A spoonful of molten iron, a fire dragon, played out the ingenious warm spring people to turn quaint into magical wisdom, and played a lively and red life like a tree flower.
Wei County, Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, is known as "the most year-old place in China". Brilliant tree flowers, gorgeous Ulsan paper-cutting, mysterious Baideng Mountain, agitated Ulsan Rice Song... Every New Year's Festival, folk activities here come alive. In particular, "Hitting the Tree Flower", also known as the "Fire Tree Golden Flower", this unique ancient social fire in Nuanquan Town, Wei County, has a history of more than 500 years, which can be called the "signature" here: the molten iron is spilled on the wall of the ancient city, and the molten iron is splashed with cold, forming tens of thousands of sparks, like a leafy canopy, which is called "tree flower", and its magnificence is far better than the fireworks.
In 2020, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced the fifth batch of national intangible cultural heritage representative projects, and WeiXian was selected for "hitting trees and flowers". "Fire Tree Golden Flower" never sleeps, an ancient custom, with the willow spoon flying powerfully and deftly, the tree flowers rise and fall, with the taste of the year and auspiciousness, with the hope and blessing of the warm spring people, passed down from generation to generation.
When 1600 degrees Celsius molten iron meets the brick wall
Warm Spring Ancient Town, with four distinct seasons, a beautiful environment, ancient winds still exist, profound cultural heritage, and is known as "Saibei Jiangnan". It is at the crossroads of the Central Plains and the northern steppes, and historically, there have been frequent travels and wars in the past. Therefore, the architectural marvel "Ulju Eight Hundred Zhuang Fort" alongside the Great Wall was built here to defend against the invasion of nomadic peoples in the north, forming a military tun policy of "educating soldiers in agriculture". Due to the need to smelt weapons and agricultural tools, it has also contributed to the development of the smelting and casting industry in Warm Springs.
Therefore, there are many "pig iron pits" (sand turning workshops) in the ancient town that make ploughs, knives and guns, and horseshoes, and when the blacksmiths pour molten iron and turn the sand, they occasionally sprinkle the molten iron on the ground, and sparks splash. Careful blacksmiths found that the sparks that burst out of the ground are very similar to fireworks, and when the New Year is celebrated, they try to splash the molten iron on the wall, express their dreams of life with colorful iron flowers, and gradually form the folk custom of beating tree flowers, spectacular, red tree flowers, and also the most perfect embodiment of the rough and bold character characteristics of warm spring people.
This is a very difficult performance, divided into two parts: "Palm Furnace" and "Palm Spoon". The person in charge of the furnace is responsible for smelting and carrying the molten iron; the person in charge of the spoon is responsible for the performance of beating tree flowers. On the day of the performance, the person in charge of the furnace performs a "sacrificial stove" ceremony. The "sacrificial stove" is a dialogue between the simple warm spring people and the hearts of nature, and they have their good wishes for the pursuit of smooth wind and rain, and the safety of the country and the people. After nightfall, the furnace bearer puts iron, copper and aluminum into the furnace, melts into molten iron at a high temperature of 1600 degrees Celsius, pours it into a special refractory pot, and carries it to the front of the castle. The masters in charge of the spoon wore old sheepskin jackets, wore grass (felt) hats soaked with ice water, took turns to take out one wet willow wooden spoon from the bucket, scooped up the hot molten iron and poured it above the castle gatehouse, spoon after spoonful of molten iron touched the hard and cold brick wall and immediately exploded and splashed, forming a canopy-like spark, blooming in front of the audience only ten meters away, the scene was spectacular, bringing people a completely shocking visual impact.
Wang De, the representative inheritor of Wei County's dashu flower, is the successor of the "palm spoon". Nearly sixty years old, he began to learn this skill in his 20s. "Every New Year's Day, we have old people here performing tree flowers, I have always loved to watch, think it is fun, exciting, and slowly start to contact and learn." 」 Wang De said in an interview with Xiaokang magazine and China Xiaokang Network reporter, "I didn't expect that this fight was more than 30 years. I've barely left Warm Springs either. ”
▲ A different kind of red fire "fire tree golden flower" never sleeps, an ancient custom, with the willow spoon powerful and dexterous flying, tree flowers rise and fall, with the taste of the year and auspicious, with people's hopes and blessings, passed down from generation to generation.
When a spoonful of molten iron turns into a thousand sparks, fluttering and falling slowly from the night sky, it brings the audience both instantaneous sensory stimulation and deep shock to the soul. The only reason why the tree flower is so amazing is that it has strange, absolute and dangerous characteristics. "Odd", peculiar, magical, the traditional smelting and casting industry in the form of folk art, playing different forms of sparks, this pure artificial creation of spark patterns are varied, sometimes like volcanic eruptions, sometimes like waterfalls flowing down, a thousand shapes, a thousand flowers rushing. "Absolute", unique, hundreds of kilograms of pig iron is burned into molten iron in a furnace, and then scooped up with a special spoon, evenly sprinkled into the sky, fiery red molten iron into a silk thread, have been sprinkled down, covering the earth, its magnificence, its brilliance, in China's hundreds of lantern festival customs, unique. "Dangerous", thrilling, "hit the tree flower" the temperature of the molten iron up to 1600 degrees Celsius, a little attention will be burned, so the requirements for the operator are very high, to use a few kilograms of willow spoon to hit the molten iron again and again to the sky, but also to hit accurately, play artistically, beautifully.
Wang De's body was covered with scars left by beating tree flowers, all of which were burns. When the hot molten iron splashes down, the clothes can instantly burn through a hole. However, over the years he has gradually become accustomed to, "When I first started playing, I was particularly nervous and afraid, because as long as I hid, I couldn't get such a good effect." "In addition, the protection in the early years was not very in place, the number of fights was also small, and the experience was insufficient, so there were more injuries." Now there is more experience, less natural injuries, and it is a skin trauma, after the performance to deal with it, at most a scar. ”
He boiled the essence of making a good tree flower to boldness and strength. "Be bold, dare to approach more than 1600 degrees of molten iron; be strong enough to splash molten iron; be careful, and think about how to play well and have beautiful patterns."
"Five-Year Conservation Plan"
In the cold winter, the Red Fire Festival, as night falls, the master of the spoon appears. In the midst of the selfless and wild cheers and the bursting sound of sparks, the master fought more and more courageously, faster and faster, a spoonful of molten iron, a fire dragon, played out the ingenious warm spring people turned quaint wisdom into magical wisdom, and played a lively and red life like a tree flower.
In recent years, with the spread and promotion, the tree flower has become more and more loved by people all over the country. In order to make this traditional folk custom better inherited, WeiXian built a new tree and flower square, created a large-scale tree and flower live performance drama "Fire Tree Golden Flower", and CCTV, Tianjin Satellite TV, Hebei Satellite TV Spring Festival Gala and so on have been broadcast live many times. At the same time, it also registered the trademark related to the category of "Dashuhua", applied for the "Dashuhua Invention Patent", and established a tourism company, which enabled Dashuhua to embark on the road of sustainable cultural industry and become the most influential cultural brand in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and Jin.
Every time the "Fire Tree Golden Flower" program is performed, all the inheritors will participate and perfectly present the technique of beating tree flowers in front of tourists, basically every year on May Day, Eleventh and New Year Festivals, there are performances, which greatly improves the popularity of tree flowers and lays the foundation for inheritance and development. As the leader of the tourism development of Warm Spring Ancient Town, "Fire Tree Golden Flower" has driven the vigorous development of all walks of life and is the pillar industry of the ancient town. Wang De said that a large number of poor households in the town have generated income as a result, "such as restaurants and hotels have developed, and the sales of various special snacks such as dried apricots and millet have also been driven." Usually, when he does not perform tree flowers, Wang De will also cultivate the land and take time to go to the village committee to work, "I am in good health, there is no problem in playing (tree flowers) to be more than 70 years old, and now I have nothing to do more work."
Wei County has always attached great importance to the inheritance and protection of the flowers of the beaten tree. The outdoor tree flower performing arts square in Nuanquan Town is an activity place specially used to carry out the dissemination of tree and flower culture, equipped with high-tech sound and photoelectric equipment, complete facilities, and can accommodate 1500 people to watch tree and flower performances at the same time; in 2018, a new square roof was also built, which reduced the impact of the external environment on the performance of tree and flower and improved the reception capacity. In addition, the Weixian Cultural Center has a team engaged in tree and flower research and theoretical work, with high education, high quality, love for intangible cultural heritage projects, and is specifically responsible for the protection, inheritance and dissemination of tree flowers; in accordance with the idea of "strengthening the cultural industry and inheriting folk culture", all the annual operating income of tree flowers is used for the construction of tree and flower squares, the transformation and upgrading of tree and flower programs, the maintenance of infrastructure equipment, the payment of wages to inheritors and the holding of training courses.
The relevant person in charge also introduced that Wei County has a "five-year protection plan" for beating trees and flowers, in addition, there are also corresponding "safeguard measures". In recent years, the Tree and Flower Association has been established to guide the funds and cultural industry funds to tilt towards the tree and flower cultural industry, to ensure the daily work expenses of the tree flower, and to have a special person responsible for the work related to the tree flower to ensure that various measures are implemented; increase the number of performances and training courses, and cultivate the inheritors of the tree flower; set up the Warm Spring Tree Flower Culture and Art Festival to comprehensively enhance the awareness and influence of the tree flower culture at home and abroad; broaden the industrial channels to ensure the inheritance and development of the tree flower. "Hitting the tree flowers will not be lost." Wang De told reporters very affirmatively, "As an inheritor, I have the obligation and responsibility to continue it, it is a symbol of the taste of the year." I have now passed it on to my son, and he will continue to carry on this mission in the future. ”
Source: Xiaokang magazine in late January 2022
Reporter: Zhao Dina
Editor-in-charge: Dina Zhao
Editor-in-charge of WeChat: Wu Yueran
(This article is the original article of Xiaokang magazine.) If you need to reprint, please leave a message at the end of the article to apply and get authorization. Please indicate the source and author of the reprint, thank you! ）
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