Traditional brick and tile and brick carving production technique丨 Traditional brick and tile making originated in the Shang Zhou, developed in the Tang and Song dynasties, flourished in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and is an important art form in the carving of ancient Chinese architecture. According to the "Xinchang Cultural Relics Chronicle", many cultural relics such as Han Dynasty portrait bricks dating back more than 2,000 years have been unearthed, which indicates that the production and application of traditional bricks and tiles and brick carvings existed at that time. Xinchang brick carving is mainly based on three-dimensional sculpture, combined with flat pattern decoration, through the characters, landscapes, flowers and birds, animals, auspicious symbols, words, drama stories, myths and legends, folk customs, folklore, real life and other performance content, expressing people's yearning and wishes for a better life, its production process mainly includes mud selection, mud training, billet making, carving, firing, water and a series of processes.
Livelihood of my fathers
In a Chinese-style complex in Huangnikan Village, we met Yu Qiuhong, the artisan who visited this time. During the conversation, it was learned that Yu Qiuhong's father was a bricklayer, who had been engaged in the production of ancient bricks and tiles for more than 50 years, and had dealt with bricks and tiles for a lifetime.
With a family craft, Yu Qiuhong's parents struggled to maintain the family's livelihood, and painstakingly pulled Yu Qiuhong and her sister and brother.
Bricklayer, kiln worker, this is a bitter and dirty and tired, not decent, not yet profitable job, Yu Qiuhong laughed at herself: others run home when it rains, we are a rainy family running outside, not afraid of getting wet, afraid of bricks and tiles rain, because this is the family's livelihood. In Yu Qiuhong's memory, from an early age, his father taught Yu Qiuhong's three sisters and brothers that they must study well and stop engaging in this business in the future.
The meaning of growing up
Growing up in such an environment and experiencing the difficulties of her father's generation, Yu Qiuhong made a commitment from a young age, and she must escape from such an environment and find a decent and easy job. But as she grew up, she found out one day that her father was old.
"In fact, his actions, all aspects of physical strength, people's energy, are slowly degenerating, and I can feel this." Can't let him work like this endlessly, he's in his 70s. ”
At first, Yu Qiuhong's purpose was very simple, just want to share the workload for her father, less hard work, gradually, Yu Qiuhong liked this industry, she found that behind this craft, is a broad and profound ancient art, the more in-depth the more interesting, so Yu Qiuhong is determined to inherit this craft. "If I don't do it, my father has struggled for nearly a lifetime to pass on such a craft, and no one will inherit it."
Za is born stubborn
In 2006, Yu Qiuhong began to follow her father, from how to select mud, make blanks, carving, and then to the process of installing kilns, firing kilns, and water pipes, systematically learning the brick and tile making techniques of ancient buildings and brick carving. "It's dirty, the integrators are dealing with people in the dust, and the working environment is very harsh. When the kiln came out, the temperature in the kiln was very high, and the average person could not stand it...".
Indeed, when the film crew photographed the kiln inside the kiln, they were already sweating in just 10 minutes. It is hard to imagine that a quiet girl would have such courage and courage to do a job that most men are not up to.
One winter, the kiln worker who was firing the kiln came to the news that a brick had fallen from the kiln, which made the father and daughter very nervous, which meant that the bricks in the kiln might have been deformed... The two rushed to the kiln factory overnight. They struggled with whether to close the kiln, so they lingered at the mouth of the kiln all night. When the second brick fell in the early morning, the two immediately realized that the whole kiln may have to be scrapped, and sure enough, after opening the kiln, it was found that the reason was the negligence of the kiln workers, and there was no yard flattening, resulting in all the half-kiln products being scrapped. This accident Yu Qiuhong still remembers vividly, but also made her soberly aware that each step of brick making and brick burning requires meticulous care.
Tempered in various hardships, grown up in various setbacks, "he knows my character, once I do it, I will do it very seriously" Yu Qiuhong followed her father for five or six years, after mastering all the skills, Yu Qiuhong saw the relief on her father's face. "My father is actually a person who is not good at words, and his evaluation of me is actually always criticism, he always says that what is not good enough, where is not good enough, but I know that he is happy in his heart." 」
The rebirth of bricks and tiles
From the foot mud practice inherited by her father to the current application of vacuum blank making technology, Yu Qiuhong has also done a lot of exploration and improvement in many fields, not only improving the performance of bricks and tiles, but also gaining her father's affirmation. Nowadays, the father who can't let go will often come to the scene to see, and Yu Qiuhong will also explore more new possibilities with his father
With the return of traditional culture, Chinese architecture is also loved by more and more people, and the family business that Yu Qiuhong guards has finally ushered in the spring of the industry, and this brick taken from her father has allowed her to see a broader future.
The brick and tile sculpture museum that is being built, Yu Qiuhong has poured a lot of effort into it, and she hopes that more people can see and experience the entire brick and tile making technology, so that this ancient technique that has lasted for thousands of years will be rejuvenated with new charm.