Speaking of the stone of Suzhou, Taihu stone is "wrinkled, leaky, thin and transparent", which is well-known in the world, and the chengni stone from the Taihu lake area is transformed into a wide range of stationery supplies because of its unique texture, decorated with the desk desk of the literati.
In the clay carving, the core skill is Su Zuo yan carving. Since ancient times, the ancestors of Wudi have used art according to their materials, taken mud and stone to make stones, and gradually formed a simple and elegant style. In contemporary times, the clay carvings that originated from stone carving have derived stone pots, literary ornaments, etc., and were included in the Jiangsu Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage List in 2007.
"Huishi Taste Elephant - Suzhou Chengni Stone Carving Exhibition" recently opened at suzhou Wu Culture Museum, which is also the third in the museum's "Craftsmanship" series exhibition, presenting the antique stone built by Cai Jinxing and Cai Chunsheng's father and son for many years on the exploration of Chengni stone carving skills, as well as related study rooms. In their hands, one side awakens the cultural memory of Jiangnan; a carving knife, carving the elegant feelings contained in the heart.
Cai Jinxing, a Suzhou native born in the 1950s, began his brick making career from a time when he was as tall as a table.
Today, Cai Jinxing is the inheritor of Chengni stone carvings in Jiangsu Province. He has studied the knife technique, shape and meaning of Su Zuo's ancient yan, and the yantai under his sword is simple and elegant, with beautiful shapes, inheriting the core skills of Suzhou brick carving. In addition, he integrates modern elements and carries out innovative designs based on traditional Suzuo brick carvings.
Cai Jinxing is making bricks
Cai Jinxing (right) in 1983 at the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing
Cai Jinxing told reporters that his father and grandfather had been making bricks in Suzhou since then. It is reported that in the late Qing Dynasty and early Min Dynasty, large and small brick workshops were opened in Suzhou, and their works were sold to all parts of China and overseas, and many skilled brick makers appeared at the same time. "Everyone has a tradition of making bricks in addition to farming. We have a mountain on the side, and the stone quality there is very suitable for making a brick platform. ”
However, with the invasion of war, Su Zuoyan's profession gradually declined. It was not until after liberation that the trade gradually resumed production. Cai Jinxing recalled that he learned the technique of making bricks with his family since he was a child. "During the Cultural Revolution, I went into the factory as an apprentice, when I was about 13 years old. At first, I started to do ordinary student bricks, and after two or three years, I began to make more delicate bricks. Later, Japan and the mainland did business, and purchased a large number of Brick Terraces on our side. At that time, students could do 20 or 30 a day. Later, the antique brick platform for export took more than ten days to complete one. At that time, it was sold to the Japanese for 600-800 pieces. ”
Cai Jinxing
Brick making
After the reform and opening up, Cai Jinxing helped the local cultural relics store to make some antique brick platforms, during which he gradually explored, slowly mastered the production method of ancient bricks, and also opened up the market for himself. At this point, Cai Jinxing also restored the skills of Cheng Ni Shi Yan. In 2016, his solo exhibition "Su Yi Tiangong - Cai Jinxing Brick Carving and ChengNishi Stone Carving Exhibition" opened at the Suzhou Museum, which is also the first special exhibition of Chengni stone carvings in the museum. Now, an exhibition on "Cheng Mud Stone Carvings" is on display at the Wu Culture Museum, once again presenting this Su Zuoyan art style to the audience.
On the other hand, driven by Cai Jinxing, his son Cai Chunsheng has studied cheng mud stone carvings for many years. In 2015, Cai Chunsheng was invited to participate in the "Academic Seminar on Yan Science and Yan Art" held by the Shanghai Museum, and published "Always Treating Luocun as Chengni - Re-understanding the Historical Status of Suzhou Yancun Yan", which clearly expounded the truth of "Chengni Shiyan" in the form of a paper.
Cai Chunsheng and his collection of ancient stones
"Cheng Ni Shi Yan" is not "Cheng Ni Yan"
In an interview with The Paper, Cai Chunsheng explained in detail what is "ChengNi Shi Yan"? And the story of the development and evolution of "Cheng Ni Shi Yan".
Cai Chunsheng told reporters that the biggest misunderstanding about "Chengni Shiyan" is that many people confuse it with the famous Shanxi "Chengniyan". "Chengni Yan began in the Han Dynasty, flourished in the Tang and Song Dynasties, and was called the Four Famous Yans together with Duan Yan, She Yan and Taohe Yan." Chengni Yan was fired from clay and flourished in the Tang Dynasty, and in the Song Dynasty, after the mining of stones in various places, stone stones in various places gradually seized the market for clay bricks. The original name of the 'Chengni Stone Stone' presented this time is 'Village Stone', and its raw material is not clay, but the Chengni stone in Suzhou, which is a stone stone. Because its color is similar to that of the clay bricks made of firing, many people mistakenly regard this stone as the clay bricks. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, people admired the 'Chengni Yan' described by the Song people in the book, but they had not been able to see the real 'Chengni Yan' with their own eyes, so they mistakenly thought that the stone yan in suzhou was 'Chengni Yan'. Because of this, this stone stone was later named ChengNi Stone Stone. "It is understood that the mudstone is a natural mud shale unique to the Taihu Lake area, which is a sedimentary rock solidified by mud and clay, with complex composition, mainly composed of clay minerals, with bonding, fire resistance and other properties. Its stone is hard and not brittle, high stability, has a very delicate grainy feeling, in direct sunlight, there are metal particles shimmering, dazzling. At the same time, the natural texture of the mudstone is very rich, and the eel yellow, crab shell green, shrimp head red and so on have their own characteristics.
Scribe made by Cai Jinxing
According to the Han Dynasty classics, "The Wu people set up a pavilion in Yanshi (Mountain)". Yanshi Mountain refers to the Lingyan Mountain in the west of Gusu, and the Wu people have been mining the rocks produced by the Lingyan Mountain since the Han Dynasty. Because the early mining area was concentrated in the village of Yamashita, it was called "Village Yan". In the following generations, there are many records about the stone stones.
According to relevant literature, "There is a village at the foot of Lingyan Mountain, which has been digging stone carvings for generations, and there are stone land temples in the south of the mountain, and the carving industry offers incense." Zhu Changwen, a Suzhou native of the Northern Song Dynasty, wrote in the "Continuation of the Map of Wu County": "Yanshi Mountain, in the west twenty miles of Wu County, there is a stone drum in Shanxi, also known as The Stone Drum Mountain,...... There is a village, and its mountain out of the stone, can be a stone, cover the name of the stone is not vain also." Mi Fu's "History of Yan" Yun: "Suzhou brown yellow stone stone, thick, ink impermeable, like fern stone." The earthlings carved it into a stone, burned it in a bunch of grass, simmered it for slow ashes, and turned purple in color, and used it together with those who did not simmer, nor dry, but knew that nature was not moved by water and fire." In the early Qing Dynasty, Xu Song and Zhang Dachun wrote in the book "Hundred Cities of Smoke and Water": "(Wu County) Lingyan Mountain, go to the west of the city thirty miles, the ruins of Guanwa Palace are in Yan. There are eight out of ten stone kitsch, but the Lingzhi stone is the most, so it is called Lingyan. The western production of stone, that is, the village stone, a stone mountain". It can be seen from these documents that the cheng mud stone has attracted the attention of literati of all generations.
The stone stones recorded in the Siku Quanshu
In the "Western Qing Yan Spectrum", the Chengni Stone Stone (村砚) is juxtaposed with Duan and She
Cai Chunsheng said, "Chengni stone stone is a long-established craft project in Suzhou, originally called 'village stone', from the literature, it may be earlier than chengni stone." In history, in addition to the end stones, the number of stone stones may be the largest. In modern times, because of its elegant appearance, the Japanese have come to buy this stone stone in suzhou in large quantities. ”
Su Zuoyan's simplicity and elegance
Su Zuocheng clay stone carving began in the Han Dynasty, and its skills were already very skilled in the Five Dynasties and Two Song Dynasties. Since the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Su Zuo's stone carving has been greatly developed, and in the simplicity and elegance, it has also displayed exquisite and gorgeous meanings, forming its own unique artistic style. Chengni stone stone is elegant and simple, full of rhythm, delicate and vivid. The Western Qing Yan Spectrum juxtaposes it with Duan and She.
Wu Culture Museum exhibition hall site
It is understood that the use of clay stone to make a brick platform, strong plasticity, warm texture and soft color, water storage is not easy to dry up, both high practical and ornamental. Therefore, the villagers in the Suzhou collection area performed art according to their materials and quarried stones for stone. Stonemakers often use the natural texture of stone to create, and the carved stone carvings are unique in material and exquisite in craftsmanship, which is very characteristic of Suzhou.
In terms of production craftsmanship, traditional Su zuo brick carving attaches importance to the rhythmic beauty of lines and shapes. This requires the engraver to grasp every inch of the fine scale, the fusion of lines and surfaces, the proportion of pools and halls, the treatment of arcs and diagonal lines... Even if the themes are the same, there can be a variety of variations, and it is interesting to savor. This exhibition shows the typical exhibits of traditional ancient Brick Style and Theme, such as Horseshoe Stone, Ming Sijia Series Brick, Song Style Copyist Hand Stone, Ming Style Copy hand Stone, imitation Qianlong Cheng Mudstone Set Stone, etc.
Exhibition hall scene, chasing the moon.
With the increasing attention paid to traditional culture, suzhou craftsmen in the 1980s and 1990s absorbed elements closely related to the life of Suzhou water town on the basis of cheng mud stone carving, and developed other carving varieties including water bowls, stone drops, pen holders, printing clay boxes and so on, enriching the expression of cheng mud stone. The works of the Cai father and son in the exhibition are representative of this.
Cai Jinxing's award-winning work "Jiangnan Weaving Series (6 Pieces)" draws inspiration from Gu Erniang's "Zhen Zhen Yan", a suzhou brick maker in the early Qing Dynasty, and innovates and develops the "Jiangnan Weaving" series with various themes such as bamboo weaving, rattan weaving, and straw weaving, which is not only a tribute to the famous craftsmen of ancient Suzhou, but also the inheritance and development of traditional Su zuo skills. This group of works also broke through the category of Yantai, and derived literary utensils such as pen holders, washes, water bowls, paperweights, stone pots, and stone drops.
Wu Culture Museum Exhibition Hall Scene, Jiangnan Weaving Series (6 pieces)
Cai Chunsheng, return to xi's line of bags
Cai Chunsheng's stone sculptures, "Rings of the Year"
Cai Jinxing, Cai Chunsheng father and son are the guardians of this carving project. On the occasion of the opening of the exhibition, The Paper hereby held a dialogue with the father and son, telling how they studied ancient stones, made ancient stones, and the current situation of the brick-making industry.
Dialogue | Cai Jinxing and Cai Chunsheng
The Paper: I just said about the naming of "Cheng Ni Shi Yan". Can you now talk about how your family inherited this skill from your ancestors?
Cai Jinxing: I learned from my father when I made Yan. Later, during the "Cultural Revolution", he went to the factory as an apprentice and began to make yantai for the factory. Later, when the antiquities store asked to make antique stones, I put the paper on the brick table, used a pencil to expand the copy, and went home to explore. In fact, the real good skills have been broken since the end of the Qing Dynasty, but the people who make it in this area have not been broken.
Cai Chunsheng: Since the late Qing Dynasty, the art of making bricks has slowly declined. With the war, the replacement of writing instruments and other reasons, the production skills of yantai were broken, and many good skills were lost. In the past 100 years, although the Chinese Yantai market is large, a large part of it is actually exported to Japan. It was only in these ten years that the market really returned.
After the reform and opening up, my father helped the cultural relics store to make antique stones, and he gradually mastered the production method of ancient bricks in his exploration. At the same time, our family also collects a lot of stones, but also in the process of collection to understand the development of the yantai, evolution, as well as various forms, design concepts and so on. Therefore, we revived Su Yan.
The collection of ancient stones of the Cai father and son
The Paper: What is the path of exploration to reproduce the ancient stone technique, and is there a corresponding literature for reference? Can you talk about the characteristics of the Yan of different dynasties?
Cai Chunsheng: For more than two thousand years, the beauty of Yan has been regular. The height, proportion, thickness, and treatment of the lines of the ancient stones, as well as the various parts of the stones, including the size and depth of the stone pond, are all exquisite. The stones made by the fathers in the past have fragmentary laws, some are right, some are wrong, or they are not comprehensive and profound. For example, on the one side of "TaiShi Yan", the length, height, width of the edge, and depth of the Yan pond are exquisite. In the 1970s, when people made this style, they thought that it would be more practical to open the Yanchi larger, but in fact, when the Yanchi was large, the structure of the entire artifact was loosened and lost its beauty. We are from a large number of ancient stones, from the better stones to explore the law, learn from experience.
After gradually mastering the ancient laws, different styles can be done. In the Tang Dynasty, there were tile stones and dustpan stones. In the Song Dynasty, the mainstream Yan was rectangular Yan. During this period, the shape of the Yantai was very rich, the geometric form occupied the mainstream, and the lines were emphasized. At the same time, the Song people also began to integrate natural objects, such as lotus leaves, toads and other forms. In appearance, the edge of the yantai is relatively thin, showing a relatively ethereal beauty. In the Ming Dynasty, the Yantai was relatively thick, and the overall temperament was not as upright as the Song Dynasty, and it was more rounded. At the same time, this period began a kind of conformal stone, that is, carving according to the shape of the stone. In the Qing Dynasty, there were more shape-forming stones. At the same time, the Qing Dynasty's Yantai production was long towards craftsmanship. After Qianlong, the gorgeous style began to prevail, and the ornaments on the Yantai began to increase. From the Yantai language, we prefer the styles of the Song Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty.
Cai Jinxing, "Ink Painting" tile-shaped stone
Cai Jinxing, walking double-sided end stone
The Paper: How long has this groping journey to make antique stones gone through?
Cai Jinxing: It took more than 20 years to find the pattern. This is the process of slowly becoming familiar with the rules, and during this period, I also constantly deal with the antique market.
Cai Chunsheng: In order to study, we went to the market to buy a lot of Yan and started to study. Of course, the material of the craft is a culture, but for us, those techniques that are particularly difficult to replicate, or the wisdom or design concepts of particularly valuable creations, are worth learning from. Brick making is a comprehensive project, from the overall shape to the design of the pattern, there are many connotations. After the Qing Dynasty, many literati participated in the design, and some people carved inscriptions on the side, which has actually become a format for literati to participate in the production. Of course, because the stone is stony and not very bad, there are many that have been handed down, and many of them are worth learning.
The Paper: You not only make ancient stones, but also collect ancient stones. What is the current quantity of the collection?
Cai Chunsheng: The main purpose is research. Suzhou ancient yan collected a lot, some complete, but also collected for learning semi-finished products. The number of ancient stones in Suzhou is about 1,000 square meters, mostly in the Ming and Qing dynasties and modern times. In the display of the newly opened West Hall of Suzhou Museum, there are two suzhou local stones that we have lent.
In addition, the collection of ancient stones is also because of feelings for them. In the process of excavation, we also have a new understanding of the stone stone. As mentioned before, many museums confuse "Cheng Ni Shi Yan" with "Cheng Ni Yan", and some of them are wrongly named. Of course, such a confusing event is not only "Chengni Stone Stone", there are hundreds of kinds of stones in Chinese history, and many stones will have the problem of wrong name due to similar colors. For example, the green yantai on the side of the Capital Museum, when Xiaolan was old, said that it was the "green end" of the Song Dynasty, and carved on the stone "Duanxi greenstone on the product Xiaolan". Later, after Kang Sheng's appraisal, he thought that this stone was not a "green end", and wrote down on the Yan Hall with great interest: "Ji Xiaolan called himself a yan reader, and also published the "Guiyun Yan Spectrum", in fact, he did not even have basic common sense about yan, he regarded the Taohe stone as a green end, and called the Qingzhou red wire red end, he did not know what the end stone was, let alone identify the ancient stone. Of course, Kang Sheng's own conclusion is also wrong. This is due to the limitations of the times and the limitations of information channels, and there have been many misunderstandings.
As far as intangible cultural heritage is concerned, I think it is very important to go from collection to understanding. Some experts study appearances, but do not deliberate from the perspective of production, so this is why Wang Shixiang has a great credit, he studies the style of furniture, studies the sense of beauty, can let people know how to collect good things, but also allow some craftsmen to have evidence to rely on, re-make these things.
The Paper: This exhibition is a clay carving, not only a brick platform, but also some other literary handicrafts displayed. Can you talk about the current situation of the crafts shops that make mud and stone?
Cai Chunsheng: In the 1980s, many craftsmen switched to crafts, using clay stones to make stone pots, and then some people changed their professions to do nuclear carving. In the 1990s, some craftsmen from Anhui and Jiangxi made clay carvings in Suzhou, and later they also changed careers one after another. Overall, there are not many people engaged in this area now, and there may be more than a dozen people doing Yantai in Suzhou now. Shanghai also has Yantai, but the scale is not large, and it is biased towards self-employment. And the Duanyan in Guangdong, Anhui Sheyan has a wider audience and is a larger market.
Cai Jinxing: The people who make yan in this area are intermittent. Some craftsmen are determined by the market, think that there is a market to start carving, and then after a period of time they will change careers. In the past, suzhou craftsmen used clay and stone as a material to make a study room, and also absorbed the style of various places. Some of my literary works also absorb the handicraft style of Shanghai at that time.
Cai Chunsheng: In the past 100 years, although the market in Yantai in China has been very large, a large part of it has actually been exported to Japan. It is only in recent years that these markets have returned to the Chinese market. With the higher requirements of domestic calligraphers and painters for the use of literature, this has also increased the market for us. Although it is a small group on the surface, there is still a potential need.