The hometown of Huating is exquisite and exquisite, and the mineral resources are extremely rich. Among them, sandware is very famous. Huating sandware is mainly concentrated in Ankou Town, it was produced in the Qin Dynasty, flourished in the Tang Dynasty, known as "Wujin Baodi, Longshang porcelain kiln" reputation, is one of the five major ceramic production areas in history. Because local crucible mud, clay and cinder are used as raw materials, it is inexpensive. It is widely used, unique performance, products are sold all over the country, deeply loved by the people.
Huating sander, especially the casserole, has the characteristics of cooking rice without color, stew without change taste, decoction without deformation, fast boiling pot and long heat preservation, and other tableware do not have. For thousands of years, the ancient traditional handmade technique of sandware has been passed down from generation to generation here and has been passed down to this day. In 2016, the firing process of Huating Ankou sandware was included in the third batch of intangible cultural heritage list by Pingliang City.
I have a soft spot for Huating sandware. I remember when I was a child, the Ankou Sandware Factory was a county-run enterprise, with more than 80 workers in it, and the factory was booming. Every weekend, I go to the factory to play, and see the red-faced man with a wet towel around his neck, holding a thin iron rod with a branch in his hand, and easily take out the burned casserole, warm pot, stew pot, tea pot and other products from the fiery kiln, as if it were very interesting to take chestnuts from the fire. The small vessels were fired for 30 minutes, and the large vessels were fired for about 90 minutes, and the time of removal was just right, and there was no panic. Soon, the wooden planks in the factory open space were filled with a large piece. From a distance, the neat and vital sandware is the brightness of porcelain. Since there will be individual defective products produced in the firing every day, and several shelves of defective products will be accumulated within a week, we little mischievous people will always pick out a few decent products from the dumped waste pile. In fact, these defective products can also be used normally, that is, the quality is poor, and we take home casseroles, warm pots, tea pots and so on. At that time, the economic conditions were not good, and the sand utensils that were brought back were not practical, because it would not be because you took back a warm pot, and the family would make a warm pot for you to eat every day. Besides, the genuine products are also very cheap, and there is no need to keep them at home. We children use casseroles to fill the soil with flowers, use teapots and mud, and use warm pots to raise small fish caught from the river, and the play is still a trick. What a luxury to think back on now!
More than 30 years have passed, and I am very grateful for the past, and I can't help but feel overwhelmed. Not long ago, I also went to the Ankou Sand Ware Factory to pick up the memories of my childhood. The current factory has been renamed Ankou Guxin Sand Ware Factory and has become a private enterprise. It is still a traditional small workshop in the past, and the fired sandware is still stacked, and the benefits are very impressive. The scene is still the original scene, but it feels less prosperous at that time. When I came to the workshop, I saw several workers busy at work. The workbench is full of making tools, including blades, wheels, hammers, ropes, molds, bases, straw mats, side molds, iron pot lids, cage lids, iron rods, iron noodles, etc. A worker sits on the workbench with a black leather skirt tied around his waist, constantly rotating embryos, patting and beating, changing and using various tools, and soon a warm pot will be ready, and the label "Ankou Guxin" written with four words on the lid of the warm pot is very eye-catching.
The worker, who was both easy-going and talkative, said: "The craftsmanship is not as difficult as we think, it's actually very simple. One is and mud. We first crush the crucible cinder and then add water to mix it into a sludge in proportion. The second is to step on the mud. Step on it with your feet, one foot at a time, until you have stepped on the whole piece of mud, the more times you step on it, the more the mud will have the strength to do the work. The third is billet making. A person operates by first dialing the wheel, making it rotate, and then making mud on the wheel. The fourth is glazing. Prepare the white glaze soil, yellow glaze soil raw materials, respectively put in two water tanks to stir, after the soil is dissolved, the precipitate to retain the glaze, first a layer of white glaze, dry and then on the yellow glaze, glazing speed should be fast, so that the glaze is thin and thick to be uniform. Fifth, firing. Use open fire, put the blank into the furnace kiln when burning, burn to a temperature of about 1000 degrees, pick out the sand vessel while it is hot, quickly place it in the coal nest, buckle under the lid of the iron pot for about half an hour and then take it out, so that the finished product will shine, ensuring the color and quality. ”
After listening to the worker's introduction and looking at the sandware products displayed on the shelves, I was reminded of a past event. When I was a child, my mother bought two warm pots, one of which was still "lying" in the corner of my house and sleeping, which was well preserved. Because of the warm pot, the core must be added to the charcoal fire, and now living in the building, it is inconvenient to use, so it is idle. When I am idle, I always move out to wipe it, and looking at this gray-black, simple and thick warm pot, I always think of my mother. It has been 14 years since my mother's death, and this legacy is what we call nostalgia in the vernacular. There was also a gift to the aunt and grandmother of Chongxin County. Every year in the first month of the year, I would go to my aunt and grandmother to pay respects to the New Year. Grandma is over 70 years old, very hospitable, is a good cook, and is good at making warm pot food. To this day, the warm pot that my mother gave to my aunt and grandmother is used every year. We worshiped the letter, and my aunt and grandmother had already burned the carbon fire into the core of the warm pot and boiled it to a bubble. The warm pot is full of home cooking, which is equipped with bean sprouts, vermicelli, tofu, bean skin, carrots, homemade dried beans, dried gourds, dried yellow cauliflower, etc., and the top is covered with a layer of pork belly with oil, which tastes pure and delicious. Snowflakes fluttered in front of the door, the pots in the house were red, and the cooked taste soon filled all corners of the house. This is a memory that I have remembered for many years.
With the pace of the times, the sand ware of Huating Ankou is also developing rapidly. Now we have begun to use new techniques to burn crafts such as sandware tea sets, flower utensils, and character sculptures. I believe that in the near future, Huating Sandware will once again go all over the country with its full and subtle personality and gorgeous turning butterfly transformation.
(Author Xu Junmin Responsible Editor Deng Shuqin)