Almighty painter

Chapter 628 Wu Zhong’s unique skills
"Who built Thebes with seven gates? The names of the kings are written in the history books. Did the kings carry the stones themselves? In the magnificent city of Lima, where do its builders live? Philip of Spain shed tears when the Invincible Armada was silent. Did no one else cry?"

——Excerpt from "A Worker's Question on Reading History" (Germany) playwright and poet Bertolt Brecht——
The art of engraving.

The carving knife in your hand is the paintbrush, and the knife strokes are the paint strokes.

While other painting fields emphasize the use of brushes, printmaking, when using engraving methods to make plates, emphasizes the use of knives.

The information in my mind is like the confluence of the Irrawaddy River and the Yangon River, with the tides coming in wave after wave at the end of the rainy season every year.

He seemed to be standing in an old ancient workshop, staring at a man in blue.

The man sat by the window and used jade sand to grind the stone and carve jade.

He stood in the hall, carving on the wooden board.

Standing in the sunset, using a small silver iron knife shaped like a crescent moon, on a small ring, one strand of horsetail was engraved after another, and the running horsetail looked like flying mane.

From sunrise to sunset.

From sunset to sunrise.

The chrysanthemums outside the window bloom and fade, and then fade and bloom again.

Open and lose again.

Month after month, year after year.

The Ming Dynasty inherited the artisan household system of the Yuan Dynasty and divided people into three types.

The three cannot circulate among each other.

They are called civilians, soldiers, and craftsmen.

Craftsmen had the lowest status and were not allowed to leave their registered occupations and change their professions, become officials, or take the imperial examinations.

It is inherited by descendants from generation to generation.

During the Jiajing period.

The artisan household system is now in name only.

But the life of a craftsman is still humble and hard.

In the same art industry, if we talk about the literati of the Southern School of Painting, such as Dong Qichang, Wen Huiming and other prominent literati, they were born in large mansions surrounded by servants from the moment they were born.

If you enter the officialdom, you can sit and discuss philosophy with the emperor.

If you want to retire, you can invite three or five good friends to sit on a boat or in a painting studio and watch the surging waters of the Qiantang River.

Even if I cannot be an official, I cannot hide myself.

You can also devote all your talent to the wine shop and singing party, with the beautiful maids and dancers spinning and flying their skirts, and the talented men and beautiful women singing poems, throwing the white jade cup in your hand out of the window, singing loudly "Half awake and half drunk day after day, flowers fall and bloom year after year", chasing a peach blossom and smilingly answering "The situation is hopeless, the country is destroyed and the family is ruined, and I can only die to repay the king. Why don't you all enjoy this beautiful spring together?"

In the Jiangnan gardens with flowing water and small bridges, piled with jewels and delicacies, they can live a spring with blooming flowers and no end.

Their lives are often filled with romance and love of wine and women.

But Lu Zigang can't do that.

Lu Zigang was not a literati or a scholar-official, he was just a craftsman.

All that singing and dancing, all that prosperity, all those billowing skirts and dirty wine, are destined to have nothing to do with the craftsmen.

Tang Bohu, a descendant of the Duke of Ju and grandson of the head of the Ministry of War, had his own hatreds and grievances, but even in his most desperate times, he would never lack the generous help of his friends, and he could also fall intoxicated by looking at the picturesque eyes and eyebrows of beautiful women.

Lu Zigang did not have the power to indulge in such things.

A craftsman is not a tide-maker.

The life of a craftsman is like duckweed in the water, rising and falling with the waves amid the mood swings of dignitaries.

The craftsman's skills are the only roots they have.

Their lives, property, future and destiny, everything depends on the carving knife in their hands.

Gu Weijing stood in the carving workshop.

Hundreds of suns, thousands of suns, and decades all melted into this silent moment.

The chrysanthemums outside the window bloomed and faded countless times, and countless human figures walked among them.

At first, most of them were apprentices wearing linen cloth.

Later, there were more wandering merchants, from small vendors to big merchants wearing gold and jade accessories.

He turned into a scholar-official with loose clothes, wide sleeves and a square scarf on his head.

At the end, even the figure of a eunuch from the Imperial Household Department wearing a blue robe embroidered with sea water appeared.

Gu Weijing understood that this meant that Lu Zigang's reputation was growing, his carving skills were being praised more and more widely, and were being recognized and loved by more and more nobles.

Compared with the vast majority of craftsmen in history who did not leave their names, those craftsmen who lost their power and were convicted because the items they made did not meet their superiors' expectations.

He is undoubtedly lucky.

But most of the time, among these endless streams of overlapping phantoms, the most numerous is still the single Lu Zigang.

No wife, no friends.

In the frozen loneliness, there is a frozen man... and the jade-pecking tool and carving knife in his hand.

Ji Yi is his wife and his only friend.

In a moment, Gu Weijing witnessed his youth, young adulthood and old age among these simultaneously existing and intertwined figures.

His figure grew taller and then shorter.

The tool bench was moved several times, a few more furnishings were added to the workshop, and a few more calligraphy and paintings by famous people were added to the wall.

The only constant.

It is the chrysanthemums outside the window and the carving knife in the hand.

Throughout his life, Lu Zigang was famous for preserving the style and lines of literati paintings completely in his depiction techniques.

This even earned him the highest honor for craftsmen in Dongxia's feudal history - to leave his name in the book.

Yes.

For scholars, signing their works is the most natural and reasonable thing, and it is a right that no one can deprive them of.

It’s a pity to meet a stamp enthusiast like Qianlong, who carved more than 1000 seals of various kinds in his lifetime.

Regardless of whether it is their own work or not, people like to put their own stamp on it like a pile driver.

When he got tired of stamping, he asked the eunuch to stamp, and when the eunuch finished, he rolled up his sleeves and continued to stamp. Wang Xizhi's "Kuaiyu Shiqing Tie" has a total of 170 characters, but Qianlong stamped seals on it.

The words are pasted in an orderly manner like the screencaps in a video, densely packed.

The "Mid-Autumn Post" by Wang Xizhi's son Wang Xianzhi was obviously treated much better. The full text has more than 80 characters, and Emperor Qianlong only stamped about private seals on it. The "character-seal ratio" is already much lower.

But for craftsmen.

No matter how exquisite the objects they make are, whether they are jade craftsmen, carpenters, stonemasons or blacksmiths, whether they are making porcelain in Jingdezhen or purple clay teapots in Yixing.

Craftsmen have never had the right to put their names on the items they made.

Qin Shi Huang's soldiers and horses were put on the ground to leave their names on the bricks for quality inspection, or Zhu Yuanzhang was a supervisor who asked the craftsmen to carve their names on the bricks of the city wall, and when the bricks were broken, the craftsmen were dragged out and beheaded. Such things do not count.

In the field of art, "craftsman" and "tool" are separate.

The utensils are elegant utensils, and the people are lowly people.

Carved dragons and inlaid phoenixes, shining with brilliance, and exquisitely crafted, these words become vulgar once the craftsman's name is added.

In the eyes of the powerful and influential scholars.

Craftsmen are not human beings, they are a tray, a river clam, a lacquer box. They are just containers for carrying beauty. How could the lacquer fall off or be stained by the gold, jade, and pearls inside the lacquer box?
Xuande furnace, cloisonné, Chenghua cabinet, and Wanli cup.

The porcelain kilns in Jingdezhen have been burning for many years with billowing smoke, which is actually the result of the wisdom and bravery of emperors and the great achievements of officials in charge of pottery. Which craftsman with sweat on his forehead can leave his own name behind?

Only Lu Zigang won such an honor.

Any jade carving or wooden artifact he made was a treasure that was praised by people. Ornaments engraved with his name were exchanged among the nobles at banquets. Even the royal utensils presented to the government offices in the Forbidden City in the north and south had the word "Zigang" carved on them.

This is the reward for his carving skills reaching the pinnacle.

It is also the ultimate reward for his loneliness. Gu Weijing stood six centuries later, looking at the ancients in the long river of time.

Countless Lu Zigangs.

Countless carving knives.

The carving knife rose and fell with a clicking sound.

Sunlight and moonlight flickered alternately on the blade in his hand.

From the prime of youth to the old age of gray hair.

Like a moment of time.

In the ever-changing and fleeting time.

Gu Weijing is the only reef and the only audience.

As he watched, he found that he could now recognize every stroke of the knife used by the man as he carved jade slabs of stone, and could see the subtle lines and movements of the knife every time he lifted and lowered it.

Theoretically speaking.

Lu Zigang was able to carve gold, stone, wood, and bamboo with great precision, and he creatively incorporated painting techniques into his carving.

There is a difference between the carving methods of decorative sculptures and prints.

Even if the landscape is carved on the "stone", jade bracelets, jade plaques, and jade hairpins are carved in the same way as traditional lithographs, there will be subtle differences.

But if you understand one thing, you will understand everything.

What the system provided him was the "Lu Zigang Carving Heart Sutra" which dealt with the flat engraving method that could be used in printmaking.

In the phantom of the man before him, there was a carving that had nothing to do with flat engraving.

Gu Weijing actually didn’t quite understand it.

Grandpa Wu, a neighbor, sells cultural relics and jadeite at home. There are also shops specializing in jade on the tourist street. Gu Weijing has seen some of the tools needed for traditional handmade jade.

Therefore he could recognize what some of the tools in the workshop were.

Water stool, weight, thread tool, jade sand...

There were many things left, but he couldn't even recognize them.

Interlaced like mountains.

But as for all the parts concerning flat engraving, he recognized the techniques and key points of the cut in an instant.

Combining it with the knowledge of Chinese painting and sketching that I already have in my mind, it feels as easy as breathing.

Cutting knife method.

The most basic carving technique, cutting knife technique is equivalent to the center brush in Chinese painting in plane carving. The lines created are the most stable and solemn, the knife marks are deep and powerful, and the created lines give the audience a strong visual impact.

Cross knife technique.

The most varied way of using a knife is to create intersecting knife marks in the picture, which is equivalent to the long lines in a pen drawing. The density of the knife marks, the angle of intersection, and the distance between parallel lines are used to control the rich shadow effects.

Oblique cutting method.

The most delicate carving technique for changing lines...

……

Changes in knife skills, changes in voice, changes in temperament.

at the very beginning.

When he was young, Lu Zigang often frowned when carving. Every time he cut the material, there was a "click" sound and the blade vibrated like an axe.

When Lu Zigang was in his prime, his spirit and strength were at their peak.

At this time he already had the demeanor of a great man.

Focused and confident.

With every peck, every moment, the force is transmitted to the back of the knife, the knife moves steadily and steadily, and every cut is precise and sharp. Pecking at the gold and stone is like carving wood, with only the crisp sound of "cracking", like bamboo joints growing after the rain.

When you get old.

The man's body gradually became hunched and his hair turned gray. At this time, Lu Zigang was no longer as strong as when he was in his prime.

On the contrary, carving is more freehand and relaxed.

He sat by the window, sipping his tea, looking at the bright moon in the blue sky, the spring rain and winter snow, and listening to the hustle and bustle of the city in the distant alley and the rain hitting the roofs.

He wrote about the daily life of the city.

Her figure and temperament seemed less worldly.

One knife is one stroke.

Without any unnecessary noise, the blade cut through the material, deep or shallow, like a fish swimming across the water or a worm turning over soil and sand.

There was only a very slight "sha" sound.

Send and receive freely.

Every bit of strength is used to the best of its ability, not a bit is wasted, and not a bit extra creates unnecessary noise.

It has reached the state of perfection.

finally.

When Lu Zigang carved the last piece of his life, his carving techniques combined the simplicity of a child, the concentration of a middle-aged man, and the freehand style of an old man.

Millions of phantoms around Gu Weijing collapsed and merged into one in an instant.

Millions of cuts merge into one.

This knife cut was like the spring breeze and autumn rain of a lifetime; all joy, resentment and hatred were blown into the knife mark; even the rustling sound of cutting through the soil disappeared.

There was only a very faint "hiss" sound.

It's like the sound of opening a bottle of old wine that has been buried under an old tree for sixty years and drinking it all in one gulp, and then the sound of opening the seal.

It was like a long sigh.

All the phantoms in Gu Weijing's mind disappeared.

The only figure left was the last white-haired old man in front of him.

The old man stared at the jade in his hand for a moment.

He placed the carving knife on the table, stood up, pushed the door open and left.

Never come back.

"Lu Zigang's jade crafting, Bao Tiancheng's rhinoceros horn crafting, Zhou Zhu's inlaying, Zhao Liangbi's comb crafting, Zhu Bishan's gold and silver crafting, Ma Xun and He Yeli's fan crafting, Zhang Jixiu's zither crafting, and Fan Kunbai's sanxian crafting are all unrivaled for a hundred years. They are all skills that have advanced to the level of Tao." - Zhang Dai, "Dreams of Taoan: Wuzhong's Unique Skills"

"Lu Zigang, about sixty years old, suddenly had the desire to go beyond the secular world. He worked as a monk in Zhiping Temple for more than ten years and never went into the city. He was also a strange man." - "Wu County Chronicles·Mudu Chronicles"

"Lu Zigang carved jade with a knife. After Zigang died, his skills were not passed on." - Taicang Prefecture Chronicles, 15th year of Chongzhen
-
Gu Weijing pushed open the door of the study.

Awang slipped in from the door, walked around the room for a while, and then found the large yellow solid wood tea stool next to the small tea table on the desk with ease.

Jumped twice.

She sat on it and bit old man Gu's big treasure, which made a squeaking sound.

When Awang was taken away by Gu Weijing, he had a mild stomatitis. For a period of time, Miss Sakai only allowed him to eat soft food.

Now the stomatitis problem has improved a lot.

The habit of grinding teeth has been retained.

Gu Weijing ignored Awang and took out a metal pencil case from the drawer under the table.

Pen case open.

There are three carving knives inside.

(End of this chapter)