The Paper's reporter Gao Dan
Talking about printmaking, the most well-known is the colorful ukiyo-e and China's famous Yang Liuqing, and in Chinese history, there was also a printmaking book that was extremely exquisite and elegant, that is, the "Ten Bamboo Zhai Notes" produced by the traditional Chinese version of the arch flower watermark woodcut process and issued by Ming Chongzhen in the seventeenth year, which represented the interest of the literati at that time, and the notes born in Nanjing, an important town of oriental art, have been pursued by Chinese and foreign scholars in the next four hundred years, and they have studied from various angles through some scattered records and scattered cultural relics. Appreciate and analyze, because the first edition of the "Ten Bamboo Notes" was scattered in history, and few people can see the true appearance of the "Ten Bamboo Notes".
Recently, according to the Collection of the National Library of China, Mr. Zheng Zhenduo, the first engraving edition of the Seventeenth Year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty, which lasted five years to reprint and reprint, was published by the National Library Press, a four-volume, 32 groups of 267-page notes, a total of 990 copies, distributed by number. A number of excellent traditional cultural skills have been gathered, and the craftsmanship of the Ming Dynasty, Ming-style tools and natural materials have been fully used to successfully restore the "gluttonous version" and "arch flower" and other processes. On the occasion of the publication of the reprint of the "Ten Bamboo Notes", the sharing activity of "The Wisdom and Beauty of the Ten Bamboo Notes" was also held in Beijing.
The Ten Bamboo Notes in History: "The Highest Achievement of the Literati Doctor Qing Play Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties"
When it comes to the "Ten Bamboo Notes", it is necessary to return to the era of its birth: at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the social atmosphere was relatively open, and many literati and scholars pursued various kinds of play, and the writing credit paper also imitated the shape of the Tang and Song Dynasties, and liked to add patterns to the letterhead paper. In order to facilitate the purchase, the writers ordered various patterns of paper into a book, which was called a note sheet, and the bibliophile Wei Li called this essentially a "commodity manual".
The notes that have been handed down are the most famous in the Ming Dynasty with Hu Zhengyan's "Ten Bamboo Zhai Notes" and Wu Faxiang's "Luoxuan Changing Ancient Notes". The "Ten Bamboo Zhai" note-like flowers are the most exquisite, and this artistic technique surpasses many modern masters.
The Chongzhen edition of the "Ten Bamboo Zhai Notes" has a description of the grand situation when this note was printed at the moment: "From the ten bamboo notes, after the first stacking, the four parties appreciate, light cars and heavy horses, transport and mail, not only Jiangnan paper is expensive." And "Ten Bamboo Notes, a collection of ancient and modern famous traces, a collection of art gardens, the renovation of the old, the extreme change of poor work, is it not too grand?" And there is still a saying. Cover arch flowers, heng plate of the xing, colorful, not not dazzling, but a strong dress, to seek it as thick in the light, light in the thick, never get, why not? ”
Prints on the inner pages of the Ten Bamboo Notes
Lu Xun commented that the "Ten Bamboo Zhai Notes" is "the highest achievement of the literati doctor Qing Play since the Ming and Qing dynasties". In August 1934, he wrote to Zheng Zhenduo: "The flowers in the Ten Bamboo Zhai are the most exquisite, and this artistic technique surpasses many modern masters; the landscape inside is also very well carved." In April of the following year, Lu Xun told Zheng Zhenduo: "This kind of set of good books has rarely been found in the Qing Dynasty, and even in the future, there may not be such engravings and printing hands, and in the next three hundred years, there will be no more on them." ”
Zheng Zhenduo collected the "Ten Bamboo Zhai Notes" and donated it to the National Library, which is a set of four volumes of Ming Chongzhen's seventeen-year edition of the "Ten Bamboo Zhai Notes". Volume 1 Qing Confession, Hua Shi, Bogu, Painting Poems, Strange Stones, Hermits, sketches of seven categories of sixty patterns; Volume II Dragon Species, Sheng lan, Renlin, Wuhua, Fengzi, Folding Gift, Mo You, Ya Play eight categories of sixty-five patterns; volume three Ru Mu, Di Hua, Ying Qiu, Yu Ze, Min Xue, Ji Xiu, Shang Zhi, Wei Du, Gao Biao nine categories of seventy-two patterns; volume four Jianyi, Shou Zheng, LingRui, Xiang Xue, Yun Shuo, Bao Su, Wen Pei, miscellaneous manuscripts eight categories of seventy patterns, a total of thirty-two categories of 267 patterns (the catalog is two hundred and seventy-five) patterns.
The theme of the inner page of the Ten Bamboo Notes
Another aspect of the "Ten Bamboo Notes" is that the system of notes received in it covers all aspects of the spiritual pursuit of Chinese literati and doctors, benevolence, righteousness, etiquette, music, faith, code of conduct, aesthetic norms, moral pursuits, and life interests. The cited classics range from the Book of Poetry, the Book of Shang, the Records of History, and the Book of Han, to Tang poems, Song Ci, Yuan Qu, celebrity biographies, and legends of immortals.
Re-engraving of the Ten Bamboo Notes: The Use of the Arch Flower Technique
Since 2016, Nanjing Shizhuzhai has launched the republishment of "Ten Bamboo Zhai Notes", so far, the republishment has spanned four years, based on the national library collection Zheng Zhenduo donated the early engraving of the Ming Dynasty, with the Chinese traditional Heng edition arch flower watermark woodcut technology engraving, and with the full handmade mineral pigment, ancient sandalwood rice paper brush printing; after the re-engraving, there are full hand-sprinkled gold leaf powder wax note covers, all handmade bamboo paper lining paper, full hand-spun mulberry silk thread loading, all handmade Nan wood mortise structure bookcase and camphor lining board, and strive to present the original version of the note spectrum, Find the true oriental literati sentiment in the pure traditional natural artificial world.
There are four national non-hereditary inheritors among the technicians in each professional link, all the notes and paintings are engraved and printed by more than 20 people such as Liu Kun, the paint is made by Qiu Qingnian, the rice paper is made by Cao Guanghua, and the cover is traditionally hand-sprinkled with gold powder wax notes, silk thread handmade threads, and tenon old Nan wood bookcases. Dozens of experts and scholars from the National Library, the Palace Museum, the National Museum, the Central Academy of Fine Arts, the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts, the Capital Library, the Nanjing Library, nanjing university, the Jiangsu Provincial Academy of Chinese Painting, the Nanjing Institute of the Arts and other institutions have participated in various appraisals and discussions.
Wei Li said that the engraving arch flower process is a difficult point in this engraving, this process needs to choose the right pattern, needs to be extremely delicate in the engraving, and also requires skillful skills when printing. Only the perfect combination of these three can make the perfect paper.
The representative work of the combination of arch flower technology is the "Ten Bamboo Zhai Notes", which is a overprinting technology developed on the basis of woodcut color overprinting. According to the color requirements of the color drawings, they are copied separately, carved into dozens or even hundreds of small woodblocks, and then glued in the designated position, and overprinted or overprinted in turn from light to dark with ink and pigments.
Regarding the arch flower, the definition given in the article "Examination of the Inventor of the Arch Flower" written by Zhang Binglun and Fang Xiaoyang is: "'Arch flower' printing, poor and ingenious, concave and elegant, fresh and indifferent." In a note, insects, fish, flowers and birds, feathers and veins are jagged; Shang Yi Zhou Ding, ornaments carved and carved. The auspicious clouds linger in the hills and hills of the mountains, and the water waves babble in the rivers and streams. The name 'Wuhua', in fact, is a relief, a pioneer of colorless sound in the new path, sincere convex printing. "Arch flowers are divided into colored arch flowers and colorless arch flowers, but these two arch flowers are only colored and not colored, but in the production process, they belong to the same method." In fact, the arch flower is to make the two-dimensional flat pattern on the paper into a three-dimensional three-dimensional pattern, how to make a three-dimensional effect on the paper, the relevant records have different statements, An Haifeng in the "< Ten Bamboo Zhai Notes > Colorless Arch Flower Technical Examination" article believes: "Then put the paper on the engraved pattern, the top of the paper needs to be cushioned with a soft cushion like felt, and finally press the paper into the groove of the pattern, under the action of the force, the paper appears a raised pattern, forming a three-dimensional visual effect, It was somewhat similar to the steel stamp on today's personal documents. ”
Nanjing"Ten Bamboo Zhai Notes" "Arch Flower" and "Gluttony Edition"
Nanjing Shizhuzhai Painting Institute republished the "Ten Bamboo Zhai Notes" material
The process of engraving arch flower takes raw paper printing, wet paper printing, a version of multi-color, and color simulation as the new content, which changes the weakness of the previous chromatic printing color, excessive decorative taste, and no change in thickness. Using his original craftsmanship, he vividly shows the artistic characteristics of Chinese calligraphy and painting works with five colors and thick and light colors.
Since the Edo period, the works of Ten Bamboo Zhai have entered Japan in large numbers, and they have been loved by Japanese culture lovers and collectors for their exquisite and superb skills and profound understanding and ingenious interpretation of oriental humanities, and for hundreds of years, many Japanese scholars have published monographs related to the study of Ten Bamboo Sai. In Japan, TenTakesai is a contrast and symbol of many people's pursuit of elegant oriental life.
As a pioneering classic work in the history of world printing at both technical and artistic levels, the "arch flower" and "plate" techniques of the "Ten Bamboo Sai Notes" directly inspired the multi-color overprinting process of ukiyo-e wood panels, and also influenced the aesthetic orientation of the upper class of the Edo period in composition, making "Nishiki-e" a powerful trend of the times.
Ukiyo-e has been overprinted many times
Ten Bamboo Notes
I would like to send a color note and a ruler
Formally, the Ten Bamboo Notes is a collection of flower notes and a collection of prints. Each page is a separate printed work of art. The patterns of these prints are summarized into a set of composition books and edited and bound, becoming reference books for notes and paper drawings. When these materials and illustrations are integrated into a complete set of ideological systems in the process of creation, editing and sorting, and each work is sublimated, this book becomes the guide for the self-cultivation of "virtuous gentlemen" in ancient China.
The ancient Chinese gave many romantic names to the paper, such as color notes, flower notes, fish intestine rulers and so on. It is found in countless Chinese poetry and prose, and wherever there is it, it is always full of emotions of "Jinshu is difficult to trust". People are most familiar with Yan Shu", "red letter small characters, saying that the business is flat. Hongyan in the cloud fish in the water, sad this feeling is difficult to send. "Who sent the color note and the ruler, and where the mountains and rivers are wide?" These verses open up a wonderful world of "unspoken meaning" and "unspoken voice" for people suffering in the emotional desert of today's digital age.
The record of the use of flower notes by Chinese began with the Southern Dynasty literary scholar Xu Ling mentioning the "five-color flower notes" in the "New Yong Order of Yutai". According to later records, the Eastern Jin Dynasty Love Saint King Xianzhi wrote for his lover, "Peach leaves compound peach leaves, cross the river without the need for the sun." But there is no pain in crossing, and I greet ru by myself. "It's written on a flower note." It's just that at that time, the flower notes were relatively simple, just dyed. In the Tang Dynasty, the famous female poet Xue Tao made her own "Huanhua Notes", perhaps it was these beautiful notes and poetic talents that made her short and vigorous love. In the Song Dynasty, the users of the stone flower note were Huang Tingjian, Song Huizong, Su Shi, and other literati and high-rollers, which were difficult for ordinary literati to get. In the Ming Dynasty, with the development of engraved watermarks, the flower notes were finally no longer just the background of poetry, but were upgraded to prints with an independent artistic language.
With the reissuance of "Ten Bamboo Notes", a Chinese-English and Japanese version of the interpretation tool book "Ten Bamboo Zhai Notes" was published. Because the note is only a picture, with a simple inscription, sometimes more obscure, such as the ten bamboo notes to paint a picture of an orange "Lu Tangerine", with Lu Ji Huai orange to show filial piety to parents. Lu Ji (陸绩), courtesy name Gongji, was a native of Wu Commandery (吴郡, in present-day Suzhou, Jiangsu) during the Three Kingdoms period, and was an official of Yulin Taishou. At the end of the Han Dynasty, Lujiang Taishou Lu Kang's son, erudite and knowledgeable, proficient in astronomy and almanac, composed the "Hun Heaven Map". When Lu Ji was six years old, he followed his father to visit Yuan Shu, who lived in Jiujiang. Yuan Shu took out oranges to entertain them, Lu Ji secretly carried three in his arms, and before leaving, he knelt down to bid farewell, and the oranges in his arms accidentally fell. Yuan Shu laughed at him and said, "Lu Lang still wants to hide oranges when he is a guest?" Lu Ji replied, "My mother loves to eat oranges, and she plans to take them back to my mother to eat." "Yuan Shu was greatly surprised by him after hearing this, and immediately turned to admire his filial piety very much, and Lu Ji's reputation spread from then on." The story of "Lu Ji Huai Tangerine" has since become a model of filial piety, such as the Tang Dynasty Cen Shan's poem "Sending Xu Yuanwai Jiang Wai Chang Ping Cang": "Still huai Lu's orange, return to the old relatives to taste." ”
Editor-in-Charge: Chen Shihuai