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The Xiang River goes north and flows endlessly; on both sides of the river, it has become a trend. The new model of Shanshuizhou City, the new living room on both sides of the Xiangjiang River, and the core growth pole of Wangcheng. Wangcheng's 35-kilometer golden shoreline of the Xiangjiang River, a new round of innovation and entrepreneurship tide is coming. Resources and capital collide here, and industry leaders and elites gather here. Seize the opportunity, vision the future; one river and two sides of the strait, achieve dreams.
From now on, Le continues to launch a series of essays by Chinese and foreign famous artists, writers, literature lovers and other essays in Wangcheng, to see what kind of magnificent scenery is on both sides of the Wangcheng River written by the literati and inkers, so please pay attention!
Copper pottery harvest basket
——Remember the old man Hu Wuqiang, the god of the copper official national treasure kiln
Harvest Basket (1)
The author | She Li'e
In the early spring of the rain, I came to the ancient town of Taocheng on the east bank of the Xiang River - Tongguan.
This ancient ceramic town with a thousand-year-old history relies on a river of Xiangshui to flow the Taocheng civilization to all of China and the world. The ceramics here are deeply favored and favored by people, thanks to the pottery city artists with pottery skills, so that Tongguan ceramics carry people's continuous pursuit of the dream of a better life and go to glory.
Entering Taocheng, I have great respect, especially for the old man Hu Wuqiang, a master of art and crafts of Taocheng's "National Treasure Grade Intangible Cultural Heritage". That day, we were in a pottery shop to admire chicken blood red pottery, there was a pottery master came over, he introduced us to the chicken blood red pot production process and characteristics, mentioned chicken blood red, can't help but talk about Master Hu Wuqiang.
The spring rain is misty, and the mist of the ancient town is shrouded, just like an ancient woman, with a gray and white light veil covering her head, which is permeated with hazy and mysterious beauty. Old Master Hu is the mysterious stranger in this ancient town, and his exquisite pottery craftsmanship has been praised by the pottery industry and is well known.
"Elder Hu lives in the house in front of me now, and I can take you to see his old man's studio." The pottery master took the initiative to invite us to visit Mr. Hu together.
I was overjoyed. Several times to Tongguan Ancient Town, almost only in the ancient streets to walk around, into the shop to appreciate a variety of ceramic crafts, but rarely real contact with The Tongguan Craft Master, the country's so famous national treasure level ceramic craft master is close at hand, if it is not the pottery master's proposal, I may miss such a good opportunity again.
We followed the potter to the walled door of a house. There was a brass lock hanging from the stainless steel door, but it did not collapse the lock, and the door was opened by us.
"Are you going to my studio, come, I just went out and came back." We had just walked to the door when there was a sound coming from behind. An old man with an umbrella came from behind us.
"Master Hu, I was preparing to take two guests to visit your studio, and I saw that your door was unlocked, thinking you were in the studio, so I didn't call." The potter greeted the old man.
It turned out that this old man was the teacher Hu Wuqiang we were going to visit. In the spring in the rain, the cold is heavy, the old man is wearing leather clothes, black leather casual clothes are structured and fitted, the color is still new, and the leather clothes set off the spirit of the old man.
"You may not see that the old man is nearly eighty years old."
"Really!" I blurted out in amazement.
When the pottery master saw my surprised expression, he smiled and said, "How can I lie to you, Teacher Hu has devoted his life to the research of Tongguan pottery, and his old man deals with pottery every day, and he has no distractions, and studying ceramic art is a self-nourishing science." After I listened, I felt that the pottery master said that the ceramics of the copper official were a bit mysterious, but on second thought, if there is really such a mysterious thing as the pottery master said, then I really have to understand the "Tao Bao stunt" from Master Hu.
We followed Mr. Hu into the wall gate, and on the wall to the right of the gate there were a number of large photographs of people, which were plasticized and pasted on the wall. I walked over and looked closely at the images of the figures, there were Mr. Huang Yongyu, there were soldiers, and the photo in the middle was the most eye-catching: it was a group photo of Academician Yuan Longping and Teacher Hu.
It turned out that Academician Yuan Longping had also come to Tongguan Ancient Town, and I meditated in my heart.
We followed the old man into his studio. The studio has several houses, which are very spacious, but the decoration style is very ordinary, that is, the general grade of the house. The furnishings inside do not see the magnificence at all, and there is no lack of a little cold, it is this rainy day for many days, cut off a lot of people who want to come to the future, I silently guessed in my heart.
The old man led us into the tea room. The tea room was not cleaned, and the tea set on the tea table was covered with a thin layer of dust. I looked up at the top of his old man's bookcase, there was a large picture frame on the bookcase, and the figure in the picture frame was Academician Yuan Longping who was drawing something on a basket, because the top of the cabinet was relatively high, and the picture frame was also dusty, and the photo looked hazy and somewhat blurry.
I held up my phone and took a picture of it in the frame. When Teacher Hu saw me retaking a picture in the picture frame, he told me busily: "You should first look at the chicken blood red ceramic pot in my cabinet, and then take this photo album and show it to you later."
There are many kinds of ceramic treasures in the cabinet, each ceramic color is warm, especially the red color glaze, red as the first drops of chicken blood as bright color shining, no wonder it is called "chicken blood red", its elegance is called "daughter red". Red is the most rare color in the glaze of wood kilns, and I have heard that there are many moving stories in the thousand-year-old ceramics. Just as I was still immersed in the appreciation of the beauty of the red glazed ceramics, Mr. Hu held up the photo album in his hand and sat down at the tea table.
"You guys come over for tea, and we talk over tea." The fire in my house, fortunately, did not burn this big photo album of mine. ”
I flipped through this photo album that recorded The experience of Teacher Hu, and there were several photos of Teacher Hu and Academician Yuan Longping. The photo of Academician Yuan Longping drawing on a basket attracted me again.
"This is a photo taken by Academician Yuan Longping while writing on a basket made of ceramics." Mr. Hu began to tell us the story of the ceramic basket. One day, Academician Yuan Longping came to the ceramic workshop of the elderly Hu Wuqiang, and After Seeing The fine ceramics of Master Hu, Elder Yuan was amazed. Teacher Hu saw Academician Yuan Longping so praised his ceramic utensils and works, he thought in his heart, Academician Yuan Longping has made outstanding contributions to the cause of hybrid rice in China and even the world, such an excellent figure came to me, he was naturally very happy in his heart, he wanted to express his gratitude to Academician Yuan Longping, and did not know how to do it, just when he was in a dilemma, The Secretary Xin beside Academician Yuan Longping came back from the outside, and he quietly said to Teacher Hu: "Elder Yuan is my most respected elder, this time I came to Taocheng, I saw that he loved ceramics for ten minutes, and I wanted to send a ceramic product to Elder Yuan, but I didn't know what to send him. Teacher Hu listened to Secretary Xin's words, which was exactly what he wanted to do in his heart, and he was busy telling Secretary Xin that this matter was entrusted to him to complete.
Later, Teacher Hu pondered: Academician Yuan Lao has solved the problem of eating for people all over the world, he has made great contributions to hybrid rice, and I should make a pottery that fits Elder Yuan's contribution to food and give it to him.
After countless times of formulating the design plan, Master Hu Wuqiang finally came up with the prototype of the design, and he thought of the theme of harvest. The hybrid rice studied by Yuan Lao has enabled the people of the world to harvest a bumper harvest of grain. However, it would be nice to use a ceramic image to represent the theme of harvest. Teacher Hu thought about it day and night, and he began to think about the utensils and things related to rice.
Our farmers here harvest rice and carry it home in baskets. Teacher Hu's eyes suddenly lit up, and he thought of the carrier ——— basket to express the theme of harvest. Teacher Hu wanted to use his exquisite pottery skills to make a basket to give to Academician Yuan Longping, and use the ceramic basket to show Yuan Lao's hybrid rice so that the farmers could get a good harvest. Yes, that's the idea. But the baskets in our hometown are all woven from bamboo grates, and if we use ceramics to pinch out the shape of the baskets made of bamboo grates, it is very difficult to do, how can people know that it is a basket at a glance? That kind of weaving pattern needs to be kneaded by hand to make it.
Teacher Hu began to pinch the basket with clay. After some careful and painstaking kneading, it was finally kneaded into a clay basket. He put the basket into the cave and fired it, and after a day and night of perseverance and fire control, it was finally fired successfully.
After the successful firing of the ceramic basket, the people who came to visit saw this ceramic basket, some said that they could make a stool for fishing, some said that they could put food for fishing, but no one ever thought that this ceramic basket could hold millet. Mr. Hu felt that this ceramic basket was very general, and he felt that the expression of the theme of "harvest" had not been realized.
Teacher Hu repeatedly and carefully studied the characteristics of the bamboo basket weaving, he carefully observed and studied the unevenness of the bamboo basket weaving, the distribution of color shades, and the shape of the basket, and he wanted to find the place that best reflected the soul characteristics of the basket. He finally discovered the law of the bamboo weaving, and the old man Hu Wuqiang was extremely excited.
When a person finds that the things he is studying have found laws and breakthroughs, his thinking will burst into a spark of inspiration. The old man Hu Wuqiang began to knead the ceramic basket according to the pattern presented in his mind, and then imagined how the basket was similar to the basket woven by the bamboo basket when it was fired. Teacher Hu is really worthy of being a kiln god, how he imagines the ceramic image, he can burn what it looks like. He opened the cave and put the kneaded clay basket into the kiln and burned it with firewood.
A few days later, when the cave was cooled and the cave was opened, a ceramic basket stood impressively in the cave, and if he did not say anything, it was difficult for anyone to see that it was a ceramic basket. Teacher Hu lifted the ceramic basket out of the cave, and he looked left and right excitedly, and he couldn't believe that the basket in front of him was made of ceramics. He put the grain into a basket and placed it in the center of the hall, and everyone who came to his house thought that the basket was made of bamboo. Mr. Hu himself was very satisfied with this ceramic work, and he personally wrote the words "Father of Rice" on the outer wall of the ceramic basket.
On a sunny sunny day, Mr. Hu sent the ceramic basket to the home of Academician Yuan Longping. Academician Yuan Longping received this treasure and was pleasantly surprised. And he suddenly said to Teacher Hu, "Unfortunately, you wrote a wrong word on this basket." Teacher Hu felt surprised for a moment, he thought that the words "father of rice" were not difficult to write, and he should not write wrong.
"Master Hu, I usually never ask for anything from people, this time I want you to ask for another such ceramic basket, I personally wrote it myself, put it in my hybrid rice museum, and this ceramic basket you wrote is only suitable for my home." My museum is full of pictures, only one Xiang embroidery work embroidered I slept in the rice, that is the real thing, this next put a ceramic basket, it is most appropriate. ”
Later, Mr. Hu fired a ceramic basket that was exactly the same. "You see, this photo was taken when I sent the ceramic basket, and Elder Yuan took it when he was writing on the basket."
The words on the basket: develop hybrid rice for the benefit of the people of the world.
"At that time, we made an appointment to go to Elder Yuan's place, and his secretary said not to alarm the reporters and media, not to take pictures. When we got there, When Elder Yuan was writing on the ceramic basket, he asked us why we didn't bring reporters to take pictures. In fact, all but my daughter and I were provincial and municipal media reporters who put the cameras in the car. Listening to Elder Yuan say that he wanted to take pictures, those media reporters immediately went to the car to get equipment and took a lot of photos. The more Teacher Hu talked, the more excited he became, and his heart was full of pride.
This ceramic basket originally contained such a beautiful story.
This day is November 2007, Academician Yuan Longping received the "harvest basket" created for him by the elderly Hu Wuqiang, and he was very happy.
Edit | Zhou Jiahui