Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1727 Moderate Packaging

The Han Dynasty court used lacquerware as food utensils. Lacquerware with words such as "Daguan" and "Tangguan" engraved on it was kept by the official office in charge of royal meals; and those with the word "Shanglin" were used in the Shanglin Garden Palace.

According to the inscriptions on lacquer plates from the Xinmang period, there were thousands of lacquerware plates in the Changle Palace at that time. The nobles and officials also admired the use of lacquerware, and often wrote their titles or surnames on the lacquerware, such as "Changsha Wanghoujiaban", "Houjia", "Wangshilao", etc., as a mark to show their cherishment.

Most of these characters are written in the Han Dynasty's modified official script. The handwriting is free and fluent, and some are exaggerated and playful. It is also a very ornamental style of calligraphy.

With Zhou Zhi's current familiarity with the brush, even if he has not specifically studied official script, he can use a long-tipped tracing pen to simulate similar handwriting.

Therefore, for this batch of black and gold rhinoceros skin lacquerware, Zhouzhi also used gold lacquer on the inner or outer bottom of the objects, imitating the signing method of Han Dynasty lacquerware, and also left similar ancient Chinese characters such as "Shanglin" and "Daguan".

Oddly enough, with just a few Chinese characters added to it, the objects suddenly become elegant.

As an island country that uses a large number of Chinese characters and Chinese radicals, it is natural that it also accepts this.

As a showpiece of traditional Chinese lacquerware, Zhou Zhi chose the "Lacquer Ear Cup Set" which represents the highest achievement of Han Dynasty lacquerware craftsmanship.

As food utensils, lacquerware is superior to bronzeware, so it was loved by the ruling class of the Han Dynasty and was often unearthed in Han tombs.

However, most lacquerware has decayed. Only the lacquerware unearthed from Mawangdui in Changsha, Fenghuang Mountain in Jiangling and Dafentou in Yunmeng are large in number, diverse in variety and well preserved.

Among them, a large number of lacquerware were unearthed from the No. 1 Han Tomb of Mawangdui in Changsha, among which the most noteworthy is a set of "lacquer ear cup box" containing seven ear cups.

The ear cup is an ancient vessel used to hold wine or soup. It is mostly oval in shape with two ears on both sides. The ears resemble bird wings, so the ancients also called it "Yushang".

The ear cup is oval in shape. It is made by carving out the shape of a whole piece of wood using planing, carving, chiseling and other techniques, and then painting it.

The set of ear cups unearthed from Mawangdui consists of nine pieces in total, including a cup box for storing the ear cups and a lid for the cup box. Both the box and the lid are in the shape of large ear cups, fastened with letter-shaped openings, and contain seven small ear cups.

Six of the cups are stacked in sequence, and the last cup can be reversed with the other six. The reversed cup has a double edge and the cross-section of the two ears is triangular, which fits tightly with the six stacked cups to form an overall ellipsoid column.

This unique design requires very strict design in terms of proportion and size. When the set is disassembled, the cup box is actually not much bigger than the small ear cups, but it can perfectly hold seven small ear cups, and the structure is very compact.

Considering that this is a cup carved purely by hand, it is really amazing.

The decoration of the ear cup is also very distinctive. The inside of the vessel and the lid are painted red without any patterns, which makes it look very clean. It is probably because it is used to hold food and the user psychologically requires cleanliness.

The cup box and the lid are painted with dark brown lacquer, and then painted with red and black lacquer with cloud patterns, vortex patterns, and geometric abstract bird patterns that are prominent in the style of Upper Chu. The bottom is plain without any decoration. The three characters "罪侯家" are written in red lacquer on the upper and lower rims.

The two ears and the outer edge of the small cup in the box are painted with red diamonds and rope patterns to form a geometric pattern. The interior is also painted red, but the three words "Jun Xing Jiu" are written in black lacquer on the bottom of the cup. This set of cup boxes contains the cups, and the shape is so simple and beautiful, because the craftsmen have accurately designed and grasped the factors such as the straightness, symmetry, proportion, and scale of the form of the utensils, reflecting their superb skills and design level, and also reflecting some of their design concepts: First of all, the idea of ​​combination, the overlapping of large and small forms an organic and unified whole. When combined, they become one, and when used, they become many, which contains the Taoist thought.

The second is the pursuit of practicality. Since the Warring States Period, people have been particularly attentive to the design of these daily utensils, and each shape design has been perfected. When the ear cups are not in use, they are placed in the ear cup box, which is clean and space-saving, suitable for home storage. When combined, they can be used as very convenient tableware for outdoor picnics, and have dual functions of home and travel. In addition, its unique feature is that after the ear cup box is opened, the ear cup and the lid itself can be a practical tableware, which fully reflects the practicality of this set of utensils.

This is another Taoist idea, "uselessness leads to uselessness". The function of an object lies not in its substance but in its emptiness. The cup box embodies this point very well.

The third is the oval shape of the cup box, which is determined by its special function and design. The shape is mainly soft curves, giving people a simple, mellow and full feeling. The entire internal structure of the cup box is very compact and stable, and it is in perfect harmony with the external container shape. There is no cumbersome design at all, which fully reflects the ancient people's philosophical thoughts of "harmony between man and nature", "Tao follows nature" and "using utensils to convey Taoism".

Finally, of course, there is the humanization of the design concept. In order to make life convenient, the ancients perfectly embodied the awareness of storage and classification in the detailed design of utensils. They placed multiple small containers closely in a larger container, which saved space, was easy to carry, clean and hygienic, and not easy to lose.

This is called "people-oriented".

Of course, with Lesoag's level of Chinese studies alone, he certainly couldn't explain so many things, so Zhou Zhi specially wrote a "review" for this one-to-one replica of the "Showy Lacquer Ear Cup Set", and wrote all these contents in it, asking Lesoag to remember it and answer like this if anyone asked.

  If the craftsman who made this set of lacquerware heard this article, he would burst into tears - if I knew so much knowledge, why would I be a lacquer craftsman in the jurisdiction of the King of Changsha? !

But the people of the island country just buy into this. Lesoag finally discovered this when he visited the island country and was interviewed.

Elbow called this "proper packaging" and it was good for promotion, so Lesoag had no choice but to accept it.

As a minority painter who combines oil painting, sculpture and lacquerware, Lesoag's personal exhibition in the island country was a great success. The lacquer ear cup set imitated by female workers from the autonomous prefecture's lacquerware factory that he brought with him was also very popular.

At the cocktail party after the opening exhibition, Lesoag gracefully invited sponsors, exhibition guests, and media reporters to taste the Matsutake sashimi that was transported to the island country through the cold chain for the first time. It was seasoned with buckwheat soy sauce from Liangshan Prefecture and local mustard from the island country, and paired with clarified Yi ethnic group wine.

The flavor of the soaked wine is mellow and rich, comparable to the island country's native sake, but it has a more buckwheat aroma, which is also very special.

These are all pure natural flavors from the exotic plateau forests. Today, Japanese people still like to take "pure natural" products.

Of course, this wine can no longer be called "water-soaked wine", nor can it be called "Gan Gan wine" or "Zha wine". When Kong Huaiming registered the trademark, he changed it to the Yi language transliteration "Zi Yi" according to Zhou Zhi's suggestion, and divided it into two types, namely "Zi Yi Zhuo" in the form of original rice soup, and "Zi Yi Qing" after a clarification process.

Once the name and packaging were changed, the soaked wine immediately became more upscale.

Wu Renzhong put in a lot of effort in all of this, so Zhou Zhi decided that he should reward this kid.

So he said, "Don't worry, leave the wedding photos to me. I will also prepare a master sculpture for you as a gift."

(End of this chapter)