Zigong Network reporter Zhang Cai/text Ye Weidong/picture
Song Guanghui, an art teacher at Zigong Shuguang Middle School, has been particularly busy lately. He was awarded the title of "Top Ten Outstanding Figures" of the National Cultural Heritage Guardian Year, and he wanted to decorate the school's original auditorium into an exhibition hall of scenes from the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China before the school's centennial celebration in October this year.
Thirty years to create a unique pavilion
On April 18, Song Guanghui said in an interview with a reporter from Zigong.com that the exhibition hall to be built is the best home for more than 200 pieces of ancient furniture that he has accumulated over the past 30 years.
Song Guanghui was born and raised in a courtyard house with a theater and a flower hall in Fushunwa City (now part of Yantan), which made him have a special complex for ancient architecture, ancient furniture and traditional culture as an adult. It is understood that the starting point of Song Guanghui's collection is not the slightest bit of "homely atmosphere" - in his own words, it is like picking up rags, "I want what others don't want".
"It's not easy to feed and clothe a family, where can I have spare money to collect. Even so, Song Guanghui still "picked up" a lot of treasures in his early years. These include hundreds of vinyl records that have been eliminated by others, as well as a batch of office furniture purchased by Zhang Boling, a famous patriotic educator in modern times, when he took over Zigong Shuguang Middle School in the 30s of the last century.
In the 90s of the last century, Song Guanghui, who had a little more money, changed his strategy to "do big things with little money". He often used weekends and holidays to walk the streets and alleys, not letting go of a wall brick, a pillar base, a window lattice, and a broken weeping melon. Over the past 30 years, Song Guanghui has accumulated more and more antique furniture, including 17 carved shelf beds alone, which fill the two warehouses vacated by the school and the factory provided by friends.
"Collect according to your ability, and what you like is the best. Most of the ancient furniture in Song Guanghui's collection is cypress, including bedding, seating, storage, screens, brackets, etc., covering all aspects of life. He said that if the wenge wood furniture with excellent materials and exquisite production once decorated the façade of the rich salt merchants in Zigong, then the ordinary cypress furniture used by the common people is more practical and representative, and each piece has left the shadow of that era.
The "imprint of the times" is hidden in the details of the furniture
In the process of collection and preservation, Song Guanghui strives to maintain the original appearance of ancient furniture without too much restoration. But when he is not working, he will wipe the surface of the furniture repeatedly with a cotton cloth dipped in walnut oil for simple care.
This cabinet is a typical Baroque style, and it should be inferred that its age should be in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China. The cabinet that Song Guanghui is wiping is 2.1 meters high and 1.7 meters wide, with exquisite Chinese ornaments and carved glass, which is as bright as new after wiping. When talking about how ancient furniture was broken down, Song Guanghui smiled and gave an example of how he sometimes sat down without looking at it, and could deduce whether a chair came from "Ming" or "Qing" - he explained that Ming-style furniture had simple shapes, soft lines, and was more close to the body, while Qing Dynasty furniture was intricately decorated and had a straight backrest, which made the body feel uncomfortable when sitting for a long time.
In addition to the shelf bed, the table of the eight immortals, the standing cabinet, the Taishi chair and other large pieces, there are many miscellaneous pieces of ancient furniture in Song Guanghui's collection, one of which is equipped with a copper washbasin on the washstand, which is full of age in the hand. Song Guanghui told reporters that the "imprint of the times" of ancient furniture, some are very straightforward and clear at a glance, and some are more obscure, and it takes time to infer and research.
"For example, the more common abduction dragon and curling grass dragon on the furniture are suspected of 'playing the side ball'. Song Guanghui explained that the dragon pattern of feudal society was exclusively used by the ruler, and the unwilling common people made it "mixed and matched" ambiguous, and once it was traced, there was a pretext.
In contrast, the "imprint" of the pillar base of the three academies of Dengjiaoba is the most unique - a Ford car is engraved on it. According to research, Santai Academy was built in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, and the first Ford car recorded in Zigong was given to Yu Shuhuai, a great salt merchant who performed most prominently in the gold donation movement, for Feng Yuxiang, a patriotic general during the Anti-Japanese War. Therefore, it is inferred that the column base is likely to be a back-up.
Recreate the scenes of people's lives in the past
It is understood that the construction of an ancient furniture museum in Shuguang Middle School is the driving force behind Song Guanghui's insistence on collecting. With the strong support of the school, he is close to his goal.
"The traditional way of living in China is to live for the He, often a large family lives under the same roof, and respects the elderly, loves the young, and lives in harmony. There is a shrine dedicated to the ancestral tablet on the front here, two Taishi chairs next to it, and a table of eight immortals in the middle...... It feels like going back in time, back in time. Song Guanghui said that compared with pictures and video materials, such real-life reproduction can allow students to more intuitively understand people's living conditions and traditional culture at that time.
"Traditions are not necessarily good, but good things should be passed on. It is reported that as early as ten years ago, Song Guanghui organized the establishment of the country's first middle school student cultural preservation team - Shuguang Middle School Cultural Heritage Protection Volunteer Association, and introduced the "intangible cultural heritage" project into the classroom. "In the future, students will enter all walks of life, influence more people around them, and jointly devote themselves to the protection and inheritance of cultural relics and traditional culture. For ten years, Song Guanghui has always thought so.
Editor: Feng Fangyuan
Editor: Shu Xuhui