Red brick tiles send homesickness

On May 6, 2022, Putian Overseas Chinese Times Xinghua Treasure Hunt 04 edition

Red brick tiles send homesickness

Red brick culture exhibition hall

Driving south along Fuxia Road, crossing the Jiangkou Bridge, into the Putian Realm, in a reinforced concrete jungle, there are occasionally several hanging mountain-style, dovetail ridge red tile houses skimming the car window, which has a different charm - this is the "red brick house" with local characteristics of Puxian.

The "Red Brick House" in Fangshan Village

The Putian area has a long history of taking soil and burning bricks, and it is recorded in the Putian City Chronicle: "As early as the Eastern Jin Dynasty, kiln bricks were already produced in the territory. In the Tang Dynasty, bricks and tiles were produced in present-day West Tianwei, Zhuangbian Likeng and other places, and the bricks produced were rectangular thick bricks, most of which were side businesses operated by farmers. According to archaeological findings, the local Song Dynasty people have often used red bricks to build tombs; during the Ming and Qing dynasties, red brick buildings became increasingly popular: in front of the urban temple, the use of red bricks can be seen in the Ming Dynasty Libu Shangshu Chen Jingbang Mansion "Dazong Bodi" built in the 20th year of the Ming Dynasty (1592); by the Qing Dynasty, all kinds of buildings, whether temple palaces or official residences, have formed a unique architectural style of red brick tiles, double-sided slope roofs, hanging mountain styles, swallowtail ridges and wood carving stone carvings. In the Hanjiang District of Putian City, known as "Little Shanghai", there are a large number of "red brick houses" with Puxian characteristics. The Ming Dynasty poet Wang Wei has a poem: "The Han River has been prosperous since the past, and the mulberry garnets have been shaded for more than a hundred miles." The song swayed at the bottom of the tree, and the first one rose majestically in the air. The "Jia Di Wei" in the poem refers to the red brick house of The Han River.

The widespread use of red brick tiles has also promoted the development of folk kiln firing techniques. Fangshan Village, located in Sanjiangkou Town, Hanjiang District, is a once-glorious professional village for brick and tile firing.

Fangshan Village is gentle on the terrain, and the Wangjiang River runs through the village. The territory is fertile and continuous, with longitudinal and horizontal areas, crisscrossed with ditches and developed water systems. Thanks to the vicissitudes of the ancient earth's crust, the mud has become a fertile field, and the soil 30 cm below the surface layer of the field is black and blue, viscous and delicate, with less sand content, which is the best kiln soil. The bricks and tiles fired from the mud of the tidal mud hidden deep under the fertile fields are all red, which is different from the green bricks and tiles outside the territory, which are more beautiful and auspicious, strong and durable, and are deeply loved by people. The products are exported to the surrounding area of Puxian and the land of Bamin, and have become the preferred building materials for people.

In the heyday of more than 100 years, tens of thousands of industrious and simple kiln workers gathered in the Area of Hanjiang Fangshan and Tangtou. Relying on the unique natural conditions, they built kilns to burn tiles, started businesses to make a living, and brick and tile production became an important part of the local economy. In the perennial hard work, successive generations of kiln workers have given full play to their ingenuity, and have continuously innovated in terms of the practicality and artistry of the products, not only producing red brick tiles for construction, but also pioneering the production of beautiful and practical red brick series supplies, meeting the differentiated needs of different users, and also emerging a large number of skilled craftsmen, creating a splendid red brick culture.

It was not until the beginning of this century, with the advent of alternative products and environmental protection considerations, that the amount of brick and tile used was shrinking day by day. The once-popular brick and tile production has also slowly withdrawn from the stage of history, gradually dissipating into the smoke and dust of the years.

Mr. Fang Mingyao gave a lecture in the exhibition hall

As a native of Fangshan Village, who was born and raised in Sichuan, Mr. Fang Mingyao, a member of the China Democratic National Construction Association and a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference of Hanjiang District, has a special love and love for the red brick making process of his predecessors. Over the years, he has used his spare time to do a lot of work in preserving and passing on the red brick cultural heritage. On the weekend, the author visited the "Red Brick Culture Exhibition Hall" in Fangshan Village.

Dao is the "Red Brick Culture Exhibition Hall", which is actually the exhibition hall where Mr. Fang Mingyao cooperated with the Municipal and District Archives to build his own house. As soon as you enter the compound, you can only see two huge couplets hanging down from a three-story "five-room box" brick and tile house in the style of Puxian: "Alone on the Qin brick Hanwa chanting Tang poems and Song Poems and Yuanqu bathing in the breeze and the moon, when guotai min'an praises the government and the people and the industry rejoices Shunri Yaotian", the momentum is magnificent; walking into the door of the exhibition hall, a pair of joint sentences "spreading the characteristic red brick culture, remembering the spirit of the former sages and craftsmen" came into view, highlighting the distinct theme of promoting the concept of ecological civilization and retaining the traditional memory of nostalgia.

Mr. Fang Mingyao knows more than 800 kinds of red brick products and more than 1,500 pieces of red brick products that he has painstakingly excavated and collected over the years. Under his enthusiastic guidance and professional introduction, we quietly felt the shock of the heart brought by the heavy red brick culture.

Here, the oldest collection is a piece of "Fang Jin Zi Chieftain * Tomb Brick" from the late Tang Dynasty. This thick brick, which has been baptized by the years and has become dark black, comes from the distant Tang Dynasty, as if telling a long history of kiln brick making; more collections are Xinghua city wall bricks produced by Xianyi, Yaotai, Jiuli, Tangtou, Meishan and other places in the Ming and Qing dynasties. These city bricks, which should have been integrated with the city wall of Xinghua Province, were scattered by the people because of the invasion of the Wokou and the collapse of the city wall. The sword-splitting brick body not only witnessed the tragic situation of the ancestors under the iron hooves of the Wokou, but also witnessed the heroic killing of the enemy by the Qi family army. It is always warning the descendants of Puyang: Do not forget the national shame and revitalize China!

Here, there are the appearance decoration of ancient buildings that are increasingly artistic with people's continuous pursuit of quality of life, such as tiles, dripping water, cedar tiles, lattice, brick carvings, etc. Under the condition that the basic functions remain unchanged, skilled craftsmen have added a variety of ornaments, such as text patterns, animal patterns (mainly four sacred beasts such as green dragons, white tigers, suzaku, and Xuanwu), cloud head patterns, flower and bird patterns, etc. Among these tile products, there are not only dragons and phoenixes that symbolize sacred auspiciousness, tigers and lions that symbolize might and majesty, pine cranes that symbolize longevity and good luck, lotus flowers that symbolize harmony and beauty, but also meilan bamboo chrysanthemums, deer galloping horses, classical characters, etc., all of which are vivid and ready to come out. In particular, the collection of brick carving calligraphy, such as the Song Dynasty Zhu Xi's "Half an acre of square pond is opened, the sky light and clouds and shadows are wandering together" and the Tang Dynasty Liu Fangping's "deeper moon color and half people's home, the Big Dipper Gangan Nandou oblique" calligraphy works, vigorous and powerful, iron painting silver hook, floating like floating clouds, correct like a frightening dragon. These poetic feelings, which should have been sprinkled with pen and ink on rice paper, are vividly and smoothly reflected in the relatively dull brick carving murals, which is amazing and admirable.

Here, there are also beautiful and practical daily necessities other than common brick and tile building materials, such as tile altar jars, flower pots, brick tables, lampstands, tea stoves, incense burners, chopsticks, coal stoves, urn covers, pig troughs, chicken troughs, etc. These brick and tile derivatives often leave a distinct mark of the times, from which you can glimpse the various customs of people's diet and living in those years.

What is even more valuable is that among these dazzling brick and tile products, there are also some obviously exotic objects, which are particularly eye-catching: such as exquisitely made clay pots and pans, with the heads of Central Asian men and Persian maidens carved on the surface. What kind of historical stories are hidden in these tile products full of exotic cultural characteristics?

According to Mr. Fang Mingyao, during the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, Zheng He went to the West seven times, and the fleet full of Chinese silk, tea, ceramics, pottery and other items passed through the South China Sea, crossed the Strait of Malacca, crossed the Indian Ocean, crossed the Bay of Bengal, crossed the Persian Gulf, and arrived in Central and West Asia and other countries that believe in Islam, and the farthest fleet went to Egypt, Somalia, Zambia and other African countries. At that time, Quanzhou Port was the most prosperous departure port of the Maritime Silk Road, and the Hanjiang River has always had a developed water system and convenient transportation, and Xingang, Xinqiaotou, Tiancuo, Duanming Gate, etc. can be connected to the Sanjiangkou Seaport Wharf from the inner port. With the superior natural conditions and the ingenuity of the people of Hanjiang, the native products in the territory are continuously transported to Quanzhou Port through the Sanjiangkou Wharf, and then cross the ocean to the exotic land, and exchange them for ivory, agate, spices and other rare products. A maritime Silk Road is a link for maritime commodity trade and civilization exchanges. In the process of frequent exchanges with overseas, some cultural products from overseas flow into china through the fleet. The ingenious brick-making ancestors seized the business opportunity, according to the images transmitted from other countries, with unique craftsmanship, fired beautiful and practical red tile Persian objects, and then sold overseas, through the Maritime Silk Road to show the essence of Chinese red brick culture, but also witnessed the glory of the Maritime Silk Road.

The ruins of a brick kiln in Fangshan Village

Under the leadership of Mr. Fang Mingyao, the author also visited the old site of the brick kiln in Fangshan Village. He said that it is known that the production of brick and tile kilns in Fangshan Village originated in the Qing Dynasty, and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the bricks and tiles in the territory were collectively produced and operated by the production team. During this period, there was also a legendary anecdote in the history of Fangshan brick firing, which is still talked about today: in 1965, the Beijing Summer Palace was renovated, and a batch of solid seven-pound bricks was urgently needed, and the State Administration of Cultural Relics collected it from the whole country. Because Hanjianggu was the hometown of bricks and tiles, it was indispensable to undertake the task of developing seven pounds of bricks. Before the local production of four pounds of bricks, five pounds of bricks, the thickness of 5-7 cm; and seven pounds of brick thickness is 9 cm, although the thickness is only increased by 2 cm, but the production process and fire control is a great test: seven pounds of bricks are larger, if the fire is too fierce, the brick body is easy to burst; insufficient firepower, bricks can not be cooked thoroughly, it is difficult to enter the eyes of experts. The Fangshan Brigade has a long reputation for firing bricks and tiles, and the bricks and tiles fired by black kilns are solid red, beautiful and durable. Therefore, the Building Materials Station of the Hanjiang People's Commune, which is specifically responsible for organizing the production and development, sent the research and development task to the Fangshan Brigade (that is, Fangshan Village), and the Fangshan Brigade designated Fang Wenbo, the ninth production team with exquisite brick making skills, to lead the production of brick blanks, and fired by the Ninth Team of Tile Kilns. After repeated research and development, it was finally completed. The fired samples are angular, flat on six sides, hard and transparent, crisp in sound, and have been identified by Beijing experts and fully meet the quality standards. This batch of seven-pound bricks was eventually shipped to Beijing and dotted among the world's famous gardens, which is also the farthest place where the locally produced red bricks in modern times are sold, adding a lot of color to the long-standing and exquisite brick-burning process of Fangshan Village.

Brick carved calligraphy

According to Mr. Fang Mingyao, in the 1970s and 1980s, the brick and tile production in Fangshan Village reached its peak, with an average of 1 brick kiln per 46 people. After the reform and opening up, the brick and tile kilns of the production team were contracted by private individuals, and more villagers were busy printing bricks and tile adobes and selling them to the kiln people, and the brick and tile production in Fangshan Village was a busy scene. Later, with the development of the times and the process of urbanization, most of the building materials were replaced by reinforced cement, and the amount of bricks and tiles was greatly reduced; and the black smoke and waste gas emitted by the firing bricks and tiles seriously polluted the environment, and the brick and tile firing industry gradually declined. Around 2010, the last brick kiln in Fangshan was extinguished, and brick and tile production has become history ever since. At present, only 9 brick kiln sites in the village have not been demolished.

Late Tang Dynasty "Fang Jinzi Chieftain Tomb Brick"

Standing in front of the long-abandoned brick kiln ruins, the roaring fire that burned day and night and the sweaty labor figures of the kiln workers were no longer visible, nor was the red brick tiles piled up in the field and the hand-pushed shoulders that came and went, only the herbs and broken walls seemed to tell the glory of the bricks and tiles fired in Fangshan Village. I think that Mr. Fang Mingyao can rely on the local brick and tile making tradition, collect and sort out historical cultural relics, sort out the red brick cultural context, and join hands with the municipal and district archive departments to build the "Red Brick Culture Exhibition Hall", which is a useful exploration for the benefit of future generations and future generations. It is like a red line connecting tradition and modernity, which is not only a beautiful hometown ballad, but also a thick family tree; it is not only the starting point of humanity, but also the home of the soul. The completion of the "Red Brick Culture Pavilion" has enhanced the centripetal force, condensed people's hearts, and provided a strong cultural guarantee for the local cultural industry, global tourism and rural revitalization with a visible and tangible carrier, and practiced General Secretary Xi Jinping's teaching of "staying in green mountains and green waters, remembering homesickness" with practical actions, which is worthy of full recognition.

※Note: Fang Tingfan, a native of Shexian County, Anhui Province, was a jinshi during the Tang Dynasty's Dashun Dynasty, and successively served as the commander of Changxi, Gutian, and Changle Counties, known as the "Chief"; because at the end of the Tang Dynasty, the Central Plains was constantly in turmoil and could not return to his hometown, so he chose to live in The Thorn Tong Lane in Putian City, and renamed the Thorn Tong Lane "Fang Lane". He was once awarded the Golden Purple Guanglu Doctor, and was historically known as the Fang Jin zi chief.

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