What is the mystery of the "world's most expensive mud" that cannot be soaked in water?

Recently, a popular video on Station B "Contracting a Lotus Pond!" Drain the lotus in the lotus rod! Just to make a piece of mud that is more expensive than gold? ", let everyone know the Longquan ink mud. "Winter does not solidify, summer does not take oil; The water is not soaked, the fire leaves traces" of the Dragon Spring seal mud, poured a lifetime of hard work, condensed thousands of years of national color, let people once again appreciate the charm of the top of the national tide. What is the mystery of a small piece of printing clay, which is more expensive than gold?

The "Seal Demon" Qianlong Emperor fell in love at first sight

Longquan Ink Clay has since become famous all over the world

Printing mud, in ancient times, was also called "Dan mud", "Yin zhu" and so on. Records of the Yin Clay have appeared in the Southern Dynasty Liang Dynasty's Wenxin Carved Dragon. During the Tang and Song dynasties, with the prosperity of the art of calligraphy and painting, the printing clay production technique continued to improve. Printing clay is known as the "fifth treasure of the literary room" in addition to pen, ink and paper, which shows its position in the hearts of literati and inkers.

The ancients were good at printing, and then they also had extremely high requirements for printing clay, and Qing Zhu Xiangxian's "Seal Code" quoted Wang Zhaoyun as saying: "The seal must be good, and the printing color cannot be evil." For example, the Tiger Hill Tea Cave Mountain Ridge will get the first and second springs to cook, and the fine and unless it is wonderful ink name Yan can not be good." In the history of ancient Chinese ink clay, Hangzhou Qianquan ink mud, Zhangzhou Eight Treasure Seal Mud, and Changzhou Longquan Ink Mud stood out, respectively, and were called "China's three major printing muds".

Around the time of the Kangxi Dynasty, there was a Xiucai liu Wengao in Changzhou, who was quite skilled in medicine and also had a deep study of printing colors, and he integrated ancient and modern times, and specially created a printing clay manufacturing method, called Longquan Printing Clay, and created the "Jing Yu Tang" to sell Longquan Printing Clay.

In the twenty-second year of Qianlong, he was going to rush to Changzhou, the Qianlong Emperor's Dao, in Jiangnan, and under the introduction of Liu Lun, a scholar from Changzhou University, Liu Renhe, the second generation of Longquan Yin mud, presented Longquan Yin Mud to the Qianlong Emperor. The Qianlong Emperor, known as the "seal demon", has many seals, good horses with good saddles, and the encounter between the Qianlong Emperor and the Longquan Seal Clay is like meeting Xia Yuhe on the shore of Daming Lake, and he fell in love at first sight, and since then the Longquan Seal Clay has been designated as a tribute and is famous all over the world.

Castor oil, one of the raw materials, needs to be exposed to the sun for more than six years

And the place of origin is preferably in Shandong

Nowadays, Longquan ink clay has been passed down for more than 300 years, and its unique production skills have changed in the inheritance, but the pursuit of the quality of the ink clay is consistent. There are three points in the practice of printing clay, and Qing Yilang wrote in the "Trivia of Painting Matters": "Those who want to combine the printing colors, first make oil, then make ai, and then make sand, and the three are prepared and colored", and the traditional Longquan printing mud practice is also in line with these three points.

The first is the method of oil production. The printing oil required for the manufacture of printing mud has multiple choices in ancient times, Qing Qilang wrote "Painting Trivia" mentioned that vegetable oil, castor oil, sesame oil, rapeseed oil and pangolin oil can be used to make printing mud, The Ming Dynasty Yang Shen once said: "Ancient castor oil or fried oil are not good, recently rumored to use pangolin oil, take it not seepage, try it well", but Qi Lang has a different view: "Oil is based on vegetable oil, castor oil will be black for a long time, and the beginning is not very distinct." Sesame oil is easy to float, floating oil is better than Zhu, the color is easy to be thin, tea oil and Zhu are bright, and the white printed characters are not yellowed." However, the oil used in Longquan printing mud is still castor oil, and vegetable oil and tea oil are also used, but they must be processed before use. It is recorded in the "Record of Picking Fang": "With castor oil every two into the peeled ginger five dollars, exposed to three years in the hot sun, it is into Zhu Ai, printed on the paper without seepage, the cold is not frozen, the most wonderful method is also", "Plum Magazine" also said: "The old color of the printing is not a recipe, recently some people use castor oil or tea oil in the glass bottle, the sun is thickened when three volts, the thicker the better." According to Mr. Miao Degen, the sixth generation of Longquan printing mud, the castor oil that makes Longquan printing mud needs to be exposed to more than six years, viscous like paste, the hand is stained with silk, the essence of heaven and earth is set, and the origin is best in Shandong, so as to achieve the effect of manufacturing Longquan printing mud.

The method of making ai is even more complicated. Mugwort does not refer to mugwort leaves, but refers to moxa velvet, in order to extract moxa from the mugwort leaves, you must first remove the mugwort leaves from the stems of rotten leaves, and then boil, filter, dry, and finally a pound of mugwort leaves can only get three or four dollars of moxa velvet. The traditional Longquan printing clay is also made of moxa, and it is recorded in the "Trivia of Painting": "Those who use poplar flowers, cotton and lamp grass are not as good as moxa." The use of stamp color, solidify the vermilion oil, and so send the vermilion oil, only the ai can be divided, the point can be divided into the vermilion oil is not sticky to the print, but the Yang flower can not be divided, the lamp grass is divided and can not be combined", the printing clay made of mugwort, the printing color is clear and not sticky paper, is a good mud-making raw material.

10,000 pounds of lotus stalks can only be extracted

Two or two five lotus silk

Not only the traditional Longquan printing clay uses wormwood mud, but also the Qianquan printing mud and the Eight Treasure Printing clay also use the wormwood mud, until Mr. Miao Degen restored the lotus silk mud method that has been lost for nearly two hundred years, which erected the banner of Longquan Printing Mud.

The use of lotus silk instead of moxa to make mud was originally created by Xu Hanguang, the master of Bishouxuan, a famous calligrapher of Shanghai Jinshi and especially good at printing clay, and the printing clay made of lotus silk at that time was praised as "mud emperor", and the production cost of each two "mud emperors" was as high as 150,000 yuan, far better than the price of gold. However, the method of using lotus silk into the mud is Xu Hanguang's original creation, and his people are only used for study play, and the method has not been made public to the world, with the death of Xu Hanguang, the method of making mud with lotus silk has also fallen silent. Mr. Muu de Gen had seen the method of making mud from lotus silk in ancient books, which prompted him to make up his mind to restore it.

Making mud with lotus silk is far more complicated than making mud with moxa, and the brilliance of lotus silk is enough to be prohibitive. According to Mr. Miao Degen, the deep water lotus stem after August is generally selected for picking lotus silk, so that the pulled lotus silk is long and tough. When picking lotus silk, the lotus stem is broken first, and then the lotus wire is slowly and steadily withdrawn, but the lotus wire that was picked at that time is not easy to use immediately, but it is necessary to store it in the shade and wait for the next year to be used. The process of picking lotus silk can only be carried out by hand, and the 10,000-pound lotus stem can only extract about two or two or five lotus wires, and about ten boxes of Longquan printing mud can be made. This seemingly light and fluttering two-two-five lotus silk may take dozens of people for three months, and the labor cost is high, so the folk "one or two gold and one or two mud" saying is not an exaggeration. As for why he chose to use lotus wire to make mud, Mr. Miao Degen once said a rather vivid metaphor, he will use lotus wire mud to make a house than steel reinforcement, so that the printing mud will have a three-dimensional sense and coverage.

Dyeing is not just red

Also add musk, saffron and other precious Chinese herbs

The final step in making Longquan ink clay is dyeing. In fact, the printing clay is not only a red printing color, the "History of Ancient and Modern Printing" records: "The printing color is universal Zhu, to those who taste the ink in the middle of the Song Ru Jianzha, the Yuan people have the use of green people, and they cannot bear to use Zhu in the system, so they are easy to hear." Longquan printing mud in the dyeing will not only use cinnabar a dye, during which according to the different colors of the printing mud, but also add pearl powder, rhinoceros and other colors extracted from minerals or plants, and then mixed with musk, saffron and other precious Chinese herbs, so that the production of the printing mud is fragrant, refreshing.

It is recorded in the "Gezhi Jingyuan" that "Tang Chen Mao is Shang ShuLang, and each letter is imprinted, pounding the pot, pouring musk wine, cursing the rhinoceros, raising the cloud incense, and printing books up to a thousand miles of incense continuously", presumably the Longquan printing mud will also have this effect. After the oil, lotus silk, sand three to prepare, but also through pounding, kneading, stirring and other more than 30 manual processes, the time is up to two weeks, and after the completion of the process also need to be quiet sealed for half a year, printing mud to complete.

One side of the mud came to the world through the dust of history, and although it faded the aura of tribute, it also won more honors. In the past, Changzhou Jingyutang, founded by Liu Wengao, was burned in the war during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and now the continuation of longquan ink clay is the "Jingchang Printing Society" founded by Liu Shunchang, a descendant of Liu Shunchang, in 1992, the re-emergence of Longquan printing mud has won unanimous praise from the calligraphy and painting circles, in 1996, Longquan ink clay participated in the first Beijing International Calligraphy and Painting Exposition, after Wu Zuoren, Qi Gong and other famous artists evaluated, Longquan printing clay was rated as a fine award, Xu Beihong's wife Liao Jingwen was praised for the title of "the essence of the country". And now Mr. Miao Degen, the heir of Longquan Ink Clay, was originally just a traditional Chinese medicine, and in the process of treating the elderly Liu Shunchang, he had a strong interest in the history and culture of Longquan Ink Clay, and the lotus silk mud making method restored by him made the honor of "Mud Emperor" fall on Longquan Ink Clay. At the G20 Summit held in 2016, longquan printing clay was selected as a national ceremony, and the portrait of the leaders of various countries was printed in conjunction with the chicken blood stone seal carved by the famous carving master Qian Gaoxin.

The so-called top tide of the national tide, with not only the sensory impact they bring to us, but also the wisdom and cultivation condensed behind it, one side vermilion, a hundred years of national color, the spirit of craftsmen, and the enthusiasm will be passed on forever.

Text and photo/Ye Guoan

(Haoran Wenshi)