"Wenzhu" is also known as "paste yellow" or "turning spring", its process is to saw the southern bamboo into a bamboo tube, to the section to remove the green, leaving a thin layer of bamboo yellow, after boiling, drying, flattening, glued on the wooden tire, and then polished, and then carved on the top of a variety of characters, landscapes, flowers and birds and other patterns.
China is a country rich in bamboo, since ancient times, the ancestors have an ineffable special preference for the bamboo that is proud and upright, not afraid of frost and cold, the so-called "Maolin bamboo", "Khan Qing left a name", are closely related to bamboo.
The ancients not only loved bamboo, but also preferred to use bamboo as a material to carve exquisite craftsmanship works, making bamboo carving art a brilliant wonder in the treasure house of traditional arts and crafts in China.
Throughout the history of the development of world civilization, no nation has ever been able to have such an obsessive love for bamboo and the art of bamboo carving as the Chinese nation. Judging from the relevant literature, China's bamboo carving history is quite long: "Only the ancestors of Yin, there are books and classics." It can be known that cutting bamboo is a simple book, and the text book is in bamboo, at least in the Shang Dynasty has become popular.
▲Warring States Guodian Chujian "TaiSheng Water"
According to the Book of Rites and Algae:
"Wat, the Son of Heaven with ball jade, the princes with elephants, the doctor with fish whiskers Wen Bamboo, Shi Zhu, Ben Xiang Can also."
It shows that the bamboo wat was the second ceremonial vessel of the Zhou Dynasty after jade and ivory wat. However, due to the influence of factors such as history and natural environment, it is extremely difficult to find bamboo products from the Shang and Zhou dynasties in actual archaeological excavations.
▲ Ming Ivory Wat Plate (笏 is "Chaoban": It is the ancient minister of culture and military affairs who needed to hold the wat with both hands to record the king's order or will when he went to the king. ）
At present, the earlier bamboo carvings seen are the three-legged bamboo spoon excavated from the Chu Tomb of the Warring States of Patma Mountain in Jiangling, Hubei Province, and the carved dragon pattern painted bamboo spoon handle excavated from the Mawangdui No. 1 Tomb of the Western Han Dynasty.
▲ Western Han Carved dragon pattern paint bamboo spoon handle
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, bamboo carvings became a gift from the emperor to his subjects due to their exquisite production. The "Book of Southern Qi and the Biography of the Ming Monk Shao" has a record of the Qi Gao Emperor giving the Ming monk Shao Zhu root Ruyi bamboo shoot crown during the Six Dynasties period. In the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Yu believed that the poem "Fengbao Zhao Wang Huijiu" had the verse "Wild furnace leaves, mountain cups holding bamboo roots", which can be seen in the use of carved bamboo utensils at that time.
▲Qing bamboo carved poem Ruyi (Nanjing Chia Tai 2018 Spring Auction)
In the Tang Dynasty, the art of bamboo carving had a great development, and the technique of "staying green" prevailed. Today in The Nara Shosoin In-house in Japan, China's Tang Dynasty bamboo carvings "Character Flower Bird Shakuhachi" (shakuhachi, a musical instrument of the Tang Dynasty, also known as "pipe" or "vertical pipe") are engraved with patterns from beginning to end.
▲Tang Character Hana torikura (Shosoin Collection, Japan)
A few ladies, or fluttering butterflies under the trees, or picking flowers and grass in the garden, or playing the piano on the stone, their dancing posture, ready to come out, smiling and smiling, jumped on the bamboo. From its conception to its production, it shows that bamboo carving technology has matured in the Tang Dynasty.
In the Song Dynasty, the art of bamboo carving had a new development, and Tao Zongyi's "Nancun QuitTing Cultivation Record" of the Yuan Dynasty records that Song Zhan Cheng made bird cages:
"On all sides are flower boards, carved on bamboo pieces into palaces, figures, landscapes, flowers and trees, birds, and fibers, which are as fine as wisps and exquisite activities."
Exquisite crown in the world.
▲Qing bamboo carved red plum annunciation cup (Nanjing Chia Tai 2018 spring auction lot)
Bamboo carving became a specialized art, beginning in the middle of the Ming Dynasty.
During the Ming Jiajing period, a genre of bamboo carving art appeared in Jiading, Jinling and other places, and the famous bamboo carving artists in Jiading at that time were Zhu Songlin, Zhu Xiaosong, and Zhu Sansong, who were good at bamboo root carving and bamboo knot carving.
After entering the Qing Dynasty, the art of bamboo carving has a new development. The bamboo carvings of this period have been famous for many generations, each creating a grid. For example, the bamboo carving master Wu Zhipan in the early Qing Dynasty, the jiading famous artist Feng Xilu, etc., the works produced are wonderful and exquisite.
▲In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, Wu Zhipan bamboo carved landscape figure pattern small pen holder
In order to meet the special needs of the imperial family and nobles, the Qing government followed the Practice of Setting Up Special Agencies in the Ming Dynasty, supervising production and collecting taxes. At that time, the Ministry of Works had a manufacturing office, which was in charge of five kinds of government-run workshops such as silverworkers and embroiderers, and set up weaving bureaus in Nanjing, Suzhou and Hangzhou, and set up royal kiln factories in Jingdezhen.
Bamboo carving is no exception, this period on the basis of inheriting the experience of predecessors, a new technique was invented, called "Wenzhu".
"Wenzhu" is also known as "paste yellow" or "turning spring", its process is to saw the southern bamboo into a bamboo tube, to the section to remove the green, leaving a thin layer of bamboo yellow, after boiling, drying, flattening, glued on the wooden tire, and then polished, and then carved on the top of various characters landscape, flowers and birds and other patterns.
▲Qing Bamboo Spring Landscape Poetry Vase (Nanjing Chia Tai 2018 Spring Auction)
After the bamboo spring is polished, it is colored like the old ivory, and then combined with dark wood such as ebony and rosewood, which highlights the characteristics of clear chiaroscuro and significant pattern.
Among them, there is a kind of transparent carving method, that is, on the pasted bamboo spring, the pattern part is hollowed out, showing a deeper wood background color, with paper-cutting and carving paint-like effects, it can be said that the practice of wenzhu has developed to the extreme.
▲Qing bamboo spring Fushou pattern silver ingot-shaped lid box (Nanjing Chia Tai 2018 spring auction lot)
When the wenzhu artifact originated is still inconclusive, many experts and scholars believe that this bamboo carving decorative technique originated in the early Qing Dynasty and matured in the middle of the Qing Dynasty.
▲Qing Bamboo carving bamboo forest seven sage pen holder (Nanjing Chia Tai 2018 spring auction lot)
▲Qing Bamboo Spring Boya Drum And Piano Pen Holder (Nanjing Chia Tai 2018 Spring Auction)
▲Qing bamboo reed Boya drum pen holder (partial)
As for when this practice was popular in the Qing Palace, it is difficult to check now, but judging from the "Work Records of the Creation Office" collected by the First Historical Archives, the large number of Wenzhu artifacts in the Qing Palace should be in the early Qianlong period. For example, in the writings of the Qianlong Twenty-Four Internal Affairs Office, there is such a record:
(Twenty-four years) Leap June 16 Lang Zhong Bai Shixiu, Yuanwai Lang Jin Hui said eunuch Hu Shijie handed Wen Zhu a pair of vials (with chicken wing wooden seat), Wen Zhu Zhao brought a piece...
This is the earlier record of the appearance of Wenzhu artifacts in the palace, according to which it can be inferred that Wenzhu artifacts entered the palace in large quantities after the Qianlong period.
▲Qing Bamboo Spring Fuqing Yu Signature Cylinder (Nanjing Chia Tai 2018 Spring Auction Lot)
The Office of The Imperial Palace of the Qing Dynasty is the Imperial Household Of the Qing Dynasty, which is subordinate to the Qing Palace Internal Affairs Office, which is a functional institution specifically responsible for the manufacture and repair of imperial goods, because it is directly close to the emperor's life, so it occupies a very important position in the various institutions under the Qing Palace Internal Affairs Office.
The manufacturing office brought together excellent craftsmen from all over the country, and after Qianlong's southern tour, it is possible that skilled craftsmen who made Wenzhu artifacts were introduced from the south to make Wenzhu utensils for the imperial palace.
▲Bamboo spring songjian words friends ruyi (Nanjing Chia Tai 2018 spring auction lot)
In the archives of the Internal Affairs Office during the Qianlong period, a large number of records of "Wenzhu" artifacts can be found:
▲Qing bamboo carved silver inner gall bladder beast cup (Nanjing Chia Tai 2018 spring auction lot)
In addition to the cultural and bamboo utensils collected by the Qing Palace, in addition to the production of the Qing Palace's imperial workshop- manufacturing office, there are also various types of bamboo (yellow) utensils that are paid tribute by the governors of various parts of the south.
▲Qing Palace old Tibetan bamboo hammer pattern begonia type two-layer set box
As a daily application artifact that can be enjoyed and appreciated, and closely related to daily life, Wenzhu has entered all aspects of the emperor's home life, and its use is quite extensive.
Due to the relatively late production and production of Wenzhu utensils, a large number of them prevailed after Qianlong, so a considerable part of them are still well preserved to this day.
The Palace Museum still treasures a batch of Wenzhu furniture left over from the Qing Palace, all of which are exquisitely crafted, and their style is still the same.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > small cabinet of wenzhu tiliang</h1>
▲ Height 30.4cm, width 26.9cm, depth 13.3cm
The small cabinet is made in the form of a square corner cabinet shaped like a "book", and the top of the cabinet is made into a similar top style, decorated with a lotus petal pattern, and the top of the cabinet is equipped with a copper beam. The doors are hard-squeezed with two doors, and the edges and center of the door frames are decorated with dark bamboo reeds "pulling continuously" and tangled lotus patterns.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Sugiki Taibun bamboo design</h1>
▲ Height 86.5 cm, length 194.2 cm, width 82 cm
With fir as the tire, the whole body is inlaid with bamboo, the lower part of the case surface is a back-grained hollow tooth, and the upper end of the four legs is connected to the case surface, supporting the lower part of the tooth strip. There is a Luo pot between the front and back legs, and the ends of the feet are made of cloud heads and feet.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > bamboo bezel-set stool</h1>
▲ Height 46 cm, face diameter 34.5 cm
The whole body is inlaid with bamboo, the stool surface is square plastered, there is a tunic under the stool surface, there is a slender rectangular open light on the corset waist, the girdle waist is equipped with a cheek, a hollow curved ruler tooth, four legs are made into a drum leg Pengya style, each leg is opened with rectangular perforated holes, and the foot end is covered with rectangular corner support mud. This small stool is made of bamboo bezel throughout, and its shape is beautiful and pleasant, and the color is fresh and elegant.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Wenzhu Xiao Kang</h1>
▲ Width 54.5 cm, length 24 cm height 29 cm
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Wenzhu inlaid with a small kang table</h1>
▲ Length 69.5 cm, width 32 cm, height 28.5 cm
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > bamboo inlaid with floral illustrations </h1>
▲In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the height was 71 cm and the width was 41 cm. 5 cm, thickness 23 cm
Several pieces of Wenzhu furniture introduced above, whether it is materials or workmanship, are "regardless of cost, fine materials", which fully reflects the characteristics of furniture "novelty, exquisite luxury", which can be said to be exquisite and precious in the existing Wenzhu utensils in the Forbidden City.