"I love Beijing Tiananmen, the sun rises on Tiananmen, the great leader Chairman Mao, guiding us forward ..."
I believe that many people have such a familiar children's song in their childhood, which vividly describes the profound significance of Tiananmen Square in mainland Beijing to the masses of the people.
Once called "Chengtianmen" in ancient times, Tiananmen Square, which was built in the Ming Dynasty and has a history of more than 600 years, is a landmark building on the mainland.
It is the lintel of the Forbidden City in Beijing, showing its majesty to people all over the world; its symmetrical structure from left to right gives a glimpse of what is called perfect design.
If you mention the capital Beijing, people must think of Tiananmen; if you mention the designer of Tiananmen, it is estimated that there are nine times out of ten who does not know who?
If you were told that the person who designed such a magnificent work was a young man who was only 18 years old, would you drop your jaw?
Yes, the Tiananmen designer is Ku Xiang, a young man born in a ming dynasty craftsman family who inherited his father's mantle and learned a superb skill.
He was not very old when he designed Tiananmen, but he already had the perfect creative idea about it in his mind, which can be described as an architectural wizard!
So how did this young carpenter, who had shown amazing talent from childhood, accomplish this world-renowned masterpiece?
01 The son inherited his father's business, and Ku Xiang took over the task of building the imperial palace at a young age
To understand the prehistory of Tiananmen's architecture, let us first know the historical background:
At that time, during the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang's fourth son Zhu Di seized power and successfully declared himself emperor, and later moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing to prevent Mongol invasion.
What should we do after the capital is Beijing? It is necessary to build a place for the emperor to "live and work", and this place is not a "small door and small household", it must be grand and majestic!
Therefore, Zhu Di summoned all the skilled craftsmen in the country to build a palace for him.
Zhu Di
At this time, the "carpentry chief" of the Ming Dynasty who was in charge of building the imperial palace, Ku Fu, and his son Ku Xiang stood out.
KuFu was a skillful craftsman from Jiangsu, who was later summoned to the palace because he did a very good carpentry job, and he also participated in the construction of the Forbidden City in Nanjing, the capital of the Ming Dynasty, which can be described as full of architectural experience.
His son, Ku Xiang, was more talented than he was, and he was also full of interest in carpentry craftsmanship when he was around his father from an early age. Where is the "genius" of Ku Xiang?
First of all, he has a strong sense of numbers, such as picking up a ruler and measuring the object slightly to accurately calculate the overall area of the object.
Ku Xiang
In addition, there is also a description of his miraculous talents in the historical records, saying that when Ku Xiang was eighteen years old, he could draw a dragon with both hands holding a pen at the same time, and the dragon drawings drawn by the left and right hands were stacked together almost perfectly when he was a child!
In addition, his father often taught him to cultivate and learned a good carpentry skill, and even his ability to innovate ideas was even greater than that of Kufu!
The original emerging craft form that is not limited to a fixed template, even KuFu can't stop praising his son.
Therefore, it is natural that Ming Chengzu Zhu Di paid attention to The Extraordinary Skill, and when He was only 18 years old, he entrusted him with the heavy responsibility of building Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City as the chief designer of the Beijing Palace.
02 Faced with the difficult task of "finding a thousand dragons", Ku Xiang decided to give it a go
Ku Xiang also attached great importance to the work he took on this time, which was ordered by the emperor himself, and no mistake could be made at all!
In this way, Ku Xiang began to meditate hard under tremendous pressure, as smart as he was, and the general architectural pattern he wanted to design gradually appeared in his heart.
He then took action, calculating some important architectural data by himself and designing the drawings shortly after; he spent nearly a month to form the drawings into the corresponding models.
However, Qu Xiang did not know that the traitors in the court were jealous of his young and talented people, and they also gave themselves problems in front of the emperor.
Pu Xiang presented the model to Zhu Di to see, Zhu Di saw that this model was so exquisite, the little one had already revealed its grandeur, and he liked it very much, and he was about to order the construction of a palace according to this model.
However, when Zhu Di was about to write an approval, the eunuchs, who had been bribed by certain forces in the DPRK and China, began to "be demonized".
He told Zhu Di that to make this palace gate, you can't scribble, you must do it with great momentum and might, otherwise you can't show the domineering spirit of the royal family. Later, the example of the previous dynasties was given that hundreds of dragons were carved to show royal dignity.
I thought that this eunuch must have wanted Na Ku Xiang to carve out a hundred dragons, but what he never expected was what he said next.
He said slyly to Zhu Di, "Regardless of other dynasties, according to the scene of the prosperity of our Ming Dynasty now, how can these hundred dragons be enough?" It must be used with a thousand dragons to show the majesty of the Son of Heaven, so that the princes and officials can have a reverence for it! ”
Zhu Di felt that what he said was extremely true, and besides, didn't that Xuan Xiang have a carving skill that was different from ordinary people, but a genius would definitely be able to do the project of "carving a thousand dragons"!
Zhu Di then ordered Ku Xiang to find a thousand true dragons to decorate the palace building, otherwise he would be severely punished! As soon as the Holy Will came out, the father and son of the Ku family were stunned, and Qu Xiang, who had retreated back to the palace, fell into deep consideration.
Seeing his son so anxious, Kufu's heart was also like an ant on a hot pot, and he even began to regret letting his son learn this skill from himself.
How can this be done? Where to find a thousand real dragons? Isn't this purely embarrassing?
Ku Fu did not want his son to lose his head, he asked Ku Xiang to plead with the emperor to retract the Holy Will, perhaps the emperor would think about it and feel impossible, so that things had room for maneuver?
How could Xuan Xiang, who lives in the official field, not know that someone is behind this matter? Besides, once the Holy Will is difficult to chase, wouldn't it have hit the Holy One in the face if it was retracted? Ku Xiang, who had returned to God, reassured his father and said that he had to give it a go.
03 With the help of the weather to present the "Thousand Dragons Grand Scene", Ku Xiang successfully completed the construction of the Forbidden City
Just when the red-eyed forces behind them were secretly proud that It was impossible for Ku Xiang to complete the "heavenly fantasy" task he had arranged, Ku Xiang's next action made them look dumbfounded.
The delivery date has arrived, and the Chengtianmen collective building has been basically completed, but the legendary thousand real dragons have not been seen, but there are a thousand dragon-like drainage outlets around the abutment category, and these "dragon heads" are carved from Han white jade.
Even if the building is beautiful, there is still no real dragon! Many people who heard about this began to worry about Ku Xiang, lest he be doomed this time. And when the eunuch brought Zhu Di to watch, the hearts of the people even mentioned the throat eyes.
"Where are these thousand true dragons?" The eunuch deliberately angrily asked in front of the emperor, and his defiant eyes looked at Xuan Xiang.
Ku Xiang replied unhurriedly, "Your Majesty and father-in-law please be a little calm, the true dragon will arrive soon!" ”
It was late and fast, but when I saw that the hot summer sky at that time, a large black cloud suddenly appeared, and it quickly reached the top of everyone's head like more and more cotton. Then a strong wind began, and lightning and thunder began to roar in the sky.
People who know the weather know that it is about to rain heavily, and sure enough, the unexpected heavy rain will invade in an instant.
And this heavy rain hit the hot stones in the hot summer and suddenly burst into a burst of water vapor, and those White Jade Faucets seemed to be "alive" in the water vapor, looking like a thousand dragon heads riding the clouds in the fog, very beautiful and spectacular!
The summer rain came and went quickly, and in a few moments the sun reappeared as the dark clouds dissipated, the heavy rain stopped, and everything like the dragon head returned to its original state.
Zhu Di seemed to be shocked by the beautiful scenery of Fang Cai, and Su Zhen also understood it, laughing and praising Ku Xiang's cleverness, this plan actually made him see an uncommon beautiful scene!
Since then, Zhu Di has rewarded him with the title of "Kuluban". Those traitors who secretly made the bad can only look at the ocean alone and sigh, but they can't be lucky.
After the Chengtian Gate was built, in less than three years, Ku Xiang built the entire palace building, and the famous buildings such as the Qianqing Palace and the Kunning Palace that we are familiar with are all works of Ku Xiang;
In addition, not only the Beijing Imperial Palace building was built by him, but even the Xiyuan Palace and Yuling in Beijing were built under his supervision. Therefore, it is true that he is a "living Luban"!
Returning to the theme of the Chengtianmen Gate that Pu Xiang built at the beginning, as the "façade bearer" of the imperial palace, it was not only built extremely fast, but also "fast work can also produce fine work", and its quality is as high as seen by the naked eye:
The walls of the doors are composed of solid tenon skeletons, which can be said to be both beautiful and indestructible.
The reason why Chengtianmen and even the entire palace can stand in the river of history for a long time without falling, in addition to using very suitable materials, is also because of the pure craftsman's heart.
In the process of building the Forbidden City, they maintained a high wind and bright festival without cutting corners, which is also the reason why it can shock both at home and abroad, as one of the largest and best-preserved wooden structures in the world, it is a well-deserved world cultural heritage!
Chengtianmen
04 The emperor was amazed at the change of precious wood into a "living threshold"
Since learning that the construction of the Ming Imperial Palace was successfully completed, all the countries of fan states at that time brought corresponding tributes to it and came to admire its majestic style and celebrate its successful completion. And Ku Xiang, who has the skill of "ghostly craftsmanship", is out of the limelight at this moment.
At that time, fanbang offered a valuable and valuable piece of wood, because this wood was cut from a thousand-year-old tree, so Fanbangguo paid special attention to it and made full preparations for escorting it to Beijing.
Zhu Di intended to make this wood into a sill, but unexpectedly, the wood was sawn off more than a foot long before it was made.
In this way, the wood became irregular and difficult to make a threshold, and in the face of the faces of other carpenters, An idea flooded his mind.
He asked the carpenter to continue to saw off the wood by a foot, and although the carpenter did so, he was still uneasy in his heart, and he couldn't help but wonder what the hell this Xuan Xiang was doing. If the wood is shortened, nothing good can be done!
But Ku Xiang is an ordinary person! He has his own tricks. Only to see him quickly find a carving tool, and only a cup of tea work cut the piece of wood into two slots;
Later, two lifelike peony flowers were carved to decorate the outer grooves - this peony is also unusual, and it is carved with a delicate lion with a mouth on the pearl of the night.
This is involuntarily reminiscent of a modern saying: "The heart has a tiger sniffing the roses." And here corresponds to the "lion" and "peony flower", which seems to be a strong contrast but actually highlights an atmosphere!
This piece of wood has thus become a beautiful and exquisite "living" threshold - it is said to be "alive" because this threshold is not only beautiful but also very practical, and whenever the palanquin and horse pass by, it can be flexibly disassembled and assembled, which is convenient for these things and people.
Zhu Di also gave this flattering living threshold the nickname "King Kong Leg", which shows how much he likes This work of Ku Xiang.
05 Tired of returning to his hometown due to the palace fight, he led his hometown to create architectural beauty
As the saying goes, "where there are people, there will be rivers and lakes", and with "rivers and lakes", there is naturally no dispute. Even though He Xiang, who had mastered craftsmanship at a young age, never changed his humble heart, never took credit for himself, and it was difficult to resist that pair of jealous eyes.
Because of his meritorious efforts in building the imperial palace, Ku Xiang's official position once achieved the left attendant of the Ministry of Works, which was a first-class official position! All this can be seen that Zhu Di has a lot of weight for him, so it is not surprising that he received this award.
As mentioned above, after becoming a high official, Ku Xiang still aimed to learn more exquisite skills, and worked hard in his own work, never going to flatter or linger.
When the eryu in the palace could no longer make Qu Xiang concentrate on studying the craftsmanship, he secretly made a determination in his heart.
Ku Xiang chose a suitable time to meet Zhu Di and pleaded with him to allow him to return to his hometown, and after several sincere words of self-understanding, he finally got what he wanted and returned to his hometown of Wu County.
And this place in Wu County is also changing visibly with the naked eye due to The return of Ku Xiang...
When the local craftsmen of Xiangshan, Wu County, heard that there was a servant of the Ministry of Works in the county who had served in the imperial court and was an official to Yipin, they were naturally overjoyed, no less happy than today when they learned that people with successful careers would return to develop their hometown.
They often gathered around Ku Xiang and asked the genius craftsman about architectural problems, and the kind Ku Xiang spared no effort to teach them what he had learned all his life.
Over the long term, the craftsmen around Xiangshan have become more and more mature and refined their construction skills under the sincere consultation and professional learning. They learned to put their skills on Wuxian architecture, so that the local architectural level has made a qualitative leap.
Later, the craftsmen also set up the "Xiangshan Gang", which aims to exchange craftsmanship and improve each other's craftsmanship.
Among them, there are carpenters, craftsmen and stone carvers, painters, etc., although the types of practitioners are different, but without exception, the buildings they construct are very Jiangnan characteristics.
This beautiful feature also benefits from the influence brought by Ku Xiang, who grew up in Wu County and has a deeper and uniqueer understanding of Jiangnan architecture;
In addition, after returning to his hometown, Ku Xiang, who was well-informed in the palace, integrated some of the beauty that the public was happy to accept into Jiangnan architecture, so that other craftsmen also used this as a basis for creation.
epilogue
At the age of 18, He Xiang, who achieved impressive achievements, never became proud and complacent, but continued to work hard to engage in the construction industry that he was good at, and his spiritual quality was worth learning.
For some people, even a small success will stop at the moment, and eventually lose the opportunity to make progress, which has to be regretted.
Therefore, the key to the success of doing anything lies in the human heart, and its positive and enterprising will double the result with half the effort.
bibliography:
1. Boya Character Network - Wuzhong Ming Dynasty Character Topic - "Pu Xiang"