Text/Photo Reporter Yan Qingling Li Yumei
This father and son are so ordinary and ordinary, no different from the farmers working in the fields, not good at expression, no rhetoric; they are so remarkable, adhering to the ancestral woodworking skills, ancestral ink buckets, hacksaws, axes are their treasures; now, the carving skills of the father and son have been widely used, in Yongchang County and even in the field of ancient architecture construction in Hexi, they are veritable experts, in their hands, the treasures left by the ancestors are glorious.
This father and son are Yang Wannian, the third generation of Yongchang Yang's carpentry, and Yang Yongjie, the fourth generation of Yang Yongjie.
The picture shows Yang Wannian and Yang Yongjie father and son.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="5" > the little carpenter to turn on the "private customization" mode</h1>
Yang Wannian, 69 years old this year, is a native of Yongchang County, and his home is in the county seat. At the age of 15, he began to work as an apprentice, ran all the villages and streets and alleys in Yongchang County, where someone wanted to build a new house and beat furniture, they ran with tools, the carpenter ate a hundred meals, did the work of "two days without seeing the sun", the sideburns were hung with sawdust slag, the shoulders were shaved, and when they patted the clothes, the dust fell down.
The days of apprenticeship with my father were boring, carpentry is not only physical work, but also to be able to lift large wood and move large tools; it is also mental work and eye work, to know how big an object can be made and will accurately calculate various data at a glance at the material; there must be a certain aesthetic level, and the things designed must not only have practicality but also beauty; these kung fu are not at home, even if it is a small bench, it is not easy to make a crooked twist, and it is not easy to learn to be a good carpenter.
The young Yang Wannian was full of thoughts, and he also wanted to participate in collective labor in the production team like other young people at that time. "Everyone can work together and be noisy and funny, and they will finish the work when they are lively and lively." Recalling his childhood years, Yang Wannian said with a smile. But his father insisted that he follow suit.
The Yang family's carpentry work is an ancestral craft, to the father's generation is the second generation, he does not want to lose it in his hands; moreover, the old man has his own plans, saying that the famine years starve craftsmen, no matter how the society changes, learning a craft is always the guarantee of life. At that time, the situation was indeed as expected by the old people, because of the carpentry skills, the living standards of the Yang family were much better than those of the surrounding families. In this way, under the "persecution" of his father, Yang Wannian finally did this line of work. At that time, my father was a skilled craftsman in ten miles and eight townships, his craftsmanship was superb, very respected, in that era when the work was completely manual and pure manpower, the furniture he beat was beautiful and durable, the house he built was strong and strong, and his unique repair technology for ancient buildings, no one around could catch up with his level.
His father's skills conquered Yang Wannian, and he was finally willing to calm down and follow in his father's footsteps as a good carpenter. Yang Wannian liked to draw since he was a child, and when he watched the wooden strips and sticks pass through his father's hands and become exquisite tables and chairs with patterns, he gradually became interested in carpentry carving. When giving furniture to others, Yang Wannian spent a lot of his mind on the carving of furniture patterns, which made the original dull furniture have beauty and vitality.
In order to master as many carving techniques as possible, Yang Wannian eagerly collected materials for various woodcut patterns, sometimes practicing design on cigarette cartons, sometimes a blank shredded piece of paper, sometimes an old newspaper; his love for woodcuts was almost to the point of obsession, in order to complete the pattern in his mind, he was conceiving when he rested, and when he ate, he also took a pencil to paint until he was satisfied. He insists on cutting, cutting, chiseling, carving and other knife methods at the same time, carving out the flowers, plants, fish and insects, birds and animals, gods are prepared, vivid; in the pattern design, he according to the customer's requirements and preferences, "readers love piano and painting, rural people like dragons and phoenixes, peonies", and according to the different shapes of the materials, with the shape of the situation, bold innovation.
In this way, Yang Wannian opened the Yang's carpentry "private customization" model, although it takes a lot of energy, but he is very accomplished, people word of mouth about the good skills of poplar carpenters, scrambling to invite them to go over to play furniture, father and son are sometimes busy and too busy.
With the passage of time, Yang Wannian's technology has matured, and he can not only type a complete set of furniture with novel styles and durability, but also complete the construction of the house. In particular, he is good at the construction of traditional structures of four beams and eight columns, and he can "steal beams and change columns" for houses without demolishing the walls. In the 1980s, the Command Post of the Hongxi Road Army in the county seat fell into disrepair, and the relevant departments of the county searched for a long time, but did not find anyone who could win the project, Yang Wannian confidently agreed, saying that he had seen his father build such an old house. He said: "This is a cultural relics protection unit, the operation is not good will be destroyed, many people dare not promise, I have a number in mind, so I agreed." ”
Over the years, he has undertaken the repair projects of Yongchang County Bell and Drum Tower, Yongchang Pavilion Old Mansion, Nanba Yunzhuang Temple, Hexi Fort Haimu Temple, Yongchang Wudang Mountain and Beihaizi Park. The number of wood carvings in these ancient style buildings is huge, bucket arches, plaques, pillars, hanging columns, doors and windows, all kinds of Buddha statues, gods, Shrines, etc., are built by pure hand carving, Yang Yongnian relies on years of skillful woodworking carving skills, and according to the construction age of the original building, so that these wood carving works are repaired as old, each with its own characteristics, showing a unique aesthetic interest, well received by the industry.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="51" > poplar carpenter's dream</h1>
In the middle of summer, the reporter walked into yang Wannian and Yang Yongjie's "studio", saying that it was a studio, which was actually an ordinary bungalow in the suburbs, and this small courtyard of about 40 square meters was full of wood and woodworking tools. The thin Yang Wannian and his son Yang Yongjie are fiddling with the miniature version of the water mill they have just made, the "original" water mill is powered by flowing water, this water mill is powered by electricity, after powering, with the rotation of the windmill under the base, the two wooden villains in the mill begin to work "busy", "man" is constantly filling the mill with materials, "woman" is waiting next to collect the milled juice, the whole process demonstrates the working principle of the water mill, very exquisite and unique. Whether it is the components of the water mill or the two wooden villains, they are all exquisitely made with unique ingenuity.
Yang Wannian said: "This is just a gadget I made, I have a dream, while I can still move, I want to restore the objects left by our ancestors, piece by piece, how much can be made, so that future generations can also see how wise our ancestors are!" ”
The majestic bell and drum tower has stood in Yongchang County for 400 years, she has accompanied the people of the small city for generations, and people have long been familiar with her existence, as if she should have appeared here, people loved her, looked up to her, but never could observe her full picture, and did not understand how such a beautiful building was built.
Yang Wannian, who had been a carpenter all his life, had already had such an idea. In 2019, he finally has mature conditions, and he will start to realize his first dream and restore the Bell and Drum Tower in Yongchang County.
He and his family are ready, this year the whole family can not go out to work to earn money, he told his son Yang Yongjie, how much work you have done for people in this life is not as great as the merit of doing this work.
The replica of the bell and drum tower that Yang Wannian wants to make is not a simple model, but a miniature bell and drum tower that is reduced according to the scale of 100:1, that is to say, if there are any objects on the original building, the replica must also be the same as not more, the same can not be less.
First of all, he had to understand the drawings of the Bell and Drum Tower, because Yang Wannian had participated in the maintenance of the Bell and Drum Tower in his early years, so he could understand the drawings. However, the original drawings also need to be redesigned to be suitable for the production of the reproduction. This process alone took Yang Wannian a month. After the drawings are designed, the parts need to be made strictly according to the designed dimensions, and if you want to make the final product tightly sewn, you must make each part accurate.
The whole process is like assembling a finished product out of Lego bricks. The parts of lego bricks are all mechanized, but the parts of the Bell and Drum Tower are father and son, one knife and one chisel, purely hand-made, and the amount of engineering is beyond imagination.
Yang Yongjie said: "At that time, the smallest parts were only 1 cubic centimeter large, and such small parts had more than 3,000 pieces, if you want to count all the parts conservatively said that there are 10,000 pieces, if a part is wrong half a millimeter, 10 parts can be wrong 5 mm, not only horizontal and vertical alignment, even the curvature, slope does not match, can not do a tight seam." ”
Because of the huge amount of work, Yang Wannian's whole family participated in the production, even Pan Congxia, the daughter-in-law of the "layman", who specially used sandpaper to grind and crush small components. In this way, with the efforts of the whole family for nearly a year, the ancient building of the Bell and Drum Tower, after shrinking by 100 times, was installed in their hands.
On the day of the completion of the project, Yang Wannian did not want to leave the studio for a long time, he stared at his own works, and rubbed the flying arches, hanging pillars, and carvings of the drum tower over and over again... See if it still has flaws, whether it is the way you think it is.
Yang Wannian said that after doing the "Bell and Drum Tower", he finally had a heart matter, "I finally gave an account to the ancestors to the descendants, and did not live in vain."
Yang Wannian said that the cultural heritage left by our ancestors is too rich, and as a craftsman, he always wants to explore the principles and mysteries of one ancient building after another. Once the corner tower of the Forbidden City was introduced on TV, which brought together China's excellent traditional architectural skills and far-reaching architectural culture, integrating science, artistry and functionality, reflecting the superb skills and outstanding talents of ancient craftsmen. Yang Wannian mentioned the corner tower of the Forbidden City, gushing endlessly, and the reverence overflowed into words, he said: "As far as the beams used for the construction of the corner towers are concerned, including the corner beams, wellhead beams, Shun beams, smeared angle beams, Taiping beams, etc., of which there are 56 beams for wing corners alone; in terms of columns, there are 20 columns on the first floor, and there are child pillars, melon pillars, lei gong pillars, etc. that do not fall to the ground on the second and third floors, not to mention other aspects of complex craftsmanship."
The corner tower of the Forbidden City seems to have planted "lovesickness" for Yang Wannian, and now he is studying the construction technology of the corner tower as soon as he has time, and the carpentry work is all handed over to his son to take care of, and he is concentrating on studying the corner tower. He said: "If I could study some of the doorways of the corner tower in my lifetime, it would be worthless for me to be a craftsman for a lifetime." ”
Later, he also heard that there is a Yingxian wooden pagoda in Shanxi, which is the tallest and oldest and the only wooden tower-style building in China, which adopts the traditional Chinese-style tenon and tenon structure building, the whole tower is pure wood structure, no nails and no riveting, but it has stood firm after thousands of years of wind and rain, and its artistic value is extremely high. According to reports, in the early 1990s, the repair of the wooden tower was officially established, but the repair plan was "difficult to produce" for nearly 30 years, because no one dared to pack a ticket to repair the wooden tower according to the ancient construction method.
Yang Wannian said, I want to go to Shanxi to see this great and magical wooden pagoda and appreciate the precious property left to us by our ancestors at close range.
The picture shows the Yongchang Bell and Drum Tower copied by Yang Wannian and Yang Yongjie in a 100:1 ratio, which is now displayed in the Municipal Museum.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="52" > the "red boat", the craftsman father and son are unswerving</h1>
At the beginning of 2021, Zhang Youxue, a retired employee of Jinchuan Group Company, found Yang Wannian and said that there was something to ask him to complete.
It turned out that Zhang Youxue went to the South Lake in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, to visit the red boat and brought back a miniature version of the red boat model. He is a party member, and with a sincere heart for the party, he germinated an idea, wanting to enlarge this model, so that more Jinchang people can see the style of the red boat in the South Lake, remember the ancestors, and learn the history of the party and know the party. However, the craftsmanship of shipbuilding is special, and searching for Jinchang has not been able to find such a person.
Therefore, the "Red Boat" was delayed in starting construction, and someone recommended Yang Wannian to Zhang Youxue.
There seems to be a fate in the dark. A few years ago, someone asked Yang Wannian's father and son to build a painting boat, and they are very familiar with the techniques and processes of shipbuilding, so Yang Wannian's father and son are the most suitable candidates.
When Zhang Youxue said what he wanted in his heart, Yang Wannian agreed with a full mouth, saying: "Carpenters in the old society, no matter how good their craftsmanship is, they are full of stomachs, but now our days are getting better and better, this is all the party's kindness, and it is my duty to do something for the party and do my best." ”
With gratitude to the party, Yang Wannian's father and son made up their minds to build the "red boat" with the ability to take care of the family.
They designed the drawings and took out the pine wood that they had treasured for many years as raw materials. In order to complete the work before the Spring Festival, the father and son worked overtime to catch up with the production, and the polishing work of the hull parts was undertaken by Zhang Youxue and several retired old party members. 20 days later, Jinchang's "Red Boat" was completed. The model, which was originally only the size of A4 paper, was enlarged to a scale of 3 meters long, 1.1 meters high and 0.75 meters wide, and the two sides of the hull base were engraved with several large golden characters such as "Serving the People" and "Not Forgetting the Original Intention and Keeping the Mission in Mind".
The overall shape of "Red Boat" is thick and atmospheric, and it is well-made.
Yang Yongjie said: "This is indeed what we think, and our hard work has not been in vain. Even Zhang Youxue, who had seen the red ship, nodded his head in praise.
At present, the "red boat" of Jinchang is displayed in the Jinchang City Museum for the vast number of cadres and the masses to visit. According to official statistics, since the beginning of February this year, it has attracted nearly 10,000 people to visit.
Yang Wannian said that this time to build a "red boat," his son Yang Yong was outstanding. Yang Yongjie is the second son of Yang Wannian, he has a strong interest in his father's woodworking and carving skills, and after graduating from high school, he studied with his father. At present, Yang Yongjie fully grasps the essence of woodworking carving in the construction of Yang's ancient buildings, and can innovate and develop traditional skills, becoming a well-known folk wood carving artist in Jinchang City.
In the 1990s, traditional handmade wooden furniture was at a disadvantage in the market competition. Yang Wannian father and son once had no business to the door, in order to support the family, Yang Yongjie has worked part-time, worked as a driver, no matter what profession he is engaged in, he can never let go of the love in his heart. With the development of economy and society, people's aesthetics return to traditional interests, preferring hand-made personalized things.
Yang Yongjie keenly captured this information, he picked up the carving knife again, groped for creation, he learned from his father the shape, category and technique of carpentry carving in the construction of traditional ancient buildings, polished his realism skills, in terms of aesthetic taste, gradually got rid of the "earthy taste" and practicality of traditional woodworking, pursued a higher level of artistic beauty, and carved works with spiritual direction and appreciation value. He took inspiration from Chinese paintings and calligraphy works, innovated the expression techniques, and used the depth and thickness of the lines to reflect the artistic conception of the combination of the virtual and the real of the Chinese paintings in the wood carving works, enhance the artistic value of wood carving, enrich the expression of wood carving, "Meilan Bamboo Chrysanthemum" is one of the representatives, the work fully integrates the artistic expression of Chinese painting, showing the high purity and pride of the plum blossom, the elegant ethereality of the orchid, the humility of the bamboo, the tenacity and coldness of the chrysanthemum.
In 2018, at the Chinese Folk Craft Inheritance and Innovation Observation Conference organized by the China Architecture and Garden Committee, Yang Yongjie's wood carving work "Eight Treasures of Buddhism" became a "key recommended work" and was praised and awarded by many people in the Chinese industry.
Due to the profound carving kung fu, some of the works are small and exquisite, some are magnificent, Yang Yongjie's works are favored by the surrounding market, and the works are all over Zhangye, Shandan, Wuwei and other places, of which the 4 doors of Ganzhou Alley in Zhangye City, Langfang, and the wood carving part of the main gate are all completed by Yang Yongjie.
Yang Wannian said that his son's carving skills were better than his.
Traditional skills, inheritance and development is equally important, Yang Yongjie, who has been engaged in the industry for more than 30 years, has a dream, that is, he wants to restore the ancient buildings of the Ming and Qing dynasties that have been annihilated in Yongchang County, one by one, as long as he can find the drawings, there is a restoration, and the excellent culture that has been lost is recovered. He said: "Excellent traditional culture is our root, and the faster the times develop, the more we must not forget the fundamentals." ”