The art of framing and restoring calligraphy and paintings has existed at least in the Jin Dynasty, and has a history of more than 1700 years. The technique of mounting and painting began to take shape during the Tang Dynasty, and matured during the Song Dynasty and was passed down to the present day. The reason why cultural relics can be preserved for thousands of years depends on the "continuation" of generations of restorers. Three generations of Zhang Xuguang's family have been framers and restorers, from his maternal grandfather Liu Dingzhi to his father Zhang Yaoxuan to him.
In the 20s and 30s, Liu Dingzhi was famous in Shanghai as a master of restoration, and was "used by the famous calligrapher and painter Wu Hufan". Son-in-law Zhang Yaoxuan was the first group leader of the ancient calligraphy and painting restoration division of the Forbidden City after the founding of New China, and also the first generation of pioneers of the Forbidden City calligraphy and painting restoration team. Zhang Xuguang "brought art into the palace" in the mid-1980s, worked in the Forbidden City for more than 30 years, and became a new generation of non-genetic people in the restoration of ancient calligraphy and paintings. In Zhang Xuguang's concept, all this is nothing remarkable, he is a craftsman.
The "Holy Will of the Orthodox Emperor of the Ming Dynasty" was repaired for one year
There are many national treasure-level ancient calligraphy and paintings restored by the hand of Zhang Xuguang, a craftsman, and the "Holy Will of the Orthodox Emperor of the Ming Dynasty" is one of them. It was the Orthodox Ten Year Sacred Will collected by the Zhangye City Museum in Gansu Province, with a pure gold cloud dragon pattern on the front and a double-sided wax paper with pure gold sprinkled on the back. When Zhang Xuguang received it in his hand, the whole body of the "Holy Will" was mutilated and broken, with mildew spots and missing words. This "Holy Will" gave Zhang Xuguang a big problem, and he repaired it while studying and experimenting, and repaired it for a whole year.
Wax paper is a kind of paper used for calligraphy and painting, which was more prevalent in the Sui and Tang dynasties. This kind of paper is made of different colors of rice paper coated with wax, bright color, mildew and anti-corrosion, the original role is to preserve important literature, also known as wax yellow paper. The chalk paper Xuguang, which is easy to confuse with wax paper, has also been repaired, and he said that the surface of the chalk is powdery and wax-free, which is completely different from the feel of the wax paper. He said more bluntly that the powder wax notes sold on the market now are called wrong, because the powder notes are the powder notes, and the wax notes are the wax notes.
The production method of wax paper has now been lost, the reason for the loss of transmission in Zhang Xuguang's view is because the workmanship is complex and expensive, and the wax paper because of the surface of wax, ink is relatively poor, not good at painting, can only write calligraphy, writing must use thick ink or even glue ink, so there are not many applications in the folk, mainly used by the royal family to preserve important documents. Since it is used by the royal family, there are of course many wax paper deposits in the Forbidden City, and many edicts are written on wax paper.
In 1993, the Tibet Archives brought a batch of wax paper edicts and asked the Forbidden City Calligraphy and Painting Reproduction Department to copy them, and Zhang Xuguang was also there at that time. He recalled that because of the rush of time and the lack of mastery of the production process, the reproductions made were only formal imitations. Until 1998, Zhang Xuguang and several colleagues in the Forbidden City successfully declared the project of restoring the wax paper process, and then they went to the School of Chemical Engineering to do testing, and then went to Jing County, the hometown of wax paper, to do research, "but the master of Jing County only knows how to use the production tools, and how to apply wax is not clear." After returning, Zhang Xuguang and colleagues in the research group tried many methods, and the waxing effect was still not good, until 2000, the trial production was successful, and several finished products were made.
Zhang Xuguang said that at present, this lost craft should only be three or four people. If there is a down-to-earth and hard-working young man who is willing to learn, he is willing to teach. "Because this craft is not personal, I am also inheriting the things of my predecessors, and of course I hope that it can be passed on."
Three generations of father and son do Su Mounting
In the restoration industry, Zhang Xuguang is a halfway monk. After returning to Beijing, he worked as a tower crane driver in the construction team until his father Zhang Yaoxuan died in 1986, when he entered the Forbidden City to work in the (ancient) calligraphy and painting restoration group. At that time, the Forbidden City was divided into the East Factory and the West Factory, and Zhang Xuguang was divided into the East Factory.
Zhang Xuguang has been hearing about it since he was a child, and the skills of leaning on the body come from the family. His grandfather Liu Dingzhi was a Suzhou Juyong, who began to learn Su Mounting at the age of 15, opened a shop in Suzhou Palace Lane at the age of 25, named Jin Yizhai, and a few years later accompanied Wu Hufan to Shanghai to open Liu Dingzhi's loading pool, which was well-known in Shanghai. Zhang Xuguang said: "At the beginning of this year, Shanghai held an exhibition of Wu Hufan, and exhibited a portrait of Liu Dingzhi, which was co-painted by several famous painters of the Republic of China. The old man sitting upright in the painting is my grandfather, and the painting is very similar. Zhang Xuguang deliberately went to Shanghai to see that exhibition, and he knew that his grandfather and Wu Hufan had a very good personal relationship, and most of Wu Hufan's works were framed by Liu Dingzhi, and many of the collections were also purchased through Liu Dingzhi's bridge.
Liu Dingzhi himself does not collect cultural relics, but there are some calligraphy and painting works, such as paintings by Qi Baishi, Mei Lanfang, Xu Beihong, etc., most of which are birthday gifts, but also some rulers and letters. The old man left a will before his death and donated all the collections to the Shanghai Museum, a total of more than 500 pieces. Zhang Xuguang said frankly: "My grandfather donated things to Shangbo, and these things were left behind. He and his family once wanted to hold an exhibition for the old man, so that the collection of this famous restorer with the "WuHufan Royal Decoration Decorator" was seen in the sky, but it has not been fulfilled.
There is an unwritten rule in the restoration line: those who engage in cultural relics do not play with cultural relics, and Zhang Xuguang said that his father did not collect in his life, and did not ask for calligraphy and painting with others. He remembered his father saying that celebrity calligraphy and paintings are valuable, and asking people for calligraphy and painting is the same as asking people for money.
Zhang Xuguang's father, Zhang Yaoxuan, went to the Forbidden City in 1954, starting with the preparation of an ancient calligraphy and painting restoration room in the Forbidden City in 1953. When Wang Yeqiu, director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics, decided to seize this matter, his original intention was to transfer Liu Dingzhi to Beijing, but the old man was more than 60 years old, and after two or three trips to and from Beijing, he was still not accustomed to the northern climate, so he recommended his son-in-law and apprentice Zhang Yaoxuan. Zhang Yaoxuan took a group of Jiangsu talents to the Forbidden City, set up a calligraphy and painting mounting restoration room, became the first group leader, and was also the first generation of pioneers in the restoration of calligraphy and painting in the Forbidden City. Since then, the style of calligraphy and painting mounting in the Forbidden City has also been based on light and elegant Su mounting.
The Forbidden City is the only official Su-mount in Beijing. The cultural relics in the Forbidden City are mainly for the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Song before were all later conscripted into the palace, and there are some donations, but the Mounting Style of the Song is almost invisible, and the information is not left, which makes Zhang Xuguang feel the most regretful. According to Zhang Xuguang, China has always paid little attention to mounting paintings, and has paid more attention to restoration, which is influential from the perspective of non-genetic inheritance.
In 1969, most of the forbidden city was sent to the Xianning Cadre School in Hubei Province. Zhang Xuguang was 11 years old at the time and also followed his family. In Xianning, his family lived close to Wu Zhongchao, the first director of the Forbidden City after liberation. Wu Zhongchao is the longest-serving president of the Palace Museum, approachable, the names of employees can basically be called out, the family is from the family, attaches importance to talents, and has a good reputation among the people of the Palace Museum. Zhang Xuguang recalled: "He had a good relationship with our family, and I called him Uncle Wu. He was down-to-earth and did a lot of work for cultural relics, and I admire him very much. Zhang Yaoxuan was slightly affected by the "Cultural Revolution" and squatted in the cowshed for a week because he "refused to expose the reactionary authority Wu Zhongchao."
Zhang Xuguang also admired Liu Jiu'an, a famous ancient calligraphy and painting appraiser in China and a research librarian of the Palace Museum, who has passed away. In Zhang Xuguang's impression, Elder Liu was strict in his work and never told the truth about fake things. He once took two or three things and asked Liu Jiu'an to show them: "Elder Liu doesn't say whether it's true or false, just say that if this thing can be produced, don't leave it in your hand, I will understand."
To do this business, first of all, I am interested, and secondly, I really like it
In 1971, the Mawangdui tomb in Changsha was opened, and for the first time in the history of Chinese archaeology, calligraphy and painting works were found in ancient tombs, which urgently needed protection and restoration. At that time, almost all the people in the Forbidden City were in Xianning, and the Forbidden City was basically an empty shelf, "The old deans all went down, and there were only vice presidents and military representatives in the courtyard." Zhang Xuguang said, "The Cultural Relics Bureau urgently transferred my father back to Beijing, and my father rushed to Changsha, Hunan Province, the next day after returning to Beijing, and went directly to Mawangdui to take the task." ”
"But the first thing unearthed at Mawangdui was not repaired by my father, and there is a story in it." Listening carefully to the story, I only listened to Teacher Zhang's lecture: "This first thing is not ideal for cultivation, because after repairing, it cannot be rolled up, it is too hard." My father went to see it and felt that he could only pull it back to Beijing to repair. When the Forbidden City was visited by two people, the two of them packed the paintings and packed a large box more than one person long. At that time, there was no check-in, and things could not leave their sight, so they deliberately got a soft sleeper box. ”
To the train station, there was an accident. "The train station doesn't let you get on the train on the grounds that the objects are oversized and too expensive. There was no way, the local asked the secretary of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee to approve the note, and the Ministry of Railways did not buy it. Fortunately, there was an extra eye in the courtyard, and my father gave the prime minister instructions before leaving. At that time, I thought that the prime minister's instructions could not be revealed, and finally it was taken out, which allowed me to get on the train and pull things to Beijing. ”
After the reform and opening up, Zhang Yaoxuan began to help people repair things. Zhang Xuguang remembers a friend taking a landscape painting of the Bada Shanren, "My father got a small case at home to repair it." I also started formally studying from that time. For the restoration of calligraphy and paintings, Zhang Xuguang feels that he is first of all interested, and secondly, he really likes it. He said his father never forced him to do anything, "saying that he must pass on this craft, never saying anything like this." "My father's generation to Zhang Xuguang, are to repair as a profession, until now he also thinks that it is a profession," but my father is good to learn, he always said to do until the old learned, I always remember." ”
Zhang Xuguang believes that he has a talent in restoration, a skillful mind, and a lot of family influence, so it is effortless to do this line. "I don't have the talent to write and draw, I found out when I was in school to learn to engrave stamps, but my mind is skillful. Our children don't like it, my wife always feels that I can give some pressure, I think not, the main thing is to like. ”
Zhang Xuguang first entered the Forbidden City, the body skills are mainly mounted, the restoration skills are still weak, and the real benefit of kung fu he believes must be thanked for the Forbidden City, "it is slowly cultivated in these decades." The Forbidden City is a good platform, there are many things, and the light painting and calligraphy part currently has 160,000 sets of statistics, and seeing more will inevitably enhance the vision. But Zhang Xuguang's generation of education is generally not high, and now to work in the Forbidden City, at least a master's degree is required, to which he also sighed: "To be honest, there is no comparison in terms of academic qualifications, from this aspect young people may look down on us old people, we only have solid craftsmanship, but we are willing to take apprentices, as long as they have a reverence and respect for the old craft."
I have watched Zhang Xuguang teach students to dye paper. From the color grading, laying paper, cutting paper, dyeing, and going up the wall, he led the students to do it step by step. The students are all adults, but compared with him, the movements are childish, and it is difficult to have him old to mature. Especially in the dyeing paper link, Zhang Xuguang stood behind the big table, a large stack of rice paper to be dyed in front, he held the mane brush in his hand to dip in the color juice, swept horizontally on the paper, after a few times, he bit the mane brush between his lips, picked up the corner of the paper to check the color slightly, and then unveiled the paper wall, a series of actions like the martial arts master who stopped Yue Yue in Jin Yong's novel, and people were stunned to see.
Emergency repairs are likely to cause invisible damage to cultural relics
There are rules for the restoration of cultural relics in the Forbidden City, and no matter whether the cultural relics are exhibited inside and outside the palace, after careful inspection, they need to be repaired. Zhang Xuguang introduced that long ago, that is, Zhang Yaoxuan's generation was planned to repair calligraphy and paintings in stages and batches, and many famous works, such as "Qingming on the River Map", have been overhauled and have been greatly protected. The principle of restoration at that time was to repair as long as there was damage, and generally to overhaul. Now it is possible to repair without repairing, and to repair minorly without major repair.
What worries Zhang Xuguang is the state of the Chinese in the exhibition, because sometimes it is necessary to make urgent repairs or even emergency repairs to cultural relics in order to exhibit, which he believes is the worst. "In fact, the Calligraphy and Painting Department has not seriously repaired anything for more than ten years, and the net repair is rescued, something that needs to be exhibited, or some pasting that is displayed in its original state." Zhang Xuguang believes that many cultural relics have reached the time of major repair, and he found that some things can no longer be minor repaired when minor repairing cultural relics. In this regard, he also felt anxious: "At that time, I said that ancient calligraphy and paintings were opened once and hurt once. Minor repairs to cultural relics are actually a kind of harm, because some of the methods used in minor repairs, such as using a relatively thick adhesive (called first aid), will be difficult to uncover in the future. ”
Zhang Xuguang also introduced: "Chinese painting mainly uses silk and paper as a carrier, although theoretically it is said that 'paper life is a thousand years, silk life is eight hundred', but as long as the carrier is in contact with the external environment such as air and sunlight, it will cause harm, so when it is published, it must be treated." However, cultural relics cannot be repaired by means of emergency repair, and the effect of things repaired by rushing will not be too good, and it is easy to cause invisible damage to cultural relics, and it should be repaired in a planned manner, that is, we are talking about slow work. ”
When he was the deputy section chief of the restoration team, Zhang Xuguang stopped the cultural relics that were not suitable for exhibition in the palace. It was a southern tour map, the damage was relatively bad, and Zhang Xuguang believed that taking it out to participate in the exhibition would inevitably aggravate the damage. He firmly disagreed with the painting rolling out of the palace, avoiding the cultural relics from being harmed again.
Zhang Xuguang also opposed the improper restoration of ancient calligraphy and paintings, such as the use of chemical methods, which are harmful to calligraphy and painting, and it is better not to repair them, and he frankly said that there are many lessons in this regard. In the late 1950s, Zhang Yaoxuan and several colleagues in the Forbidden City participated in the restoration of silk fabrics excavated from Dingling. At that time, Soviet experts also participated in the excavation of Dingling in China, and the methods used to restore ancient calligraphy and paintings were mainly based on their opinions. "The Soviet experts used some chemical methods, and although my father did not approve of it, he could not screw it." By the 1980s, Zhang Yaoxuan was again sent to Dingling to rebuild these things. Zhang Xuguang still remembers his father's description of this: "In less than 30 years, things have been brittle enough to be unable to move, and they are completely shattered." After that, Zhang Yaoxuan adopted the traditional Chinese method of restoration, and painstakingly.
Zhang Xuguang lamented that his generation was not as good as the previous generation, and the Forbidden City adopted phased and batch planned restoration according to the status of cultural relics, so important and difficult cultural relics, especially first-class cultural relics, most of which have been overhauled by the previous generation. The "Map of the Upper River of the Qingming Dynasty" was planned by the calligraphy and painting group, the calligraphy group, and the mounting group, Zhang Yao chose to make the plan, Yang Wenbin did the main operator and the people's congress repaired it, and the plan for the first-class cultural relics of that year must be reported to the Cultural Relics Bureau for approval.
"My father's first restoration task when he went to Beijing was to repair the "Map of a Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains", and the painting was partially peeled off. He also wrote the repair plan, the bureau reviewed and made instructions, and after reporting it, there was no following, probably because it was a gem after all, no one dared to sign. ”
Zhang Xuguang has also carefully read "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains", and he feels that the painting is really good (but there is still a gap with the better painting). At the same time, he believes that this famous painting is now not suitable for further exhibition, because the color of the heart continues to fall off. Zhang Xuguang paused, let out a long breath, and said, "I really want to repair it, and I hope to challenge it with great difficulty."
There was never a sense of tension when repairing ancient calligraphy and paintings
During his years at the Forbidden City, Zhang Xuguang only repaired two national first-class cultural relics, one is the "Holy Will of the Orthodox Emperor of the Ming Dynasty" and the other is the "Third Volume of the Lotus Sutra of the Miaofa Lotus Sutra" in the Northern Song Dynasty.
For the paintings he has repaired, Zhang Xuguang bluntly said that until now there has not been a satisfactory one. "Sometimes I'm quite satisfied when I'm done, but I'm still not satisfied when I look at it later." After repairing a work, he has no sense of accomplishment, nor is there a sense of tension before and during the restoration, which is different from many masters. He heard some masters say that when he received something, he would be so nervous that he couldn't eat or sleep, and he thought that he had never felt this way, "Maybe I didn't receive something so difficult." Zhang Xuguang grinned rarely, and then said that his father Zhang Yaoxuan had never felt nervous, "The things sent to my father's hands, whether they were sent by the courtyard or the Cultural Relics Bureau, are all the most difficult, and my father has always said a word: Give it to me." ”
The phrase "leave it to me" became "Then I'll try" to Zhang Xuguang. He felt that there was nothing to be nervous about, because "to make a thing, even if you haven't done it, you can do the preliminary experiments and then work on the cultural relics when you have a chance." ”
In Zhang Xuguang's view, the restoration of rare books and the restoration of calligraphy and painting are two professions, "the restoration of rare books is simpler, and it is only not connected, and the restoration of calligraphy and painting must be connected to the broken place." Zhang Xuguang told me that in fact, there are two concepts in the restoration industry: foreign countries mainly seek recognizability in restoration, emphasizing that there are missing parts that do not take the pen; Our traditional concept is to make the repair part basically the same as the background color, as far as possible can not see, the need to pick up the pen must be connected. Zhang Xuguang believes that these two concepts coexist, but as a person who really engages in cultural relics restoration, he still agrees with our traditional concept, "A work can be preserved for hundreds or even thousands of years, and it has been worked by generations of restorers." If we all adopted the Western concept, with the passage of time, these works may no longer exist. ”
Zhang Xuguang once consulted a restorer who had studied in Italy: Do you restore oil paintings to supplement colors? Answer: "To make up." Zhang Xuguang analyzed why the Concept of Not Picking Up the Pen and Maintaining the Original Appearance of Calligraphy and Painting appeared in the West? The main reason is probably that the repair force cannot keep up.
Zhang Xuguang once had an experience, in 2013, he was invited to an international academic symposium, the invited people are all oriental cultural relics researchers, "invited by the British Museum, they have the Female History Of the Proverbs, more than 100 years ago the Japanese did restoration, the painting was framed on a wooden board." Please look at it because the painting has many places to crack, and we are studying the solution. ”
At the seminar, researchers from all over the world suggested conservative restoration, but Zhang Xuguang proposed that it should be overhauled and restored to the traditional Chinese hand-rolled style, which is more beneficial to the protection of cultural relics and can be rolled up and stored well. The day after the speech, representatives of the United States, South Korea and other countries changed their views in favor of Zhang Xuguang, and they also believed that since it was Chinese painting, it was the best way to restore its original form. After the meeting, Zhang Xuguang continued to pay attention to the progress of the matter, and later learned that the British side still adopted the original plan to repair it. "I saw the pictures on the Internet and felt that the effect was not ideal.
The old atmosphere in ancient calligraphy and painting, Zhang Xuguang is particularly concerned. "Repair a painting, repair it under the condition of maintaining the status quo, connect the missing part according to the standard of the old painting, and ensure its old atmosphere on the basis of ensuring a complete painting intention." He insisted on the idea that old gas can't run.
"Most of the chinese painting restoration brushes are done by the conservators, except for some key parts, such as the opening of the face or the thin lines of the brush, professionals should be hired." Zhang Xuguang felt that they all asked professional painters to pick up the pen, but in fact, we may not be able to pick up well. "Because the painter has his own painting style, he will consciously or unconsciously bring his own characteristics into the restoration work, while the restorer cannot paint, there is no tendency to paint, but what is missing in the painting is clearer than anyone."
When Zhang Xuguang was not in the Forbidden City, a friend once took a painting of Huang Ji and asked him to help reframe it. Zhang Xuguang found that the paper had a sandwich when he unveiled the paper, he felt that he had "revealed the lie", and then looked closely and found that the painting paper was sandwiched. He introduced that the rice paper is a double-layer or even multi-layer rice paper, which is a kind of raw propaganda and is more ink-absorbing. Many people have asked Zhang Xuguang, can one painting heart reveal several paintings? He said that it was impossible, only in special cases, that is, the drawing paper was sandwiched.
When unveiling the painting of Huang Xuan, the extra layer revealed made the friend sigh: This is another thing! This sentence was heard by Zhang Yaoxuan in the back room, and he immediately walked out of the house and said with a serious face: "You can't do this, bad rules, we must talk about professional ethics!" The painting was either returned to someone or the mezzanine was destroyed. ”
Zhang Xuguang said that many people in other departments of the Forbidden City do not know that Zhang Yaoxuan is his father. He always believes that the ability of his predecessors is not his own, and it is the main thing to do himself, "We rely on our hands." ”
Reporter: Wang Mian
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