Dong Dong asked | Tang Shukun: How did the "Four Treasures of Literature" become the "window" for the world to understand China?

Hefei, April 9 (China News Service) Title: Tang Shukun: Why has the "Four Treasures of Literature" become a "window" for the world to understand China?

Author Chu Weiwei

Pen, ink, paper, and yan are also known as the "four treasures of the literary room" in China, and the most representative ones are rice paper, emblem ink, lake pen, and duan/she yan. As a witness and recorder of Chinese civilization, the birth of the "Four Treasures of Literature" has brought China into an era in which history is recorded and emotions are expressed, and a unique style of calligraphy and painting has been created. What contributions does the "Four Treasures of Literature" make to human civilization? How can it become a "window" for the world to understand China? Recently, Tang Shukun, director of the Ministry of Education's China Wenfang Sibao Craft Inheritance Base and professor of the University of Science and Technology of China, was interviewed by China News Agency's "East and West Question" for interpretation.

The interview transcript is summarized below:

China News Service: The reed pipe pen in ancient Egypt and the quill pen in Europe have long since withdrawn from the stage of history, and the Chinese brush has come from a long history, why can it flourish to this day? Where does its powerful vitality come from?

Tang Shukun: Chinese brushes belong to soft pens, and reed pipe pens and quill pens belong to hard pens. After the first industrial revolution in Europe, fountain pens such as fountain pens and ballpoint pens gradually emerged, with high writing efficiency and long service life. The core advantage of the "new hard pen" makes it a direct replacement for the traditional hard pen in Europe and Africa.

Chinese brushes are made from animal hair and have a soft and elastic texture. In China's written record and expression system, the brush has never left the seat, and has a history of more than 2,000 years, becoming a long-term writing instrument for Chinese.

In the oriental calligraphy and painting system, the writing effect of the brush is irreplaceable by a hard pen. Although the universal nature of the written record system represented by calligraphy has declined since the middle of the 20th century, brush calligraphy is still a cultural representation in the contemporary Chinese writing system. In contrast, peoples and countries that started with hard pens as written records, once a new "advanced" hard pen appears, it is logical that the old ones will be replaced.

The pen maker prepares to dry the made pen head. China News Service reporter Han Suyuan photographed

China News Service: When paper was commonly used in ancient China, European countries used expensive sheepskin as writing materials, Egypt used "papyrus" to write, India wrote with bayes, Japan used Jane and Shu to write... The "footprints" of paper span The Eurasian continent in space, how does Chinese paper affect the process of human civilization?

Tang Shukun: Before the advent of paper, the Egyptian "papyrus" did come out a long time ago, but its raw material was a plant that basically only grew in the Nile Delta. As a writing carrier, the production area and output of "papyrus paper" are small, and it has not been processed by the most core pulping process of papermaking, and the "paper" directly pounded out is relatively rough, and the writing effect is not ideal. European parchment is similar to writing carriers such as simple drapery and silk, and is highly costly and expensive, which is not suitable for mass communication.

The world's earliest paper was born in China. In 105 AD, Cai Lun systematically summarized the original papermaking technology since the Western Han Dynasty and improved it, using bark, rags, hemp heads, fishing nets as raw materials, and a set of craft technologies of brewing, pounding and fishing to create plant fiber paper that reached the practical level of writing, known as "Caihou paper". The emergence of Chinese paper has enabled human civilization to enter the "era of paper".

In 751 AD, a war broke out between the Tang Dynasty and the Great Eating Powers of the West, known in history as the "Battle of Qiluo". The Tang army was defeated, and several paper craftsmen who became prisoners of war were taken to Samarkand, where the first paper mill of Chinese papermaking was built. Subsequently, along the path of the expansion of the Arab Empire, the papermaking techniques of the Tang Dynasty spread to Baghdad and the mediterranean cities. Around the 13th century, papermaking spread to the important origin of papermaking in Europe, the small town of Fabriano in present-day Italy. In 1797, the Frenchman Nicolas Louis Robert invented the papermaking machine based on Chinese papermaking and integrating the scientific and technological achievements of the Western mechanical age, and the world entered a new stage of modern mechanical papermaking. The "Paper Era" opens up global knowledge sharing, and the dialogue of skills shapes a new civilization of mankind, and integrates to create a new world.

In Jing County, Anhui Province, the "hometown of Chinese rice paper", workers are carrying out paper baking operations. China News Service reporter Han Suyuan photographed

China News Service: As far as calligraphy and painting paper is concerned, what are the characteristics of Chinese paper compared with paper from other countries? What contributions does Chinese rice paper make to The World of Chinese Culture?

Tang Shukun: In terms of paper, the main raw material of Koryo paper is mulberry skin, and the paper is compact and known for its strong and wet strength. Italian watercolor paper and gouache paper belong to wood pulp and cotton pulp paper, which are the products of modern papermaking systems, and bark fiber paper does not belong to the same kind of paper. The rice paper in Chinese calligraphy and painting paper is the most representative, the main raw materials are green sandalwood bark and Shatian straw, the texture is soft, the texture is clear, it has a unique ink wettability, it can realize the ink five colors and clear layers, and has the reputation of "paper life for thousands of years, ink is ever-changing".

From an artistic point of view, since the Yuan Dynasty, China has become popular in the pursuit of ink painting, known as "Oriental Ink Painting". Rice paper is highly compatible with Chinese national art forms and aesthetics, and at the same time, it is matched with plant pigments such as ink to produce a hazy and beautiful artistic conception. During the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, Japan sent papermaking experts to China for in-depth research and wanted to reproduce Chinese rice paper in Japan, but due to the particularity of rice paper raw materials, even if it has technology, it is difficult to copy in an exotic environment, and finally had to give up.

As the birthplace of the world's important mother culture, China has formed a unique oriental expression system with the "Four Treasures of Literature" as the carrier. Classic works painted on Chinese paper, represented by rice paper, are now collected in major museums around the world. With the revival of Chinese culture, through the "Four Treasures of Literature" to express the nature of heaven and earth, depict the relationship between heaven and man in the oriental art form, so that more people know and understand the worldview and survival pursuit of Chinese.

China Rice Paper Co., Ltd. once again launched the copying of "Three Zhangs and Three Super Rice Paper". The finished paper of "Super Rice Paper" has a size of 11 meters × 3.3 meters, which is a real traditional, handmade, two-curtain water "super three zhang three" rice paper. China News Service reporter Han Suyuan photographed

China News Service reporter: What role does the "Four Treasures of Literature" play in the development of Chinese civilization?

Tang Shukun: The unique charm of the "Four Treasures of Literature" is the same as that of Chinese classic thought, which plays an important role in the stability and inheritance of Chinese civilization.

Some dynasties in Chinese history were founded by ethnic minorities, such as the Yuan Dynasty by the Mongols who arose in the north of the desert, the Qing Dynasty by the Jurchens in the northeast, and many ethnic minority regimes, such as the Northern Wei, Liao, Western Xia, and Jin. The soft pen calligraphy of Kangxi, Qianlong and Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty is very good, and Jin Zhangzong of the Jin Dynasty is also a generation of collectors of classic Chinese art works. This shows that no matter which historical dynasty, from ideological concepts, aesthetic interests to expression tools, most of the ethnic groups that survive on the land of China have developed a love for this cultural system and have a high sense of identification with the "Four Treasures of Literature" expression system.

Excellent culture can well explain the relationship between man and nature, man and self, man and crowd, which is the core of civilization, and the sense of national identity will become a civilization and spiritual force. Although the "Four Treasures of Literature" is a microscopic tool system, it makes people feel a sense of belonging to classic culture, and can make people actively participate in and experience cultural activities. It can be said that it has made an important contribution to the stability and cultural inheritance of the entire cultural area.

At the Hukaiwen Ink Factory in Tunxi, Huangshan City, Anhui Province, a worker is drying ink. Photo by Chu Weiwei, China News Service

China News Service reporter: What role does the "Four Treasures of Literature" play in the cultural exchange between the East and the West? Can it become a "window" for the world to understand China?

Tang Shukun: The "Four Treasures of Literature" can become the "window" for the world to understand China. After the emergence of pen, ink and paper, it has been active in all aspects of Chinese life for more than 2,000 years, with the characteristics of a national character.

In the cultural expression system of Chinese thousands of years, from the story of a village and family to the historical process of the world and civilization, they are all recorded, lyrical, expressed and interpreted with the "four treasures of the literary room", and their use can be said to be the beginning of familiarity and integration into Chinese culture.

Historically, both Japanese and Koreans have experienced Chinese culture by using the "Four Treasures of Literature". If people in other cultural circles in the world can actually experience the "Four Treasures of Literature" and the Chinese classical expression system, it will be easier for them to understand Chinese culture and will also be conducive to the development of cultural diversity. Of course, China needs to design such a way of disseminating and experiencing.

At present, activities such as "calligraphy into the classroom" have entered Chinese primary schools. This year, the University of Science and Technology of China has also opened the "Four Treasures of Literature" course for undergraduates, graduate students and international students, and contemporary young people are returning to the "Four Treasures of Literature" cultural education. The classic tool system and expression methods have been continued in the new era, and the "Four Treasures of Literature" have also become the "window" for the Chinese young generation to understand their own national culture.

Workers are engaged in the "Qi Hao" in the xuan pen making process. China News Service reporter Han Suyuan photographed

China News Service: You have been engaged in fieldwork for a long time, can you introduce the current development status and innovative measures of China's "Four Treasures of Literature"?

Tang Shukun: China's "Four Treasures of Literature" is still the world's most widely distributed and richest form of classic cultural carriers. Especially in the past two or three decades, the high-end demand for the "Four Treasures of Literature" is gradually recovering, during which many classic works of "Four Treasures of Literature" have emerged, some of which are comparable to the top level in history. This change is accompanied by the improvement of China's economic and social development level, and the demand for the essence of traditional culture will be even higher in the future.

At present, the "Four Treasures of Literature" realizes the original ecological innovation of products through modern scientific and technological forces, which is a new path that I am deeply impressed. The most representative is the manufacture of large rice paper. In 2015, Sanzhang Sanxuan Paper was born in China Xuan Paper Co., Ltd., and on April 27, 2021, the Guinness World Records Notary Public Institution announced that the paper was selected as the "World's Largest Rice Paper" at the Sizhang Rice Paper Production Site of Anhui Jing County Sanxing Paper Co., Ltd. Using industrial workshops, with the help of slide rails, mobile gimbals and other tools, traditional skills are fully presented by modern industrial means.

At present, the industry is also exploring a series of innovative products such as rice paper printing paper, which is of great significance to the preservation of literature and archives, 3D brick platform to improve production efficiency, and high-end ink that facilitates long-length continuous writing and brush printing, so as to achieve inheritance, refinement and integration and reconstruction. In the future, the collision of science and technology and tradition will make the "four treasures of the study room" continue to glow with vitality in the tide of the times. (End)

Respondent Profiles:

Tang Shukun, director of the Chinese Wenfang Sibao Craft Inheritance Base of the Ministry of Education and professor of the University of Science and Technology of China. China News Service reporter Zhang Jun photographed

Tang Shukun, born in 1960, is a second-class professor. He is currently the director of the Research Center for Science Communication of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the director of the Institute of Handmade Paper and the director of the Handmade Paper Laboratory of the University of Science and Technology of China, the vice chairman of the China Association of Popular Science Writers and the director of the Science Popularization Education Committee, the vice president of the China Literary Four Treasures Association, the director of the Ministry of Education's "Chinese Excellent Traditional Inheritance - Wenfang Four Treasures Craft Base", and a member of the International East Asian Paper Cultural Relics Protection Expert Committee. He has presided over more than 60 research projects, and has written 19 kinds of works such as "Chinese Handmade Paper Library" (ten volumes of 10 million words), "Illustrated Four Great Inventions of Ancient China" (four volumes of papermaking, printing, gunpowder, and compass, published in 8 languages such as Chinese, English, French, German, Russian, and Arabic), "Theory of Ideographic Language in the Environment of Technological Communication", "Scientific and Technological Communication and Contemporary Society", etc. He enjoys government subsidies from the State Council (2005) and won the Fifth Chinese Government Publishing Award (2021).