Luquan in the west of Shijiazhuang, there is a place surrounded by green mountains and green water flowing in the west. In the western evergreen, there is a bamboo lantern, carved beam painting of the landscape Deming Ancient Town. Deming Ancient Town also has a small bridge in front of the water, the house of metal glittering shop Tianxi Lou.
The owner of the Tianxi Building is Guo Hailong.
Guo Hailong's head shines brightly: a UNESCO -- a "Master of Folk Arts and Crafts"; a provincial-level intangible cultural heritage inheritor of Hebei Province. Even kung fu superstar Jackie Chan, cross-talk master Jiang Kun, and wire prince Adili will ask him to make a portrait.
But Guo Hailong himself did not think so.
One
"Ding-ding", "Dang-dang"...
For 30 years, this voice has been ringing in Guo Hailong's ears. The eardrums are unable to resist the noise of the day after day, and hearing begins to decline.
Go to the hospital to see a doctor. Doctors say that the cotton ball can reduce the damage to the eardrum to a certain extent, but the vibration when the hammer is struck can still be transmitted to the ear through the nerves in the arm.
But how can a blacksmith put down the hammer in his hand?
He is a UNESCO-granted master of folk arts and crafts, a non-hereditary person at the provincial level in Hebei, and his works have been selected for national art exhibitions, which are still not 798 and there is no SongZhuang era. The Hebei Museum also collects more than 50 works of his "Taihang Style" series. The famous calligrapher Qi Gong personally inscribed a word for him - "iron pen conveys god", and Xu Yu, vice chairman of the Provincial Federation of Literature and Literature, also called his craft "a must in China".
People are looking forward to his next work.
I had to pick up the cotton ball before picking up the hammer every time.
Welding plastic at a young age – it was invented in Ukraine, where the welding process was powerful. Guo Hailong's colleagues learned to do it after finding it in a magazine. For Guo Hailong, who was working in the welding workshop of the aircraft factory at the time, this art seems to have been invented for him, so he also engaged in welding plastic.
The first welding sculpture is a yak, which still stands majestically at the head of the home desk.
A few years later, Guo Hailong participated in the Essen Expo in Beijing. The four-yearly Essen Fair in Germany is the equivalent of the Olympics of the welding industry. Guo Hailong's work "Pig" was bought by a foreigner whose wife specialized in collecting pigs.
To this day, Guo Hailong regrets that one of his early welding sculptures, Huang Niu, was originally sent to the Workers' Cultural Palace for display, but was lost by the organizers - in fact, someone must have taken it to collect privately. The gentle-natured Guo Hailong has not studied deeply, and being collected by others is always an affirmation of his works.
"Arc art" sounds beautiful, but arc light burns his eyes again and again, and he has suffered from cataracts early on, so he has to go to the doctor again.
Other people's cataract surgeries only take two or three minutes, but his time has increased several times. The doctor said that if it continues to develop, the consequences will be unimaginable.
After years of working on the case, the cervical spine was no longer good, and every once in a while it was so stiff that I had to look up and turn it. Standing for too long, the legs also have phlebitis, and for many years in the dark and damp cabin, the lumbar spine is also a problem, walking always subconsciously with the hands to support the waist.
Two
The trajectory of fate always has a way to follow.
Guo Hailong was born into a family of cadres. His father left his hometown at the age of 17 to join the army and fought with the devils with bayonets in the famous "Battle of Xinkou".
When my father was the mayor of Jiaocheng, Shanxi, he was once surrounded by ghosts in a village. When the enemy threatened to slaughter the whole village without handing over the Eighth Route, he stepped forward and covered the villagers of the whole village, but he himself was arrested and imprisoned.
Guo Hailong mentioned this scene, especially proud of his father, saying that his father was like old Uncle Zhong in the movie "Little Soldier Zhang Ga".
Decades later, when my father returned to the old place of Jiaocheng to revisit, the villagers of the eight villages of Ten Mile came to visit the mayor of Guo District, who saved the whole village.
After liberation, his father, who went to college for five years, served as the director and chief engineer of the arsenal.
Because of these experiences, the father of the all-rounder always warned his children that they must master a craft.
Probably immersed in the family atmosphere, Guo Hailong's brothers and sisters have loved to draw since childhood. So Guo Hailong also picked up a paintbrush when he was eleven or twelve years old, drawing sketches, and painting watercolors.
Painting and painting have a goal, to apply for the Central Academy of Fine Arts. There is still a lack of ignition, so the exam fails. At the age of 17 when his father joined the revolution, Guo Hailong also put on a military uniform and went to serve as a soldier.
He served in the Air Force, in the repair shop of the aviation school. He was supposed to work in the workshop, but he became a data clerk, and his painting talent had a place to play. All day long, the blackboard newspaper was produced, slides were drawn, and a two- or three-meter-high carp jumping dragon gate was carved out of cement for the company's fountain.
After demobilization, he was assigned to the clamp welding workshop of the aircraft factory and did the work of a fitter. Later, I engaged in iron plate relief, and all the tools were made by myself, which had to be regarded as a child's skill practiced as a fitter.
Three
When interviewing Guo Hailong, I begged to look at his hand.
Despite washing with water, his hands are still rough and uneven at first glance, and the palms of his hands are ground into cocoons, which are the marks left by 30 years of hammer and meat grinding.
Lu Limin, who was once Wenqing's wife, wrote a poem for him:
My husband
He's a blacksmith
Iron plates, hammers, hammers
It was his inseparable companion
A crisp and deafening sound
It is the song of his soul
He was singing with both hands— with his voice.
In fact, Guo Hailong can not choose this road. In the 90s, the company's efficiency was not good, and he had the opportunity to transfer to a better unit. But he really couldn't put down the iron plate relief that had already begun, so he simply stopped paying and stayed at work.
The enlightened mother vacated the hut for him to keep the miscellaneous goods, and Hyun-sook's wife also took care of all the housework.
The five-square-meter house is cold in winter and hot in summer. Afraid of disturbing the neighbors with the sound of knocking, in the summer, you must also cover the door with thick curtains to soundproof.
Guo Hailong is not good at words, and only knocks on the iron plate in front of him ten million times a day.
Iron plate relief is the art of combining painting, sculpture, fitter, sheet metal and other techniques. Each work has to go through more than ten processes such as painting, drafting, yin, drumming, and color burning.
In fact, in China, the history of metal carving began from the Spring and Autumn Warring States, called "engraving", gold and silver bronze ware common flowers, birds, fish and insects, landscape immortals, etc., but in the iron plate carving, Guo Hailong is the first person in ancient and modern times.
It is really "the aroma of wine is not afraid of the deep alley", and the reputation of "Guo's iron plate relief" flew out of the five-square-meter cottage. CCTV's "Into the Background", "Fortune Story Club", "Family" and other columns have reported, and even the British Reuters Agency has run to the hut to see this Chinese folk strange person.
The famous planner Wang Pingjiu, the lyricist who wrote the Olympic theme song "Me and You", also took the tightrope prince Adili and the entire team of 60 people into his dark cabin, and invited him to stay during the Shanghai World Expo.
At this time, Guo Hailong had cultivated into a master in the eyes of everyone.
postscript
Go to the mountains to visit Guo Hailong. The car cannot be directed, and you must get off the bus halfway through to change to the scenic bus.
The driver's car drove violently, and a few sharp turns in the mountains startled me almost out of my mind. I think he must be in a hurry for the sake of the dora. The young man explained that because all the way uphill, it was impossible to climb the slope if it was slow, so it was necessary to increase full horsepower.
After getting to know Guo Hailong, he found that his life has been adding full horsepower. Non-hereditary heirs are not vain.
However, the whole world has seen his splendor, but no one can appreciate the suffocating loneliness and loneliness.
All emotions are placed on a cold and hard iron plate.
I went to Tibet five times and was touched. The Tibetan aunt held a prayer wheel, which presented a holy light on his iron plate, and also made his heart more peaceful.
Madame was quite right when she said that his work "is a flower that blossoms in loneliness." And he was right, he was really a blacksmith.
Located in the ancient town of Deming, TianxiLou
UNESCO awarded the title of "Master of Folk Arts and Crafts".
"Praying dreams". He was selected for the first national fine art exhibition of "Pilgrimage to Dunhuang".
In the past 10 years, Guo Hailong has gone to Tibet five times. The magnificence and tranquility of the plateau deeply touched him. Tibetan themes became his important works.
The famous Japanese gold leaf engraver Ohara (pictured first from the left) once visited Guo Hailong's home. Craftsmen from the two countries exchange skills with each other.