National Tide 1980

In addition to porcelain, this day also shines brightly. There are exhibits that make people clap their hands in admiration. There is also a set of palace lanterns made by the Palace Lantern Factory and the Beijing Crafts and Woodcut Factory - mahogany inlaid with emerald nine dragon bead lanterns.

The main material of the lamp can be fully reflected from the name alone.

It is made of precious mahogany as the pillars and inlaid with jade for decoration.

There are four lanterns in this group, each one is 1.2 meters high. It is a large-scale work among palace lanterns.

Although it is large in size, its structure is particularly exquisite.

The main body of the lamp has an upper and lower axis and is divided into three layers.

The upper layer is a gourd-shaped hanging button carved from a whole piece of red jade, with four dragons underneath.

The dragon's head is high and its body is twisted.

The middle layer is an octagonal lamp body, four of which are glass lamp paintings.

The other four sides are carved with greenery in the shape of traditional auspicious patterns and flowers.

There are five dragons at the bottom.

Four of the dragons have their heads pointing upward and their bodies are in the shape of a "swastika" and can rotate, stretch and bend.

Another thing they have in common with the four dragons on the top floor is that all the dragons have a spherical glass lamp on their heads.

The last dragon on the lower level has its body coiled around the main axis and can even rotate in all directions.

But because the dragon's head is downward, there is no spherical lamp, but a large ball carved from red jade.

Together with the other eight dragons holding spherical lamps, it means spitting out pearls for the Nine Dragons.

Of course, except for the dragon head that spits out a big red jade ball, the mouths of the other eight dragon heads are not empty.

All have a tassel necklace with auspicious miscellaneous treasures hanging from their mouths.

In this way, looking at the whole device, not only the production process is exquisite and ingenious, but also the structure and shape are original, combining movement and stillness.

The red emerald green jade and various gorgeous gemstone accessories inlaid on the lamps make it even more magnificent.

They are four exquisite pieces of wood carving craftsmanship that are both luxurious and intricate, practical and beautiful.

Regardless of the material texture, craftsmanship, or artistic level, they are all top-notch works of existing palace lanterns.

It can even be said that it is a masterpiece that can only be achieved by exerting the existing technical capabilities of the palace lantern factory and the woodcarving craft factory to a high level.

To a large extent, it is impossible to replicate it in the future.

This is true at all.

The reason why I say this is because all the drawings and information of these four lamps come from the leftover manuscripts of the Construction Office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

It was after Puyi left the palace that year that the Beiyang government established the "Qing Dynasty Cleanup Committee" and took over the Forbidden City. Through the joint efforts of many well-known experts, the precious documents were able to be kept intact.

Especially when the antiquities were moved south, this manuscript was left in Beijing and almost lost.

Therefore, it is not easy to still preserve it after all the hardships. It is really the treasure at the bottom of the box of the palace lantern factory.

At the same time, precisely because the structure of this kind of palace lantern is so complex, it requires extremely high financial and manpower costs.

For so many years, the Palace Lantern Factory has never dared to try to make one.

Their situation is actually similar to that of Liu Yongqing, who wanted to make pastel porcelain without showing flowers.

Now it is all coincidences and opportunities that have come together to create the objective conditions for these four palace lanterns to be created. In the end, these four lanterns have appeared in the world like a miracle.

First of all, in terms of financial resources, it was thanks to the existence of Ning Weimin that the funding problem that would have been impossible to solve was solved.

You must know that making these four lamps is not only expensive, but also has a high possibility of failure.

It is impossible for the higher-level units of the Palace Lantern Factory to approve or allocate funds to support this project.

As for the money earned by the palace lantern factory from the decoration project of the Altar Palace, they have no right to spend it as they wish.

In addition to improving employee income, increasing bonuses, and reimbursing medical expenses, the rest still has to be paid.

Even if Tan Palace finances the ordering, there are still big obstacles.

Because everyone has been poor for too long, the Temple of Heaven Garden and the Service Bureau are eager to get real benefits.

Nowadays, all the places where lights should be hung in the Altar Palace have been filled. The decoration level is already among the best in the industry, and there is no shortage of such icing on the cake.

Then who is willing to do such a thankless thing?

It was difficult for Ning Weimin to convince everyone, so he could only provide personal funds to support the Palace Lantern Factory in doing this.

There is no other way.

But then again, thanks to the current domestic economic environment, it has just started.

Whether it is mahogany or large pieces of jade, these raw materials are abundant and inexpensive.

Even the polish of famous painters is at the bottom, and famous craftsmen are not valued by the world.

Only in this way can the production cost be reduced to the point where it is no longer cost-effective.

In the end, all the labor and material costs were evenly divided, which was about 10,000 yuan per lamp.

This incredible cost-effectiveness is the real reason why Ning Weimin is willing to spend this money.

As for the technical requirements required for making lamps, it is said that it is more difficult to solve than the financial resources.

Because woodworking and palace lanterns are actually two industries.

These four lamps require the work of skilled craftsmen who are proficient in both crafts.

Nowadays, almost all the old people in the palace lantern factory have left. They are dead and retired. Where else can you find such "two-door embrace" people?

The reality is that none of the carpenters in the Palace Lantern Factory has such a level of woodcraft.

Although the master craftsmen at the Jingcheng Woodware Factory are good enough, they don't understand the structure of palace lanterns.

So thanks to the fact that the Jingcheng Craft Woodcut Factory was a company that was originally branched off from the Palace Lantern Factory.

Finally, there is still a 61-year-old old carpenter named Li Baoshan left in their factory, who still refuses to accept his old age and refuses to go home to raise his grandson.

This is the only old craftsman in the capital who is proficient in woodcraft and also understands the structure of palace lanterns.

The spherical glass lamp on the dragon's head is composed of several different spherical surfaces and requires skilled technology to make.

An old employee of the Palace Lantern Factory who retired the year before last—Wu Yukuan, an apprentice of Qiu Lantern Han—had not yet reached the age of 70 or 80 and could no longer move.

His technique passed down from generation to generation is specialized in making spherical lamps.

As soon as he heard that the factory was going to make such high-quality palace lanterns, the old man happily accepted the re-employment of the palace lantern factory and came back to help.

To put it bluntly, it was a blessing among all the luck that this thing could be accomplished. Every inch of effort was just right.

If it were just that little bit different, the matter would be out of reach.

For example, if we really have to wait two more years, not to mention that the price of raw materials will skyrocket if we don't get it right.

Can this old master Li Baoshan be found again?

If you find it, can you still do it?

It's hard to say for sure, there are too many variables.

Therefore, once these four palace lanterns are built, the ceiling of wood-carved palace lanterns will probably come to an end, and I am afraid that they will really be unable to be surpassed by future generations.

Looking at the whole country, there are probably only two Nine-Dragon Palace Lanterns gifted by the Empress Dowager Cixi in the Qiao Family Courtyard that are similar in shape.

But those two palace lanterns are still far from being comparable to these four palace lanterns in all aspects, and there is a big gap.

First of all, it was lost in size.

Although the two palace lanterns of the Qiao family were truly gifts from the emperor back then.

But the total height of the lantern is only ninety centimeters, which is thirty centimeters shorter than the four new palace lanterns made by the Palace Lantern Factory.

They are not on the same level at all in terms of size.

Secondly, the selection of materials and accessories are not of the same level.

The two lamps of the Qiao family are only made of ebony bone and mercury glass, which is not comparable to the precious mahogany and inlaid emeralds of these four lamps.

If it comes twenty years later, this will definitely be a world of difference.

Because by then, even a piece of greenery the size of a lantern painting will be worth several million.

These four lamps have a total of four red jade gourd-shaped hanging buttons, four exquisite red jade balls, and sixteen pieces of green jade material, all of which are large-sized and selected materials.

If we add them all up, not counting labor and only counting materials, I'm afraid they are worth at least 200 million.

Even the tassels and tassels are out of season.

The Qiao family's lamps only use ordinary red tassels with auspicious knots.

The four lamps produced by this palace lantern factory are made of real pearls, turquoise, and pearl agate.

To put it bluntly, this kind of fringed tassel is similar to the Chaozhu in the past.

Turquoise, agate, amber, blue crystal, tourmaline, coral, pearl...

I don’t know how much I used, so I have to calculate it by the bucket.

Although the texture is certainly not comparable to the high-quality gemstones inlaid on Liu Yongqing's two pairs of Dasu bottles.

But the problem is that it’s very wasteful to use a lot of it.

Finally, there is also the artistic level, which is even more incomparable.

The two lamps of the Qiao family, the glass lamp paintings are just landscapes painted by ordinary painters of Ruyi Pavilion, without even a signature.

The four lanterns from the Palace Lantern Factory were all sold to famous painters.

With the theme of "Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter", each person represents one season, painted by four professors from the National Academy of Fine Arts, Lou Shibai, Sun Qifeng, Wei Zixian and Fang Zengyuan.

Even jade work is not just entrusted to jade factories and left to ordinary workers.

Kang Shude played a relatively important role in this. He introduced two masters from the jade factory who had won awards to Ning Weimin, and asked the director of the factory to name these two masters.

They are all apprentices of the "Four Great Monsters of Beiyu", one is taught by Liu Deying and the other is taught by Wang Shusen.

There is no doubt that he is the master of technology in today's jade factory.

In general, these four palace lanterns are works spanning four industries and completed by four craftsmen and four painters.

In our country's industrial art industry, this is not only unprecedented, but also something that can only be achieved by chance.

One can imagine how rare it is.

However, these are not all the large-scale special arts and crafts displayed in the main hall of the Sacrifice Pavilion.

The Donghuashi Street Production Cooperative, which was almost completely bought out by Ning Weimin personally and whom he had been supporting, was not idle this year.

Master Jiang Sanchang was introduced by Master Zou Qingshan at the beginning of the year. The only condition for him to work in the production company was to have creative freedom and to make large-scale high-quality utensils as he pleased.

So this year, not only was the Donghua Street Production Cooperative successfully upgraded to the Donghua Street Material Factory, but it also employed as many as 82 workers.

Among the four imperial glazed gates in the capital, the "Jiang Family Gate" and the "Wang Family Gate" also broke away from the sectarian distinction. Together with Chang Yuling, a descendant of Putao Chang, they joined forces for the first time to create.

After repeated calculations by the three of them, they believe that the best performance capabilities of the feeder are mainly concentrated on flowers, trees, fruits, birds and animals.

For this reason, we decided to use "Twelve Flower Gods" as the theme to make twelve large-scale utensils belonging to the same series.

The so-called "Twelve Flower Gods", also called "Twelve Flower Gods", are allusions from folklore and one of the favorite traditional themes of literati.

In our country, each flower has its own flower god, and each has its own beautiful story.

The literati of the past dynasties played with and chanted flowers and came up with many interesting anecdotes, thus creating the Flower Goddess Festival and the Flower Goddess representing the twelve months of the year.

In related legends, there are both male and female flower gods.

However, the most commonly known story that has been passed down to this day is probably the legend of twelve famous beauties in history who were reincarnated as flower gods.

Plum blossoms in the first month, plum blossoms, the flower god.

Apricot blossoms in February, Yang Guifei, the flower god.

Peach blossoms in March, Mrs. Hua Shenxi.

Peony in April, the flower god Lijuan.

Pomegranate in May, Gongsun, the flower god.

Lotus in June, the flower god Xi Shi.

Hollyhocks in July, Lady Li, the Goddess of Flowers.

Osmanthus in August, green pearl of the flower god.

September chrysanthemum, flower god Liang Hongyu.

October hibiscus, flower god Diao Chan.

November camellia, flower god Wang Zhaojun.

Narcissus in the twelfth lunar month, the flower god Zhen Mi.

For example, Li Ruzhen's novel "Flowers in the Mirror" in the Qing Dynasty and the Kunqu opera "The Peony Pavilion: Dreams in the Garden" all have wonderful interpretations of the December Flower Goddess.

The three masters of the Donghua City Cookware Factory also have great ambitions this time.

Especially Master Jiang Sanchang, he set out to set a new record in the craftsmanship shop and create a work that could serve as a summary of what he had learned throughout his life.

That's why we decided on a theme with such implicit metaphors and many allusions.

Needless to say, the biggest difficulty in this subject is how to accurately express the beauty of twelve kinds of flowers, and it must be true to reality.

If it were in the past, Master Jiang and the others would probably have to imitate traditional art works.

That is to say, look for old picture albums to see if there are any suitable themes in the ancient paintings and improve them.

The disadvantage of this is that it is difficult to achieve a breakthrough in modeling, and it can only guarantee the beauty of one or two angles.

Because no matter how beautiful the painting is, it is still flat. It is difficult to achieve perfection in the three-dimensional state, and it is difficult to ensure the viewing ability at 360 degrees.

But this time, Master Jiang and the others, under the leadership of Ning Weimin, had the full support of teachers and students from the Sculpture Department of the National Academy of Fine Arts to help with the design, so it was naturally different.

I have to say, professionals are really professionals.

The twelve kinds of flowers given by the Sculpture Department not only advocate retro, but also have the courage to innovate, pursue realism, and can be adjusted.

Therefore, we have achieved something that was difficult to achieve in the past to the greatest extent - beauty and authenticity from multiple angles.

Its new style of plastic arts can be said to have written an extremely important page in the history of industrial arts.

To put it bluntly, for Master Jiang and others, it is like building a house with a hot stamp in advance.

Since this time before starting to blow materials, someone has already created the final and perfect flower model.

Then they will naturally be confident and will not go astray.

You can even imagine its approximate completion effect, which means that if you lay the foundation well, you are already half successful.