The summer sunset has faded its last rays, and the heat has not yet dissipated. In the huge industrial park, the lights of each building are gradually extinguished. In the inner building, the elevator opened on the sixth floor. A middle-aged man walked by in the silent corridor,

[Chinese Story]

Author: Nan Xiang (professor of Shenzhen University, first-level writer)

1

The summer sunset has receded its last rays, and the heat has not yet dissipated. In the huge industrial park, the lights of each building are gradually extinguished. In the inner building, the elevator opened on the sixth floor. A middle-aged man walked by in the silent corridor, stopped and opened a door. In the dark, he pushed the switch by the door, and the studio of more than 200 square meters suddenly lit up. The four corners of the room are full of wood, of different lengths, squares, ages, and places of origin. The only thing that converges is that they are silent, and all of them are faintly scented, and they are all of the same color - they are all boxwoods that belong to the "gentleman of wood". The purpose of their waiting is also the same: waiting for the man in front of him who often enters the studio in the evening, sitting in front of the workbench, slowly raising his pair of strong hands, using various tools, and chipping away their chaotic faces one by one, making their mouths, noses, eyes, ears, limbs, and bones full of personality. Or the skirt is fluttering, the bun is high, the hand is holding the clothes, and the eyes are moving; or the arms are broad and the waist is round, the muscles and bones are clattering, and the roar is strong...

The workbench in front of the window is short and wide, which is conducive to our host to change different postures, standing, sitting, or walking—sometimes, he has to hold up the semi-finished product in his hand and ponder it while walking. A single knife will cover the water and it will be difficult to recover, so we have to be careful. The table is full of mud hammers, calipers, scrapers and various forms of plastic knives. The tools used to make rough billets include saws, wooden hammers, and iron hammers. The main tools used for engraving are chisels, which are divided into oblique chisels, triangular chisels, flat chisels, round chisels, medium steel chisels, reverse chisels, warped chisels, needle chisels, hand saws, bamboo hairpins, drag drills, etc. The tools are complete and subdivided, and it is easy to use them.

Tonight, a small piece of wood in his hand has been lingering in his heart for many days, he can't make up his mind, this girl who is about to come out has a dark scar on her arm, how to handle the knife more fluently? Usually, the clumsiness under the carving knife is always the exterior and interior of each other. Except for the big idea of ​​applying the knife according to the aptitude, the next step is the meticulous carving in the fine carving, and the details in the accuracy.

Woodcarving is not only interoperable with other carvings, it is also closely related to all kinds of literature and art - life, experience, education and skills are all the soil, sunshine and rain that nourish a good work.

There was a slamming sound of the door in the aisle, and the last person to get off work passed by, and could see the ochre-red nameplate on the lintel: Wu Yaohui Woodcarving Skill Master Studio.

Yes, his name is Wu Yaohui, a master of Chinese arts and crafts, a master of Chinese woodcarving, a representative inheritor of Wenzhou’s intangible cultural heritage “Yueqing Boxwood Carving”, and has twice won the highest award of Chinese arts and crafts, the “Shanhua Award”.

Our eyes met, and he was even a little shy. Only when he talked about his wood carving experience, he was calm and at ease.

Two

58 years ago, Wu Yaohui was born in Nanyue Town, Yueqing, on the north wing of Wenzhou. This seaside town is surrounded by mountains on three sides and faces the sea on one side. The waves and sound of waves in Yueqing Bay cleanse the clear eyes of a young man and give birth to his simple but colorful dreams. In Wu Yaohui's memory, playing in the sea and picking up crabs and shellfish on the beach are the longest poems in his childhood.

There are many people in Tianshao, and going fishing and going out to make a living are two obvious ways out for the folks. Wu Yaohui's mother was a farmer, and his father worked in the county fertilizer factory after retiring from the army. Of the five brothers and sisters, he was the third, and happened to be in the middle, and he received neither more nor less favor. My father went to a private school when he was a child and wrote good calligraphy. The colorful posters and huge calligraphy on the factory bulletin board became the bait for the father to encourage his son to approach art and calligraphy. His father bought him a bunch of tracing red books. At this moment, the cheapest teacher is "painting according to the gourd".

Wu Yaohui, who was studying in middle school, undertook part of the school's job of engraving steel plates. At that time, the review outlines of various subjects appeared on the students' desks in the form of mimeographs after engraving stencils.Wu Yaohui became obsessed with the carving knife, he stroked down horizontally and vertically. It’s hard to say whether it’s the prototype of art, but it’s true that getting a little remuneration can fill up the tuition. His favorite book collection is comic books, especially "Journey to the West". As long as he has a little savings, he can collect them all. He Youzhi gave Zhou Libo the comic strips "Great Changes in the Mountains and Villages", a set of many copies, almost smashed by him. Li Yuehui, Deng Xiumei, "Ting Batter", "Autumn Loofah"... He knows all the characters by heart.

Walking out of middle school, he was recommended by a teacher Zhou who worked as a screenwriter in the Yue Opera Troupe. He took Wu Meilin, a teacher of the Yue Opera Troupe, as his teacher. He painted sets, made slides, and of course did some logistical chores. When he was young, he had a strong impulse to invest in colors, shapes and images. It was the foundation of Wu Yaohui's art foundation. At first, he followed Mr. Lin and later Mr. Huang, painting every day, not limited to the scenery, but all heroes and ladies, flowers, birds, fish and insects, distant mountains and rivers, pavilions and pavilions... All are included in the paintings, one piece a day, and sent to the teacher for comments, additions, subtractions, and corrections.

Two years later, he rolled up one sketch, one color, and four sketches into a bundle, and sent them to the nearest Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (renamed China Academy of Art in 1993), and soon got the admission ticket. Went to Hangzhou for the exam, but failed in the cultural class.

At this moment, there are two paths before Wu Yaohui: go back to the classroom and repeat the exam; or bid farewell to the classroom and go to work.

For many years, a family with many children has relied on the father alone for his wages. Wu Yaohui couldn't bear to see the weather on the old father's sideburns and the wrinkles on his forehead. He chose the latter path. In the golden autumn of 1982, he came to Yu Jinshun, the representative inheritor of Yueqing boxwood woodcarving, which will become the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects in the future, and embarked on a journey of woodcarving.

As a peer of the Republic, Yu Jinshun followed his father to engage in artistic creations such as boxwood wood carving, root carving, and ivory carving since he was a child. He was listed as the third master of Chinese arts and crafts. Wu Yaohui has a relatively solid foundation in art, how gratifying it is to be taught by the master sculptor at this time!

During those two years as an apprentice, he saw, listened, worked diligently, and moved quickly. What was always in his mind day and night was conception and composition, part and whole, memory and reality, presentation and connotation. The old moonlight and the warbler’s song in the new garden reflect each other, the vajra’s glaring eyes sit side by side with the Bodhisattva’s lowered eyebrows, and the elders walk mischievously with the chuitiao... This is not only reflected in the friendly relationship between Wu Yaohui and his teachers and even his brothers, but also in their creations.

After leaving the teacher, Wu Yaohui entered the Yueqing Boxwood Carving Factory.

Three

That can be regarded as a heyday of the woodcarving factory. In the early 1950s, the famous artist Wang Fengzuo led the way and achieved high standards. Behind him, a group of artists such as Ye Runzhou and Ye Yizhou followed. Their figures, flowers and birds and other woodcarving products have been exhibited and won awards at home and abroad. In the 1980s when Wu Yaohui entered the woodcarving workshop, the drums of reform and opening up gave birth to brilliant artistic flowers, and Yueqing boxwood woodcarving showed unprecedented prosperity. Young and middle-aged artists have risen rapidly, represented by a group of masters of arts and crafts such as Gao Gongbo and Yu Jinshun, who have conquered barriers in national art exhibitions and won many awards.

Wu Yaohui is very quick to learn. Generally speaking, an apprentice will start out as a teacher after two years of study, and he can create independently after one year. At that time, the themes of creation were mostly costumed figures, Shinto themes such as the Eight Immortals and the like. In a woodcarving factory with more than 100 people, there are more men than women. At that time, the main purpose of going to the market was to receive orders, and exports accounted for the majority. For the Budai Monk designed by Wu Yaohui in 1990, the Japanese ordered more than 7,000 pieces, each worth several hundred yuan, and mass-produced them. The rough blank is first pulled out by machine, and then finely carved by hand. This kind of cloth bag monk is still copied in families in rural areas. Wu Yaohui said with a smile: "Only good things can be imitated, and no one cares about things that don't have a market."The woodcarving work at that time was simply delicious. Masons who were exposed to the sun and rain paid five yuan a day, and the woodcarving sitting indoors was also a few yuan a day. I felt very comfortable. Wu Yaohui made progress steadily. There is a difference between high and low. Sculpture pays attention to creativity and composition, but carving itself is a process that makes perfect. If creativity is not good, it will be difficult to present a work with cultural connotations. Culture is the fruit of education. If you read too little, there are no thousands of hills and valleys in your chest. Sculpture, three sculptures. After drawing, the composition is no problem, and the concept is firm; if you know clay sculpture, you can handle the three-dimensional relationship between point, line and surface; Ye Danyan. Danyan’s parents and ancestors were all boxwood woodcarving practitioners, and she is the seventh generation. The first individual business license for boxwood woodcarving in Liushi Town was issued to her Ye family. Ye Danyan’s grandfather, Ye Runzhou, is the second Chinese arts and crafts master. Yaohui had a great influence. Wu Yaohui lamented that it was difficult for latecomers to surpass Ye Runzhou, probably because of his rich experience, high savvy, and dedication to work. These factors are the solid foundation for an outstanding craftsman to rise to the top step by step.

Two or three years after Wu Yaohui got married, the low-voltage electrical industry in Liushi Town sprang up. Yaohui's close relatives were also eager to try, but he was unmoved. He likes to carve, even if a piece of wood is in his hands, he would sniff, look, tap and listen to the sound, and play with it for a long time; Carving is mainly popular in Nanjie Village, Liushi Town, and Lecheng Town, Wengyang Town, Yueqing City. Boxwood is tough and smooth, with fine texture and ivory effect. The older it is, the darker its color is, and its shape is simple and beautiful. Boxwood carving techniques are rich, and it retains the simplicity and color of the root in terms of color, shape, quality, taste, and rhyme, as well as the texture, knots, caves, and texture of the wood itself. In addition to round carving, openwork carving, and relief carving, various techniques such as mosaic were also created, which is the product of the combination of natural beauty and artificial beauty, and has a high aesthetic expression.

Specifically speaking, boxwood carving skills are applied according to the material. Because the diameter of boxwood carvings is generally not large, the figures and other images are very restrained. Although they may not be "Nasumi Yu mustard", they are as large as possible, and thousands of hills and valleys are concentrated in the present. The light yellow and elegant color and delicate texture are especially suitable for the carving of human figures. The carvings are as delicate as jade, and the eyes, hair and clothing wrinkles of the figures are all exquisite.

Wu Yaohui exhibited at the China Art Exhibition in the summer of 2019, "Spring is full of sky" plus the base, is only 105 centimeters high, but it accommodates three spring girls with vivid eyebrows and windy clothes from bottom to top.

"Treading Spring", one of "The Prosperity of the Tang Dynasty", has seven horses and ten people standing on a length of 200 centimeters. The characters hold banners and play the piano, the horses hold their heads high and neigh; the children look back, and the ladies are brilliant. The spring landscape is vividly presented through a group of characters riding horses and blowing willows in the wind.

Western paintings pay attention to focal point perspective, the golden section of figure proportion and so on. Boxwood carvings are limited by the volume of materials, and sometimes they can express the author's extraordinary conception intentions in an exaggerated and vivid way.

"Playing": a strong man with short and thick arms, with his upper body bare, his outstretched left arm easily lifts a heavy stone lock, with a confident and unrestrained expression.

"Hunting": A vigorous leopard leaps onto the back of a strong buffalo. The leopard exerts all its strength, while the buffalo is indomitable. Two phases compete, only the brave and the wise can win. The space freezes time, making people wander and miss.

In the showroom of his works on the second floor, more single-piece and component sculptures are dizzying.

I have been lingering in front of the "Old Memories of the City" series for a long time, those people who walk around the streets sharpening scissors, cracking popcorn, selling maltose and picking wontons...

It is the reappearance of memories, the lingering of emotions, the permeation of warmth, and the retention of nostalgia.

"Guangming Daily" (version 14, July 21, 2023)