Lushan, 30 Mar (Zhongxin.com) -- In the Xiufeng Scenic Area at the foot of Lushan Mountain, there is a Lushan Jinxing Yan Cultural Museum, and the beautifully carved Yantais on the booth are arranged in an orderly manner, and the humanistic stories such as "Yuanming Caiju", "Li Baiguan Waterfall", "Lianxi Ailian", and "Kuanglu Scenery" are integrated into the Yantai, which arouse people's reverie, and the vivid patterns are breathtaking.
Curator Li Pinghan is familiar with the stories behind these works. "Since I became acquainted with Venus Yan in the 1990s, I only want to do this one thing well in my life, and as the inheritor of Venus Yan's craftsmanship, I will use my life's efforts to pass on this national non-genetic inheritance."
"Samurai love swords, literati are good at yan". As one of the four treasures of the study room, Yantai first appeared in the Han Dynasty. China's first "History of Yan" records that Lushan has bluestone stones, which are mainly produced in Song Village under Huoling Mountain in Hengtang Town, Lushan Mountain, also known as Venus Song Yan. Venus is as blue as jade, buckle has a sound, Venus is brilliant, breath into clouds, bricks are rich in varieties, including Venus, golden halo, gold flowers, eyebrow patterns, water ripples, caviar patterns and other thousands of forms.
Li Pinghan said that according to folklore, the first piece of Venus Yan came from the hand of Tao Yuanming, a scholar of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, who occasionally obtained a stone at the foot of Huoling Mountain, loved it, and made it himself into a stone, which was regarded as a treasure. In the poetic imagination of the literati, Mr. Wuliu, who "planted beans under the South Mountain", "returned with a moon lotus hoe", washed his pen with a clear spring at the foot of Lushan Mountain, studied ink with Venus, and wrote the "Peach Blossom Origin Record" in his heart.
Venus Yan was favored by ancient and modern literati for its rich colors and varied textures. Li Pinghan said that in the Republic of China period, Lushan set up an officer school, many people in the county "Yanchi Street" to buy Yantai as a gift, at that time there were more than 100 brick workshops in the city, from the 1980s to the 1990s, Venus Yan frequently won awards in national exhibitions and competitions, and the products were exported to Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia and Europe and the United States.
Li Pinghan (left) introduces the Venus Stone. Photo courtesy of the United Front Work Department of the Lushan Municipal CPC Committee
In 1992, under the influence of his wife Jing Guizhi, Li Pinghan came into contact with Venus For the first time, and then devoted himself to his whole body and mind. Carving the brick table, bitter and tired, if the product sales are not good, subsistence is a problem. The husband and wife often carry heavy Venus Yan, or set up stalls in Lushan, or squeeze on the train to run to other places to sell, difficult to guard and inherit the culture of Venus Yan.
"In its heyday, there were more than 400 people engaged in this industry in Xingzi Arts and Crafts Factory and Carving Factory, and later because of the industry downturn, the Yantai market was cold, could not sell at high prices, the apprentice income was not high, many people went to Suzhou to engage in the brick carving industry, and there were fewer and fewer to adhere to." Li Pinghan said that the cultural inheritance cannot be broken, no matter how difficult it is, he must also be the forerunner who holds high the torch.
In the workshop in Li Pinghan's hometown of Jiaotang Town, there are piles full of bricks. "In the past, a large number of high-quality Venus stone raw materials were mined and sold as building materials, which would be a devastating blow to Venus Yan. Fortunately, in order to protect the precious mineral resources of Venus Yan, the local government ordered a ban on mining. Li Pinghan said that these stones were all "rescued" by him that year, and he almost gave everything to buy stones.
Lifting the tarpaulin, holding the water pipe and slowly washing the stone, venus, golden flowers, golden halos, gold rings, eyebrow patterns and other patterns gradually appear on the bluestone, with thousands of forms and beauty.
In order to have a deeper understanding of the Venus stone, Li Pinghan went through more than ten cold and summer days, stepped through the ravines of Lushan Mountain, knocked on pieces of mountain stones, and painstakingly searched for the ore veins of the stone all the way, and recorded them in detail. "The venus of Caojiakeng, the silver star of Dingjiawo, the golden halo of Hualin Jishan, the eyebrow pattern under the maple tree, the green of Lushan Mountain in Xiongjiagang, and the red skin of Huangjia in the east, a total of 82 kinds of stone colors and stone patterns have been found." In the Lushan Jinxingyan Cultural Museum, all the stone specimens are arranged in an orderly manner, showing the profound and extensive beauty of the Jinxingyan culture.
The Lushan Jinxing Yan Cultural Museum displays a variety of textured stones. Photo courtesy of the United Front Work Department of the Lushan Municipal CPC Committee
Li Pinghan buried his head in hard work, persevered, and vowed to carve the stone into beautiful jade. "I spent four years running all over Zhejiang, Anhui, Beijing and other places, looking everywhere for and sorting out historical materials related to Venus Yan, writing manuscripts, printing books, spending nearly 300,000 yuan before and after, and publishing this "Lushan Jin Xing Yan" is the first monograph on the systematic study of Jin Xing Yan since the advent of Jin Xing Yan."
A cut and a chisel can give life to the stone, and a book and an article can make the culture continue from generation to generation. In Li Pinghan's view, the persistence and inheritance of the past thirty years, and the countless painstaking efforts and sweat, are worth it. "This is the responsibility and mission of the heirs of Venus Yan, as long as I can leave a cultural wealth to future generations, I have no regrets."
In August 2020, the awarding ceremony of lushan "famous teacher", "famous doctor" and "famous family" studio was held in the new campus of Lushan No. 1 Primary School, and Li Pinghan, as the leader of the first batch of "famous" studios, officially entered the campus to promote the production technology of Venus Yan. Li Pinghan said that he hopes that more people will join the traditional culture dissemination team in the future, open local cultural courses in more schools, and hope that latecomers will take over the carving knife and carve more excellent Venus Yan works.
In the Xiufeng Scenic Area of Lushan Mountain, the Qiujia'ao Jinxing Yan Research Museum has also become a window for disseminating intangible cultural heritage, receiving more than 100,000 research teams every year. Xiong Zhifang, director of the United Front Work Department of the Lushan Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, said that Lushan is a holy place of humanities, with a long cultural context, Jin Xingyan will combine intangible cultural heritage with cultural tourism industry, can vigorously promote excellent traditional culture, enrich the cultural connotation of Lushan, the next step will guide and help Jin Xingyan cultural enterprises to develop and upgrade, promote the sales of e-commerce platforms, so that Jin Xingyan will break the cocoon in the future and shine with new brilliance. (End)