Zhi was embarrassed and said, "Gao Heng, I didn't mention the money?" Gao Heng said bluntly: "Teacher Zhang, you are 78 years old and still doing public welfare, running around, I have some strength, I should!"

In the cold winter of that year, friends and Gao Heng revealed a poignant thing. In Caoquan Village, a 75-year-old man who lives alone in the Jingxin Mining District, who has never been married in his life without children and daughters, is now paralyzed in bed, and eating and keeping warm has become a problem. Speaking unintentionally, the listener intentionally. The next day Gao Heng bought 10 pounds of eggs, two boxes of instant noodles, drove to Caoquan Village, into the village is very worried, this village is a typical mountain village, the street is curved and narrow, the houses are built by the mountain, households are connected by small roads, parking is also a problem. Gao Heng crossed a few streets, found the old man who lived alone, entered the door and said, "I see you are coming!" When Gao Heng put the egg instant noodles on the kang, the old man asked, "Who are you?" Why bring me food? Gao Heng said: "Don't ask anything else, take good care of your illness, and cover more quilts at night!" Before leaving, he said a word: "My surname is Gao." A month later, Gao Heng received a call from the old man, "Comrade Gao, I am sick, you have to take me to the hospital to see a doctor!" Gao Hengyi, understood, the old man regarded him as a staff member of the county civil affairs bureau!

Gao Heng's entrepreneurial experience was praised by his surrounding friends, and his deeds were praised by the local people who were very exaggerated. People were deeply touched and shocked by Gao Heng's exploration and perseverance for more than ten years, and everyone wished him a good life of peace! Bless him to continue to work hard, become bigger and stronger in the world of root carving, and fly farther and higher!