Du Daozi (middle) is guiding**.
The first drum in China before the restoration.
After the restoration of the first drum in China.
Hubei** all-media reporter Wen Jun intern Luo Zhinan.
Soaking cultural relics in water is one of the most primitive protections. However, the water-saturated wood lacquerware is very fragile after excavation, and it will quickly deteriorate if it is not dehydrated. On January 23, in the lacquer restoration room of the Hubei Provincial Museum, Du Daozi, the inheritor of Chu-style lacquerware restoration skills, carefully observed the liquid-soaked wooden blocks in the vessel, and behind the reading glasses on the bridge of his nose were a pair of calm and focused eyes. The whole floor is very quiet, Du Daozi, who is over sixty years old, is like a sculpture, and he sits all day.
Chu-style lacquerware has a long history and is a distinctive symbol of Chu culture. 2,500 years ago, with Jingzhou in Hubei Province as the center, the Chu culture flourished, craftsmen picked lacquer from the lacquer tree, made the utensils with wooden tires, repeatedly painted, carefully depicted, and the unique Chu-style lacquer art has reached the global "peak of lacquerware technology".
Resurrection of the "Jingchu cultural imprint, so that the lacquerware that has been lost in the years is reborn, in the inheritance and innovation, the current Hubei bamboo and wood lacquerware cultural relics restoration level is leading in the world.
Leave the exquisite Chu culture behind.
The interior of the No. 1 tomb of the Western Han Dynasty at the pass was surrounded by groundwater, and the burial lacquerware was fragile, so it had to be carefully groped out of the silt with bare hands. The interview with Du Daozi lasted nearly half a month, before he had been at the archaeological site of Chongqing Pass for more than 4 months, when the Hubei ** all-media reporter asked if he was tired of staying at the archaeological site for 9 hours a day, he waved his hand, excitedly talking about the exquisiteness of the cultural relics, and his eyes were hot.
Big history, small craftsmen, choose one thing, a lifetime. Since childhood, Du Daozi has followed his father to learn painting, wood carving, lacquer craftsmanship and traditional restoration techniques of wood lacquerware. After graduating from the school, he has been engaged in traditional art design in the factory, because of the study of Chu-style lacquerware, in 1987 as a talent introduced to the Jingzhou Cultural Protection Center, since then more than 30 years, has been engaged in lacquer restoration work. Now, Du Daozi, who retired from the Jingzhou Cultural Preservation Center, has been rehired as a technical director for the restoration of wood lacquerware at the Hubei Provincial Museum.
He has restored more than 2,000 pieces of lacquer cultural relics, such as the national first-class cultural relics "Tiger Seat Phoenix Drum", "Toba Man" and other ancient Chu style lacquer masterpieces; Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunan Province unearthed lacquerware, such as lacquer plates, lacquer boxes, lacquer cases, ear cups, etc.; It has also restored the lacquerware in the collection of the National Museum of China, such as the first-class cultural relics painted dragon pattern lacquer shield, se, etc. These cultural relics sent for repair have different diseases, and the restoration process is cumbersome, from cleaning, dehydration, drying, to painting, painting, sealing, etc., it takes more than a dozen steps to "resurrect" the sleeping cultural relics.
The difficulty of each cultural relic is different, some are broken carcass, some are broken patent leather, and some are broken ornamentation. What kind of material it is and what properties it wants to achieve, you have to figure it out for yourself. "How to achieve the best repair effect, Du Daozi has been studying and exploring. The use of tools is even more cumbersome, for example, the tools used to repair the carcass, in addition to the commonly used saws, axes, planers, chisels, drills and various carving knives, there are also many home-made scimitars, hook knives, turning knives and so on.
The Chu people have a soft spot for wood lacquerware, which covers all aspects of people's daily lives. Du Daozi believes that every cultural relic meets him as a kind of fate. Chu culture has been inherited for thousands of years through the carrier of wood lacquerware, and he will do his best to leave such a beautiful culture and give future generations the opportunity to see and display it again.
Resurrection" fragmented "China's first built drum".
History is a process of time, and it takes time to reproduce history.
Among the cultural relics that have been restored by hand, Du Daozi has a deep memory of "the first drum in China". The drum was unearthed in 1988 in the tomb of No. 12 Zhao Lane in Dangyang, unearthed when it was seriously decayed, due to the difficulty of restoration, it has been soaked in water, waiting for the person who can make it reproduce its brilliance.
There is a saying in the cultural and museum circles: "Dry for a thousand years, wet for 10,000 years, not dry or wet for half a year." "The groundwater level in the south is high, and the bamboo and wood lacquerware can be soaked in water for a long time before it is unearthed to keep it from rotting. The first task of the conservation and restoration of civil lacquerware is to dehydrate and shape it before entering the lacquerware decoration.
In 2018, Du Daozi dehydrated this drum, and at this time, it has been unearthed for 30 years. "After dehydration, this drum is seventy or eighty pieces. These fragments tell that it had been repaired by users during the Spring and Autumn period, and was later broken apart by tomb robbers. In Du Daozi's view, each cultural relic uses its body to silently tell its story. "It took 2 years to sort out the ornaments and shapes, and it took ...... to put them togetherThere is no precedent to refer to, so it is very prudent to fix it. Du Daozi said that most of the unearthed lacquerware has saturation, decay, fracture, deformation and other diseases, and the patterns on the lacquer are naturally missing, and the patterns in the past are mostly dragon patterns and phoenix patterns, which will be very complex in detail and have continuity, that is, the symmetrical graphics as the saying goes, in the repair process, it will be in accordance with the existing basis, and the pattern missing on the other side will be completed.
After the restoration, the drum body is covered with a black primer, the whole body is deformed and stolen, and the face is covered with cowhide, which is complete and exquisite.
In December 2021, the drum was officially unveiled at the Yichang Museum in Hubei Province. The diameter of the drum is 47 cm, and the length of the drum body is 594 cm, dug from a single piece of golden silk nanmu, weighing up to 22 kg. The drum is a large and complete object that can be preserved in China at present, and it has extremely important value for the study of pre-Qin, military, art and wood lacquerware technology.
The restoration of cultural relics requires patience and love.
The conscientiousness of the older generation of cultural relics workers has imperceptibly influenced young people.
In the lacquerware restoration room of the Provincial Museum, young people dressed in neat work clothes treat the utensils in their hands meticulously, showing a composure and rigor that does not match their age.
When I was an apprentice, my master required me to draw points, lines, and surfaces well. I have to copy for more than 10 hours a day. Du Daozi said that the restoration process of wood lacquerware places great emphasis on personal feelings, and it is necessary to train for a long time and do it yourself, so that you can slowly find an accurate feeling in your hands. In addition, it is necessary to study literature and history knowledge for a long time in order to understand the connotation, "which takes a long time to straighten out." ”
The master teaches not only the skills, but also the spirit of the craftsman. Chen Yiqi, a 32-year-old restorer, said that in 2018, after graduating from the University of Science and Technology of China, he became Du Daozi's **, in addition to learning traditional skills, he also learned infrared spectroscopy analysis and X-ray diffraction analysis and other scientific and technological means, and applied them to the protection and restoration of cultural relics. Beside him, Gong Xiangwei, a 32-year-old restorer, had been holding his breath and "staring" at a tattered "small wooden stick" for a long time. In the face of reporters' inquiries, he pointed to this "small wooden stick" more than 2,000 years ago and introduced: "You see, this cultural relic has been restored, but the color of the lines is inconsistent, and the traces of dehydration need to be further treated." ”
The difficulty of restoration technology lies in "restoration", which is not only the restoration of the pattern, but also the same in the painting. The ancestors of Chu developed the "oil-based lacquer", and concocted red, yellow, blue, green, gold, silver and other colored lacquer, these lacquerware after thousands of years, still dazzling. "Most of the paint used in modern people's daily life is chemical paint, and the effect of brushing will be in great contrast with the texture of the paint retained on the object, so most of the paint used in restoration is vegetable paint. Du Daozi said that the last paint has to wait three or four days to dry, and doing this line not only requires patience, but also requires sincere love.
At the end of the interview, an intern brought his master's degree** and hoped that Mr. Du Daozi could help. "You can't write articles on paper, you have to go to the scene more, you have to see more real objects, so that you can write really valuable articles. After carefully reading the **, Du Daozi immediately took the relevant cultural relics, gave detailed guidance, and gave suggestions.
This column** is provided by the interviewee).