Carving dragons and depicting phoenixes cleverly arranges a small space to create a heavenly palace
Exploring the miniature art of my country’s ancient architecture at the Sussequence Gongshu Hall
Our reporter Sun Zhaozhao and Yang Yimiao
"When you open the window and look at each other, the carved railings look at each other. When you close the window, the right side is inscribed with 'The mountain is high and the moon is small, and the water is falling out', and the left side is inscribed with 'The breeze is coming slowly, but the water waves are sluggish'." Selected as a middle school Chinese textbook and an explanatory text written by Wei Xuezhen in the Ming Dynasty. "The Story of a Nuclear Boat" describes how Wang Shuyuan, a master of miniaturization in the Ming Dynasty, carved out various scenes of "a large Suzhou-like Red Cliff" in a peach stone that was "not even an inch long" - "One boat is designed to serve five people and eight windows. For the bamboo canopy, for the kettle, for the stove, for the pot... There are thirty-four characters in total."
Wang Shuyuan was "able to use wood of an inch in diameter as palace utensils", and even the characters he carved were "clearly visible", which amazed the author Wei Xuezhen.
In fact, the uncanny craftsmanship of the ancient Chinese people of "making a dojo in a snail and lion shell, and dancing dragons and snakes on their fingernails" is not just seen in the writings of literati. The "living fossil" is located in Huyi District, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province and was built during the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty. The Gongshu Hall.
Compared with the famous Terracotta Warriors and Horses, Big Wild Goose Pagoda and Gongshu Hall in Xi'an, this national key cultural relics protection unit is a bit like the invisible master in martial arts novels. It is hidden and hidden - quietly located at the foot of the Qinling Mountains. Qicun, Yi District, you will pass by if you step on the accelerator; but it has a hidden reputation - it is the swan song of my country's ancient architectural miniature art and the pinnacle of small wood carving art. Some ancient architectural experts even regard it as the embodiment of The only real object of the Tiangong Pavilion in the "Building French Style" of the Song Dynasty more than a thousand years ago.
What is the inner workings of Gongshu Hall?
If carving is fair, it will be lost by cleverness.
Yuanwang Gongshu Hall, an idiom is quite appropriate to describe its appearance: its appearance is unprepossessing - it is plainly dressed, even a little shabby, with the most common green bricks all over the body, and the most ordinary gray tiles on the top. The architectural style is that of those everywhere in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It can be seen as a hard mountain; it is not majestic, because the terrain is low, and it looks a bit short. The net height of the whole building is about 6 meters; it is alone and not grand. To be precise, the indoor area of Gongshu Hall is only 96 square meters.
It looks like bronze, but it is actually the king - ancient craftsmen used at least 100,000 parts, not a brick or a tile in the Gongshu Hall, and relied entirely on mortise and tenon connections to build a large-scale, splendid wooden palace complex by hand. ——Tiangong Pavilion.
Stepping into the Gongshu Hall, you will be greeted by exquisite carvings and shades of carvings everywhere, as if you have entered a world of wood carvings and flowers.
On the eight hollow panel doors in the hall, the carvings of different shapes are like stars in the sky, a small locking plum blossom with as many as 24 petals; the numerous beams, columns, brackets, cornices and railings in the hall are all There are "carved flowers" blooming, such as rhombus, turban, pomegranate, curly grass... all kinds of carved knives and pens are refined and exquisite.
Snakes piercing lotus, lotus in vase, auspicious lotus wrapping around door, lotus wrapping branches... Among the various flower carvings in Gongshu Hall, lotus has the most abundant shapes and the largest decorative area. Ancient craftsmen combined three-dimensional openwork carving, high relief carving and low relief carving. , the "flavor of the knife" exudes a strong "woody taste", and many lotus flowers are still plump and plump after more than 600 years, and the flowers are fragrant. It can be said that "the heaven and the earth are united and good trees grow, and the golden wood moves and the charm of meaning appears."
"The essence of Gongshutang wood carving lies in the use of various wood carving techniques such as round carving, flat carving, relief carving, and openwork carving to decorate and carve the small wooden pieces beautifully." said Wang Jie, deputy director of the Gongshu Tang Small Woodworking Art Museum, " There are more than 40 kinds of wood carving patterns in the hall, which pay attention to the pictograms of objects, leaving no chisel marks, clear outlines, and rich layers. No matter which angle you look at, you can present a magnificent and moving scene."
"The carvings of dragons and phoenixes are cleverly arranged, and the human craftsmanship surpasses heaven's craftsmanship." The pinnacle of Gongshu Hall is the heavenly palace pavilion carved by ancient craftsmen and hung high in the hall.
Looking up and around on the ground, the reporter felt as if he was in a fairyland among the clouds - a small square-inch space with terraces and palaces arranged in the shape of mountains, with overlapping mountains and myriad scenes. Just as Du Mu said in "A Fang Palace Fu", "Five steps to the first floor, There is a pavilion every ten steps; the waist of the corridor is unobtrusive, and the eaves and teeth are high."
"These heavenly palace pavilions are stacked one on top of another, and are connected layer by layer. The maximum column height is 50 centimeters and the minimum is 11 centimeters. They are concentrated on the hall structure according to one-thirtieth of the actual size. Tens of thousands of exquisite small wooden brackets are made of brackets. The box structure composed of grid plates is both strong and light, and it is not easy to deform, so these heavenly palaces are still well preserved after more than 600 years." Wang Jie said, "The heavenly palace buildings have various complex and exquisite double towers, triple towers, etc. There are as many as 213 pavilions, towers, turrets, etc., and the pavilions are connected by flying corridors."
Although the Gongshu Hall is limited in area, the building is still three rooms wide, divided into East Room, Ming Room, and West Room. Each room is divided into front corridor, front hall, back room, Buddhist and Taoist tent and other spaces along the north-south axis. The overall layout is small but large, with main and secondary functions. Each room has a different caisson shape. The most complicated bracket part has more than 20 styles. It is in a clear order and is endlessly interesting. The construction also follows the principle of "lightness, essence, darkness, reduction". "Principle, the Heavenly Palace Pavilion in the front room of the Ming Dynasty is the most beautiful and exquisite.
From bottom to top, the front room of Gongshu Hall is divided into partitions, hanging platforms, flat brackets, ground floor of the pavilion, second floor of the pavilion, and third floor of the pavilion. The top of the pavilion is five-layered buckets and four caissons; during this period, the brackets are densely packed like a honeycomb, and the caissons are swirling. Like a water vortex, the partitions of the pavilion are only half a centimeter thick and as light as Zen wings; the flying cover, orange fan and other parts are carved with plum blossoms, orchids, bamboos, chrysanthemums, peonies, etc. The knife skills are exquisite and the shapes are lifelike, revealing the religious divinity. Showing deep human warmth.
The Heavenly Palace and Pavilions are an ideal fairyland world based on traditional Chinese architecture after Buddhism spread to the east. This was embodied in the "Building Methods" written in the Northern Song Dynasty, which is a symbolic small wooden architectural model - "seven feet two inches high, It is one foot one inch to one foot three inches deep, and the jumps reach the eaves and are outside the columns. The lower level is the auxiliary steps, the middle level is the flat seat, and the upper level is the waist eaves..." Gongshu Hall is regarded as the only physical object that embodies this model. , is an innovative reproduction based on the pattern of "Creating French Style".
"As the saying goes, 'A doctor needs to be old, and a carpenter needs to be skillful." "Seventy-two lines, skill belongs to the carpenter."
Compared with the "big woodwork" that builds the wooden frame of a house and looks like a skeleton, small woodwork is like filling the building with flesh and blood. It is also called decoration work. Usually the components are small in size, such as doors, windows, railings, floors, ceilings, etc., with fine workmanship and high technical content. It is high and has rich humanistic connotations, so it can better reflect what the ancients thought in architectural space, and can better demonstrate "ingenuity".
According to rough statistics, the "full of brocade" small wooden Tiangong Pavilion in Gongshu Hall is 1.5 meters high and 2.7 meters above the ground. It has at least 100,000 components in total. It uses a box structure as an overlapping method, and is all assembled with a mortise and tenon structure. The pieces are integrated and combined layer by layer. The overall design is gorgeous and exquisite, full of life and interest, and is completed in one go. The "fineness" of its carving and the "ingenuity" of the structure are breathtaking. It can be called the existing small wood carving art in my country. of treasure.
Who built such a rigorous, well-organized and exquisitely crafted ancient architectural treasure, and what is its purpose?
As the saying goes, "immortals like to live in towers, and their ethereal bodies meet the sky." Gongshu Hall was built by folk church members in the Guanzhong Plain during the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty to commemorate the achievements of the ancestors.
"The main building originally had four halls, but the first three have disappeared. Currently, only the last hall with the Tiangong pavilions remains." Librarian Zheng Lili said, "Because the Tiangong pavilions in the hall are mainly used to worship various gods. , Gongshu Hall is also called the Hall of Ten Thousand Buddhas.”
"The one who beats me gets three pieces, the one who loses gets half of it." This saying has been passed down among the people, which vaguely reveals the confidence of the craftsmen at that time in turning wood into weapons and transporting weights.
It is understood that there were about 103 craftsmen involved in the construction of Gongshu Hall at that time, mainly from the Qin and Jin Dynasties. It took eleven years to complete. It is said that "craftsmen come from all over the world, and their craftsmanship spreads all over the world." Due to the construction effect of "getting Gongshu's cleverness", later generations renamed this place Gongshu Hall.
"Skills are as close as the Tao, and concentration is the heart, style, bone and soul." Gazing at the miraculous heavenly palace pavilions in the Gongshu Hall, the craftsmanship spirit of the ancient Chinese "concentrate the mind, calm down, concentrate, and carve every detail" is still shining brightly. The wooden structure achieves a high degree of unity between large and small, movement and stillness, void and reality.
Gongshu Hall fills the gap in the form of "Tiangong Pavilion" in the history of architecture. It is the swan song of the miniature art of ancient architecture in my country and has very important artistic research value.
Painting seems to have some power
"If the majestic carvings of the Dharma Hall are skillfully carved by Gongshu, the painted wings of the holy statues will seem to have Daoist skills." This couplet on the door of the east pavilion of Gongshu Hall not only illustrates the exquisiteness of the carvings in the hall, but also borrows the name of the "painting sage" Wu Daozi. , praising the exquisite painting here.
Wu Daozi was especially good at Buddhism, Taoism, and figures. The most distinctive color paintings in Gongshu Hall are the figure paintings of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism.
Laozi left the customs and Tripitaka traveled to the west. The content of "Avalokitesvara Sutra" is similar to the Dunhuang murals. "Double Ninth Recruitment" has the charm of water and land paintings in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties... There are nearly 30 paintings of Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist figures in Gongshu Hall, with colors Mainly black and red, with gold added, the figures are painted either preaching or discussing scriptures, holding tea and offering fruits, holding a gui to travel to immortals, or stepping on auspicious clouds. The pure and solemn fairy-like bones are integrated with the heavenly palaces and pavilions. .
In the picture "Kong Ming's Servance" painted on the pillar of the partition door in the east corridor of Gongshu Hall, Zhuge Liang, who represents the Confucian ideal, is in the center of the picture, with a prominent image. On both sides of the picture are Liu Guan and Zhang Branch; another picture is "Father's Rushing for the Examination" The picture records the moment when a Confucian scholar leaves home to take the exam. The man in the middle kneels down and worships, while the family members standing sideways hold trays with wishful things on them. There is also a picture of "Examination in the Examination Hall", which means "Buddhism subdues the dragon" inscribed on the gold medal list. "picture……
"The colorful paintings in Gongshu Hall with the theme of Confucian 'management of the world and practical application' are all related to the Confucian ideological education of 'establishing meritorious service, establishing virtue, and establishing speech'. They are not just the inheritance of painting techniques, but also the ethical outline of 'Taoism'" 'The reproduction and propagation of these spiritual pursuits that have been passed down in Chinese society for thousands of years." Tong Chaohui, a doctor of art at Tsinghua University, believes that these paintings also entrust the general public's hope that "the world will be righteous and the world will be peaceful."
The Gongshu Hall is painted all over the entire surface of the ancient wooden building, covering a total area of about 700 square meters. It is rich in connotation, exquisite and delicate, with excellent lines and colors. The main colors are red, black and yellow. The frame windows are made of lime powder, and the brackets are multi-purpose. Decorated with stone green brushes and stone red panels, it looks majestic.
Surprisingly, after more than 600 years of vicissitudes, some of the paintings still have no peeling, no cracking, bright colors, and some flowers are even as fresh as ever. This is because ancient craftsmen were also "detail-conscious" .
According to the grade, ancient color paintings are divided into royal and seal color paintings, Xuanzi color paintings for temples and official buildings, and Su-style color paintings for folk use. Gongshutang color paintings are mainly Xuanzi colors, with black and red backgrounds and powder pastes. Gold, the process is a bit like making a cake, that is, put the glue powder into the squeeze powder bag, apply it according to the pattern lines, so that the powder traces highlight the three-dimensional effect of the pattern, then apply lime yellow liquid and gold glue, and finally press the gold foil into the pattern Cut into wide and narrow strips and paste them on the pattern to make the pattern rich and colorful.
Based on analysis using various instruments, cultural conservation personnel found that the structure of Gongshutang painted paintings is wood-white bottom layer-pigment layer, the white bottom layer is kaolin, and the pigment layer is gilded with leach powder.
"The pigments are scientifically blended such as stone blue, azurite, stone green and red gold, which can make the pattern bright and durable," Zheng Lili said, "At the same time, the thickness of the Gongshu Hall painted floor is only about one millimeter. , because it is very thin, it is not easy to peel off, and this primer-reducing painting process also allows the painting to be well preserved.”
What is even more exquisite is that according to the research of ancient architecture experts, the Gongshu Hall painting uses rare techniques such as "Purple Dragon Cover" and "Crouching Gold and Green Point" which are currently on the verge of being lost.
"Purple Dragon Cover" is a kind of protection technology. Preliminary judgment may be that after the painting is completed, varnish, lacquer or tung oil is applied on the surface of the painting to protect it.
"Even craftsmen who have been engaged in painting for many years have not heard of this craft." Zheng Lili said.
"Wo Jin Dian Cui" is painting on a gold background. Because it is quite expensive, this kind of craft is rare even in the Forbidden City.
According to Zheng Lili, “workers first ground gold leaves into mud gold, painted the base with mud gold, and then used small tools to peel off the ground paint to reveal the pattern that the craftsman wanted to draw. This craft was developed in the late Qing Dynasty. Very few people can do that.”
"Gongshu built the Buddhist hall with skillful skills, and the woodwork was exquisitely carved and painted with incense." The ancient craftsmen's brushes were like gods, so that Gongshu hall was covered with a colorful coat. It not only beautified and decorated the wooden components of the building, but also acted as anti-corrosion and pest control. , The role of protecting wooden components.
The "exquisiteness" of the carvings, the "cleverness" of the structure, the "exquisiteness" of the shapes, and the "fineness" of the paintings complement each other, making the whole building appear mysterious and elegant, with all things animistic. The so-called "five exquisite pavilions" When the clouds rise, there are many fairies among them."
“The exquisite architectural structure of Gongshu Hall is the carrier of decorative patterns and paintings, and the vivid decorative patterns and paintings are the deepening and continuation of the architectural structure. The exquisite architectural structure and the magnificent decorative patterns complement each other, fully embodying the Chinese The charm of the imagery of architectural culture and the beauty of the 'wooden nature'." Some researchers have commented on Gongshu Hall and believe that Gongshu Hall is a well-deserved treasure of existing wood carving and painting art in our country.
A prudent path to protection
As a small wooden building complex that has completely preserved the essence of Ming Dynasty architecture, most of the wooden components of the Gongshu Hall "Tiangong Pavilion" are well preserved, and the wood has been identified as being made from poplar species.
According to cultural preservation experts, poplar wood has poor corrosion resistance and insect resistance. It is speculated that the production and processing techniques of ancient craftsmen played a good role in anti-corrosion and insect prevention because Gongshu Tang can be preserved in its current state.
However, after more than 600 years of ups and downs, the small wooden buildings of Gongshu Hall still inevitably face various threats such as decay, discoloration, insect infestation, and peeling of the paint layer.
"It is very difficult to protect small wooden buildings. Thorough research must be done before protection, otherwise it may not be restored after disassembly." Wang Jie said, "The overall protection of Gongshu Hall is like treating an old man in his twilight years. It requires comprehensive orthopedics, Experts from dermatology, psychiatry and other fields consulted to find a more precise repair plan, and every step was like walking on thin ice.”
The rescue and protection of Gongshutang began in 2014.
At that time, Gongshutang established the Xiaomuzuo Art Museum, and Wang Jie, who had just graduated from university, became one of the few professional conservators here.
"When I first came here, there was an incense burner in the Gongshu Hall, and villagers often came to burn incense. During temple fairs, a stage would be set up in the yard to sing operas, which was not conducive to the protection of cultural relics." Wang Jie recalled, "We spent half a year doing this Through the ideological work of the villagers, the incense burners and temple fairs were moved outside."
The red bricks with poor moisture resistance at the bottom of the wooden structure were replaced with bluestone slabs to effectively block the reabsorption of moisture on the ground; a protective hall was built to prevent rainwater intrusion; multiple temperature and humidity detectors were set up to collect research data... "At the beginning, It is very remote here and there is no place to work, so we can only rent nearby private houses." Wang Jie said, "I am studying history, and my major is not very relevant, so I can only study hard by myself, because the protection of Gongshutang cannot be delayed."
Since then, the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Research Institute has sent professional and technical personnel to conduct on-the-spot investigation and mapping of the current preservation status and main diseases of Gongshutang colorful paintings, and conducted targeted laboratory protection and restoration research.
Since the whole structure is made of pure wood, any slight mistake will cause irreversible damage. Therefore, every repair is based on on-site sampling and repeated testing, which can be said to be extremely cautious.
For example, in response to the white rot problem in the "Tiangong Pavilion" that has existed for more than 20 years, cultural conservation experts used a combination of needle injection and brushing to carry out rescue treatment. Among them, needle injection was applied to severely decayed parts such as the mouth, and absorbent cotton, brushes, etc. were applied. Brush other decayed parts of the bucket arch twice a day for two consecutive days to achieve the purpose of sterilization. After chemical treatment, wrap the treated parts with plastic film to enhance the penetration of the drug. At the same time, avoid spraying and dripping that may affect the surface painting of the bracket.
Discoloration, cracks, mud stains, blistering, peeling of the paint layer... Gongshutang small wood paintings are faced with a series of disease threats. If you want to protect and repair them, you must first remove and clean the surface dirt. This is a Complex and delicate work, such as cleaning solvents, must undergo complete suitability tests and tests to confirm that it will not damage the shallow or deep layers of the painting, ensure that it will not remain in the painting and ground layers, and will not activate harmful substances. can be used.
In addition, the cultural preservation staff also recommended that detailed hand-drawn line drawings be produced for each color painting in the Gongshu Hall, and the preservation status, repair traces and disease status of the cultural relics should be recorded in detail in the form of icons, and modern digital image processing technology should be used as much as possible. , using digital camera panoramic photography to record the original condition of the paintings in the hall.
Since June 2017, more professional monitoring has also continued at Gongshutang.
Based on the survey results of the main building environment of Gongshu Hall and the internal environment of Gongshu Hall's small woodwork, cultural preservation experts installed multiple temperature and humidity, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and total atmospheric organic volatiles detection instruments indoors; the outdoor portable weather station can also monitor outdoor temperature, Humidity, UV, rainfall, wind speed, atmospheric pressure and other parameters can assist in protection work.
In November 2017, the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics Protection and the French Heritage Science Foundation signed a cooperation project on the "Research on the Protection of Painted Wood Works of Gongshu Hall", which included research on the traditional craftsmanship of oil-decorated paintings on ancient buildings in Gongshu Hall and research on adhesive materials for painted paintings. , research on tree species of construction timber, etc. This project was included in the "Fourth High-Level People-to-People Exchange Mechanism between China and France".
In the past six years, riding on the "wings" of Sino-French cooperation, Gongshu Hall, a national treasure hidden in the countryside, is becoming known to more and more people and is receiving more and more professional protection.
(Xinhua Daily Telegraph)