Gold has been a symbol of wealth and nobility since ancient times. The history books even repeatedly mention the "multi-gold" of the Western Han Dynasty, which can be seen from the highest record of more than 200 jin of Hai Di hou.
The gold used in the Han Dynasty was divided into three grades, the first grade was gold, the second grade platinum, the third grade red gold, and only the first class was the brilliant gold we are familiar with. Gold has accompanied the ancient country of China to this day, and there are still many fans, which is not only a special currency that is relatively stable and navigable, but also a brilliant color that cannot be ignored in jewelry.
Horseshoe gold in the early Western Han Dynasty, collection of Nanjing Museum
In ancient China, craftsmen used a pair of skillful hands to turn gold into raw materials for handicrafts, leaving behind eight exquisite metalworking techniques, namely gilding, filigree inlay, hammering, gold and silver error, filigree, fried beads, hammering and reeling. Today, let's get closer to the traditional eight gold crafts and see how the eight immortals cross the sea.
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Gilding, also known as "fire gilding" in modern times, is one of the most common gold crafts. This process is to melt gold into mercury to form a gold mercury agent. This gold mercury agent is then applied to the surface of the metal utensil, and then heated to evaporate the mercury, and the remaining gold in the gold clay is attached to the table.
From the excavation artifacts, it can be seen that the gilding process has appeared in the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, and has become an essential skill for metalworkers in the Han Dynasty, called "golden tu", and it is recorded in the Book of Han that the palace paint uses gilding techniques.
Western Han Dynasty Gilded bronze ornaments in the shape of beasts, Hebei Museum collection
However, the earliest record of the gold mercury agent is the Eastern Han Dynasty Wei Boyang's "Zhou Yi Shen Tongqi", which was used to assist Xiu Dan. Gilding is really recorded as a technique, in the "Compendium of Materia Medica" quoted in the Liang Dynasty Tao Hongjing's words: "Can digest gold and silver into mud, people with plating is also." ”
In the Tang Dynasty, it still had the name of gold coating, but it also had another name of "gilding," which ranked among the fourteen kinds of goldworkers in the "Six Classics of Tang Dynasty." The term gilding is actually a matter for future generations.
Gilding is widely used in utensils, and all kinds of metal appliances rely on gilding to reduce costs, and at the same time can have the same brilliant light as gold. It can also be combined with inscriptions, buildings, etc., and the eight characters of "People's Heroes Are Immortal" on the Monument to the People's Heroes in front of Tiananmen Square are exactly what gilded.
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Filigree inlay is the combination of "filigree" and "inlay" two production techniques, also known as fine gold craftsmanship, it is a long-standing traditional handicraft, its preciousness is incomparable, mainly used to make the royal needs of the utensils.
Filigree is made of gold as raw material, using traditional techniques such as pinching, filling, saving, welding, weaving, stacking and so on, and the name of the fine gold process is derived from this. Inlaying is to use the techniques of frustration, shovel, pounding, stuffing, beating, collapse, squeezing, and setting, beating and forming gold flakes, making a tray and claw-shaped groove, and then inlaid with pearls and gems.
This technique originated from the warring states period of gold and silver mistakes, tang dynasty gold and silver flat, in the Ming Dynasty reached its peak stage, the Qing Dynasty is more towards specialized production, the Ming and Qing dynasties of filigree inlay gold ware is extremely ingenious and meticulous, there are many masterpieces.
The most famous filigree inlay that survives today is none other than the Golden Wing Shan Crown of the Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. This gold crown is woven from 0.2 mm of fine gold wire, and it is covered with various gold ornaments, which are as thin as light yarn, and the entire gold crown weighs only 826 grams, and there is no joint, which is exquisite and amazing.
Ming Wanli Emperor Golden Silk Wing Good Crown Ming Ding Mausoleum unearthed
The application of filigree inlay technique is wide-ranging, from practical utensils such as boxes, bottles, flower arrangements, to various ornaments dedicated to decoration and appreciation, to ornaments used in daily wear, you can see the exquisite ingenuity of the craftsman's filigree inlay process.
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Hammer (yè), hammer, is hammering, forging; hammering, is pounding metal into thin sheets. This technique is actually a technique of beating a gold nugget with a hammer inside the model, making it extend and unfold into a flake, and then creating various shapes and ornaments as required.
This technique takes advantage of the excellent ductility of gold, that is, it can be crushed into thin sheets or extended into filaments without breaking under the action of external forces. Generally speaking, all hidden utensils and ornamental patterns are made of hammers.
The Western Han Dynasty Apricot-shaped gold ornament pieces of the tomb of the King of Nanyue were excavated
Hammering is a metal processing technique commonly used in the ancient West, in China or as early as the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, but the real development is still after the Western Han Dynasty, especially in the golden age of gold and silverware - Tang Dynasty, reached the peak of the level. Nowadays, in many ethnic minority areas, hammering technology is also frequently seen.
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Gold and silver mistakes, also known as wrong gold and silver, were first seen in bronze ware in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, but only flourished in the Spring and Autumn Period, and appeared in large numbers during the Warring States and Han Dynasties, and this technique was applied to various utensils, carriages and horses, and weapons, usually only for decoration.
What is the meaning of the word "wrong"? Xu Shen said in the "Explanation of Words" that "wrong" is "golden tu", and Duan Yujie, a famous philologist in the Qing Dynasty, commented: "Wrong, and take measures, that is, to take jin tso on it." ”
Western Han Dynasty Wrong Gold and Silver Eighteen-sided Dice Guanfu Museum Collection
This process is actually to pre-make shallow concave ornaments or glyphs on the surface of the bronze, usually pre-engraved on the mother model, and then further engrave shallow grooves after casting, which is also known as engraving or gold engraving.
Then, a thin gold and silver piece or filigree is embedded in the groove, and then the table is polished with a wrong stone to make the watch brighter and the chimera more natural and smooth. The watch then presents two lusters of gold, silver and copper, and displays patterns and inscriptions of various colors through the contrast.
Silver Wrong Golden Shou Character Fire Bowl Collection of the Palace Museum
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Filigree this technique is what we often hear, it is often associated with the word "enamel", copper tire filigree enamel is first used copper wire as a line to pinch out a variety of patterns on the copper tire, and then the multicolored enamel dot filled in a technique.
The individual filigree process is similar, but a variety of metal filaments are used, which are extremely soft, thin, thin, and tough. The craftsman uses tweezers to pinch the pattern according to the bending of the ink pattern pattern, and then uses white mustard or paste to bond on the utensils, which is called filigree. This process has a wide range of applications, in addition to the bronze we are familiar with, it can also be used in gemstones, gold and silver utensils.
Eastern Han Dynasty Filigree inlaid with golden sheep collection of Dingzhou Museum
The filigree technique originated in ancient Persia (present-day Iran) and was relatively mature in the fifth and sixth centuries due to its earlier origins. Later, it spread to Arabia, the Eastern Roman Empire and other places, and it was already introduced to China during the Liao Dynasty.
However, the real development is still in the Ming Dynasty during the Jingtai period, because of the use of blue tones and called cloisonné, there are also light green, dark green, white and other shades.
In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Jingtai style filigree enamel lion play ball pattern Tibetan grass bottle Collection of the Palace Museum
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The technique of frying beads is quite interesting, and there are many techniques, which are divided into four types, namely the drip method, the charcoal ash method and the bead blowing method.
The drip method is to drop the hot gold solution into warm water, and the solution gradually solidifies because of the cooling, forming a gold bead, but the gold beads produced by this are of random size and shaped like water droplets.
The charcoal ash method can also be subdivided into three kinds, namely, the molten gold is dripped into the charcoal ash; or the natural gold sand is heated and then placed in a pot filled with charcoal ash; or the gold is first made into thin slices, chopped, and then placed in the charcoal ash for heating, and the utensils are rotated at the same time, and the condensed gold beads will become round under the tumbling, and the "golden millet" can be obtained.
The law of blowing beads is to make gold and silver into filaments, burn one end and melt it and then blow it off, or attach it directly to the gold and silver filament without blowing it off for other purposes, this technique was mainly popular in the Tang Dynasty.
The resulting golden millet is densely laid on the metal embryo and welded, which can become a decorative texture of the instrument table, which is called "bead pattern" or "fish egg pattern", which is round and three-dimensional, full and vivid.
Eastern Han Dynasty Filigree inlaid gold to ward off evil spirits in the collection of the Dingzhou Museum
The step of burning and welding alloy millet is very testing the craftsman's grasp of temperature, and if you are not careful, the golden millet will turn into a solution, and even make the goldware itself appear orange peel texture.
This technique is not unique to China, and the bead pattern is the representative pattern of the Sassanid Persian culture (present-day Iran), which was also widely used in India in the first century AD, and has been passed down to this day, making it an embellishment on jewelry.
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The hammer is a technique of "beating cattle across the mountain", in which craftsmen strike hammers with hammers of various sizes and textures, and the hammers leave scars on the metal surface to form a variety of different textures. Simple or just lines, complex can even be used to paint to decorate utensils.
This process is unique in that it can not add any materials, do not do temperature changes, and do not do weight increase or decrease, so that a single metal surface produces a multi-level, changeable three-dimensional effect.
Northern Song Dynasty Golden Coffin Dingzhou Museum Collection
This process began in the late Spring and Autumn period, prevailed in the Warring States, and became a feature of the Tang Dynasty and is still used today.
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Also known as "flower work" or "pattern", Rethy is one of the earliest recorded jewelry manufacturing techniques and the most exquisite in metal craftsmanship.
This technique is similar to filigree, in which gold and silver are pulled into silk, then braided into braided strands or various mesh-like tissues, and then welded to the utensils, and the lace can usually see the same structure of gold wire in the details.
Qing jinlei silk beaded stone sachet Collection of the Palace Museum
Together, three-dimensional works are the most difficult to produce, and they must go through the procedures of "piling up ashes" in advance. The so-called "ash pile", that is, the charcoal is ground into fine powder, mixed with the slime made of white mustard grass as plastic, shaped into a figure or a walking animal, etc., and then rolled on it, welded with solder, and then placed in the fire to burn the charcoal mold inside, which has achieved a three-dimensional hollow, transparent and exquisite work of art, and the most exquisite ones can even make phoenixes and pagodas with this technique.
Qing Jinlei silk inlaid jewelry tower Collection of the Palace Museum
In the title of "Dream of the Red Chamber" seventy-three times, "Foolish Lady Mistakenly Picks Up the Embroidered Spring Sac, Miss Cowardly Does Not Ask the Tired Golden Phoenix", the tired Golden Phoenix lost by Yingchun is a golden phoenix that has accumulated pearls, and only three young ladies in the house, Yingchun, Tanchun and Xichun, have this golden phoenix, which shows its preciousness.
Ming LiFeng Golden Hairpin The tomb of King Yizhuang and his wife in the southwestern city of Jiangxi was excavated
In fact, the ancients used far more than these eight kinds of gold, we are familiar with the gold in the table paste gold leaf, pounding gold leaf or gold wire attached to the fine line of the instrument table grid (jiǎn) gold, using gold powder to mix and paint decorator the table or write the mud gold of the scriptures, and even mentioned in the «Tang Six Classics» selling gold, auction gold, weaving gold, arsenic gold, phid gold, skeleton gold, twisted gold, gold, circle gold, inlay gold, wrapped gold and so on.
But whether it is simple or complex, small or large, countless metalworking processes make us see the infinite possibilities of gold as a metal, and the addition based on this makes us see the infinite possibilities of metal appliances - pavilions, dragons and phoenixes, all covered with golden light.
The tomb of King Yizhuang and his wife in the southwestern city of Jiangsu was excavated
With metal, it becomes a wonderful thing; the mountains and rivers are all things, and the eyes are made, and the hands are made.