CHINESE HANDICRAFT.
Inherit culture and lead life
FANHUANG BAMBOO CARVING
Bamboo carving
Chinese handmade ◎
Huangyan reed bamboo carving, also known as Huangyan reed bamboo carving, was founded in the ninth year of Qing Tongzhi and was named because it was carved on the spring surface of the inner wall of Moso bamboo. The process is to remove the moso bamboo from the green spring, boil, press, scrape and other processes, the bamboo spring and the wooden board are bonded, and various landscapes, figures, flowers and birds are carved. Founded by Luo Qisong, the "Kaisong Reed Research Institute" is committed to the transformation of reed bamboo carving into life, and has developed products such as Aoi Kou Box (9.5cm×4.2cm, 3200 yuan), sachet (51cm×4.2cm, 320 yuan) and so on.
Engraving springs
Text | Dong Shuai photography 丨Ma Ling
Figure丨 Qisong Flip Spring Research Institute
Shi Zhu Zhai and Sift Bamboo Zhai
It was not until the end of the interview that we learned that the small room of less than 5 square meters full of various miscellaneous objects was the "Qisong Reed Research Institute" of Luo Qisong, the representative inheritor of the Huangyan Reed Bamboo Carving of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage Project.
In this small room, the shelves against the wall are filled with various reed bamboo carving utensils, stacked on top of each other, crumbling. This is the end of a narrow alley, and when we entered the door, we did not notice the three words "sift bamboo zhai" hanging at the door.
Luo Qisong hoped to carve mountains and eagles on this pen holder.
"Shi Zhu Guan" is the first reed bamboo carving shop in Huangyan, which opened during the Qing Dynasty, and the first owner was Chen Kuidian, the founder of Huangyan Reed.
Luo Qisong, a national non-hereditary inheritor of Huangyan reed bamboo carving.
Chen Kuidian was a master carpenter and was famous in Taizhou. At that time, there was a bamboo master in Jiaojiang who liked to label a bamboo spring and asked Chen Kuodian to carve landscape patterns on his bamboo products.
In the ninth year of Tongzhi, Chen Kuidian was inspired by it, and the rough and mottled bamboo materials that were not beautiful were removed by the cleavage knife to remove the green skin and bamboo white, cut to 1.5mm with a roll planer, and then tore open a slit, soaked in water to prevent drying, and boiled in boiling water for half an hour, flattened and dried, and then used glue to paste the bamboo spring glue on the semi-finished blank made of wood boards or bamboo chips, planed and formed, made into a palm-shaped flip spring palm fan, and then carved on it with figures, landscapes, flowers and birds. Chen Kuidian called it "Ya Fan", which may be the first reed bamboo carving.
Although it was a bamboo product, it was similar to ivory texture, and the reed was warmly sought after at that time. Chen Kuodian also made dynasty bead boxes, plumes, hat barrels, etc. for officials to use, which were all the rage. Later, the reed products gradually entered the homes of the people, tea pots, jewelry boxes, pen holders, vases, table lamps, smoking utensils, chess...
The reed bamboo carving is a thin cloth relief, the thinner and more elegant, but also requires a higher craftsmanship. In the 2mm thick bamboo spring surface to transport the knife, because the texture is hard and brittle, easy to draw the opening, it requires the maker to be skilled in knife techniques, easy to transport the knife, and have a deep white drawing skill; the part that cannot be drawn, to use the carving knife to achieve "fine like walking silk, rough like a splitting axe".
The specific techniques are different in the three generations of reed artists, Chen Kuidian is a traditional single-line yin carving, Chen Fangjun innovated bascarving coloring, and when it came to Luo Qisong, he also wanted to make something different.
"It turned out that my teacher, Chen Fangjun, the structure of the mountain was presented with lines, and each line had a sense of movement, which was clearly distinguished by the inner wrinkle. I felt that the light cloak was not three-dimensional enough, and in this technique, I carved reliefs, adding the structure of the axe splitting and the cloud treatment. Now my mountain has clouds and fog, and there are extended layers. You see, in the distance it is very bright, there is light. ”
Graver
His eyes were glowing as he said this, and the 86-year-old had been taught by Chen Fangjun, the grandson of Chen Fudian, 60 years ago. He not only inherited the skills of his teacher, but also added his own understanding. Now, the sign of "SiftIng Bamboo Zhai" has been hung at the door of Luo Qisong's home, one is to pay tribute to the ancestors, and in addition, he has added a "bamboo" prefix to the "division", which has the meaning of careful selection and excellence.
Nowadays, Luo Qisong rarely pastes the spring himself, he always says that the time he has carved is almost gone, even if it is a small object, it will take several months to carve, and the sticker is not the time to do it himself. He spent a few years teaching the technique of attaching springs to others, until he was assured, and then he dive into making a big fuss on the spring surface of less than 2mm.
A family's reed institute
Huangyan reed bamboo carving work "Yu Ruyi".
"The factory is about to sell." He shook his head and said. For more than ten years, he has been thinking about how to pass on this reed every day.
In his heart, from the moment the factory stopped making flips, it was equivalent to nothing. After 1983, he began to design wooden gifts, and the bottles and cans that he had not yet had time to engrave were hidden in the cabinet. When he retired in 1995, the reed bottles and cans in each cabinet changed color. This is the characteristic of the spring, as the bottom of the knife bamboo muscle with the passage of time, the lustrous color from light to dark, from dark to reddish purple, the longer the time, the more significant the difference in color.
"Just put it there and it's like this, how nice." There was a sudden silence in his heart: "I don't want to do anything else, I just want to do this." "Even if he's the only one."
In 1997, Luo Qisong applied for a Huangyan Reed Research Institute, with three permanent members: he and his wife, as well as his son Luo Wenchi. There were also a few apprentices, but very mobile, and later walked some, leaving only two. No one learned, and he dragged his wife along to do it. The wife has no foundation in writing, so she does auxiliary work, polishes, and does packaging. The son carved with him, sometimes pasting a little spring. He also went to the school to give lectures to the children, and in any case, there must be a successor.
With the passage of time, the color of the reed surface will gradually become darker.
In order to be able to pass on, he spent a lot of effort to study laser engraving. Flipping springs requires a good foundation of art, people who can't draw can't learn, and lasers can make people who can't draw can also get started. He has the heart to innovate and succeeds, but he does not like it and cannot sell it. After all, what is brought to appreciate is to be carved out with a knife by hand, and once the machine intervenes, it is not that taste. Having figured this out, it was hard to study it and had to give up.
"This work requires great patience, very few people are willing to learn, I am really afraid that this craft will be lost!" If someone wants to learn, I'm willing to teach him for free. Later, he found that no one learned without pay. At the same time, we must learn to paint flowers, birds, landscapes, and characters, because we must learn calligraphy to write inscriptions, and we must write articles because we want to publicize. There is too much to learn, and I am not willing to do it. He agreed to pay his apprentices to compensate them for the money they lost in not going out to work to earn money. In this way, he recruited 2 apprentices. The things that the apprentice spent time making were not easy to sell, and only under his recommendation could he occasionally sell one or two.
Every morning at 4 a.m., Luo Qisong climbs to the middle of the mountain, plays a set of tai chi and then goes down the mountain – before taking 10 kilograms of mountain spring water home. He has insisted on the life of such a Shaolin monk for more than 30 years, since the first day he decided to pass on the reeds.
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