What is China in the Prosperous Era of China? | Restoration of Ancient Laws: Let Earth Bricks Be Known as Gold with "Gold" | Culture | Earth Materials
[Opening remarks]
For over 5000 years, the Chinese nation has continued its historical context, and has written a vast and profound Chinese civilization with the enterprising spirit of upholding integrity and respecting the past. In the prosperous era of China, why is China? Without understanding China from its long historical continuity, it is impossible to understand ancient China, modern China, and future China. Tracing the footsteps of a thousand years of cultural heritage, telling the story of passing down the torch in intangible cultural heritage.
The Imperial Kiln Golden Brick is known as the "number one brick in the world". It has a sound when knocked, is as smooth as ink jade, and has no holes when broken. Although it does not contain gold, it is more expensive than gold due to its exquisite craftsmanship and low yield. This type of fine brick exclusively used for royal palaces has always had only one designated construction site, which is Lumu Town in Suzhou Prefecture, which is now in the Lumu area of Xiangcheng District. In the coldest weather of Suzhou, Sun Jian, the inheritor of the imperial kiln's golden brick making technique, and his master Jin Jin lit the kiln fire in the year of Guimao Rabbit. Over the next four months, the atmosphere in the furnace will be diverse, and a thousand bricks will undergo the tempering of water, fire, and time, turning mud into "gold".
Delicate and warm, traversing for thousands of years
Lumu is located on the west bank of Yangcheng Lake, with delicate and warm soil. Since the Five Dynasties, the brick and pottery industry has been quite developed. In 1911, with the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the production of gold bricks ceased, the kiln industry declined, and many craftsmen no longer engaged in this profession. The Jin family, who have been farming and firing bricks for generations, largely preserved traditional techniques through oral tradition until the 1980s when the restoration of the Forbidden City required plastering materials. Jin Jin's father, Jin Meiquan, attempted to fire 150 gold bricks and lay them on the back porch of the Kunning Palace. The Golden Bricks have come back to life. In 2006, the craftsmanship of Suzhou Imperial Kiln Golden Bricks was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage. The Golden Bricks and Kunqu Opera have once again shaken the world and moved the countryside, becoming the pride of Suzhou culture. Sun Jian, who was in his teens, read a description of the Golden Bricks in a booklet introducing the scenery of Xiangcheng, where he buried a wonderful bond with the Golden Bricks throughout his life.
When Sun Jian entered the Suzhou Lumu Yuyao Gold Brick Factory to work, the factory director and sixth generation descendant Jin Jin had just successfully experimented with the production process of ancient method gold bricks. The reproduction of craftsmanship 600 years ago greatly shocked Sun Jian. Sun Jian, who is still a worker in the brick carving workshop, goes to the next door whenever he has free time to see the teachers and masters burning kilns and making bricks. During a group visit to the Southern Song Dynasty Official Kiln Museum in Hangzhou for research, Jin Jin discovered that Sun Jian had a good understanding of bricks, ceramics, and porcelain, which impressed him greatly. About half a year after entering the factory, Sun Jian joined the ancient method gold brick restoration project team as the youngest member, participating in the restoration of ancient methods and the remaking of Ming and Qing dynasty gold bricks.
The combination of raw water and fire in composite bricks
Why is this large blue brick called golden brick? Some say that due to its hard texture, it makes a sound of gold and stone when knocked; It is said that due to its high cost and extremely low yield, there is a saying among the people that "one piece of gold, one brick.". A more reliable source is that the golden brick is a symbol of imperial power, and the "gold" of the golden brick is the "gold" in the Five Elements, representing hardness and longevity, the indestructibility of the diamond, and symbolizing the eternal stability of the country and the stability of the foundation.
Sun Jian discovered in his studies that the reason why he was called a golden brick may not only be a beautiful wish from the emperor, but its mystery lies in the fact that the entire process of making golden bricks also conforms to the traditional Chinese philosophy of the Five Elements and the 24 solar terms. Originally the most common "soil" in the countryside, it was transformed into "fire" through artificial means, such as bran grass and firewood, and then gradually met with "water". After the combination of water and fire, the soil became "gold".
In order to faithfully restore the production process of ancient method gold bricks, the restoration project team searched for the only record of ancient method craftsmanship in the history of gold brick firing in a local historical material, "Request for an increase in firing labor costs". It is a memorial by Zhang Wenzhi, the supervisor of gold brick firing during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, which records the 29 processes and corresponding cycles of ancient method gold brick firing in just over 100 words. Starting from finding the "Request for an Increase in Burning Prices", Jin Jin spends a lot of manpower and material resources every year to organize the restoration of firing, firing once a year, producing one kiln at a time, with one kiln producing one thousand bricks.
Follow the Heavenly Way to the Water Mill
At the Imperial Kiln Brick Factory, time seems to have stopped hundreds of years ago. The mound of soil and the orange cat were basking in the sun, while the teachers and masters were treading on it and building piles of mud. "After seven rotations, the soil is obtained." "After six rotations, the mud is formed." "After reading the eighth month, the billet is formed." "After a hundred and thirty days, the water is released from the kiln." Everything is carried out completely according to the ancient process. Sun Jian believes that the inheritance of the craftsmanship of restoring golden bricks is largely a creation and invention. There is no particularly detailed record in the literature, and every step is constantly tested.
For example, kneading mud is not a common step in the production of square bricks. Gold bricks need to be broken without holes, and the mud ball needs to be practiced until it is broken without holes. It requires hundreds of times of pushing and kneading with the palm of the hand to remove the pores inside completely. A dense and fine mud material is extremely difficult to serve when it is made into a blank at once. The 6-8 month drying time should also be adjusted accordingly. "Adjust in a timely manner according to the solar terms and weather changes, such as when to open windows for ventilation, when to cover them, when to turn over and flatten them, and pay attention to the subtle changes of each brick like taking care of a baby. If you accidentally crack it, it will crack."
Make every effort to transform human resources into gold
Kiln burning is also a challenge. During the reign of Emperor Qianlong, Jiangsu Governor Zhang Qu wrote in his memorial, "Going out of the kiln goes through more time, whether it is filled with water or not, and whether the firepower is not complete... Those who combine them are often ten or two." After entering the kiln, four types of fuels, namely grass, firewood, tree firewood, and pine branches, are used to burn continuously for 120 to 130 days, causing the kiln to slowly heat up, and when the kiln temperature reaches 980 degrees, the kiln is filled with water. Sun Jian said that at first, the teachers and masters who had burned the kiln in the factory for thirty or forty years felt unbelievable, thinking that burning it for so long was a waste of time. "When bricks are upgraded from ordinary square bricks to highly refined gold bricks, the temperature and curve of the kiln will change accordingly, which is inconsistent with the masters' past experience."
The collision of two concepts is a huge challenge in the process of team inheritance. Together with his master Jin Jin, Sun Jian consulted various ancient literature, inspected buildings paved with gold bricks, and learned about soil knowledge to seek more theoretical basis to support his ideas. Finally, in 2018, they fired a kiln of gold bricks with a yield rate of 12%, which was twice as high as before. "I am particularly excited. That kiln is the best combination of the experience of the old generation and the theoretical practice of the new generation. In fact, the ancient method already contains theoretical things, but the ancients may not have regarded it as a theory or a physical understanding." It was also in that year that the Golden Brick Factory became the official ancient building material base of the Forbidden City. The then director of the Palace Museum, Shan Jixiang, introduced to the public, "We must adhere to the use of traditional materials, techniques, and techniques in order to preserve the original appearance and historical information of ancient buildings to the greatest extent possible." "This is a gift for the future today, to reserve high-quality materials for the maintenance and protection of ancient buildings in the next 600 years of the Forbidden City."
Kiln fire with thousand years of craftsmanship
Each golden brick is stamped with a border inscription, recording the production date, supervisor, and kiln owner's name of the brick. From a handful of yellow soil to the highest hall of the feudal dynasty, it embodies the hard work and wisdom of millions of Lumu kiln people. The names of countless craftsmen have been buried deep in history with the golden bricks laid in the Forbidden City. Only 1458 old golden bricks in the collection of the Golden Brick Museum tell the world of the harsh hardships of using brick making as a "service".
When knocking on the border of "Kiln Household Sun Jian", firing gold bricks had already moved from a skill to a culture. Sun Jian felt a sense of pride and composure in his heart. The Yuyao Golden Brick Museum has become one of the most popular check-in spots for young people, following the Suzhou Museum. Sun Jian pondered on how to establish more connections between BRICS and ordinary people. He and his colleagues born in the 1990s have developed cultural and creative products such as "inlaid gold inscriptions, border style paper weights," teapots, tea tables, and display screens, allowing more people to appreciate the magical beauty of the imperial kiln's golden bricks, which are "simple and contain beauty".
Sun Jian was also increasingly able to appreciate his master's dedication to ancient methods, and the purpose of inheriting the art of making gold bricks was not only to produce material bricks, but also to experience the ultimate spirit of the Soviet Union's work such as "working to the water mill", "water and fire balance", and "conforming to the way of heaven" in the process of making gold bricks using ancient methods. This is the true essence of intangible cultural heritage.
