Editor's note: Craftsman spirit, a term with both historical scale and spiritual temperature; inheritance, persistence, research, innovation, "ingenuity" is firm under the tempering of time, and "craftsman's soul" is precipitated in unremitting climbing. This series will be pushed from the representative projects of shangrao intangible cultural heritage, traditional art and traditional skills, aiming to convey the calm power in the hearts of contemporary craftsmen and let the achievements of intangible cultural heritage protection be shared by all.
In March 2020, Dexing metal artifacts production technology was selected into the fifth batch of municipal intangible cultural heritage representative projects in Shangrao City
Dexing City is located in the northeast of Jiangxi Province, at the junction of Gansu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces, and is named after the meaning of "treasure of mountains and rivers, but De Nai Xing". It is known as "Jinshan", "Silver City", "Copper Capital" reputation, has proven reserves and developed more than 30 kinds of minerals, the annual output of copper ranks first in China, the annual output of gold ranks first in Jiangnan.
Figure | Dexing County Chronicle
Dexing's metal artifact-making skills began in the Shang Zhou Dynasty, as evidenced by the exquisite bronze dings and bronze swords unearthed at the Shang Dynasty site in Dexing Fox Mountain. According to the Records of Dexing County, Wu Rui, the king of Changsha at the end of the Qin Dynasty, once set up a quenching sword pond in Xiaowu Garden south of Dexing City to manufacture weapons. During the Qin and Han dynasties, the manufacturing technology of Dexing copper mirrors gradually matured, using a variety of processing techniques and goggle technologies to improve the quality of mirrors and prolong the service life. During the Tang and Song dynasties, with the parallel development of gold, silver and copper mining in Dexing, the production technology of metal utensils such as gold, silver and copper was developed rapidly, and the traditional copper mirror making technology was well-known throughout the country with the copper mirror of Raozhou Capital.
Figure | Dexing Copper Products Factory produced copper products in the 1970s
Dexing's mining of silver mines began in the Sui and Tang dynasties, in 675 AD (the second year of the Tang Dynasty), the imperial court placed silver in the silver mountain of the present-day Yinshan Mine to mine silver, called "Deng Gongchang", with an annual output of about 100,000 taels of silver, which was the most important silver-producing area in the country at that time, and was known as the "first mountain of Datang silver smelting". With the prosperity of silver mining and the improvement of smelting technology, silverware production and processing began to appear.
Figure | Dexing National Mine Park
During the Song Dynasty, the use of Dexing silverware in the folk has been very common, and the production skills have become more and more exquisite. A complete set of production and processing procedures has been gradually formed. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, Dexing silverware production has been further developed, during the Qing Xianfeng period, the new camper Xu Jimao opened a silver shop in Dexing County and taught apprentices to pass on the art, after six generations of development, the formation of a unique Dexing handmade silverware production technology.
Due to the parallel mining of gold and silver copper in the Tang and Song dynasties, so the gold, silver and copper products began to integrate and develop, gold due to its preciousness, mostly for some valuable utensils to use gold leaf technology, silver and bronze in the Dexing Tang and Song Dynasties have appeared larger utensils, the use of mature gilding technology and engraving process, so that the manufacture of utensils rich and gorgeous.
Figure | Yuan gilded gilded character floral pattern lion button lid silver bottle, Dexing City Museum collection of national first-class cultural relics.
Silver, Yuan period ornaments. In June 1985, the foothills of Xinying Hutou Mountain in Dexing City were excavated.
Figure | Song Linghua "Taoist Figure" mirror, Dexing City Museum collection of national third-class cultural relics.
On January 1, 1985, the old collection of Dexing City Cultural Center was transferred. Copper, diameter 18.5 cm, thickness 0.3 cm. Seven-petaled lotus-shaped, narrow image, the back of the mirror is decorated with "Taoist character ornamentation", and the center of the mirror is placed with a round button.
Dexing metalware production technology is dominated by copper and silver art, and the influence of other metals such as gold and iron is relatively secondary. The process generally includes metal smelting, forging, tapping, engraving, gilding, polishing, red and other important manual processes. The products are widely used in life, with great ornamental and collectible value, from dressing jewelry, home decoration, literary offering, Zen tea and elegant play to the murals of the monument gallery, urban sculptures, and Cliff Buddha Grottoes.
Figure | Song Gilded silver plate with four fish pattern engraved, Dexing City Museum collection of national first-class cultural relics.
In June 1985, the foothills of Xinying Hutou Mountain in Dexing City were excavated. It is molded with gilded sterling silver to form a circular wide rim, shallow bottom, and the upper edge is decorated with a lotus lotus (lotus lotus leaf) relief, and the plate is engraved with four fish, water grass pattern, static and moving, rich in flow. The production process is exquisite, and the embossed convex technique is beautifully shaped and the ornamentation is rich and elegant. The entire silver plate is hammered and formed, without a single press mark. Caliber 52.5cm, bottom diameter 33.2cm, height 8.9cm.
Figure | Shang Bronze Ding, Dexing City Museum collection of national third-class cultural relics.
In October 1985, the fox mountain merchant site of Xiaowuyuan in Xinying, Dexing City, was excavated. Bronze, abdominal diameter 17.2 cm, caliber 16.8 cm, height 19.5 cm. The mouth edge is slightly extravagant, the body shoulders are rounded, the abdomen is rounded, and the bottom is rounded. The tip of the shoulder is high and the lining is concave. The four walls of the ding are thinner, and the surface is bluish green. In the upper part of the middle abdomen, there is a 2.8 cm wide ornamentation, and the theme is interspersed with fire patterns and four-petal order patterns, and the bottom is filled with thunder patterns. There are obvious "triangular" mold casting marks under the circle.
Dexing metalware production technology inherits the traditional manual process, the product has a strong expressiveness, greatly enriching people's current life. Because the material metal has special physical properties, the handicrafts produced by its production have the advantages of attractiveness, good gloss, antioxidant resistance, and not easy to change color.
Figure | Song Hangzhou mainland home rhombus mirror
Dexing gold, silver and copper production enterprises attach great importance to the inheritance and protection of intangible cultural heritage, Jiangxi Copper Art Culture Development Co., Ltd. (Dexing Copper Art) was included in the 2019-2021 Jiangxi Province Intangible Cultural Heritage Inheritance Base, and a special training institute was set up to teach apprentices and pass on the art.
Figure | Jiangxi Copper Art Institute Craft Teaching
Dexing metalware production is a unique "folk handicraft" formed by the people of Dexing in the long-term practice of farming and life, combined with the production and living conditions of the local people and the aesthetic characteristics of loving beauty and their own skills, which has a wide range of mass and folk inheritance.
Figure | Silver tea set Enlightenment
Source: Shangrao Intangible Cultural Heritage
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