The great man said that the masses of the people are the creators of history, and Dahui believes that this sentence is still highly scientific to this day, and there is such a peasant in Langfang, Hebei Province, who spent his life creating a "history" that belongs only to the masses of the people.
He has no special skills, even a few levels of education, but he can use the sorghum poles that are usually regarded as "waste" to "reproduce" the models of various ancient buildings, and successfully become a guest of honor in the museum. You know, no matter what type of museum, the requirements for the collection are very high, so how did this farmer do it?
Image: Screenshot of the architectural model data reproduced from the sorghum pole
First, the folk strange people of Hebei
1. Chance encounters
Friends who have read Feng Jicai's novel "Strange People in the Secular World" should not be unfamiliar with the strange people "Clay Man Zhang" in the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, and this ordinary farmer from Langfang, Hebei Province, in terms of skill, personally believes that he is by no means inferior to "Clay Man Zhang", and even more than that.
In the city of Yongqing County in Langfang, Hebei Province, there is an old farmer named Xu Yanfeng, although he is nearly old, he is still keen on tossing sorghum poles on weekdays, and even made an "intangible cultural heritage", saying that the old farmer and the sorghum poles have a relationship back to 60 years ago.
Xu Yanfeng, who was only 11 years old at the time, like other children, wanted to help the family fight pig grass, so they ran to a family's vegetable garden with their friends to play, they heard the grasshoppers calling, so they looked for it, and sure enough, there was a small cage with grasshoppers in the vegetable garden.
Unlike other friends who watched the grasshoppers, Xu Yanfeng had a special love for the exquisitely shaped grasshopper cage in front of him. At this moment, the owner of the vegetable garden found these "uninvited guests", and surprisingly, the owner not only did not drive them away, but also enthusiastically gave them the grasshoppers along with the cage.
Image: Screenshot of grasshopper cage data
2. The road to success
That night, after the playmates took the grasshoppers away, Xu Yanfeng returned home with the cage, and for the next few days, he was studying the shape and internal structure of the cage, and wanted to "imitate" another one, when the most important thing in the Yongqing land was the sorghum pole, he planned to use local materials and began to try to compile.
Of course, the first attempt ended in failure, he summed up the lesson, found that the link that did not reach the splicing link was because the groove of the sorghum pole was too large, and the two rods naturally fell apart when they were combined, at this time he showed excellent hands-on ability and extraordinary talent, and actually succeeded in the second attempt.
Image: Try stitching a screenshot of your profile
This time he was doubly confident and began a "replica tour" that would affect his life, as long as he saw something interesting on weekdays, he would firmly remember that after returning home, he collected enough sorghum poles to start "building", but he did not expect that these buildings were really completed by him.
For this kind of thing, the family naturally thinks that he is "not doing the right thing", but Xu Yanfeng's second grandfather is very supportive, he is an old man who is familiar with the scriptures, especially very proficient in various classical masterpieces, providing valuable experience for Xu Yanfeng's creation for a long time, and also helping him complete the "reproduction" of various ancient courtyard pavilions.
Encouraged, Xu Fengyan began his own life of carving, starting from a simple pavilion, and then slowly transitioning to a more complex ancient courtyard, and finally directly built a three-dimensional attic, to say that his most proud work is the Tiananmen model made in three years.
Image: Screenshot of the ancient courtyard material reproduced
3. The persistence of the master
When Xu Yanfeng was 14 years old, a film screening team came to the village, and there was a scene of the chairman standing on the tower of Tiananmen Square, which left a deep impression on him, and in order to express his awe for the chairman, he decided to eliminate all hardships and hardships and complete the "reproduction" of Tiananmen.
However, the screening team only played the movie once and left, so that he did not remember the details of Tiananmen Square in enough detail, and then he took the initiative to follow the screening team to run seven or eight villages, watched the movie seven or eight times, and finally remembered a lot of things, but for Xu Yanfeng, who pursued perfection, this was definitely not enough.
People are not as good as heaven, just in the New Year, someone in the village sent him a New Year painting, which happened to be painted on Tiananmen, and for several days, he lost his mind and stared at the New Year painting motionless, pondering the details of Tiananmen.
One day he decided to start, according to the concept, divided the building into several parts, every day in the field to find a suitable sorghum pole, and then from small to large to build, and finally the city tower, the city wall, the water bridge, and even the Huabiao were all "reproduced". It is worth mentioning that Xu Yanfeng's masterpiece was finally given to the Japanese delegation as a diplomatic gift.
Image: Screenshot of Xu Yanfeng and Tiananmen model data
Second, the worries from the masters of folk art
1. A model of craftsmanship
Someone once asked him that you are not the only one who does farm work who has access to sorghum poles, so why can you succeed? In this regard, Xu Yanfeng said very modestly: "In fact, I am not a legend, as long as a person is willing to spend a lifetime to study a thing, then he will achieve outstanding achievements."
In fact, from him, it is not difficult for us to see what is the most simple and simple "craftsman spirit", which is also the great spiritual wealth of our Chinese nation.
Sorghum poles and other handicrafts use completely different materials, their texture is not uniform, if it is used to create works of art, then it is necessary to pay attention to the selection of materials.
In order to make his works more perfect, in his spare time, Xu Yanfeng also specially cultivated a number of sorghum varieties with a fineness of only one millimeter and excellent elasticity, which took him a lot of time and energy.
Image: Screenshot of Xu Yanfeng's work in the field
2. Regrets in old age
Xu Yanfeng said more than once that his craft is like life, when used to make ancient architectural models, you must start from the bottom a little bit, but also carefully so that there can be no slight deviation, once there is a mistake, you will find that the more you build the deviation will be greater.
It is reasonable to say that Xu Yanfeng has been able to call everyone in the art of carving, and there is nothing to regret, but there is one thing that has made him sad for more than ten years, it turns out that although his works have become famous, no one is willing to learn from the teacher, and the main reason is that he cannot suffer this pain.
And Xu Yanfeng is already ill, very worried that this craft will be lost from now on, the children can't bear the old father's depression all day, so they take the initiative to quit their jobs and serve as the inheritors of the art of Za carving, slowly, the children's crafts are becoming more and more mature, and they have also been affirmed and praised by Xu Yanfeng.
Image: Xu Yanfeng makes a screenshot of the architectural model data
Of course, there is still a regret in his heart, that is, the children's learning is completely out of family affection, not interest, and then where should za carved art go?
Article author: Dahui
The entire graphic was produced by the team of the Big Cafe Say History Studio!