Sometimes, God will deliberately make things difficult for weather forecasters.
It was clearly promised that it would rain, but he kept holding it in, like an alcoholic who drank so much that he didn’t want to go to the toilet, or like a child who went crazy while playing, until he couldn’t hold it in any longer. , and then it poured down.
This was the weather condition I encountered that day in Taoyao Village.
If you talk about the journey from Jingxian County to Shexian County, you can always find some expected joy - this is the birthplace of Xin'an Painting School and Huangshan School of Painting, and it is also the manufacturer of China's top four treasures of the study. base, then you can encounter some surprises in Taoyao Village in Jingxian County.
To the public, the pottery village is not well-known, and due to the lack of systematic archaeological excavation and research, those pottery accumulated over thousands of years are still in the ancient pottery kiln ruins in the surrounding green mountains. Fall into deep sleep.
Walking into the ancient pottery exhibition hall in the village, you will have a strong sense of time travel, as if you have entered a kitchen or storage room of the Southern Tang or Song Dynasty, and experience the real life atmosphere of the ancients. . From some of the ancient pottery fragments, we can clearly feel some of the flower-and-bird painting techniques of folk painters at that time. Clues to the mysteries such as "Xu Xi's Wild Escape" and "Low Ink Method" recorded in the history of painting may be hidden among them.
Taoyao Village is located in Qinxi Town, Jing County, Xuancheng City, Anhui Province.
If you like traditional Chinese culture, especially Chinese painting and calligraphy, then the journey south from Hefei will always bring you some expected joy.
After Wuhu, you can reach Jingxian County in less than an hour's drive, which is an important production base for rice paper and Xuan pens.
As early as the late Song Dynasty and the early Yuan Dynasty, the Cao family in Xiaoling, Jing County once monopolized the production and operation of rice paper. After entering the Yuan Dynasty, under the promotion of the "Four Yuan Dynasty Masters" of Ni Zan, Wang Meng, Wu Zhen and Huang Gongwang, ink and wash freehand painting became the mainstream of Chinese painting circles. Their techniques and styles were closely related to the rice paper produced in Jingxian County; Xuancheng's local "Xuanbi" has a longer history. During the peak periods of the Tang and Song Dynasties, the purple hair produced locally was famous all over the world and was treasured by literati and painters.
Jingxian County borders today’s Huangshan City to the south. Not far away, Shexian County was the political, economic and cultural center of ancient Huizhou. It gave birth to Huizhou merchants and Huizhou cuisine, as well as the origin of Huizhou ink and She inkstones. Main origin.
This route covers the four treasures of the study - pen, ink, paper and inkstone. It can be called one stop.
If you customize the itinerary to be more extensive, you can go directly to Hangzhou from She County along the Xin'an River, via Qiandao Lake, Tonglu, and Fuyang. From Jing County to the north, it borders Wuhu. From here, you can reach Nanjing by entering the Yangtze River.
Hangzhou and Nanjing, the two most important cultural centers in southern China, were the capitals of different dynasties, especially during the Wei, Jin, Five Dynasties and Southern Tang Dynasties and the subsequent Southern Song Dynasty. At that time, merchants gathered and humanities flourished. Together, countless writers and artists have left countless wonderful works.
The important production and manufacturing base for these works that provide the Four Treasures of the Study is the ancient Huizhou area with a radius of about 300 miles, centered on Huangshan Mountain and including Jing County and She County.
In the 1930s, brothers Zhang Daqian and Zhang Shanzi stayed in She County after traveling to Huangshan along the Xin'an River from Hangzhou. Zhang Daqian customized a commemorative ink here, with the words "Return of the Sea of ??Clouds" written on the front. He distributed it to his friends after returning to Shanghai, and he was very proud.
The important reason why the Zhang brothers came to Huangshan was that they were inspired by the group of painters who were active here in the early Qing Dynasty. These painters included Mei Qing, Shi Tao, and Hong Ren. For example, Shi Tao, who was born in 1642, was a Having lived in Xuancheng, Anhui for a long time, he first visited Huangshan when he was 28 years old. Coincidentally, Zhang Daqian also started his first trip to Huangshan at the same age.
After these painters in the early Qing Dynasty experienced and understood Huangshan, they formed a unique painting style. Modern people classified them as the "Huangshan School of Painting". Later, Zhang Daqian, Huang Binhong and others took up their mantle. Although Huang Binhong himself was born in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, his origin is also from Shexian County, Anhui Province.
The term "Huangshan Painting School" is broader and appeared earlier than the "Huangshan Painting School". There is another group of painters who are also active here - the "Xin'an Painting School". In the early Qing Dynasty, Zhang Geng was among the The "Pushan Theory of Painting" written by Wang Shizhen concluded that many of this painting school learned from Ni Zan; Wang Shizhen believed that the founder of the Xin'an School of Painting was Hongren (also known as Jianjiang), who, together with Zha Shibiao, Wang Zhirui and Sun Yi, was called "Xin'an Painting School". Four”.
Regardless of the Xin'an School of Painting or the Huangshan School of Painting, their common feature is that they use the Huangshan Mountain and surrounding scenery as the creative matrix, advocate "learning from nature", and break through the "early Qing Dynasty" in terms of structure and technique. The "Four Kings" stick to the old-fashioned and sweet style;
Secondly, they all admire Ni Zan, Huang Gongwang and others, allowing ink to have richer expressive power. And this has nothing to do with the high-quality pen, ink, paper and inkstone produced locally.
Although the land of southern Anhui is so closely related to the history of Chinese painting, the destination of our first trip after the epidemic, Taoyao Village, has little to do with painting. From the name of this village, you You can probably guess that this place is famous for pottery making.
If the encounter with rice paper and Xuan pen is the expected joy of this journey, then in Taoyao Village, I encountered some unexpected surprises.
The weather forecast was for rain, but the morning we were in the village it was sunny outside. The clouds have been gathering step by step, collecting water vapor in the mountains, woods, and paddy fields in the village.
The temporarily clear weather gave us the opportunity to examine the general geography and topography of this thousand-year-old village.
The area of ??the village is larger than I imagined. The former center of the village should be in a depression surrounded by mountains. A small river flows around the road into the village, surrounded by green mountains, with streets criss-crossing and chickens and dogs hearing each other. There is a flat land in the middle, dotted with cottages, with white walls and black tiles.
The studio of pottery master Hu Jinzhong is located in one of them. "The mountain directly opposite is Longshan, and the one behind is Tiger-shaped Mountain." He stood on the steps outside the yard and pointed around with his fingers, introducing enthusiastically: "The one to the east of Longshan is Qinglong Mountain, and the one to the west is Phoenix. Mountain".
In addition to making his own pottery, Hu Jinzhong is also obsessed with studying the history of local pottery making. He bought an ancient house at his own expense, collected ancient pottery and fragments from various villagers, sorted them into categories, and built an "ancient pottery exhibition hall."
The prosperity of the pottery industry in Taoyao Village can be traced back to the Jin Dynasty. According to the "Jingxian Chronicle·Products" of the Qianlong period: "Clay vessels came out of pottery kilns. It is said that Ge Zhichuan of Jin Dynasty made alchemy and made pottery, and the surnames of Shi and Tao were good at their huts." It was also recorded in the "Jingxian Chronicle" of the Jiaqing Period : "Gexian Temple is located in the pottery kiln in the northeast of the county. It is said that Ge Hong practiced alchemy here and made pottery, so the temple was built."
Unfortunately, Gexian Temple has long been destroyed. According to the records of the Qing Dynasty, the famous alchemist Ge Hong (AD 284-364, named Zhichuan, nicknamed Baopuzi) of the Eastern Jin Dynasty made alchemy here in his early years, which led to the prosperity of the local pottery industry. In the second year of Xianhe (AD 327), Ge Hong heard that Jiaozhi produced cinnabar, so he traveled south to Guangzhou and lived in seclusion in Luofu Mountain. The "Picture of Ge Zhichuan Migration" in Chinese paintings depicts the theme of Ge Hong living in seclusion with his family. The most famous one includes Wang Meng's "Picture of Ge Zhichuan Migration", which is now collected in the Palace Museum in Beijing.
In 1984, Li Guangning, an expert from the Anhui Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau and executive director and deputy secretary-general of the Chinese Ancient Ceramics Society, came here for on-site investigation. Based on the porcelain firing method and the collection of porcelain specimens, he speculated that this was a place from the Five Dynasties to the Northern Song Dynasty. The group of ancient folk kilns during this period mainly produced celadon for daily use.
At the Chinese Ancient Ceramics Research Conference and the Chinese Ancient Export Ceramics Research Conference held that year, Li Guangning analyzed and reported the specimens collected during the two surveys. The participating experts unanimously concluded that the kiln site was fired in From the Five Dynasties to the Northern Song Dynasty, its upper limit may be as early as the late Tang Dynasty, and it should belong to the famous Xuanzhou kiln entrance. This kind of view has been generally recognized by the industry, but until now, no systematic archaeological excavation has been carried out in this area, and the above investigation cannot be used as a conclusion.
According to the "Jingxian Chronicle", the Tao and Shi families inherited the pottery industry in the Ming and Qing dynasties. From the late Qing Dynasty to the eve of the Anti-Japanese War, the pottery industry here was quite developed - "The late Qing Dynasty By the time of the 25th year of the Republic of China, Tao Kiln, Shi Kiln, Xinxi, Luojiachong and other villages had more than 60 to 100 long kilns, with thousands of kiln workers, and their products were sold in Wuhu, Nanling, Xuancheng, Dangtu, Taiping, Qingdao, etc. Yang and other places along the Yangtze River. During the Anti-Japanese War, the pottery industry declined. In 1949, there were three large and small kilns in the county, with more than 40 kiln workers."
At present, Taoyao Village still retains relatively complete traditional pottery making technology. Master Wang Yulin leads seven or eight workers who are still passing on this ancient skill.
The dragon kiln still in use in the village was moved to the entrance of the village in the 1950s. It is now also a research base for the intangible cultural heritage of Zhejiang University, including teachers from the Central Academy of Fine Arts and the Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts. Students often come here to communicate and learn.
In 2008, international ceramic master Li Jianshen learned about the ceramic making process in detail and filmed the documentary "Pottery Kiln". This film represented China at the 10th French International Ceramics Film Festival and won the "Cultural Heritage Award". Later, the documentary was awarded the "Best Ceramics Documentary Award" by UNESCO.
The "Ancient Pottery Exhibition Hall" is a typical Huizhou house of some age. The main building is a brick-and-beam structure. The horse-head wall is used to block wind and fire. It has been washed away by rain and has mottled traces. People are reminded of Huang Binhong's sentence "Where did I get the powder book? The rain soaked the wall and the moon moved the wall."
There is a vestibule at the entrance with a patio in the middle. The space used to be a hall and a wing, but now it is arranged as a showroom. Through the glass showcases, utensils made or used by ancient people are placed one after another.
The distance was so close that I walked into a kitchen or utility room of people from the Southern Tang Dynasty or Song Dynasty. There were all kinds of bowls, cups, pots, wine pourers, roulette wheels, etc. Cans, etc. are displayed on display racks in sequence. Perhaps one of the small pots was used by ancient people to hold salt, the double-eared pottery pot may be used to hold wine, and the large pottery pot in the corner may be used to store grains.
According to Hu Jinzhong, the ancient kiln ruins in Taoyao Village cover an area of ??15,000 square meters, and the highest accumulation layer can reach 6 meters. However, systematic excavation has not yet been carried out. The collections he collected were all collected from the ground, mainly including celadon glaze, black glaze, and yellow-green porcelain.
The earliest pottery and fragments should be domestic utensils made by local craftsmen during the Five Dynasties and Southern Tang Dynasty. Due to the huge demand and cost issues, most of these daily utensils are mainly functional. They are not like the exquisite and delicate works of art in the Forbidden City or other museums, but they all carry the real life of the ancients. The imprints allow us to speculate on the way of life at that time, and we can even touch and smell the sweat and earthy smell left behind by their work. This simple sense of reality brings a shock to people, even far higher than those who were too excessive. Beautiful utensils with flawless whitewash.
It was in this showroom that Master Hu showed me several ancient pottery fragments from the Five Dynasties and the Southern Tang Dynasty. Some time ago, I happened to be writing some words about Xu Xi during the Southern Tang Dynasty. I was a bit hesitant about Xu Xi's "falling ink method" recorded in the history of painting, because there was no trace of painting to support it. As I was writing, I felt that it didn't make sense.
However, the flowers painted on these ancient pottery objects remind me of the "wild and elegant" style of Xu Xi's painting style that people have in mind. They are not like those from the Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties and beyond. The mainstream flower-and-bird painting technique, which mainly uses double hooks and colors, reached the Five Dynasties. Its representatives are Huang Quan and his son from Hou Shu. Xu Xi, who lives in the south of the Yangtze River, has completely different techniques from them.
In "Pictures and Knowledge" compiled by Guo Ruoxu of the Northern Song Dynasty, Xu Xuan, a talented scholar of the Southern Tang Dynasty, was quoted as commenting on Xu Xi: "The falling ink forms the pattern, and the mixed colors complement it, and the traces and colors are inseparable. Yingye". At the same time, Xu Xi's self-report was quoted as saying: "When I started writing, I never used the color to be dizzy and fine." This shows that Xu Xi's painting method is contrary to the dizzy color that has been popular since the Tang Dynasty, and created a new "falling ink" style. Law". The characteristic of its technique is that it mainly uses ink to shape the image, supplemented by color.
In Xuanhe's painting manual, several characteristics of Xu Xi's "dropping method" are also mentioned: "Duxi dropped ink to write the branches, leaves, pistils, and calyx, and then applied color, so the bones, wind and spirit are A masterpiece from ancient to modern times."
In addition to using ink and color combinations to create images, Xu Xi's flowers and birds are also said to be "wild and elegant". Shen Kuo of the Song Dynasty described Xu Xi's paintings as "made with ink brushes, which are very cursory. It's just a little bit of alchemy powder, but it's full of energy and vividness." The "Painting Appreciation" written by Tang Gao of the Yuan Dynasty also said: "Xi painted flowers with heavy strokes and a little bit of alchemy powder, and his business was booming."
It is difficult to see the traces of Xu Xi's own paintings. From the flower patterns on these groups of ceramic fragments, we can fully understand that the folk painters in the Jiangnan area at that time had already mastered the painting technique of not using lines to outline and then coloring. They only used a few "sloppy" brush strokes to draw. The branches, leaves and stems of the flowers are taken out, and natural ink colors are used to create a vibrant scene. Although it is not precise, its brushwork is smooth and its shapes are vivid. It is obvious that it has a certain fixed formula and powder book.
Unfortunately, due to the lack of more professional and detailed archaeological research, these ceramic fragments left by folk painters only provide us with some imagination space about Xu Xi's techniques in the Southern Tang Dynasty. and ideas.
Around three or four o'clock in the afternoon, when we drove to Hangzhou, heavy rain finally came down with thunder and lightning.
The scenery behind him became dim and blurry, and Taoyao Village, along with these many historical mysteries, was also shrouded in mist.