Jade, from the Paleolithic age to modern civilization, from the lord of all things to the benevolent gentleman, has traveled through more than 5,000 years of history, recording our living customs and social changes, like a teenager who wields a pen, exerting the charm of civilization.
"Carved and re-carved, pieces of jade and gold." Doing craftsmanship on jade is a duel with yourself, and the time to make a satisfactory work must be calculated in years, and Xiao Ya, who can inherit the court jade-making skills from her father, knows that for young people now, everything is accelerating, in order to make it possible to go against the tide, not only to create things, but also to go to thousands of fireworks.
The skinny little Xiao Ya would shake when she talked about the small universe in the jade carving's body. Cutouts, thin tires, through-carving... When she was young, she probably did not expect that she would inherit her ancestral business at the age of 30 and develop her family's court jade-making skills. Holding this bowl of family heirloom rice, she is more cautious than anyone else—jade's position in Chinese culture is too special.
"To this day, many people can't really tell what nephrite is? What is Jadeite? "Chinese regard jade as the crystallization of the essence of heaven and earth, and from the Paleolithic Age onwards, jade has been divided into classes and grades with jade, making jade an important component of the "ritual system".
The well-known "Heshi Bi" was revered thousands of years ago as an unparalleled symbol of the world and became a national symbol. The Qin Dynasty began, with jade as the seal. In the "Commentary on the Interpretation of Texts", jade is compared with the benevolence of people: "The beauty of stone has five virtues." Moisten with warmth, and benevolence with the side...". Then there is "jade is not carved into a tool" that the carving process of jade is important, and it is used as a metaphor for people's self-correction and learning.
A piece of jade carries so many meanings, it is inevitable that it will feel that it is too inward.
Historically , the "unquantifiable" jade evaluation standard, jade is particularly mysterious. Until the Qing Dynasty, the Qianlong Emperor, who loved to play and could move the Jiangnan style to the vast north, pushed the Chinese jade carving process to the peak of history with his mixed fashion taste.
Legend has it that Qianlong re-established his rule over Xinjiang after quelling the rebellion of Da and Zhuo, and then he married a concubine with a beautiful appearance. With this peerless beauty coming to the Central Plains, there is also the same exquisite Jade Ofustan. Originally originated in northern India, this jade is mostly made of southern Xinjiang Hetian jade, the carcass is as thin as a cicada wing, and some of the walls are decorated with gold and silver flowers and grass leaves, or embellished with gem glass.
Qianlong fell in love with the trace jade at first sight, and ordered that the gold inlaid jade was only owned by the palace, and also set up a special imitation workshop, giving the name "Xifan Zuo", combining with traditional Chinese jade carving techniques to produce a large number of trace jade that combines Chinese and Western jade, and wrote "Yong Traces Of The Lotus Leaf Cup" for it: "As fine as hair, there is no axe chisel mark." Ji Xiaolan also recorded in the "Notes on Reading Wei Caotang": "The cleverness of today's jade is to take Chendu Stan as the first." ”
There are often passages on the Internet that ridicule Qianlong's aesthetics are not as simple as his father Yongzheng's atmosphere, and he dares to try anything, which is ridiculed as a "farm aesthetic". The real Qianlong in history loves literature and art and has a long life, and has produced a large number of exquisite utensils during his reign for sixty years, qianlong himself loves jade very much, and the manpower and material resources invested by the imperial court in making jade exceed that of any king in history.
Qianlong Gong, whether in auction houses, museums or jade connoisseurs, is a synonym for excellence in craftsmanship.
This craft lasted only 100 years in Chinese history, and gradually spread to the people as the national strength of the late Qing Dynasty declined and could not afford the production costs until it was lost several times.
In the 1940s, Pan Bingheng, the fourth master of northern jade who had lived in the Ewang Mansion since childhood, briefly restored the trace jade craft, and soon after this mysterious court skill was lost again.
In the 1990s, Yang Xiaoya's father, Yang Genlian, saw a gem-encrusted jade craft snuff bottle in the home of an old craftsman in Qingshan, and it took three to five years to try to restore this process. To Yang Xiaoya's place, she is already the fourth generation of the jade carving family.
At the earliest, her father was not ready to let her learn jade carving, and the older generation said: "Donkeys do not enter the mill, and people do not enter the workshop." ”
Sitting alone on a water bench to carve jade is a contest between loneliness and time, and a jade carving work of my father took eight years to complete and enter the museum collection. The carvings of large vessels are all screens and ornaments.
Title: Bamboo Rhyme Gaosheng
Author: Yang Genlian
Material: Jasper and 24K yellow gold
"When I was a child, I couldn't hold a piece of jade."
But after hearing about it, Xiao Ya began to recognize jade from a young age.
The ancestors were all craftsmen who made a living from jade, "from the abdication of the Qing Dynasty to the establishment of the Beijing Jade Factory in 1958, the old jade masters who were originally in the Yangxin Hall of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were scattered in the folk and gathered in Qingshanju. This opportunity enabled my father to inherit the art of healing jade and master the techniques of wood, jade, gold and other materials. ”
Children are curious, "When I ask him, he will talk about it, and I think it is interesting to remember." What is a family heirloom? Family tradition is not a class, it is when you talk to him every day, he tells you some of the tricks of making jade that his master once taught, and you slowly understand it. He speaks very casually, but you find that in the process of understanding, you combine your own understanding and ideas. ”
"He who hears and sees, is not a text that is read by all; he who dictates his heart is not a learner whom no one can learn." Sounds like the teaching of traditional Chinese kung fu cheats. There are no books and standardized training for the old craftsmen, and the references are found from life, and the subtlety is more impressive than the black and white words.
Title: Golden Jade Basalt Kettle
Material: Ink jade and 24K yellow gold
Dimensions: Length 130mm width 75mm Height 85mm
Year of production: 2009
"Oral transmission is also an intangible cultural heritage, it is more like a recipe, when the father learns the art, the master may only tell him one word, let him understand it."
He won't tell you what kind of lines should be presented when you make the edges, but when you know these tips, the lines presented are the most ancient.
For example, the snuff bottle, is a very regulated thing, it is a large instrument, the snuff bottle cap is like a small semicircle, this semicircle is not a circle cut in half. In the traditional regulations, it is called steamed bun stock, and I asked my parents why they called it steamed bun stock? My father said that you look at its angle, just like the steamed bun that has just come out of the pot, to have a feeling of Xuanxuan, its section is not a simple industrial circle, but a natural rise and fall, it is this regulation that determines whether the vessel you make is the most comfortable streamline, they do not understand the proportion of lines in Western art, but will use a simple word, like steamed bun stocks to wake you up. ”
This unclear expression of intention in oriental aesthetics makes the regulation of jade both romantic and imaginative, as well as more charm and natural proximity.
"He Yun, the Six Dharmas?" One breath vivid rhyme is also. ”
It is necessary to have the charm of traditional Chinese aesthetics, let the hand be carved between the hand and the qi, and there is a temperature transmission between the heart and the hand, so that the craftsman's ingenuity and the presentation of the object are combined into one.
It sounds mysterious, but it is nothing more than: keep practicing, spend more time and more thought.
The daughter of a master craftsman is lucky to be a master of craftsmanship and teach herself. But it was also a very stressful thing for Xiaoya.
Her father was a mountain she looked up to, and the jade she made created six firsts in the history of jade. He made a thin-tire jade bottle with a wall of only 0.5-0.8 mm. It is on such a thin wall that the inner painting is engraved. Each work is made in years, and the carving of knives and knives is the accumulation of time.
Name of work: Fukuroku Mandai
Material: Sugar white jade
Jade carving pays attention to one breath, you can rest in the middle, you can procrastinate or go out for a bird ride to find inspiration, but there is no chance to rework.
Look at his jade carvings, one ring buckles one ring, one shell opens and there is another shell inside. The stone turned into a chain and was taken out of the center, something that even flour could not do, and jade under his hands did it.
Everyone who saw it said they couldn't understand it but were shocked.
"My father has devoted his life to the work, and our generation may not be able to compare with their generation in terms of skill, and judging only from the dimension of carving techniques, it is difficult for me to come up with a work, and may never reach the height of his life."
Wouldn't it be a bit presumptuous? "The older generation is more distracted, they don't have a mobile phone and don't have so much entertainment, they can be very calm and completely start from the work." The process of jade craftsmanship is a double test of body and mind for people, and a little carelessness will lead to loss of gold and jade. In particular, the old court offices did not calculate costs to consider manpower and material resources. That generation made things more pure, and only wanted to make the craftsmanship to the extreme. Modern people do things with distractions, whether it is product design or cost, market positioning, I will definitely have distractions. ”
In the touch of each piece of jade, Xiao Ya gradually took over the craftsmanship of her father and found her mission as an inheritor.
"In the current environment of intangible cultural heritage, I would like to try some changes myself. This change is to follow the ancient taste and have a tradition, the teacher is ancient and not the mud ancient. Aesthetics can also be in line with our current pursuit of quality of life, I think it is enough. ”
Instead of starting with the eight years and ten years of ornamentation that each piece took to make, she combined her father's restored gemstone and jade techniques with jewelry.
"Now I hope that more young people will understand jade, and we need to change another carrier." I now design accessories, stud earrings, pendants, jade pendants, rings and other such objects. I want to convey to you a possibility that jade culture that carries hundreds of years of traditional skills and has been deposited for tens of millions of years can also be connected with our lives. In the old days, Wang Xie Tang Qianyan flew into the homes of ordinary people.
The whole process of gold inlaid jade needs to be completed manually, I also adhere to the principle of the court to build heavy industry Seiko, we do not count pieces or working hours, a process master feels that it is done well, and then enter the next process, the master feels bad, I will wait. ”
While studying overseas, Xiaoya visited a handicraft workshop abroad. The century-old family workshop's pursuit of craftsmanship impressed her the most.
"When I go to some craft exhibitions, I wonder why people at that time can calm down and carve such complex things, many crafts we can't achieve, but we are not willing to spend time and time to do." Exquisite things impress you, in addition to the form, there is also the delicate mind of the craftsman. ”
She wants to make a boutique more than a commodity. Knowing that their craft cannot be mass-produced, instead of this, it is better to make the process to the extreme, one by one. The material should be more scarce than indiscriminate, and there must be honest and thoughtful craftsmanship. Even if the work is small enough to need a magnifying glass to see, there must be details that can withstand the scrutiny of the discerning eye.
Xiaoya maintains the introverted nature of jade in traditional culture, whether it is ornaments or jewelry, the touch is a rounded and angleless design.
Rather than giving many meanings to the evolution of jade materials and connotations, she pays more attention to the craft itself. She uses jade as a material, according to the material, with jade as the body and gold as the bone.
"I hope that jade can be concerned as an Oriental material, it is actually no different from Western glass art and metal civilization, and the value of jade should not only stay on the definition of a raw material formed over tens of millions of years." I value it more than so many verses for its unique application of craftsmanship in design and production. ”
Qianlong, which is open to fashion, learns from the experience, and integrates the fashion sense, practicality and traditional jade carving in Western culture, and "beauty" and "use" are the most intuitive.
With the rise of the national tide, young people who love beauty gradually turn their eyes back to the jade of their grandparents as a reward. There is also the decades of Western fashion brands' love of this "mysterious oriental material", and the credit for the production of imitation jade jewelry and household items in large quantities.
She spent five or six years only to understand the jade material, the Zhou Li said: "With jade as six instruments, with the four sides of the heavens and the earth." With Cang Bi to pay tribute to the heavens, with Huang Zhen to pay tribute to the land, with Qing Gui to the east, with chi zhang to the south, with the white amber to the west, with Xuan Huang to the north. She then made a ring out of two mediums, white jade and ink jade, to represent heaven and earth. In the Song Dynasty Ma Yuan's "Twelve Water Maps", he expressed the meaning of "Wise Man Happy Water" in order to extract the prototype of the ornament, and created a natural scene of "heaven, earth and water" on the small ring. The whole process is constantly being revised and improved.
In 2021, Yang Xiaoya's Creation of Xinjiang Hotan White Jade Mountain Material Gold Inlaid Jade Fulu Incense Pendant was just selected for the "Fifth Chinese Contemporary Arts and Crafts Biennale". This work has also gone abroad and entered the Gedler Palace, where it is stored in the jewelry box of Princess Sisi.
Name: Fluke Pendant
Author: Yang Xiaoya
Material: Hetian jade and 24K yellow gold
Dimensions: 60mm high
Year: 2018 (Contemporary)
Origin: Beijing, China
Foreigners do not understand the complex Chinese jade culture, only regard jade as stone, see the glue-free gold inlaid jade craft issued a "wow, wow" exclamation sound, she experienced the Chinese craft is also looked up to proud.
Unlike her father's works, which enter museums and auction houses in large quantities, Xiaoya enjoys her peers liking her works.
However, buying and selling is the best inheritance.
"Grandpa made more traditional Buddha statues in the mountains and forests, and my father's generation had more luck. I don't want the utensils I made to be the same as those made by my father, nor do I want the memory of the craft of Chendu Stankin inlaid jade to stay forever in the Qing Dynasty. There is a saying that is very interesting in the industry, saying that buying and selling is the best inheritance and the best protection. ”
After receiving the handicraft workshop, Yang Xiaoya's whole person gradually became very Buddhist, the process of creating things was very slow, and she was in a hurry, and she also enjoyed this kind of non-hurry. Getting along with things is more simple, how much effort is spent, and the feedback seen from objects is stable, and she enjoys this simplicity.
She began to do more of what she called useless:
"Most of what we modern people do is actually related to usefulness. Whether it's to study or work.
When we find that something is useless, are we willing to give it enough time?
For example, drinking tea is sometimes of little use, but the rhythm of drinking tea makes people very comfortable and physically and mentally happy.
Can you stop and enjoy a landscape that you previously overlooked?
I used to think that Beijing changes rapidly throughout the year, and now looking at the fallen leaves will have another emotion, beijing's golden autumn is indeed quite beautiful, this beauty is different every year.
When people calm down and just enjoy the process, happiness will increase, and you can also try. This is the extra reward that traditional culture brings me. ”
1, jade is divided into nephrite jade, jadeite. Nephrite jade is a traditional Chinese jade material, the name of jade comes from nephrite jade, because the jade in the Hotan region of Xinjiang is better produced, people often call nephrite "Hetian jade". Jadeite refers to jadeite produced in Myanmar.
2. China's jade health care has a long history, "Shennong Materia Medica", "Materia Medica" recorded: jade can "remove medium heat, relieve annoyance, help the throat, nourish hair, nourish the five organs, requiem, drain the blood veins, clear eyes and ears" and many other effects. In addition to being used for wearing, playing, and using massage tools, jade is also used to eat jade shavings.
3. The key to raising jade lies in "pan jade", which is divided into wen pan, wu pan and Yi pan. Hidden jade in the body, through wearing, playing, etc., let the jade and the constant temperature of the human body for a long time to achieve the purpose of raising jade for the purpose of the disc. The jade can be continuously rubbed with a clean white cloth when the plate is used, and the high temperature generated by the heat can quickly force out the earth qi in the jade to make it crystal clear and moist. Yipan refers to the fact that collectors still need to think about the virtues of jade when they play with jade, and constantly draw essence from the virtues of jade to cultivate their own character.
4. Gold inlaid jade process:
(1) Slotting: Carving a fine groove on the surface of the already carved jade that is consistent with the width, narrowness and depth, this step is actually called "lost in a millisecond, a thousand miles away";
(2) Inlay: Fill the groove with gold wire, and continuously tap the gold wire, and the gold wire is tightly embedded in the jade groove to achieve the effect of not falling off without means of bonding. In the process of carving and pounding, the force of the percussion must also be properly controlled. Otherwise, there will be a situation where the gold wire is lower than the surface of the jade, and even more, the jade will be crushed and the gold will be sold, and the previous achievements will be abandoned, and the previous work can only be started from scratch;
(3) Polishing: The surface gold and jade after polishing should be integrated, there can be no difference between high and low, and the curvature should be consistent;
(4) Polishing: From coarse sand to fine sand, after dozens of degrees of polishing, gold and jade can be perfectly combined, so that the luster of jade and the golden light of gold complement each other, dazzling and dazzling, and the combination of gold and jade.
Article source: Fashion COSMO, February 2022
Editor: Wang Yimin
Text: Mo yiyi
Photo: Yang Chuan
Makeup: Siya Yang
Vision: Yuqing
Image source
Fashion COSMO / Respondents offer
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