Consciously watch over the traditional folk carvings

Conscious vigilance over traditional residential carvings

Remembering Mr. Wang Shanshui

Gao Jianlong

Because of his love of reading and his strong desire to collect books, at the beginning of the new year in 1999, after learning from the Tongchuan Daily that a lovely collection of Tongchuan poems in the form of this landscape had begun to be released, he walked more than 30 miles to the downtown bookstore to buy it.

The front of the book is accompanied by several pages of photographs of Tongchuan's natural scenery, one of which is entitled "Jumping Melody - Chen Furnace Triple Spring" photographs, so that I remembered the name Wang Shanshui. A foreigner, the Chen furnace people are used to, feel nothing special stone gap flowing water, shot so poetic and beautiful, can not help people do not admire.

Later, the Chen stove ceramics factory to make brochures, please come to take product photos, when I learned that the tall photographer in front of me is Wang Shanshui, I am very happy, then took the initiative to chat with him and this side of the landscapes in the book that the Chen stove Triple Spring photographs of the matter, and the topic of this, to start the art of literature on the art of photography to ask for advice. Mr. Wang Shanshui, an approachable teacher, took great pains to answer all the questions, which made me benefit a lot.

In June 2004, Wang Shanshui with the 82-year-old photographic artist Mr. Huang Fu old to the Chenfu Ancient Town picking, I gave them as a guide, accompanied them around for two days, shooting landscapes, shooting homes, shooting portraits. And into the potter's house to shoot scenes of life. In Pozi Village, Mr. Wang was particularly interested in a potter's home carved slab cabinet, took several photos from different angles, the hostess said to us, this cabinet is the Republic of 32 years (1943) when she got married, her carpenter father for her specially made dowry. Her father also explained the meaning of these carvings in six sentences: sixty lotus petals for reunion, peonies for cross-talk, and swastikas with eight or eight heads. The swastika with eight eights keeps its head, and the pomegranate and peony are accompanied by longevity peaches. The double-technique plum blossom reports five blessings and ten thousand years of glory, wealth and prosperity. It is rare that she can still remember her father's words, which is a father's wish for his daughter's happiness after marriage and the love of husband and wife.

In the summer of 2007, Mr. Wang called, said he was ready to publish "Shaanxi residential wood carving collection", I want to seal carving several book title seal, plan to choose a party as the book cover decoration. I gladly accepted and quickly carved six seals of different styles for him. In January of the following year, "Shaanxi residential wood carving collection" was officially published, elegant and heavy gold hard cover, I carved a round seal in Zhuwen, embossed in the spine of the title of the book on the top. Read this book, y wood carving catalog exquisite at the same time, more Wang Shanshui teacher for more than a decade, tirelessly, in a thousand ways to search around, painstakingly collect and shoot, for the scattered in Shaanxi folk of these treasures, leaving a precious image of the material, but also regardless of the return to a lot of the spirit of the spirit of pay.

In the shooting process, see these carvings through the ages, the protection of the state of precariousness, the situation is increasingly worrisome, less and less. A lot of old houses in disrepair, most of the people do not recognize the value of it, just think it looks good, many people demolished the old house to build a new house, demolition of wood carvings, brick carvings, stone carvings, either sold at a low price, or was abandoned aside. The people are rich, the standard of living has improved, to improve living conditions, there is no excuse. And these old residential carving items, does not belong to the scope of national protection, coupled with the urbanization of the construction of urbanization is now vigorously promoted, is bound to fundamentally, on the past agricultural civilization left behind residential buildings, resulting in a devastating impact. Rescue protection can not be delayed, prompting Mr. Wang Shanshui traveled throughout Shaanxi land, the scattered in the folk carving items for photographs, to leave a more systematic and complete carving information for the community. The old mansion disappeared day by day, those attached to the old mansion and the old courtyard and the existence of wood carving, brick carving, stone carving works, is also in the same predicament of extinction. A little comfort is that, with the antique dealers more and more frequent and intensive acquisition of the countryside, now the people also know the value of these carvings, there is a sense of protection, but by the interests of the driving force, scattered around the various types of carvings stolen, sold phenomenon is also becoming increasingly serious. Mr. Wang Shanshui voluntarily and righteously devote himself to the action of saving some thoughts for the country and the society. 18 years, he traveled all over Shaanxi province at his own expense, large and small uncountable townships and villages in the wilderness, and photographed more than 10,000 pictures of residential houses and their wood carvings, brick carvings and stone carvings. Mr. Wang often said with regret, these carvings in the book, in addition to those deliberately protected by the government departments, or acquired by knowledgeable people, off-site rebuilt in the same way, opened up as a tourist attraction, Guanzhong Folklore Museum is a very successful example. Other scattered, but a huge number of carvings, has ceased to exist, so much of the images included in the "Shaanxi traditional folk carving culture research", has now become out of print.

With the progress of social productivity, science and technology, many of the objects left over from the farming period have been abandoned by modern life. For example: stone quarry, stone trough, spinning wheel, windmill, loom, threshing floor, peg, mounting stone, stone mortar, plow, straddle, mill, rake and so on. Wang Shanshui to publish "Shaanxi traditional folk carving culture research", plans to be divided into "wood carving collection", "brick carving collection", "stone carving collection", by which a comprehensive display of these treasures of folk culture. With more than 10,000 images, after summarizing, classifying, selecting and organizing. To publish a book, only to realize that the previous 18 years of spring, autumn, winter and summer, wind, frost, rain and snow, running around the images taken, but only a beginning, after a lot of things to do a lot more, the degree of difficulty is not less than when shooting. Although Wang Shanshui in the shooting process, also made some records, often to the owner of the photographed items, or the elderly around the inquiry, but most of the records, but the shooting time, location, owner, and the meaning of the light. Some of them are more reliable, and some people, perhaps because of the years, the lack of inheritance it, the claim is actually the opposite, absurd. In order to really figure out these lifelike, vivid characters, animals, flowers, flowers, clean offerings, Bogu and other images, have what kind of allegory and symbolism, with what kind of origin and story, and involves those allusions? To annotate these images, from a lot of inquiries notes out of the false, write the appropriate text, is undoubtedly a huge and complex project.

So Wang Shanshui began a second journey outside the shooting, to the provincial and national libraries and university libraries to consult the literature, looking for clues in the sea of books, hoping to get a little useful clues. Ancient forefathers, under the protection of the farming civilization of cultivation and study, had a high degree of integration of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. They put a good wish and the indoctrination of their children and grandchildren, skillfully integrated into those exquisite carvings in the artwork. Every picture must have its own meaning, mostly for the hope of a happy life, family harmony, grain harvests, wind and rain, and grandchildren and other officialdom. Only this is the spiritual power and source of inspiration for the carvers to create. Wang Shanshui from the "Chinese traditional auspicious patterns", "Dictionary of Chinese myths and legends", the drama, celebrities, gradually grasp some of the laws, know how the artisans in the past to use the harmonies of the items, symbols, metaphors for the creation. For example: peony means wealth, lotus means purity, bamboo means upright and unyielding, pine and cypress means health and longevity, pomegranate means many children, bamboo shoots means children and grandchildren, mouse, bat means blessing, monkey, deer means king, salary, magpie is a bird of good luck, plants with trailing ribbons means dry autumn and ten thousand generations, dragons and phoenixes have a hope that their children will be dragons, hope that their daughters will become phoenixes, dragons and phoenixes have auspiciousness, and the significance of beauty and harmony. Other types of flowers, animals, decorations have their own specific symbols and hints, on this basis, people and its artistic reprocessing, will be several things skillfully combined, so that its form of expression more lively, richer in meaning. At the same time, there are a considerable number of twenty-four filial piety charts, fairy characters, stories of the Three Kingdoms, drama, legends and other content.

Ancient people teach in fun, send teaching in the figure, the moral concepts of benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom, faith, loyalty, filial piety, honesty, shame, courage, in the past folk home life, in the form of carving the generations of inheritance. These Chinese people's pursuit of life and behavioral norms, may be the ancient people in the beautification of the home, enjoy the body and mind at the same time, the future generations of children and grandchildren for the enlightenment of the original readings of the subtle education. It can be imagined, then, in the ancient houses of the old grandparents, pointing to those carved patterns, plaques, family training, the dolls tell the story and reasoning contained inside, explaining its representative of the moral, teach them to understand the world, to recognize the good and evil, beauty and ugliness, loyalty, treachery, benevolence and righteousness, and urge them to see the wise, and self-improvement, so as to gradually form a good personal cultivation.

To completely figure out the more than 10,000 carved pictures of the cultural information contained in the heritage and schools, Wang Shanshui as if looking for a needle in a haystack in the ancient literature carefully screening, painstakingly search, do not let go of any valuable clues. Some of the notes are good to check some, can be in the "Ancient Chinese Architecture", "all like China 300 God", "Mustard Seed Garden Painting Biography", "Chinese celebrities through the ages image canon", "China's Auspicious Patterns Practical Book", "Chinese decorative patterns through the ages", "Shaanxi Folk Art Research", "Hancheng Cultural and Historical Compendium" and other books to find out. Some of them can only be found with the help of the information in the carved images themselves, in such literature and history-oriented books as Tao Te Ching, Shan Hai Ching, Poetry, Historical Records, Gu Wen Guan Zhi, Customs and Customs, Yong Le Dazhi, Soshen Ji, Tai Ping Guang Ji, Shuowen Jie Zi, Siku Quanshu, Kang Xi Zi Dian, Zi Zhi Tong Jian, and so forth, which is very difficult to imagine. Mr. Wang in the "Shaanxi traditional folk carving culture research" book, listed more than 40 kinds of bibliography, has been amazing. But Mr. Wang said that this is only a representative part, accounting for about 2% of the total bibliography. Difficult is a lot of books are out of the way, even if you know the name of the book, not just any library can be found, for which they had to look around, during the search for a large number of notes, and then come back to the sand like a fine selection of material, and strive to use the most concise and vivid text, that is, citation and in-depth, for the spare images to make precise annotations. So that readers in the appreciation of the beauty of the picture at the same time, but also from the text to experience the wisdom of the ancients.

In July 2016, Shaanxi Traditional Habitat Carving Culture Research containing Wood Carving Collection, Brick Carving Collection, and Stone Carving Collection was successfully published, becoming a treasure trove of illustrated and rich literary and historical materials. This book is categorized carefully and accurately, and the language of the text notes is refined. There are: dragon and phoenix, Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, sex and reproduction, filial piety, baby play, celebrity stories, opera, myths, auspicious motifs, fortune, luck, longevity and happiness, beasts, birds and flowers, flowers, landscapes, miscellaneous treasures, Bogu, furniture, plaques, mansion building, religion, legends, marriage, heirlooms, brick carving of the family training, calligraphy inscriptions, congratulations and congratulations, stone carving, stone carving, stone carving, stone carving, stone carving, stone carving, stone carving, stone carving, stone carving, stone carving corridor heart wall, wall with stone, stone, stone, stone, stone, stone, stone, stone, stone, stone, stone, stone, stone, stone, stone, stone, stone, stone, stone, stone, Door pier stone, on the horse stone, bolting horse stone, column base stone, stone artifacts, yinzhai stone carving, etc. ...... Where more than 30 items.

Mr. Wang Shanshui in order to do a good job of this book, 27 years of poor personal strength, do the specialized agencies, special talents, professional team can complete the extraordinary cause, can be said to be in the present, benefiting the great things of the autumn.

Special for Mr. Wang Shanshui "Shaanxi traditional folk carving culture research" published, composed a poem to congratulate:

The three Qin earth tread all over,

twenty-seven years of search.

We spent all night and day laboring,

and we were tied by the spirit to break the title.

The ten thousand charts of the annotated meanings,

the wood, brick and stone carvings are brought together.

The publication of the great book,

The work of the dry fall.