Inheriter of Chu bamboo slip making skills: Searching for text codes that have been dusty for thousands of years

　　China News Service, Jingzhou, February 12th: Title: Inheriter of Chu bamboo slip making skills: Searching for a text code that has been dusty for thousands of years

　　China News Service reporter Guo Xiaoying

　　It is the Spring Festival of the Year of the Dragon in the Lunar Calendar. In the "Chu Yun Pavilion" in Jingzhou, Hubei Province, Huang Youzhi, the representative inheritor of the provincial intangible cultural heritage of Chu bamboo slip making skills (national project), still insists on copying ancient characters every day. The ancient Chu characters are in His writing flows quietly.

　　"The writing of Chu State pays attention to writing in seven points and drawing in three points. It should have the regularity and elegance of calligraphy, but also the freehand brushwork of hieroglyphics." Huang Youzhi said that what he just copied was circulated and used in the Chu State more than 2,000 years ago. The text was originally recorded on Baoshan Chu slips and was lost after the Qin Dynasty.

Huang Youzhi, the representative inheritor of the provincial intangible cultural heritage of Chu Bamboo Slip Making Skills (national project), writes the Chu Bamboo slip text in handwriting in the studio. Photo by China News Service reporter Guo Xiaoying

　　In the past half century, a large number of Chu bamboo slips from the Warring States Period have been unearthed in Ji Nancheng, the ancient capital of Chu in Jingzhou, Hubei Province, and its surrounding areas, vividly showing the handwriting and ink ink of the Chu people more than 2,000 years ago, and revealing the mystery of Chu’s handwriting history. veil.

　　"The moisture content of the unearthed Chu bamboo slips is as high as 400%, just like cooked noodles. It is very difficult to transport and preserve, and the originals are difficult to display, so we have to copy them." Huang Youzhi said that the purpose of copying the Chu bamboo slips is to restore them to their original appearance. Let the world see these treasures in their original appearance.

　　More than 2,000 years ago, the Qin Dynasty destroyed the six kingdoms, the Chu writing system was abolished, and the Chu slips also slept underground. When they were seen again, the writings on them were like "heavenly books". The first step for Huang Youzhi to copy Chu bamboo slips was to recognize the characters.

　　In the 1990s, Huang Youzhi copied a large number of characters on Chu bamboo slips while assisting Teng Rensheng, then director of the Jingzhou Museum, in compiling the "Chu Bamboo Bamboo Bamboo Bamboo Bamboo Bamboo Bamboo Bamboo Bamboo Bamboo Bamboo Bamboo Bamboo Bamboo Bamboo Bamboo Bamboo Bamboo Slips". He compared the complex writing materials of the Warring States Period with the ancient texts of "Shuowen Jiezi" and copied and studied them repeatedly. There are more than 3,700 bamboo slips, more than 50,000 characters, and more than 4,000 prefixes. The cards Huang Youzhi made for these characters fill more than 40 drawers.

　　After years of hard work, Huang Youzhi's copying of characters has accurate glyphs and both form and spirit. His level of compilation, interpretation and interpretation of ancient characters has also been greatly improved. He can interpret various Chu documents and inscriptions accurately. He described the feeling as "like reading a newspaper from the Warring States Period." And these ancient and mysterious words also have different meanings and brilliance in his eyes.

Huang Youzhi, the representative inheritor of the provincial intangible cultural heritage of Chu Bamboo Slip Making Skills (national project), copied Baoshan Chu Bamboo Slips in the studio. Photo by China News Service reporter Guo Xiaoying

　　Ten years of work on sorting out Chu bamboo slips and copying characters laid the foundation for Huang Youzhi's bamboo slip making, but this was just the beginning. In 2001, Huang Youzhi was commissioned by the Jingmen Municipal Museum to undertake the task of copying Chu bamboo slips in Guodian. This was also his first time to systematically copy Chu slips.

　　"Just being able to read and write is not enough. The production process of Chu bamboo slips is extremely complicated. From material selection to steaming and smoking, it requires dozens of processes." Huang Youzhi said that due to missing the point, more than a thousand copied bamboo slips were all It became moldy and discolored and was scrapped.

　　After experiencing the first failure, Huang Youzhi decided to copy the Chu slips in strict accordance with the ancient method. He consulted a large number of ancient monographs on the production of bamboo and wood slips, and visited famous bamboo and wood craftsmen in Jingzhou to learn the techniques of making Chu slips. In the end, more than 2,000 Guodian Chu bamboo slips were reproduced, just like the originals, with bright colors and brilliance.

　　Over the years, Huang Youzhi has repeatedly conducted research and experiments, and developed a complete and scientific process while inheriting the ancient bamboo slip making techniques of "killing", "steaming" and "weaving", and has become a well-known bamboo slip making expert. His works are in Exhibited in more than ten museums at home and abroad. He has copied more than 10,000 bamboo slips and copied more than 100,000 characters of bamboo slips. In addition to "Guodian Chu Bamboo Bamboo Slips", his representative works also include "Liye Qin Bamboo Slips" and Tsinghua Bamboo Slips "Calculation Table". In 2024, Huang Youzhi will also undertake the copying work of "Juyan Han Slips". In order to pass on the skills of copying ancient characters and making bamboo slips, he will also start writing a series of calligraphy books on Chu bamboo slips.

　　"Sitting in this place, you are no longer yourself, but the saint who wrote the bamboo slips more than 2,000 years ago, or an ancient person." To this day, Huang Youzhi still remembers the teachings of his teacher Teng Rensheng and understands its meaning: Stay calm and rational in the hustle and bustle, inherit and love in solitude, search for thousand-year-old text codes in silent volumes, and understand the historical events behind the words. (over)