The beauty of the ornaments in the palm of your hand

As a world cultural heritage site and a national historical and cultural city, Pingyao, Shanxi Province has not only preserved a large number of cultural relics and monuments, but also inherited a rich intangible cultural heritage. On this year's Cultural and Natural Heritage Day, the China Arts and Crafts Museum and the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Museum specially invited the inheritors of five intangible cultural heritage items, namely Pingyao Pushlight Lacquer Decoration Skills, Pingyao Wood Carving Statue Techniques, Jinzhong Noodle Molding Skills, Pingyao Traditional (White) Bronze Making Techniques and Stacking Embroidery Traditional Production Techniques, to bring intangible cultural heritage skills into the public's field of vision through a combination of display and interactive experience.

Some visitors to the museum stopped to observe the display of the inheritor's intangible cultural heritage items, consulted with teachers from time to time, and carefully understood the production skills. Some are eager to try to experience it with their own hands, drawing, tapping, pinching, tailoring, and having fun. At the same time, the China Arts and Crafts Museum and the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Museum launched the online live broadcast activity "Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Palm of the Palm - Pingyao Push-light Lacquer Decoration Skills Exhibition" in conjunction with the exhibition "Intangible Cultural Heritage in Shanxi Characteristic Professional Town" that is currently on display in the museum, leading the audience to learn about Pingyao Push-light Lacquer Ware, one of the four major lacquerware in China, and better understand the Pingyao Push-light Lacquer Ware Decoration Technique, which was included in the first batch of national representative items of intangible cultural heritage in 2006.

Pingyao lacquerware is one of the four famous lacquerware in mainland China (Beijing gold lacquer, Fujian rebirth, Yangzhou point snail, Pingyao color painting), famous for palm light pushing and gold tracing skills. It has a development history of more than 1,200 years, and its origin can be traced back to the first year of the Tang Dynasty. Through the continuous efforts of successive generations of artists, its craftsmanship has become more and more exquisite, and the development of Pingyao lacquerware reached its peak in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and was exported to Britain, Tsarist Russia and Southeast Asian countries. In the early Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, by the hands of Ji Doulong, a wealthy merchant and collector of lacquer art, he carried forward the characteristics of Pingyao's lacquer surface polishing, color polishing and painting, and built the "Hongjin Xin Lacquer Shop" for the first time. Later, through the inheritance of the "four masters" of Pingyao lacquer altar, Wang Chun, Ma Daokang, Zhao Xuelin, Ma Yongfu, and later Qiao Quanyu, the Pingyao lacquerware decoration technique gradually became its own system.

The production process of Pingyao lacquerware is complicated, integrating traditional ornament techniques such as painting, rebirth, carving and filling, inlay, etc., and modern Pingyao lacquerware has adopted the strengths of many lacquer ware, and gradually formed the basic artistic characteristics of "large lacquer ornament", "gold painting" and "palm pushing light". Among them, gold tracing is the core of Pingyao's lacquerware ornamentation technique: gold tracing is based on black lacquer, and a pen dipped in gold is used to depict patterns on the surface of lacquerware; Painting is the preparation of pigments with lacquer or oil, and then painting on utensils. Painting is divided into two types: flat painting and grinding painting.

Pushing light is the biggest feature of Pingyao's lacquerware technique. The general process is to first polish the paint surface with thick and fine water sandpaper, then carefully polish it with excellent charcoal blocks dipped in water to increase the blackness of the paint surface, then use hair dipped in oil to push it out, and finally use the palm of the hand dipped in special fine brick ash and sesame oil to push repeatedly until the paint surface is shiny and shiny. Paint is a key process and is extremely complex. From primer to topcoat, each lacquer has different process requirements, the process is meticulous and complex, each paint on the gray tire, must first wipe with sandpaper dipped in water, wipe it after wiping, repeatedly push and wipe it by hand, until it feels smooth, and then brush the paint, and so on.

As a lacquer technique and gold painting and other ornamental techniques, Tuiguang has become the real feature and brand advantage of Pingyao lacquerware. Lacquer ware is a highly artistic commodity that needs to be promoted by the industry, but from a cultural level, the development of Pingyao Push Light Lacquer Ware needs the precipitation of art and artists. Over the years, a group of lacquer art inheritors have been committed to the innovation and improvement of Pingyao lacquer decoration techniques.

▲ Baimeitu partial (lacquer art) Xue Shengjin

Xue Shengjin, a master of contemporary Pingyao lacquer art and a master of Chinese arts and crafts, on the basis of inheriting the traditional polishing lacquer technique of Pingyao, boldly innovated and creatively developed new processes such as "three golds and three colors", "green and green gold and blue landscape" and "asphalt gold and silver pitch snail", he took the strengths of each family, integrated and connected, formed his own unique genre, successfully redeveloped and restored the pile drum cover paint process that was on the verge of being lost, and designed and drew more than 1,000 creative patterns and more than 170 tire shapes. All kinds of classical figures, landscapes, flowers and birds, ancient temples, tourist attractions, through his skillful hands, or depicted, or piled drums, or inlays, and filled with gold, colored gold, the layout is neat, and the layers are clear. His classical figure paintings, heavily colored, lifelike, and ready to come out; The scenery of mountains and rivers is majestic and magnificent, and the artistic conception is profound; Flowers, birds, insects and fish, colorful and vivid. The "Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Palm of the Palm - Pingyao Push Light Lacquer Ornament Skills Exhibition" exhibited "Manyuan Fangfei" (Baimei Tu) is a representative work of Xue Shengjin's character category, which is made by the gold painting process, and there are 101 young girls in groups, who are in groups of three or five, or stepping on the blue, fishing, playing chess, or practicing calligraphy and painting. There are many characters but not chaotic, and the scenery is mixed but not complicated, which can be described as a hundred people. It can be seen that Xue Shengjin has reached the point of pure green in the use of materials, characters and scenery modeling skills.

Xue Shengjin, who has been dealing with Tuiguang lacquer art for more than 60 years, has two insistences: one is his obsession with materials, insisting on using natural lacquer, and the other is paying attention to drawing design inspiration from traditional culture. He said: "To do a good job of lacquerware, we must understand the ancient costumes and basic types of utensils, the four famous works and opera performances must also be understood, what we introduce is the skill, and what remains in everyone's hearts is civilization." ”

▲ Yellow River Hukou (lacquer art) Liang Zhongxiu

Liang Zhongxiu, the leader of lacquer art inheritors, is an advocate and practitioner of traditional folk art creation guided by modern aesthetic theory, he draws on the expression techniques of oil painting, Chinese painting, printmaking, gouache painting and watercolor painting, integrates family and country feelings and personal perception into artistic creation, enriches the expressiveness and expression of lacquerware art, and gradually forms a heavy and imposing work style. His representative work "Scenery of Shanxi" adopts the method of flat unfolding and large line penetration, combining cultural landscape and natural landscape art, reaching an artistic realm of momentum and stretching brilliant, reflecting the magnificent rivers and mountains of the Three Jin Dynasties, and is permanently collected by the National Museum of China. His masterpiece "Yellow River Hukou" exhibited in this exhibition adopts a broad perspective, based on the expression techniques in Pingyao lacquer art, and absorbs other kinds of expression techniques, showing the rushing momentum of Hukou Waterfall, reflecting the indomitable national spirit of the Chinese nation.

As a representative of the new generation of Pingyao's light lacquer art, Xue Xiaodong actively advocates and promotes the design concept of combining traditional craftsmanship with modern aesthetic concepts. In his view: "Tradition is the root, creation is the soul." A work is not the more skills, the more exquisite it is, it cannot be created solely by the splicing of multiple skills, it must be integrated into its own thoughts, and it must also conform to the aesthetics of modern people. "He skillfully uses color polishing, gold tracing and piling paint techniques in his creation, boldly integrating into the aesthetic concepts of contemporary people, and the picture has far-reaching artistic conception, clear layers, strong decoration, and great visual impact."

▲ Sting (lacquer art) Xue Xiaodong

In the "Roselle" series, "Crane" series and other works, Xue Xiaodong broke the tradition of "scattered perspective" in Chinese painting, boldly used "focus perspective", and pursued not only the "heavy god without heavy form" and "both form and god", that is, "mental image" of Chinese painting, but also the "visual reality" and "scientificity" of Western painting, that is, "object image", and successfully realized the organic unity of the two. The lacquer bottle "Sting" exhibited this time is Xue Xiaodong's masterpiece of integrating traditional craftsmanship with modern aesthetic concepts. The work adopts eggshell inlay in the process, showing the natural color change of the branches through the color of different eggshells, making the shape of the tree more artistic through the texture of the eggshell, and the use of duck eggshell well shows the back of the tree, the silhouette of the faint mountain, making the picture rich and layered, showing the scene of the awakening of the earth in early spring, the birds about to leave the nest, a vibrant scene.

Pushing light as a "technique", through tens of thousands of rubbing, the temperature and power of the palm inject a thick spiritual character into the lacquerware; Painting is "art", or gold painting, or knife carving mat, or piling drum inlay, giving the object vivid color. The two complement each other and form each other, creating a perfect combination of "technology" and "art" of Pingyao lacquer polishing. An intangible cultural heritage scholar said: "Based on the beauty of Pingyao's lacquer ware, the craftsmen carry the unique aesthetic taste and cultural pursuit of the Sanjin residents with their unique skills; Based on the beauty of the shape of the polished lacquerware, it is touching with a bold design language; Based on the beauty of color setting of pushing lacquer ware, it is rich in color ideas with philosophical connotations; Based on the beauty of the polished lacquerware, you can appreciate the ingenuity of the craftsmen from the complicated production process; Based on the beauty of Jin lacquer based on the polishing lacquerware, to understand the creation ideas of the place and the nation. ”

Nowadays, Pingyao polishing lacquerware has become a cultural and artistic form that exists in modern life that is both traditional and modern. In the ancient city of Pingyao, the combination of lacquer and art is a simple and elegant, delicate and smooth, magnificent scenery, dotting the streets and alleys of the ancient city, connecting the fireworks of the world, from small jewelry tableware to large furniture screens, the vitality of this ancient skill continues in inheritance and innovation, and blooms more charming brilliance in the new era.

(Photo courtesy of interviewee)

June 18, 2023 China Culture News

Special report will be published in the third edition

"The Beauty of Ornaments in the Palm"

Responsible editor: Chen Chen