The flower of printing and dyeing in the prosperous period of the Tang Dynasty, the mysterious disappearance of the royal skills. Just when the Chinese people thought that an ancient skill had disappeared, traces of the ancient skill were discovered in villages in southern Zhejiang. In a remote village, an old man spent all his family property just to dye high-quality homespun cloth with intertwined blue and white patterns. Is this paranoia, foresight, or chance. Spanning thousands of years of ups and downs, a craftsman’s rough life.
Clamping is an extremely ancient printing and dyeing method. Its principle is similar to tie-dying and batik, but the process is more complicated. According to historical records, jiavaling flourished in the Tang Dynasty. By the Song Dynasty, this printing and dyeing process gradually disappeared, so that it is difficult for people today to imagine how the ancients used wooden boards to clamp bright colors and gorgeous patterns on cloth.
Xue Xunlang, who still masters this skill, has no family history. 20 years ago, Xue Xunlang came to Shanghai to look for ways to make money. Unexpectedly, he encountered a big deal as soon as he arrived in Shanghai.
In 1988, Xue Xunlang met Kubo Masha, who collected Chinese homespun cloth in Shanghai. She asked Xue Xunlang to return to Cangnan to show her some ancient textiles. Soon, Xue Xunlang returned to Shanghai with a clip Valerian called Bai Zi Tu. Kubo Masha was very surprised when she saw Bai Zitu's Jia Val, and immediately asked Xue Xunlang to go back to his hometown to buy Jia Val.
Colorful valerian
In Japan, valerian is completely handmade and very expensive. According to historical records, during the Tang Dynasty, colorful valerian dyeing with various patterns on silk fabrics was very popular. The poet Bai Juyi of the Tang Dynasty left such a poem as "Chengdu New valerian, Liang shouted to break the rouge." It is a portrayal of Jia Val's prosperity in the Tang Dynasty.
The most unique thing about Jia Val is that its colors and patterns are all printed with engraving blocks. There are seventeen blocks in total, with patterns on the front and back. The front of each piece has the same pattern. After folding the white cloth soaked in water, it is spread flatly on the engraving without any wrinkles. A layer of white cloth is placed between each two engravings, and so on, until seventeen pieces have been laid. Engraving.
Jiaval engraving
Xue Xunlang originally knew nothing about Jiaval printing and dyeing. After receiving the order from Kubo Masha, Xue Xunlang thought of the Dai family in Huguangdian Village. In Cangnan, the Dai family has been making valerian for 100 years. However, Xue Xunlang discovered that the Dai family has now opened a printing and dyeing factory and no longer prints and dyes valerian.
It turns out that the Dai family stopped making jiaval as early as 1980. The jiaval manufacturing process that had lasted for hundreds of years slowly died out in the early 1980s. Under the impact of modern fabrics, jiaval The products gradually became unsaleable, and all the dyehouses in Cangnan area were closed.
Follow the experts to search for Jia Val among the people
At this time, Xue Xunlang decided to print and dye Jia Val himself. To produce Jia Val, he first needed a set of engravings. The biggest feature of the Jiaval engraving is that there are open grooves and secret passages on the plate. The open groove refers to the recessed part of the engraving, and the secret passage is usually a small hole drilled on the side of the protruding part, but the width can pass through a thin iron wire. The open ditch and the secret passage are the organs of Jiavalian printing and dyeing.
The biggest feature of the Jia Valerian technique is the clamp. In order to firmly clamp the white cloth between the thick layers of engravings, Xue Xunlang came up with the idea of ??clamping the engravings with an iron frame and fixing them with a cap. This method is Xue Xunlang's innovation, but it is a laborious task. Without the help of his son, it would be difficult for Xue Xunlang to complete this work himself.
Cangnan Folk Houses
Only by clamping the engraving plate can the dye be dyed to produce a fixed pattern. The fixed clamped valerian board weighs fifty or sixty kilograms and needs to be lifted up with a lever and lowered slowly. Soak in dye vat. The speed of jian valerian dyeing is very slow. Every time the cloth is soaked in the dye solution for half an hour, it must be lifted up and exposed to air for half an hour to oxidize. A piece of cloth needs to be soaked and oxidized sixteen times before it can be dyed. This time takes a whole day. Xue Xunlang couldn't dye much cloth in a day. This was an extremely energy-consuming job.
After going through multiple tedious and complicated processes, Jia Valian finished the dyeing process, dismantled the frame that fixed the engraving, picked up the engraving, and saw the refreshing orchids in bright colors. Baijia Valerian was born.
Xue Xunlang finally succeeded in printing Jiavaler. However, the peerless skill resurrected in his hands not only failed to bring him a good life prospect, but instead brought him into an embarrassing situation. .
Interview with an old artist who makes valerian clips
When Kubo hemp yarn no longer needs valerian clips, Xue Xunlang's workshop will stop production. At this time, Taiwan's "Hansheng" magazine discovered I learned about Xue Xunlang and his Valerian Clamping Workshop. The "Hansheng" report made Xue Xunlang and his Valerian Valerian Workshop a hot topic. However, as Xue Xunlang became famous, his business became less and less.
In Xue Xunlang's warehouse, there are more than 500 valerians that were stained due to immature technology in the past. So far, Xue Xunlang has invested nearly 300,000 yuan in the Jiaval workshop, but there is no return yet, because there is no market for Jiaval, and only some scholars who study Jiaval need it. Other than that, almost nothing is needed. No one needs it.
Xue Xunlang is now smarter. He will lose money if he starts working, so he won’t start working if there is no money.
According to Xue Xunlang's calculations, through his family workshop, the materials and man-hours required to make a piece of valerian, including the consumption of defective products, a piece of cloth should be sold for 500 yuan to make a profit.
But who would spend so much money on a piece of cloth?