Dai Zhiqiang's master, who is far away from the Qing Palace, is also a professor of the Metal Craft Department of the School of Art of Tsinghua University, who lives in the hall.
In order to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Red Army's Long March, Dai Zhiqiang was commissioned by the Central Military Commission to make a commemorative silver cup of "Drinking Water and Thinking of the Source", which was permanently collected by the Military Museum of the Chinese Revolution and selected as the Guinness Book of Records in Shanghai.
As the inheritor of the "intangible cultural heritage" in Shanxi Province, Dai Zhiqiang made the silverware production "intangible cultural heritage" project into an industry, and the products entered the national brand and Shanghai's century-old brand "Lao Fengxiang".
Dai Zhiqiang, born in 1975, is the general manager of Galaxy Silver Industry Co., Ltd. in Fanzhi County, a master of arts and crafts in Shanxi Province, and a top-notch backbone talent of "Three Jin Talents". "Galaxy Silverware" is handcrafted from 999 sterling silver, integrating carving, painting and calligraphy, with elegant and unique shapes and ever-changing carvings. Ten categories, nearly 100 kinds of products include peony rich vase, Tuanlong Phoenix wine utensils, open vases, craft plates, silver hot pots, sterling silver manza (commonly used in Tibetan Buddhism), Dalong Yuanbao, silver ruyi, hand-held teapots, Japanese-European wine utensils, pen washing... Exquisite design, superb craftsmanship, exquisite clarity, elegance and luxury. It has both practical value and more collection and value-added space.
"Test the waters" to open a gold shop
In the history of Fanzhi, it is a big county that produces gold and silver, that is, mining and smelting gold and silver in the Tang and Song dynasties, and the processing of private gold and silverware has a long history.
Zhi Qiang's hometown is in Jinshanpu Village, Jinshanpu Township, Fanzhi County, and the villagers have always had a tradition of making gold and silver jewelry. Zhi Qiang's great-grandfathers, grandfathers and brothers also knew this craft, and when he returned to the village when he was a child, he often saw the elders "ding-dong" processing some small jewelry. However, the craftsmanship of the elders is primitive and simple, and he is now engaged in two completely two concepts.
In 1997, Dai Zhiqiang graduated from secondary school. At that time, there were many gold shops in Fanzhi County, and a distant uncle of Zhiqiang funded him and his cousin to open a "Xiangrui Gold Shop" to process ring necklace earrings. Later, Zhiqiang opened an independent shop and rented a gate-faced shop in Erdao Street, the most prosperous street in Fanzhi County at that time, with a rent of 10,000 yuan a year.
What day does it open? Zhiqiang's father calculated that the size was a business, or looking for someone to see a "zodiac auspicious day". At 8 o'clock in the morning, the father and son rode their bicycles to the street to find a "reckoner". The "master" pinched his fingers and said that nine o'clock on the same day was the most auspicious time to open this month. Father and son rushed all the way back to the store, old Dai was good at calligraphy, a pair of big red couplets waved: "Wealth is like the dawn of the sun rising clouds, profit is like spring tide with rain", Xiao Dai bought a whip, "crackling" put up.
Business flourished after opening. One is that Zhiqiang's father has a good reputation in the county, and acquaintances are willing to take care of his son's business; the second is that the amount of jewelry processed is sufficient - there is a loss of gold during processing, but Zhiqiang insists on making up for the weight - he earns less, and the customers are naturally more. At the beginning of the liquidity is small, Zhiqiang rides a motorcycle to Shahe every day at dusk to buy 50-100 grams of gold, processing at night, and the next day and a half after the sale of the fire, and then go to Shahe. And so on and on and on for half a year. During the period, he carried and processed and sold silver locks and silver bracelets, and when the business was good, he received up to 7 apprentices.
In 2000, Zhiqiang relocated the store to the newly opened Xiangyang Road in the county seat. When the business is not busy, I go to all parts of the country for training and study, such as learning platinum inlays in Fuzhou. In the past few years, the gold processing industry has been reshuffled, and after some powerful mine bosses intervened, ordinary people could not compete with it. In addition, Dai Zhiqiang also realized that although the process and style of silverware processing are relatively complex, the investment is small and the profit is not low compared with gold processing. Therefore, he began to consciously transform from "gold" to "silver", purchasing silverware from outsiders to the "shop" of various gold stores.
From a foreign "silver pouring master" to buy goods for a year, "upside down" saw Zhiqiang buy and sell two booms, two or three months to increase the price. One day a friend of Zhiqiang's cousin came to the store, Zhiqiang told him about this, this friend patted his thigh: "Cough, my hometown of Zunhua, Hebei can do this a lot, why don't you go there to buy directly?" ”
A word woke up the dreamer, and immediately decided to go to Zunhua to investigate the market.
Malanyu Adventure
The Qing Tombs were built in Zunhua, Hebei Province, and the ethnic groups of the tomb guardians of the past lived in the area of Zunhua Malanyu Town. The Qing royal family and upper nobility used a large number of silverware - silverware has the functions of poison testing, anti-deterioration and sterilization, which is conducive to ensuring the safety of the diet of the empress's concubines, imperial relatives, and princes and ministers. Among the Qing Dynasty Tomb Protectors, there are descendants of craftsmen who make offices, so there are many silverware plus workshops in Malanyu.
Dai Zhiqiang did not understand these situations at that time, and came to Malanyu with a word from his cousin and friend. The town is not big, and after a while it turns around, but there is not a workshop in sight on the street. Asked the villagers, the villagers looked him up and down, shook their heads and did not match.
Zhiqiang felt that the "intelligence" was wrong and was preparing to return. When I touched my pocket, the cigarette was gone, and I saw a watch shop on the side of the road with a cigarette on the counter, and I went in to buy a cigarette while talking to the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper was a down-to-earth middle-aged woman, and when zhiqiang asked where there was a silverware maker, he immediately said: Go, I will take you!
Follow the fat woman to the locked gate of a house in the alley behind the store. The woman took out the key to unlock the lock, and before anyone entered the courtyard, she heard a scolding voice from the house: "Who did you bring to me again?" ”
In the house, a middle-aged man in his forties was sitting on the floor, on a silver vessel. There are silverware to be processed on the kang and on the table.
The middle-aged man is called Gu Baozhong, a Manchu, and his ancestors are the Tanglin Tomb Protectors. I don't know which generation of ancestors learned the craft of silverware processing from the manufacturing office and passed it on to him from generation to generation. Lao Gu later served as the chief engraver of the largest silver products factory in the north, and he designed the engraving of the national gift "Silk Scarf Sterling Silver Fruit Plate" presented at the 2014 Beijing APEC meeting.
When Lao Gu was a child, due to polio and disability of his left leg, some of the processes of making silverware were inconvenient to operate, so he did not open a workshop, specializing in "processing of incoming materials" - most of the silverware workshops in Malanyu had difficult engraving processes and asked him to complete them. Lao Gu's mother was from Shanxi, and the woman who brought Zhiqiang in was Lao Gu's wife.
Old Gu scolded his wife, and Zhiqiang also felt embarrassed and cramped, and could only find words without words. However, when he heard Zhiqiang say that he was from Shanxi, Lao Gu's attitude eased up. Zhiqiang originally had a high emotional intelligence, and the two were still quite close to each other. Lao Gu repeatedly shouted to his wife to boil water and Zhang Luo wine and vegetables, and also asked several workshop owners and friends to come and accompany him.
Since then, Gu Baozhong and Dai Zhiqiang have been called brothers. Lao Gu acted as an intermediary and sent back to Zhiqiang for silverware to sell, and this model lasted for two years.
One day in the late summer of 2004, Zhiqiang went to Malanyu to visit his brother who was also a teacher and a friend. When the two chatted, the old consultant said: "You Fanzhi County originally produced silver, why don't you process it locally?" Zhiqiang said: "I don't have any craftsmen and tools over there, so why process it?" Lao Gu said, "Don't you have ready-made craftsmen in front of you?" Zhi Qiang said, "As far as your craft is concerned, I can't afford to hire you!" Old Gu laughed: "How about a thousand a month?" Zhi Qiang said that we are sure of what we say.
Zhiqiang thought that Lao Gu was joking, but he did not expect that his brother with a different surname really wanted to "pull him" - after two years of dealings, Lao Gu highly recognized Zhiqiang's character and personality - that afternoon he was holding up his tools, and the next day he really came to Fanzhi in the pickup truck that Zhiqiang drove.
With Lao Gu sitting in town, Zhiqiang's confidence doubled, and after returning, he entered 120,000 yuan of silver raw materials in one breath. Lao Gu performed a unique feat of life and processed a series of exquisite silver crafts. Zhiqiang was not idle, and followed Lao Gu to process the silverware into sets, and the process was integrated.
It is reasonable to say that Lao Gu's craftsmanship has nothing to say, and the price is more competitive without intermediate links, but the silverware processed in nearly half a year has not been sold. Zhiqiang couldn't figure it out, and Lao Gu was also quite guilty. Seeing that it was the twenty-third day of the Waxing Moon, Lao Gu said that he had to go back, and he would not come next year. Zhi Qiang quickly expressed his position: He did not even go back to the New Year first, and came back after the fifteenth day of the first month.
"King Stove" went to heaven, and Lao Gu returned to Hebei. It is also strange to say that on the twenty-fourth day of the waxing moon, customers have come to the door one after another. By the twenty-ninth day of the lunar month, the inventory for half a year was all sold out, and several orders were received.
Dai Zhiqiang later analyzed that Lao Gu's works were obviously several grades higher than those on the market - ordinary people usually buy silverware, which is nothing more than the "long-life lock" worn when buying a child for his twelfth birthday, and Lao Gu's "tall" silverware is "not in the right way of production and marketing". The Spring Festival is approaching, it is the peak period of human exchanges, send a set of silver wine utensils, tea sets, the cost is not too big and double face, it is more appropriate.
Chinese New Year's Eve morning, Dai Zhiqiang called the old Gu Bainian - the boss, the sixth grade will come down!
"Drinking water and thinking about the source" cup
On the sixth day of the first lunar month of the new year, Lao Gu arrived as promised and gave Dai Zhiqiang an unexpected surprise - bringing the most famous silversmith molding master in Malanyu. In 2006, Dai Zhiqiang established Galaxy Silver Co., Ltd. With the blessing of the two masters, Dai Zhiqiang's skills are becoming more and more sophisticated, and the galaxy silver business is also booming.
One day in June of that year, Xiao Dai was out, and Lao Dai, who was looking at the store, received a call from Beijing. The other side said that he was an office officer of the Central Military Commission, saying that in order to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Red Army's Long March, Dai Zhiqiang was invited to Beijing to discuss the production of a silver commemorative cup. When Zhiqiang came back, he thought it was a "fraudulent call" - a small silversmith in a small place, how could the Central Military Commission possibly know about us? Simply ignored.
A week later, the phone call came to the store again, and Zhiqiang answered. The other side said that he spoke "Mandarin that is more standard than the announcers" - or the Central Military Commission, or asked him to go to Beijing as soon as possible. Zhiqiang quickly asked: How do you know me? The other party said don't ask, just tell me the time and number of trains to Beijing.
Do scammers speak such standard Mandarin? What if this is true? Even if you meet a liar, you will lose two hundred yuan a day, and you will go!
After arriving at Beijing Station at six o'clock in the morning, the other party sent a text message saying: Don't leave the station, someone on the platform will pick you up. After Zhiqiang got out of the car, he saw a military vehicle parked on the platform, and a young soldier held aloft a sign with both hands, which read: Dai Zhiqiang, Shanxi. Zhi Qiang used to introduce himself, and after the soldier carefully looked at his ID card, he pulled the car door: Please!
Military vehicles raced west from Chang'an Avenue to the Military Museum. After passing through three posts in a row, he went up to the third floor of a building, and the little soldier gently pushed open the door of an office to signal Zhiqiang to enter. A chief in his fifties stood up from behind the pile of documents: "Shanxi's little Dai? Have a seat. ”
Dai Zhiqiang's stomach was full of questions: How does the leader know me? Why was I selected? I'm a small workshop with only three rooms... The chief laughed but did not answer, and called the propaganda minister to come over. The minister came over and opened his mouth, and Zhiqiang heard that this was the person who called him.
The minister took a bunch of drawings in his hand and spread them out on the table, handed them to Zhiqiang paper, pens, and calculators, and said: "These are several sets of design schemes for commemorative silver cups. In less than a morning, Zhiqiang calculated the relevant data clearly. After eating in the military cafeteria at noon, he continued to discuss the details, and sent him to the train that night and asked him to go back to wait for the notice. Not long after, Zhiqiang was invited to Beijing to participate in a demonstration meeting on the production of silver cups, which was attended by representatives of dozens of silverware processing factories across the country. Zhiqiang spoke at the meeting for 10 minutes, expounding his ideas and designs. After the meeting, he asked him to go back and continue to wait.
One day, Zhiqiang received a call from the deputy director of the organizing committee, Cheng, saying that he wanted to come to Fanzhi to inspect his factory. Director Cheng arrived at the factory or workshop, saw that the workshop was low and dark, and the only sofa in the outer room was still broken, so he smiled and said, "I just came to see, and I will go to Taiyuan in a while..."
Zhiqiang didn't say much, took a piece of silver billet and pressed it and formed it. Old Gu Lu worked hard, put the silver directly on the steel mold to engrave, and then welded and polished in one go. Less than 20 minutes before and after, a silver sparkling and exquisitely carved silver wine glass "changed tricks" in front of Director Cheng. ZhiQiangyun said lightly: This is our process.
Director Cheng held the silver cup in his hand and looked left and right, and he was overjoyed and overjoyed, and said: Finally found you! Put down the silver cup and call: "Finally found it!" The commemorative cup is made by Shanxi XiaoDai! "The next day I called a deposit of 50,000 yuan."
Zhiqiang later learned that the organizing committee inspected several silverware processing plants in Luoyang and Shenzhen at the same time. The "live performance" of Zhiqiang and Lao Gu conquered the leaders of the organizing committee, and this was the final word.
The 70-centimeter-high silver commemorative cup made by the Central Military Commission to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Red Army's Long March is not only huge in size, but also a special-shaped piece. There is no precedent for making such a large silverware in China, no ready-made technology, and no mold. Zhiqiang made major improvements to the original design plan, highly summarizing the great significance of the Long March - the three military flags symbolizing the Red First, Second and Fourth Fronts were designed as cup handles, and the silver cup was engraved with the verses of Mao Zedong's "Seven Laws and Long March". Traditional silverware ornaments generally use lotus flowers, and Dai Zhiqiang makes the upper and lower ornaments of the "Drinking Water Siyuan" cup into auspicious clouds and waves, and the atmosphere between the clouds and water is magnificent. These improvements have been highly praised and unanimously adopted by the organizing committee.
To make such a large silver cup, a large silver plate is required, and there is no such a large mold. Tisteel's sixth rolling mill sent charcoal in the snow to solve this problem. The mold formed by the silver cup was also not ready-made, and Dai Zhiqiang tried to use a large piece of wood to make it. The silver cup is tall and thin-walled, and it is impossible to achieve internal and external flatness with conventional processes, and several methods have been tried to achieve poor results. Dai Zhiqiang pondered bitterly, and one day he saw a cigarette seller on the street - the wall of the cigarette tube was thin, how did it become round and flat? The master who makes the cigarette canister said that we have not seen the silver cup, but you try to lay a rubber pad in the cup, and beating the rubber pad does not damage the silverware, and it is estimated that it can be processed smoothly. Zhi Qiang woke up like a dream, went back to try, the effect was unexpected.
As for the welding, polishing, relief and other processes of this large silverware, all of them are difficult problems facing the production team. Dai Zhiqiang led the old and small partners to work together to "combine soil and ocean", and finally it was completed.
From the day the start of construction, Dai Zhiqiang began to keep a diary, detailing the entire process of making the commemorative cup. After the last process was completed, Zhiqiang invited everyone to drink celebratory wine, and someone asked during the banquet: How many days have we made this memorial cup? Zhi Qiang asked people to take the diary, count it, and do it for 70 days. Everyone quieted down and meditated in their hearts: 70th anniversary, 70 days, Providence...
The organizing committee held a grand handover ceremony for the commemorative cup of "Drinking Water Thinking of the Source" in Fanzhi County. In Beijing, Dai Zhiqiang was cordially received by Chi Haotian, former vice chairman of the Central Military Commission. In the second set of CCTV treasure columns, experts identified its process value of 700,000 yuan.
As for how did the organizing committee know about Zhiqiang and his craftsmanship? It's still a mystery.
Yongle Palace worships the master
In 2012, the Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism organized masters of arts and crafts from Shanxi, including Dai Zhiqiang, to study at the School of Arts of Tsinghua University, and Tang Xuxiang, professor and doctoral supervisor of the Department of Metal Crafts of the School of Arts of Tsinghua University, gave several lessons to the students.
In the refresher class, only Dai Zhiqiang and Liu Wentao of Pingyao Ancient City were engaged in metal craftsmanship, so they left a deep impression on Professor Tang. In the summer of 2013, Professor Tang brought graduate students to Shanxi to investigate, Zhiqiang drove to Taiyuan after hearing the news, accompanied Professor Tang and his party to inspect folk metal crafts in Shanxi, and the last stop came to Ruicheng Yongle Palace. In front of the murals in Yongle Palace, Professor Tang was emotional and prostrated in front of the murals. This move made Dai Zhiqiang stunned, he had not yet eased up, Professor Tang suddenly said to him: "Zhiqiang, come and prostrate your head!" ”
Zhi Qiang was still stunned, and Professor Tang's graduate students quickly tugged at his sleeve: "This is Master Tang wanting to take you as an apprentice!" Dai Zhiqiang reacted to this, and in the Sanqing Hall of the Yongle Palace, he bowed his head three times in respect of Professor Tang. After that, when Tang Xuxiang introduced Dai Zhiqiang in public, he always had to emphasize: This is my disciple.
Swipe right
After paying homage to the teacher, Professor Tang told Zhiqiang that there is a legend in the Qing Palace Manufacturing Office: for more than two hundred years, the top silverware craftsmanship in the Manufacturing Office was "Lao Er". Professor Tang encouraged him with a heavy heart: You are a native of Shanxi, with strong understanding and good craftsmanship in silverware production, and have the responsibility to carry forward the skills of your predecessors in your hometown. Professor Tang intended to cultivate him, and Zhiqiang cherished this opportunity and opportunity. Under the guidance of Professor Tang, Dai Zhiqiang's understanding of metal technology is more comprehensive and profound, and he has further improved the level of gold pasting and hammering technology.
In 2017, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism organized 10 top masters of jade carving and metal craftsmanship in the country to study and bring graduate students to the Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts, and only Dai Zhiqiang was the only one in Shanxi. Zhiqiang brought two works to Shanghai: "Peony Rich Bottle" and "Plum Pattern Handle Pot". After Professor Gong, the head of the department, apprenticed in "Lao Fengxiang" when he was a teenager, and recommended these two works to the "Most Valuable Brand" of China's jewelry industry and the "Lao Fengxiang" of the leading enterprises founded in 1848, the store immediately signed a contract with Dai Zhiqiang, and Galaxy Silver processed and produced more than 200 kilograms of silver yuanbao, tea sets and other silverware for "Lao Fengxiang". Now, gold stores in Taiyuan, Lvliang, Inner Mongolia, Baotou and other places sell Galaxy Silver products, all orders are customized. If it is "private order", it must be ordered 15 times in advance.
The galaxy is splendid
Galaxy Silver's handmade silverware, pieces of a shape, a pattern. A piece of silverware, to go through the design, material, inverting plate, pressure plate, cutting, molding, molding, welding, grinding, glue filling, engraving, polishing and other more than a dozen processes, some also need to be gilded, tungsten, inlaid, enamel...
Dai Zhiqiang's silverware processing skills are outstanding, in addition to his love of reading, good research, and high understanding, but also thanks to some of the "unique skills" taught to him by the two masters, such as Gu Baozhong, who passed on to him the "glue filling" technique from the Qing Palace Office.
Engraving is the most important process for processing silverware. The vessel is hollow, and it must be filled with material to be forced when engraved, otherwise it will be uneven when engraved. The common folk method is to make a model out of wood or lead and insert it into a vessel. In this way, the filler and the utensil cannot be integrated, the force is uneven when engraving, there will still be potholes, and the molding is time-consuming and labor-intensive. At that time, the senior people of the manufacturing office mixed rosin, talcum powder and vegetable oil into a paste in a certain proportion, heated it and poured it into silverware. This "glue" is as hard and elastic as asphalt when it is cooled, and can be engraved as much as you want. The engraving is heated with fire, and the "glue" is restored to the paste and poured out of the silverware, which can be used repeatedly.
On the basis of inheriting the skills of his predecessors, Dai Zhiqiang will never stick to the rules. He has successively invented and produced practical machinery such as "silverware making rotary stretch forming machine", "silverware making forging press", "silver blank forming mold" and obtained national invention patents. Some of the time-consuming and laborious processes in the manual era because there is no machine help, in Dai Zhiqiang's "upgrading", the efficiency and precision of processing are not the same. (Guo Jianfeng)
Chinese gold and silverware production originated from the pre-Qin, matured in the Tang and Song dynasties, and reached its peak in the Qing Dynasty. Won the gold medal of the Agricultural Expo, the Cultural Fair, the Shanghai World Expo, the provincial intangible cultural heritage list, and the "specialized and new" small and medium-sized enterprises in Shanxi Province... As a descendant of "intangible cultural heritage", Dai Zhiqiang not only inherited a skill, but also developed an "intangible cultural heritage" project into an industry - only when the protection and inheritance of "intangible cultural heritage" are industrialized, can the "intangible cultural heritage" project have strong vitality.
"Engrave the years with time
Create a boutique with ingenuity
Dai Zhiqiang wants to be the brightest one
Photo: Feng Xiaolei, Zhao Jing
Video shooting: Feng Xiaolei, Zhao Jing
Source: Xinzhou Online
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