Traditional box lamp making technology: brilliant bloom shines on the ancient and modern

Traditional box lamp making technique

The traditional box lamp making technique originated from the Qing Dynasty, which is a group combination of lanterns, fireworks, fireworks and folk tales, which has a history of more than 170 years. In 2012, the traditional box lamp making technique was included in the provincial intangible cultural heritage list.

Sun Pengxiao (first from left), Sun Haisheng (second from left), Sun Shuhe (third from left), and Sun Jiufeng are making box lamps

A generation of emperors and teachers fed their hometowns

Zhao Maotao Village, Zhao Maotao Town, Haixing County, is the hometown of Sun Baoyuan, the emperor of the Qing Dynasty.

Born in 1801, Sun Baoyuan was a late Qing Dynasty confucian who went out on the hot land of Haixing. At the age of 28, he was a 29-year-old Joint Jebsen Jinshi, who was elected to Hanlin in the imperial examination, and successively served as a waiter in the QingLi Department, the BingBu, and the Left and Right Attendants of the Officials Department, and in the first year of tongzhi, he acted as the Shangshu of the Bingbu Department. He used to be a teacher of the Xianfeng Emperor and presided over many examinations of science and literature and martial arts.

The General Records, Canonical Records, and Historical Tables of the Qing Dynasty are recorded, and more than a thousand jinshi at the end of the Qing Dynasty were his protégés. Zhang Zhidong, a major minister of the late Qing Dynasty, Yu Fan, a master of pu xue, and Liu Ruozeng, a pioneer in modern China's pursuit of legal independence, are all outstanding representatives of his protégés. The famous late Qing dynasty ministers Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang also humbly claimed to have a teacher-student friendship with Sun Baoyuan.

Sun Baoyuan is honest in government, reveres learning and re-teaching, and he cares about his homeland and loves his neighbors. In 1853, when Sun Baoyuan returned to his hometown of Haixing Zhao Maotao to visit his relatives, he brought back from the palace a craftsman Zhang Hong, who was particularly good at making box flowers. Since then, box flowers have spread in Zhao Maotao and become the main celebration of the local New Year's Festival. Because the box flower resembles a flashing neon light when it is fired at night, people invariably call it the "court box lamp".

Talking about the love of his ancestors for his hometown, Sun Haisheng gushed endlessly.

This custom continued into the 1980s. By the Lantern Festival in 2005, the palace box lights, which had been interrupted for 25 years, were once again fired in Zhao Maotao Town. It attracted more than 30,000 people from all over the surrounding area to watch.

It is said that the box lamps made by the older generation of craftsmen were set off during the Lantern Festival, and the villagers of Zhao Maotao Town went to Tianjin, Shandong and other places in advance to pick up relatives and friends. "The box lamp that was put on that occasion was the largest single volume, the most beautiful production process, and the longest firing time." Sun Haisheng said, "We made a 6-layer box lamp, and the first layer burned for five or six minutes, which was more than half an hour. People are feasting their eyes! ”

"Look at that box lamp, how much like a steamer!" Its circle gang is made of round wooden sheets, and the bottom is a paper shell, which is very similar to the multi-layered food box used by the ancients to deliver food, so it is called 'food box'. This one has 6 layers, one layer after another..." In front of a pair of blue and white porcelain vase-style box lamps, Sun Jiufeng, who was a rare man, smiled and then Sun Haisheng said stubble.

Paper and fire technology

At that time, Zhang Hong passed on this craft to Sun Zhongjia and Sun Yukai, descendants of the Sun clan. Later, Sun Yukai passed on the craft to his son Sun Guixin.

"Listening to the old people in the village, in the past, our ancestors would set off box lights on the fifteenth day of the first month of the previous year." The 35-year-old Sun Pengxiao's love for box lights is extremely rare among young people. He said: "The box lamp is not only an entertainment project for everyone to enjoy, but also welcomes the married daughters to come back to see the lights, which means that they can go home to see more." ”

The materials used in the traditional court box are very simple, but the production process is extremely exquisite. The raw materials used in the box lamp are silk paper, wool paper, gunpowder, bamboo frame and wooden frame. Later, people changed the wooden frame to an iron frame in order to be strong and resistant to burning. The production of box lamps can be divided into several parts such as modeling, lighting, fireworks, painting, and assembly.

It is precisely because of its complex craftsmanship that it is difficult for all those who have participated in the production to master all of them, and most of them are divided into divisions of labor.

The patterns on the box lamp are usually based on myths and legends, folk tales, and dramatic characters, but also decorated with chickens, fish, insects, beasts, flowers and other objects.

Sun Guixin is the great-grandson of Sun Baoyuan. He integrates the box lamp production process into real life, such as airplanes, rockets, fishing and hunting, etc., especially his creative "children use bamboo poles to beat dates" and other lamp types, which are more local and regional characteristics.

"The production of the box lamp involves the whole body, playing with the technology of paper and fire, and if you are not careful, you will fall short." Producers have to be patient and attentive. Sun Jiufeng said. Because he has done firecrackers, fireworks, and also has a certain foundation for painting, Sun Jiufeng is familiar with the law of box lamp modeling, and is also the main force of box lamp painting.

The box lamp layers are connected by a medicine letter, the outside is pasted with paper, and the contents of the inside of the box lamp are drawn with dye. When fired, the lamp is hung on a high place, starting from the lowest floor, burning one layer, then falling off, and the upper layer begins to fire until it reaches the top. Because copper, iron, aluminum and other metal chips are added to the gunpowder, when it is fired, it can really be described as spraying gold and spitting silver, flowing with light and vivid image.

Passing on the torch from the past to the future

"Although the box lamp making technology originated from the court, after it was introduced to the people, it was gradually improved by people, and the production process was more exquisite. Its local atmosphere, life charm and regional characteristics are more intense, and now it has developed into a folk craft that is appreciated by both elegant and customary. Lin Bingyu, deputy director of the Haixing County Bureau of Culture, Sports, Radio, Television and Tourism, said.

Sun Haisheng is the grandson of Sun Guixin. At that time, in order to cultivate heirs, Sun Guixin took the young Sun Haisheng with him every time he came to making box flowers, while letting him help and observe, while teaching skills. Sun Haisheng always remembers his grandfather's advice to him before he died, "We must pass on this skill well." For many years, Sun Haisheng has not given up this skill.

In recent years, although the inheritors have actively responded to the call to stop burning box lights, they are still tirelessly studying the ancestral box lamp making process. Even so, due to the excessive age and inability of several old inheritors, but also due to the usual voluntary work, no remuneration, lack of funds and materials and other factors, resulting in the road to inheritance is not smooth.

In order not to let this skill be lost, Sun Jiufeng and Sun Pengxiao ran in many directions and paid for their own funds, which influenced and mobilized several young inheritors such as Sun Shuhe and Sun Xiangmeng to use their spare time to participate in the production.

At Sun Pengxiao's home, a freshly made warship-style box lamp was placed on his desk. His father, Sun Yifeng, secretary of the party branch of Zhao Maotao's north four villages, said: "This child has been obsessed with box lights since he was a child. He has a good brain, loves to ponder, and embeds a variety of cultural elements on the box lamp, so that ships, airplanes, etc. are reflected in the box lamp. People of his age can withstand the temperament is also very rare. ”

At present, with the help of relevant departments, the inheritors are excavating, sorting out and inheriting the traditional palace box lamp production process, and further reforming and innovating to develop and disseminate it.

"The box lamp contains folk art, legends, stories, dramas and other artistic content, because with the box lamp, our Zhao Maotao Lantern Festival is the most festive and lively." It is also because of the box lamp that I can calm down to study Chinese history, study aesthetics and painting. We must pass on the unique custom of Haixing and keep the good memories of our fathers and fellow villagers! Sun Pengxiao spoke frankly.

(Reporter Niu Jiancun, Cui Rujing, Wei Zhiguang, correspondent Liu Chunxiao, photo report)