Birch is a common deciduous tree on Changbai Mountain, with a trunk up to 25 meters high and 50 centimeters thick. There is white smooth paper-like bark that can be peeled off in layers, and you can write on thin bark with a pencil. If a carpenter is allowed to measure it from the perspective of professional wood processing, birch is definitely not a valuable tree species. Although the birch is delicate and hard, and the wood is straight, carpenters who only recognize wood and do not recognize trees will never like it. Because birch has a fatal flaw - it is easy to rot, so in the forest-rich northeast forest area, few people use birch wood to make furniture or as a building material, and mostly use it to clamp obstacles or use it as firewood.
Although the wood of the birch is average, this does not damage the image of the "three highs" (elegant, noble, and noble) of the birch in people's minds. Because the birch is a beautiful and elegant tree, but also the most cultural connotation and spiritual plant, it brings people unlimited cultural interest, making people ignore its fatal flaw of perishability. For a long time, birch has been like a powerful magnet that has always attracted people's attention. All this is due to the elegant appearance of the birch (sparse leaves, beautiful posture, straight trunk, white and elegant), and also thanks to the "birch bark culture" with unique northern characteristics that has been inherited for more than 3,000 years.
Birch bark is divided into three layers, the appearance is white as powder, the inner skin is dark yellow like millet, the layers are clear, thin as pieces of paper, but tough and not brittle, and with purple, black, yellow pattern, simple and solid, bright and natural, can be painted, can also write.
For more than 3,000 years, birch has been attracting the attention of the northern hunting peoples. On the mainland, the "birch bark culture" is an important part of the material cultural life of the ancient ethnic minorities in the northeast region. Historically, ethnic minorities such as Manchu, Mongolian, Dahuoer, Hezhe and Orunchun, which live in the large and small Xing'an Mountains and Changbaishan areas, have all been the creators of "birch bark culture" due to geographical location, natural environment and production methods, and birch bark products occupy an important position in their daily lives. Tableware, wine making utensils, containers, houses, and fences of various ethnic minorities in the Tohoku region are made of birch bark, especially birch bark boats, which were once a means of transportation for people of all ethnic groups in the Kanto region. According to the "Jilin Waiji", the Jurchen people made of birch skin boats, "the big one can accommodate several people, and the small one carries it." When it meets the water, it is convenient to cross, and the parade is convenient. "After the Qing court entered Beijing, because the living habits of the Manchus were difficult to change in a short period of time, for a long time, Jilin also used birch bark to make tribute for the imperial palace.
Painting with birch bark is also an ancient craft of the northern peoples. They use the birch skin as raw materials, through cutting, carving, carving, ironing, painting and other techniques, the birch bark is processed into characters, landscapes, flowers and birds and other works of art, is another pearl in the culture of Changbai Mountain. It is difficult to measure its value with money. By the 1970s, birch bark painting in Jilin had formed its own unique style.
"Birch bark culture" has become a common cultural phenomenon of nomadic peoples living in the alpine regions of the Northern Hemisphere. In the late Paleolithic period, from the north of Europe through Northeast Asia to North America, the "birch bark cultural belt" has been formed that has been circulated for tens of thousands of miles. In Europe, birch is also widely concerned. Ukraine has a tradition of extracting birch sap in a unique way every spring and offering it to guests. Twenty years ago, in a birch forest in Moscow, I saw someone punching a hole in a birch trunk and inserting a plastic or iron pipe to extract birch sap. Studies have found that birch sap can not only be used as a natural drink, but also has a unique medicinal function, anti-fatigue, cough and other pharmacological effects, known by Europeans as "natural beer" and "forest drink".
These are only one aspect of the birch culture, in fact, in the entire process of human progress and development, the merits of the birch tree cannot be ignored. Numerous facts have proved that birch trees have played an important role in the progress and development of mankind.
According to legend, when Cai Lun invented papermaking in the Han Dynasty, one day, he went out on a spring trip and saw an old man peeling birch bark. Cai Lun saw that the peeled bark was particularly thin and smooth, so he picked up a few pieces and watched them repeatedly, and the more he looked at it, the more he felt that it was the material he dreamed of writing. So he took the birch bark home, studied the ink pen, and wrote a few lines. After a few days, the birch bark dried up, became wrinkled, and the words were deformed.
In a fit of rage, Cai Lun threw the remaining birch bark into the firewood. At night, he retrieved the birch bark that had been thrown away, sat down under the lamp, and pondered it over and over again. At dawn, an idea finally became clear, and what he was going to invent was something as light, thin, and tough as birch bark. Later, Cai Lun saw the palace women making silk fabrics with silk, and was once again inspired by the process of their production, and studied together with the craftsmen, mixing the bark, rags, etc., repeated experiments, and finally created a cheap and practical paper.
In recent years, with the development of society and the change of production methods, the ethnic minorities in the large and small Xing'an Mountains and Changbai Mountains have gradually separated from the life of using birch bark utensils, and the status of practicality of utensils made of birch bark has gradually been replaced. But the "birch bark culture" and the history and memory it carries has not faded away, and has developed towards decorative, ornamental and collectible aspects. These new factors have opened up more space for the discovery of "birch bark culture".
Text: Tian Chenglin
Photo: Liu Yanjun Sun Mingsheng