Although the original inventor of Tianzhu chopsticks is no longer available, according to scattered historical materials and rich legends, it can be roughly judged: its process was originally fixed in the Tianzhu and Lingyin areas, and centralized production began in the Guangxu years, and then there were workshops specializing in the processing of Tianzhu chopsticks, and then gradually spread to the common daily necessities in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Tianzhu chopsticks are made of small bitter bamboo or large-leaf bamboo abundant in Hangzhou. Its production is divided into more than 20 processes such as sawing bamboo, degreasing, grinding head, sanding, drawing, carving board, branding, and head, all of which are completed by hand with simple machinery. The shape system fully retains the original wild interest of the material, and the decoration shows more Buddha statues, scenic spots or shop names, etc., and the concept has the meaning of increasing the mouth and dipping the Buddha's qi.
[Interview place] Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province
[Interviewee] Wang Liandao The fifth generation of Tianzhu chopsticks
Tianzhu chopsticks inheritor Wang Liandao Picture from the public name "sauce burst"
When I was a child growing up in Jiangnan, I remember a kind of bamboo chopsticks with a branded tin head, which has the incomparable nature, simplicity and wildness of other chopsticks, which was once a symbol of Hangzhou. About the chopsticks, I don't know what others remember. For me, the cloud patterns on the bamboo skin have been fluttering in my heart. Time is like flowing water, I don't want to go around in front of it, I am not eager to pursue the past, I only hope that the opportunity arising from this bamboo chopstick can help verify the money pond in my heart. This mountain and river, which is cared for by the Buddha, is the endorsement of culture, elegance, spirit and beauty, even chopsticks are no exception.
Qiantang old things
The name "chopsticks" was only available after the Ming Dynasty, and its origin was related to the folklore of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The Miscellaneous Records of Shuyuan contains: "Wu Muzhou people secretly said that 'live' and '箸' are harmonious, so they changed it to 'kuai'er'. The word "箸" and "蛀" is harmonious, and the boatman feels that this is unlucky, so he changed his name to "fast son". There is also the Ming Dynasty Li Yuheng's "Tui Peng Yue": "There are those who are secretive and evil and called beautiful characters, such as Li Zhen Zhen, called as fast son." Nowadays, because it has been passed down for a long time, even among the scholars and doctors, they also call those who are fast sons, and forget their beginnings. "Yayan fighting is not a common saying, and the word chopsticks has been handed down after all."
There are also many theories about the origin of Tianzhu chopsticks. Or related to the poignant love story by the double-headed bridge; or because of the "lack of chopsticks" in the temple of Santianzhu; the "West Lake Chronicle" officially compiled during the Yongzheng period also records a legend: "Tianzhu a tea farmer went up the mountain to reclaim the tea field, forgot to bring chopsticks at lunch, saw a mountain full of small bamboo, and cut bamboo to think of chopsticks." Since then, farmers in the Lingyin and Tianzhu areas have made chopsticks from small bamboo and set silver heads to sell to passing tourists and pilgrims. This kind of chopsticks has also become a handmade by-product of local farmers. ”
Although the original inventor of Tianzhu chopsticks is no longer known, according to these scattered historical materials and rich legends, it can be roughly judged that its process was originally fixed in the Area of Tianzhu and Lingyin. Production began during the Guangxu period. Subsequently, workshops specializing in the processing of Tianzhu chopsticks appeared, and then gradually spread to the common daily necessities in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
Image from @GUYU Valley Rain - Nine Wild
The invention of Tianzhu chopsticks should first be attributed to hangzhou's rich bamboo resources. Picking a small bitter bamboo branch with two sections, one broken into two, is a pair of natural chopsticks. This kind of small bamboo still abounds in the mountains around Tianzhu and Lingyin. The endless incense and business opportunities brought by the three temples of Tianzhu may be the source of inspiration for decorating it, and it is also the cause of the concentration of many workshops. The "West Lake Chronicle" records: "From the lower Zhu to enter, the creek has a sound, where the mountainous Bridge Wild Shop is located." In the spring of Fang, the villagers helped the old and the young, and burned incense to celebrate the good year. Fragrant cars and BMWs are in the Tao, and there are those who come from afar, known as 'pilgrims'. Whoever returns from Putuo to the point of not having reached this point. The three temples are extremely magnificent, and the statues of the Great Masters have their own incarnations, which are not inherited. Morning bell twilight drum, peter
Here, high monks and disciples, gather together to burn and cultivate, and the true Buddha kingdom is also. "The Area around Tianzhu has always been known as the Lingshan Buddha's Kingdom, and pilgrims or tourists flock to worship. Tianzhu chopsticks are branded with patterns such as West Lake scenery, poetry flowers and birds, and bodhisattva Buddha statues, which are for their liking. The chopsticks themselves, in the past, have also emphasized their folk connotations and religious meanings of increasing mouth and blessing and bringing good luck.
At its peak, this kind of chopsticks not only became popular in china, but even exported to Southeast Asia. During the Republic of China period, there was a common rumor that "Tianzhu chopsticks were famous, and they were made of Big Well people". Dajing Lane was the most lively commercial street in Hangzhou at that time, and Hu Qingyutang, Kong Fengchun, Zhu Yangxin, Zhang Xiaoquan scissors, etc. all had business names there. According to the "Tianzhu Chopsticks Chronicle", "By 1930, there were more than ten Tianzhu chopstick workshops in Dajing Lane, among which the famous ones were Wang Laoniang and Qian Taishun. "And today, how many people can remember or remember Tianzhu chopsticks?" While Tianzhu chopsticks faded out of our sight, there was a person who insisted on his dream, reflecting his feelings for this chopstick.
Bitterness and humility
Picture from the public name "Hangzhou Tianzhu Chopsticks"
The "Hangzhou Tianzhu Chopstick Factory" is located in an apartment building on the edge of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and a very humble plastic signboard is installed at the entrance of the corridor. Wang Liandao was the owner of this factory, more than sixty years old, with a thin figure, wearing a pair of old black cloth shoes, smiling and slowly coming out to greet me. Sitting still in the cramped office, he quickly got up to make green tea. I stared at the churning flag guns in the glass, watching them flip out of the blue rhyme in the refracted light, and then gradually calm down to the bottom of the cup. Take a sip, this is the taste of Hangzhou. There is a calligraphy on the wall that has not yet been framed, and the content is Liu Yong's "Looking at the Sea Tide", "Southeast Shape Victory, Three Wu Metropolis ... Smoke willow painting bridge, wind curtain green curtain". Come to think of it, Hangzhou's majestic spirit as the imperial capital has not yet flown, but it is always blown away by the gentle and poetic rain and wind. Today's Qiantang, the heavy lake has not changed, the lotus flowers are still there, and the pilgrims who go to Zhu for three days are still endless, but the "xiang market" is gone, and no one will peddle small gadgets such as Tianzhu chopsticks at the foot of the mountain or in front of the temple. The small factory by the canal is lonely and legendary of almost forgotten details.
Mr. Wang calls himself Shi Gu and is good at gold stone calligraphy and painting. Seeing my gaze lingering on that word, I simply took out my own seal carving. "My master is from the Xiling Printing Society, and my own things are just jokes." Pride and humility are all in one sentence. The "old bottoms" of Hangzhou will probably be proud of Xiling and proud of their ability to write and ink. I praised his work while listening to his story. "When I was a child, my family took me to a private school, and I began to learn calligraphy with a red-nosed gentleman at the age of six, and gradually it became a kind of natural love that could not be abandoned."
Liu Zongyuan has a poem called "Bitter Bamboo Bridge", which has two sentences that read: "Bursting into bitter knots, lightly embracing humility." "The festival of bitterness can be understood as the style and integrity of the literati, and the humility has a generosity that is not swayed by the world's conditions. Mr. Wang's temperament exudes a kind of calmness and leisure, more like a literati and a player, rather than a factory director in charge of an industry. In 2006, he contracted the reorganized Tianzhu Chopstick Factory, and at the beginning, he braved the opposition of his family, and this resolute decision was also out of his feelings for Tianzhu Chopsticks, and he did not want it to go with the flow and finally disappeared. For a long time, he entrusted sales and administrative affairs to his daughter, while he was bent on fiddling with his bamboo chopsticks. He did not worry much about the sale of these chopsticks, but was preoccupied with its shape and its soul. Traditional crafts, their history, and the culture they contain should be viewed through the eyes of a literati. Chinese invented, everything is fun. If you don't understand the fun, you can't do even a pair of chopsticks.
Chopsticks are clean
Image from the documentary The Creator
Mr. Wang said that it was Chinese invented chopsticks, but Japan has chopsticks festivals and China does not. They cherish these traditions, but we forget them. Chinese chopsticks can be divided into many varieties according to materials, shapes, and ornaments, based on etiquette culture, and there are endless stories to tell when unified. The characteristics of Tianzhu chopsticks must first start from its material. Mr. Wang told me that both small bitter bamboo and large-leaf bamboo are solid and thin bamboo, and their natural length and diameter are very suitable for making chopsticks.
"Tianzhu chopsticks retain the original bamboo green, naturally formed, and do not need paint. The original appearance of the material is preserved to the greatest extent. It is worth mentioning that the material suitable for making Tianzhu chopsticks must be dead branches that grow into two or three years old, and we will not cut the young and new branches, because the water is too much, the texture is too soft, and it is not suitable for chopsticks. ”
Tianzhu chopsticks seem simple and primitive, but they are very complicated and time-consuming to make. Bamboo picking, sawing bamboo, degreasing, blanking, grinding head, sanding, drawing, carving board, branding, punching, head... In the Tianzhu Chopstick Factory, I personally saw the craftsmen practice a total of more than 20 processes by hand or cymbically. Each link requires considerable patience and skill, and the most important thing is the branding and inlay, which is also the most obvious difference between Tianzhu chopsticks and other chopsticks. According to the "Hangzhou Erguang Industry Chronicle", during the Qing Guangxu period, there was a pan sansi master who improved the production method of Tianzhu chopsticks. Since then, Tianzhu chopsticks have been burned and inlaid, and they have become the way I remember them.
Mr. Wang picked up a chopstick and asked me to look closely at the pattern on it, which needed to be burned three times. The upper and lower sections are slightly shorter, and most of them use abstract moiré and water patterns. Slightly wider in the middle, it is a pair of chopsticks to express the theme, or Buddha statues, flowers, landscapes or font sizes, poems, pairs. Mr. Wang pointed to the old machinery he had collected: "In the past, the craftsmen put the iron plate engraved with reliefs on the coal stove to heat it, and the temperature of the iron plate, the speed and strength when rotating the bamboo chopsticks were the key, and the gestures and heat were difficult to master. "Spinning, the iron plate touches the skin of the bamboo, and the green smoke drifts silently, leaving a dark red imprint of Sanskrit, Buddhist temple, willow silk, and spring tide." The posture and charm of Hangzhou are artistically condensed on this bamboo stick with a diameter of less than five millimeters. And those paintings and calligraphy are mr. Wang's handwriting.
The chopsticks were originally a simple semicircular tin metal hoop. Today, the "basic model" of Tianzhu chopsticks still follows this practice. But the chopstick head is actually one of the few parts of the Tianzhu chopsticks that can be extended or changed. Mr. Wang stressed: "Innovation must be based on respect for tradition, and for Tianzhu chopsticks, the inheritance of ancestral lineage may be more important. As a result, the innovation of chopsticks is particularly cautious, and the carving of the three pools of the moon is a breakthrough in modeling; the use of jade, jadeite and sandalwood is an improvement of the material. Those chic chopsticks are like new branches growing on old bamboo, and the makers worry about whether they will be as abrupt as grafting, and this respect for tradition is awe-inspiring.
Mr. Wang took out a handful of Tianzhu chopsticks from decades ago and asked me, "Did you use it like this when you were a child?" I promised to say yes, but when he asked if it was this kind of branding, I couldn't think of anything other than the cloud pattern. Once used daily and ignorant, familiar and invisible, those patterns and chopsticks remained in my memory. Admire or sigh here today, because they are no longer ordinary tableware, but gifts, preserved craftsmanship, a tradition that has been rescued. They are still the symbol of Hangzhou, but which Hangzhou is the symbol? If these chopsticks are as common as foam lunch boxes, who will pay attention to those flowers? The spring pond in the Jujing Garden, the white lotus by the Quyuan Garden, the stone pagoda in the Huxin Pavilion and the first snow on the lonely mountain, all the beauty of Hangzhou should be on it, there is no need to pick it up to verify, and there is no need to think about it, because you know that it is Tianzhu chopsticks.
This article is excerpted from "Park Guang in Hand: A Journey through Chinese Folk Art"
Park Guang in Hand: A Journey through Chinese Folk Art
Ling Hulei /Editor-in-Chief; Tong Jiaxi et al
Guangxi Normal University Press/Xinmin said
21 writers and 17 senior photographers visited nine provinces and cities in China, and through 50 interviews and 252 four-color beautiful pictures, they recorded 35 precious traditional skills passed down by nearly 100 folk craftsmen, and deeply interpreted what is the "park light in the hands" of Chinese folk artists.
A meticulous map of Chinese folk art, a history of the exploration of Chinese folk art figures. A book that takes you to appreciate the spirit, elegance, beauty and beauty of Chinese folk art.