Gushing bullpen river, leisurely ancient hall Lang. If you walk into Huize, you walk into more than two thousand years of cultural history. Turning over the pages of history, the traffic of the ancient city, the smoke of copper smelting and the clanging of various handicraft workshops will come to you.
Huize County's Baoyun Street Huani Community Dredging Village is a red land with a long history of development of Tang's. More than 300 years ago, the founder of Huize County's first clay pottery products, Deng Bosheng, was born here, who ignited the spark of the development of the clay pottery industry. The pottery craftsmanship here is well known and is a must, and it is loved for its simplicity, elegance, beauty and practicality. For hundreds of years, although the production of clay pottery has been interrupted several times, because the locals and clay pottery have inseparable love and love, to this day, there are still many villagers who adhere to this arduous ancestral inheritance, and while continuously inheriting the wonderful craftsmanship of their elders, they are also spreading the unique folk culture of Huize.
A courtyard full of pottery atmosphere
One afternoon, the author came to the dredging village and visited Deng Keman, the ninth generation of Deng Bosheng, the founder of Huize clay pottery, to feel the rich and profound pottery culture of the local area.
Dunko, a native of Huize, is a 32-year-old young, capable, and skillful man. He has been with clay pottery for more than ten years, and in the long-term tempering and practice, he has trained a superb pottery craftsmanship.
As soon as I stepped into the courtyard of Master Deng's house, the author was attracted by the pottery atmosphere that pervaded Master Deng's home, and the open space and steps in Master Deng's family courtyard were filled with various kinds of clay pots. These clay pots are semi-finished products, with unburned clay blanks and freshly kilned clay pottery products, and the warm afternoon sun casts on these clay pottery, revealing a rustic and fragrant atmosphere. Seeing that someone was visiting, Master Deng hurriedly stopped his work and warmly received the author. Master Deng pointed to the clay pottery products on the ground and said that these clay pots must be cleaned, polished, dried, and fired before they can be sold and used.
When I came to the exhibition hall of pottery on the second floor of Master Deng's house, I saw that the entire exhibition hall was arranged in a simple way, and the exhibition hall displayed various pottery crafts such as large and small vases, tea pots, and teapots. These crafts are colorful, simple and elegant, glazed and delicate, which makes people fall in love at first sight. On the opposite side of the pottery exhibition hall, there is a small tea room where Master Deng treats people and objects, the tea tables and tea stools in this tea room are wooden, antique, and the tea cups and teapots on the tables are all made by Master Deng himself, which is beautiful and unique. Pushing open the window of the tea room, you can see the beautiful idyllic scenery of the village at a glance, which is really interesting.
When talking about his pottery making skills, Master Deng opened the conversation box, he said, the soil of the dredging village is excellent, and the raw materials for his clay pottery are all unique to the clay village, which is resistant to high temperature, easy to breathe, and is the superior raw material for burning pottery.
In order to let the visitors further understand the whole process of clay pottery production, Master Deng patiently explained. He said that the most important thing in pottery is eyesight, how much clay to make how big the clay pot, how high the clay pot with how big the pottery belly, simple "eyesight", including the experience of practice can be skilled, aesthetics and art skills. In the process of pottery making, each process and link such as soil mining, crushing, fermentation, blending, blanking, trimming, engraving, grinding, drying, firing, etc. must be meticulous. In the process of pottery firing, mud, fuel, temperature, location of the kiln, weather and wind direction on the day of the kiln, and the technology and mood of the kiln people will affect the kiln effect of the pottery products. Master Deng also said that the installation of kilns and kilns is the housekeeping skill of master kiln masters. Mounting the kiln pays attention to the stability of the four flat, a little careless will be abandoned, the kiln will test their own "fire eye golden eye", the length of time of burning, the temperature and the frequency of firewood will affect the success or failure of clay products, the temperature is too high, the firewood will lead to the surface of the clay pottery products foaming, the temperature is low will lead to the clay pottery products are not cooked, pouring water into the water will slowly seep out, if such clay pots are sold, it will seriously affect their reputation. In addition to holding the fire, the kiln must also ensure that it is fired for three days and three nights, during which it must constantly add firewood, and when adding firewood, you must be careful not to touch the pottery, and once burned, it is very tired and bitter.
While carefully explaining, Master Deng returned to his workshop to present to the visitors on the spot, only to see him rub a lump of white mud hard, put the kneaded mud on the blank pulling machine, start the blank pulling machine, only to see this ordinary clay under the rotation of his skillful hands, become delicate and smooth, and a delicate and unique work of art is presented in front of everyone's eyes.
Unique styles of pottery are highly appreciated
Deng Keman was influenced by the pottery craftsmanship of his ancestors, he was deeply fascinated by clay pottery products since childhood, and loved calligraphy, seal carving, painting, when he was seven or eight years old, he followed his elders to learn the clay pottery production process, producing casseroles, flower pots, medicine pots and other daily necessities, after a long period of hearing and hands-on practice, slowly mastered the basic process of clay pottery production techniques. After graduating from high school in 2009, forced to make a living, Deng Keman went to Suzhou to work alone, and he used his spare time to deeply study Suzhou garden culture, inscription culture and Yixing purple sand craft.
In 2018, Deng Keman resolutely returned to his hometown, determined to take root in this soil, keep this arduous ancestral inheritance, and carry forward the pottery cause handed down by his ancestors. He traveled around, raised funds from many sources, and began the road to entrepreneurship. With his unremitting persistence and with the help of relatives and friends, he purchased a blank pulling machine, a mud training machine, built a processing workshop and a wood kiln, and founded a studio. In the process of pottery production, he based on traditional craftsmanship and traditional culture, combined with the use habits of modern people, and integrated calligraphy, carving, hollowing and painting into pottery.
In order to improve his level of pottery, Master Deng constantly went out to train and study, met many expert predecessors engaged in pottery, and learned some advanced concepts and skills. He continues to explore in practice and produces many pottery products that integrate practicality, beauty and art, which are very popular with the market. Master Deng said happily: "Now, every year, leaders at all levels come to investigate, visit and guide pottery work, and some students also go to the studio to make experiences. Online network product sales are in short supply, exported to the province and beyond, offline also often have tourists to visit and buy, some even booked a few months in advance, out of the kiln on the same day can not wait to come to the kiln mouth to wait. ”
Let the art of clay pottery go further
Digging mud and pottery is not only a simple handicraft, but also a kind of history and culture, and it is a nostalgic memory that the people of one side cannot erase. The villagers here have inherited the tradition of firing clay pottery for generations, and have passed it down from generation to generation. So far, the mud dredging village has become a treasure land of "turning mud into gold".
Speaking of future development prospects, Master Deng said with confidence: "The production of clay pottery has a long history, unique skills, a deep mass foundation and broad market prospects. Now, there are more and more pottery workshops in our village, and an industrial chain has been formed, hoping to create a 'long history, unique craftsmanship, and simple shape' of the dredging pottery business card through our efforts. I will continue to uphold this ingenuity, adhere to this ancient skill, and use the pottery training class I opened to pass on the clay pottery skills and let the clay pottery art go further. ”
Yang Linhua/Wen Wan Wenbin/Photo