"Yishui Ancient Yan", which began in the Warring States period, is the originator of Chinese brick making.
For thousands of years, Yi Yan from Yi County has been famous for its long history, high-quality stone resources and unique artistic style, and occupies a pivotal position in the history of China's profound and exquisite Yan culture and art.
Yi Yansu is famous in ancient and modern times for its warm and delicate stone quality and bright color.
In 1992, it was also an 80-ton giant yantai found in Yi County that won the title of the guinness of the Shanghai Great World, and was also known as the "Chinese Tenglong Yan"!
Deep in the mountains, there are boulders, carved in six years
It all starts with a rocky boulder.
The brick platform is made of stone, and good stone is indispensable to good stone.
However, due to the fact that the end stone material is less and less open, in order to protect the rare stone material, many end stone pits have been sealed for many years.
The dilemma of scarcity of end-of-stone materials has led to the difficulty of finding good stones on the market today.
In 1992, in a deserted abandoned mountain forest in Yi County, local villagers found a giant yudai stone.
Northern Yizhou, brilliant spirit, Wuhua Tianbao. Yixian Dashan just contains a lot of high-quality stone materials.
Some villagers recognized this stone as a rare purple stone material, but such a large and huge water stone material was also the first time they had seen it.
The Yi County government immediately organized workers to go to the mountain to mine this yudai stone.
At an altitude of more than 300 meters, dozens of workers spent a full month clearing the soil around the boulders at the junction with the mountain.
Subsequently, the workers cut the mountain to open the road, demolished the wall to open the road, and it took more than a month to smoothly transport the stones to the lower foot. According to estimates, this yudai stone weighs 180 tons.
Zou Hongli, the leader of Yi Yan, was born on the banks of the Yishui River and has loved calligraphy, painting and reading since childhood.
Influenced by his father's frequent stories of Yi Mo and Yi Yan, Zou Hongli understood the profundity of Yan culture and its firm position in China's eastern civilization as a child.
When he was in college, he was still attached to Yi Shuiyan in his hometown, checking the materials of famous Yan and visiting famous carvers.
After graduation, he devoted himself to the revitalization and rise of his hometown Yi Yan.
Under the leadership of Zou Hongli, 30 professional brick makers from Yi County gathered together to carve this delicate and rare treasure for a total of six years.
However, various themes continue to emerge and deny in the minds of the brick makers.
It took a year to finalize the overall image of 56 coiled dragons and 9 divine turtles.
After starting to create, the difficulties were far more than they imagined.
In the face of 180 tons of stone, the amount of engineering is huge, even after the division of labor, each brick maker still needs to hollow out the composition design and according to the stone to rough refinement, according to the material.
However, the hardship did not stop the artists' love, the attitude of excellence, a variety of unique creative techniques have been presented on the stone, yang carving, relief, flat carving, through carving, vertical carving to make the stone begin to appear vividly.
In the past six years, 30 brick makers have shared more than 10,000 carving knives, more than 100 electric mechanical tools, and more than 10,000 pieces of various carving accessories, and have invested a huge amount of money.
With such a huge cost, the idea of Yixian carvers is actually very simple: to create a work that can represent the local level of craftsmanship and represent the "Chinese Yandu" of Yixian.
In 1998, this masterpiece, which came to be known as "Chinese Tenglong Yan", was officially unveiled.
The yantai as a whole is like a huge search for waves, and the momentum is magnificent.
The body is 14.6 meters long, 3.8 meters wide, 1.6 meters high, and weighs about 80 tons.
The 56 dragons that are entrenched are of different shapes, but they are exquisite, vivid and vivid, and intertwined, symbolizing that the 56 ethnic groups of the mainland have flourished and flourished on the land of Kyushu.
Surrounding the dragon are towering mountains and undulating Great Wall, symbolizing the indomitable spirit of the Chinese nation.
The left side of the dragon is engraved with the sun, and the right side is engraved with the moon, symbolizing the long history of the Chinese nation and the sun and the moon.
The Yanchi part is the territory of the People's Republic of China, the nine gods and turtles are majestic, which means the square circle of Kyushu, and the Yellow River and the Yangtze River are also like two long dragons, nourishing the splendid Chinese land.
The bottom part of the stone is full of auspicious clouds and rolling waves, as if the dragon will set up a long wind, break the huge waves, and rise in the air, which also symbolizes that the People's Republic of China will also usher in the new era towards the country's prosperity and people's strength.
The experts in the carving industry were all amazed and praised one after another: "Such a huge volume of brick platform can achieve such exquisite carving, extremely complex carving technology and means show a large and excellent effect, not only in the local carving industry is the first, looking at the entire stone carving industry, it is also unique." ”
After a glimpse, it costs a lot of money to collect
At the beginning of 2007, after on-site measurement and confirmation by the senior certification officer of the Guinness Headquarters of Shanghai Great World, this "Chinese Tenglong Yan" in YiXian was awarded the "Guinness Of the World".
"China Tenglong Yan" attracted many visitors to YiXian County, all of whom were to witness the style of "Star Yantai".
The largest dragon has the thickness of an adult's arm, and surprise and admiration are the most common sounds in the crowd.
In the bustling crowd, there was a long-term contemplative spectator, who was well-dressed and full of spirits. He had already looked at the Yantai meticulously no less than five times, and his gaze had not yet shifted.
This is a private entrepreneur from Qingdao, Shandong Province, named Qi Yunfa.
In addition to business management, he likes to collect various seals, strange stones and ancient fossils.
Before the future visit, Qi Yunfa was already amazed by the "Chinese Tenglong Yan".
This trip came to Yi County, and he carried a layer of special purpose.
Qi Yunfa wanted to include the "Chinese Tenglong Yan".
Logically, in the collection of Yantai, people will generally choose the "four famous stones": ChengNi Yan, Tao Yan, Duan Yan, and She Yan.
But Qi Yunfa preferred this "giant stone".
At the beginning of March 2007, after consultation with Yi County cadres and many brick makers, Boss Qi spent a huge amount of money to collect this stone platform.
According to the speculation of local villagers, Boss Qi's capital reached eight figures.
After delivery, the local government used a large crane to transport him.
The 80-ton boulder was lifted into the air and after a week-long trek, it successfully arrived in Qingdao on March 17, 2007.
It is not useful to see in the middle, and it is right and wrong to hide the stone
Because it was too large, the yantai could only be shelved in the open air after it was transported.
Later, Boss Qi deliberately vacated a part of the factory, and finally let Juyan have a place not to be bathed by wind and rain.
It should have been a happy thing, but the huge amount of money collected became a big news in the local area, and some criticism followed.
Many people feel that Yantai should have been used as an indispensable tool for the study of ink when calligraphy with the brush of the literati ink writer.
But this big guy couldn't fit on the desk at all, and completely lost its use as a brick table itself.
Some netizens even said that "this giant ship is more suitable for shabu mops, and when the Yantai is overkill, it is too big to use." "It's not useful, it's just nonsense, it's almost like carving it into a bath tub."
In the face of these piercing words, Boss Qi seemed calm.
Because of his obsessive love of traditional culture and art, the words typed on these keyboards were not enough to crush him.
Boss Qi believes that "China Tenglong Yan" fully demonstrates the amazing wisdom of the Chinese nation and also explains the rise and take-off since the founding of New China.
At the same time, this Square Yantai incorporates the unique and simple creativity of the Yixian Yanjia, and is created with a sincere attitude of six years of grinding a brick.
Yantai condenses the historical and cultural heritage of China for thousands of years, and also integrates history, painting, literature, calligraphy, research and collection, and has sublimated Yi Shuiyan into a wonderful work of art!
Therefore, Qi Yunfa is determined that this stone must have its value of existence.
After the public appearance, the valuation reached 200 million
Qi Yunfa feels that most people's intuitive understanding of "Chinese Tenglong Yan" is only limited to the surface, and they do not experience the deep connotation of carving, which is the fundamental reason for the criticism.
He realized that this yantai was not only his own, but also wanted more people to know and understand the traditional culture carried by the yantai itself.
Qi Yunfa chose to re-disclose this square Yantai, which is also the first official exhibition of "China Tenglong Yan" in Qingdao.
The viewing scene of "China Tenglong Yan" is also full of non-Qingdao local tourists.
This huge exhibition facing the whole country is still a surprise to everyone.
A cultural relics enthusiast involuntarily exclaimed: "The dragon spanning the middle of the Yantai is like a dragon rising from the sea, the momentum is unstoppable, and the technique is extremely exquisite to produce this effect!" ”
This time, Boss Qi also specially arranged several explanations.
The narrator raised his horn to explain to the crowd the symbols and meanings represented by every detail of the "Chinese Tenglong Yan".
Many viewers turned their feelings before: "It turns out that Yantai can also contain so much Chinese culture, and every place is a deliberate carving, which adds icing on the cake to Chinese art." ”
"Yi Yan's carving technology is closely integrated with the development of the times, the prosperity and strength of the motherland, and the Chinese dream, so that a piece of Yu Daishi has re-endowed the atmosphere of the times, and has produced a power that captures people's souls and shocks people's hearts."
The public appearance of "China Tenglong Yan" in Qingdao is undoubtedly successful and meaningful.
Later, the value of the world's largest Yantai was estimated by state authorities and experts to be about 200 million yuan. This number is astronomical for the general public, and for collectors like Qi Yunfa, it is the collection value of their feelings.
It is listed as an intangible cultural heritage and is appreciated by all parties
On June 9, 2009, "China Tenglong Yan" landed in Zhengzhou Century Amusement Park after ten hours of long-distance transportation.
This transshipment process is not easy.
In order to ensure the safe and smooth transportation of the "world's first stone" to Zhengzhou, many parties began to prepare for the transportation work at the beginning of the year, and specially invited experts to conduct special tests on the load bearing of the bridges they passed.
After two days of meticulous transportation, Juyan finally entered the Zhengzhou Century Amusement Park and met with tourists.
Qi Yunfa said: "In addition to allowing the people of Henan to experience the 'Chinese Tenglong Yan' immersively, there is also a layer of purpose that through this activity, there is another purpose of 'Meeting Friends with Yan', hoping to bring together more collectors who love art and the brick makers who teach art to exchange ideas and contribute to the development of promoting and disseminating traditional literary knowledge."
On June 7, 2008, the Yantai production technology represented by "China Tenglong Yan" (Yi Shui Yan production technology) was approved by the State Council of the People's Republic of China to be included in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.
Yi Shui Yan has also become a high-end art treasure that is used as desired, appreciated elegantly, Chen zhi auspicious, hidden appreciation, and town hall.
On May 4, 2017, the on-site measurement of the Certified Personnel of the World Records Association confirmed that "China Tenglong Yan" was the world's largest Tao Yan, and a certificate of recognition was issued.
It is collected by state organs such as the Great Hall of the People, the China Millennium Monument, the Beijing Garden Expo Park, the Military Museum, large public places, key universities, large enterprises, famous scenic tourism areas and other places;
It has been given to foreign presidents and friends as a national gift for many times, and has been appreciated and cherished by national leaders, celebrities at home and abroad, and industrial and commercial giants.
On April 7, 2020, according to the Lanzhou Evening News, "The world's largest 'Chinese Dragon Yan' found a new owner, and Mr. Li Qiang, president of the Lanzhou Commercial Development Chamber of Commerce, a well-known entrepreneur and collector in our province, spent a lot of money to buy this stone."
epilogue:
The development of Yi Yan faithfully reflects the historical development and ethnic integration of Yi County from one side.
The craftsmanship characteristics and aesthetic concepts of the brick makers, coupled with the rich and precious stone materials carried by the brick makers, can make us more deeply aware of the formation of a pluralistic cultural system and the continuous progress of civilization.
Although there are fewer and fewer people splashing ink nowadays, Yantai as a traditional Chinese literary house culture has never ended.
Inheriting and innovating traditional culture has become the mission of the modern background, and jointly protecting cultural heritage and continuing the wonderful civilization of China still requires our joint efforts.
bibliography:
WANG Jun. The world's largest Yantai "China Tenglong Yan" appeared in Qingdao[J].China Merchants Weekly, 2007(08):57.
[2] Yi Shuiyan wrote Spring and Autumn (Into the World of Masters (16)) _ People's Network
[3] "The World's First Yan" settled in Zhengzhou Century Amusement Park_Zhongyuan Network