"Make persistence a habit."
In a simple word, how many people can do it in reality?
There is such an old man in Hangzhou, 78 years old, who insisted on embroidery for 64 years, and also went through the ghost gate because of embroidery.
Because of his motionless embroidery every day, he suffered from cholecystitis and severe pancreatitis in his prime, and had 8 incisions in a row, pancreatic removal, gallbladder removal, and large intestine resection, and the doctor said that he only had a 5% chance of survival.
But after receiving the "death notice", he chose to continue to sit and embroider for 8 hours a day, overdrawing his life to complete the unfinished embroidery.
He is well aware of the pain of Hangzhou embroidery inheritance, but his love can last a long time.
Finally, after 17 years, at the age of gray hair, he embroidered a masterpiece worth tens of millions, allowing the world to see the beauty of China's "Hangzhou embroidery".
The old man worked hard for embroidery
Hangzhou Normal University, in a studio of about ten square meters, an old man with gray hair and reading glasses is embroidering.
He is Zhao Yijun, the inheritor of Hangzhou embroidery, 78 years old, Zhao Lao threads the needle and thread is still not delayed, and he can split a thread into 64 strands at most, showing his profound embroidery skills.
The embroidery mastered by Zhao Lao is called "Hangzhou embroidery", also called palace embroidery, which originated in Wu Yue and flourished in the Southern Song Dynasty.
Different from the general female embroidery, the court Hangzhou embroidery is all male workers, and the works they embroider are soft and rigid, magnificent, and have a royal style.
Over time, Hangxiu left the rule that only male workers are accepted and not female workers are accepted, and only sons are passed on but not daughters.
The old man Zhao Yijun, the last guardian of the palace Hangzhou embroidery, entered the industry at the age of 14, insisted on embroidery for 64 years, flew needles and threads for 8 hours a day, and eventually became a generation of masters.
He has spent 17 years embroidering a stunning masterpiece, which won the special prize of the Zhejiang Art Fair and was valued by experts at tens of millions.
However, the old man Zhao Yijun refused to sell it, only he understood that the sweat behind him could not be measured by money.
On the road of embroidery, in this work called "Viewing the Scriptures", Zhao Yijun has faced the test of life and death.
It was 1994, Zhao Yijun was 49 years old, in the prime of life, weighing more than 130 pounds, and he was determined to use what he had learned all his life to create a masterpiece of Hangzhou embroidery that could be handed down to the world.
Since the first injection, Zhao Yijun has adhered to the attitude of excellence, repeatedly figuring out before the needle, and he has to work more than eight hours a day.
In the evenings, he would stay up late to revise the blueprints and study the stories behind the works.
Drawing, color matching, stretching, sketching, splitting silk, gold, silver, every process he is tense and perfect.
In such a state of exhaustion, Zhao Yijun fell, and a serious illness suddenly hit him.
Due to overwork, he had an attack of cholecystitis, which developed into necrotizing severe pancreatitis, and he was operated on 8 times and most of the necrotic organs were removed, and only then did he save his life.
At the most critical moment, the doctor issued a critical illness notice and told him that there was only a 5% chance of surviving.
It stands to reason that Zhao Yijun, who is immortal, should consider his life safety even if he loves embroidery.
But no one expected that after walking through the ghost gate, he still cared about the embroidery needle in his hand.
Because of the pain, Zhao Yijun's whole human shape was erect, and he couldn't sit down for a while, so he took a cotton cushion and put it on the stool, and sat in front of the embroidery frame for 8 hours every day, sticking to the art of embroidery.
Spring went to autumn, from the first stitch to the final framing, a full 17 years have passed.
But no one could have imagined that it was such an old man who regarded embroidery as heavier than life, but it was a "mistake" to enter the embroidery industry.
Embroidery by mistake
In the 40s of the last century, Zhao Yijun was born in a poor family in Hangzhou, and after finishing primary school, the family really couldn't afford to continue studying, so Zhao Yijun had to drop out of school and go home.
At the age of 13, he began to look for work on the streets of Hangzhou to make a living, but he was too young, he ran into walls everywhere, and Zhao Yijun resisted work in his heart, he was eager to study.
In this way, a year later, Zhao Yijun learned a good news, Hangzhou Handicraft Bureau founded the "Hangzhou Arts and Crafts School".
The school takes into account children from poor families and allows them to work and study part-time.
This is a great thing for Zhao Yijun, and he has been interested in painting since he was a child, and he was looking for a job outside, so he immediately went to register.
When choosing a major, Zhao Yijun found that he didn't paint, so he filled in the wood carving that he was slightly interested in.
At that time, there were many children who signed up, and Zhao Yijun was afraid that he would not be able to record himself in the woodcarving major, so he casually filled in an "embroidery" in his second choice.
But he never expected that Hangzhou was vigorously promoting embroidery at that time, so this school has an "unspoken rule", that is, students who apply for embroidery will definitely be admitted to the embroidery class.
In this way, the fate of Zhao Yijun and embroidery began.
At that time, there were more than 30 students in the class, including Zhao Yijun, there were only 6 boys, and their teacher was the famous "Divine Needle" Zhang Jinfa, the only inheritor of Hangzhou embroidery in the palace at that time.
Zhang Jinfa is very strict, and for poor works, he will directly use scissors to twist them off and ask for reembroidery.
Moreover, Hangzhou embroidery is very cumbersome, and the skills are complex, including more than 50 kinds of techniques such as flat embroidery, chaotic needle embroidery, overlapping embroidery, etc., and many people will not be able to learn it halfway.
Zhao Yijun was bent on it, even if the embroidery needle pierced his hands full of wounds, he persevered.
In this way, he became the last remaining student in the class and the only disciple of Zhang Jinfa.
Although it was a coincidence that he first learned embroidery, in the end Zhao Yijun fell in love with embroidery, and this young man grew up step by step into a person who resisted the Ding of Hangzhou embroidery in the palace.
A lifetime of embroidery, the heart of inheritance
"In my life, I don't want to compare myself with others, I just want to embroider my own works quietly."
Zhao Yijun followed his teacher Zhang Jinfa and learned the complete court embroidery, and the master and apprentice also completed the work "Sakyamuni" together.
Information source: Chinanews.com, the link is attached at the end of the article
After that, Zhang Jinfa died, and Zhao Yijun became the only heir of Hangzhou embroidery in the palace.
Zhao Yijun felt that there was an extra burden of inheritance on his shoulders, so he always wanted to embroider a work that was enough to be handed down.
In 1994, he began to embroider the "Meditation Chart", during which he suffered a serious illness due to overwork, and his fingertips were unconscious.
But after he recovered from his illness, he sighed that he had a relationship with Hangzhou embroidery, and he couldn't hold anything, but he could only pick up an embroidery needle.
So he insisted on embroidering in the studio for 8 hours, giving all his time to embroidery, refusing unnecessary personal contacts, and politely declining the invitation to the art exhibition.
As the only seedling of the palace Hangxiu, Zhao Yijun's heart was full of a sense of crisis and urgency, and he didn't want to waste every minute.
Finally, in 17 years, he completed a shocking Hangzhou embroidery work, the whole picture is 184 cm high, 167 cm wide, and it is also double-sided embroidery.
The front contains 532 figures, the picture is the Buddha explaining the scriptures, the magnificent scene of all beings listening to the scriptures, and the back is embroidered with 7221 words of "Buddha Says and Views of Amitayus Sutra" full text.
The whole work took eight years, the time span is 17 years, and the content of the work, the stitching is grand, which is unique in Hangzhou embroidery.
The work won the special prize without accident, and was praised by experts, with a valuation of tens of millions, and some collectors also contacted Zhao Yijun to buy it.
Information source: Chinanews.com, the link is attached at the end of the article
But Zhao Yijun refused, many of his works were not sold, just to preserve, as Hangzhou embroidery inheritance materials.
An embroidery needle, which has traveled through half a century, is embroidered with magnificent rivers and mountains, but it is difficult to find a successor, which is what Zhao Yijun is most worried about.
His whole life was dedicated to Hangxiu, but after him, who would succeed him and continue to walk this ancient road?
Fortunately, with the development of the times, Hangxiu became more well-known, and Zhao Yijun also accepted one of his female disciples.
He abandoned the rule of passing on men but not women, just for the inheritance of Hangzhou embroidery, and Zhao Lao is worthy of a generation of Hangzhou embroidery everyone.
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References:
1. Chinanews.com: "The Last Guardian of Palace Hangxiu: A Thread Splits 64 Strands and Embroiders a Painting for 8 Years", 2019-07-04
2. Beijing Evening Online: "He knows the pain of Hangzhou embroidery inheritance, but he insists on it for 60 years", 2020-01-17
3. New Weekly: "One Hundred Stories I Heard from Traditional Craftsmen", 2020-01-09
4. Chinanews.com: "Zhao Yijun, the only heir of court Hangzhou embroidery: 71 years old and 56 years with a clear conscience", 2016-08-10