On the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, Jiading Confucius Temple, the sun at more than 9 o'clock in the morning shone on the high archway, and the brick-red new paint was shining with oily luster. "This color is so atmospheric, it looks good! Aunt Kong, who came to Huilongtan Park for morning exercises, said that after the Confucian Temple began to be renovated last year, she and her wife would come and go around every few days, seeing that the walls were white, the paint was bright, and the clay sculptures were more vivid, and they were always looking forward to going in and visiting.
Not only Aunt Kong, who lives nearby, but many Shanghainese are looking forward to seeing the new look of this "old friend". Since May 22 last year, the Confucius Temple in Jiading has been closed and has begun to carry out overall repairs, involving the main building, inscriptions, stone carvings, archways and other aspects, which is the largest and highest protection level of ancient building repair projects in Jiading in recent years.
At present, the repair project has been basically completed, and the most obvious change from the outside is the color. To restore the vitality of ancient buildings, the most traditional lacquer is indispensable. "Lacquer, also known as earth lacquer and lacquer, is known as the 'king of paints', and the durability of natural lacquer is unmatched compared to chemical paints, and even after thousands of years, the color will not change, but will also appear more and more delicate and full of moisturization. Yuan Rongfu introduced that he is the person in charge of the lacquer art project in the renovation project, and is also the inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of Shanghai's lacquer mixing skills, and has been doing this for more than 40 years.
The Temple of Confucius was renovated.
In front of the Confucius Temple in Jiading, there is an old street of Danqi Road, there are three archways of Xingxian, Yucai, Yanggao on the street, after a new look, on the brick-red archway, the big characters of blue-green are glowing with pearlescent light. "The paint is mixed with shell powder, and after the paint is painted, and then pulled out with a loofah vine, it has a concave and convex feeling, and it feels fluffy. Yuan Rongfu said that this is the ancient method of making rhino skin paint, so that the repair will be longer.
There are three arches of Confucius Temple, Song "Xingxian Fang", Yuan "Yucai Fang", Ming "Yanggao Fang".
Yuan Rongfu (right) in the Temple of Confucius.
The first gate of the Confucian Temple is the Lingxing Gate, and there is a fish dragon stone carving of the Yuan Dynasty on the door, which has the meaning of the carp jumping over the dragon gate.
From the Southern Song Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Confucius Temple in Jiading has been repaired, expanded and rebuilt more than 70 times. Since 1949, it has undergone three more complete renovations, 25 years after the most recent one. "This renovation was carried out in accordance with the principles of 'repairing the old as the old' and 'minimal intervention', and the woodwork, stone work, brick work, etc. were all restored using the original technology, original shape and raw materials. Yin Jie, the project manager of the construction party, introduced.
The renovation involves more than 10 traditional crafts such as clay sculpture, wall painting, building painting, and bucket arch maintenance. Among them, the lacquer painting is the most exquisite, the lacquer is happy to be wet, avoid drying, to paint well, craftsmen often have to play hide and seek with the sun. Yuan Rongfu said: "At this time, the paint should be 'forked', not at noon, painted for a while in the morning, and then painted after 4 o'clock in the afternoon, to avoid the sun, brush the west in the morning, and brush the east in the afternoon." All the lacquer here has been painted three times, and the sun side has to be brushed two more times. ”
Walking into the Temple of Confucius and touching the reddish-brown pillars that had been freshly painted, Yuan Rongfu was very proud: "You see, no matter from which angle you look at, every aperture is very bright. "This gloss is very dependent on experience, and the raw lacquer can only be qualified if it is formulated and processed. He said that the properties of raw materials in different origins and batches are different, and the urushiol content, gum content, water content, etc. must be determined by sight, nose, taste, etc., in order to obtain a reasonable ratio. So before each painting, he will mix it on the spot according to the temperature and humidity of the day.
Xingxian Fang has also been repainted with lacquer.
Once, when the workers were painting, they found that the raw lacquer could not dry and kept dripping. Yuan Rongfu found that this was caused by the temperature and humidity being too low, and he immediately re-prepared the lacquer, "The newly prepared lacquer solved the problem, but the construction progress was more intense." But Yuan Rongfu invited everyone to eat hot pot at the construction site at this time, "Sitting under the archway and eating hot pot, the temperature and humidity have increased, and the raw lacquer will dry quickly." ”
Hundreds of miles and thousands of knives and a pound of paint.
During the renovation of the Confucian Temple, 17 lacquer workers worked for 4 and a half months and used several tons of raw lacquer. Good color of lacquer about 400 yuan per kilogram, **expensive, because it is not easy to come by, "the lacquer tree is wild, a tree in the east and a tree in the west, a long way to meet a tree in the mountains, more than 5 o'clock in the morning to cut the knife, to five or six o'clock in the evening can only receive about a pound of lacquer." Yuan Rongfu said that a mature lacquer tree can cut 16 knives a year, about a catty, which is the saying "a hundred miles and a thousand knives and a catty of lacquer".
Since ancient times, lacquer has been widely used, not only building wooden structure, household furniture, wooden utensils also use lacquer as paint, until the 80s of the 20th century, lacquer was gradually replaced by chemical lacquer, now only mahogany furniture and high-end Chinese furniture still use lacquer. "Raw lacquer is very environmentally friendly, you see, I dare to put the lacquer liquid that just flows out into my mouth, and it tastes numb. Yuan Rongfu showed a **, in which he stood under a lacquer tree, dug a piece from the mussel shell that collected the lacquer liquid and put it in his mouth, looking calm.
Yuan Rongfu and the construction party chatted under Yanggaofang.
New clay sculptures. 
Jiading Confucius Temple is the largest ancient building complex in the northwest of Shanghai, known as "the first in Wuzhong", and is well-known in the south of the Yangtze River.
Although it may seem easy, not everyone dares to try. The important reason why raw lacquer is prohibitive is allergic reaction, if you are allergic when preparing and brushing, it will be red, swollen and itchy in the light, and ulcerated in the heavy. When Yuan Rongfu first came into contact with lacquer in the 80s of the last century, he also experienced allergies, but he still insisted on learning, overcoming physical reactions, and mastering the techniques and tricks of lacquer blending. In 1980, after the completion of Shanghai National Paint Factory, he worked as a business sales, workshop director, and technical section chief, and understood the details of the raw paint production process, the technical parameters of the equipment, and the raw materials and product sales market.
In the late 90s, when the annual production and sales of Shanghai National Paint Factory shrank, Yuan Rongfu resigned and found another way out, rented a few simple factories in a vegetable field in Chen Siqiao Village, Huacao Town, Minhang District, installed reactors, centrifuges, mixers and other equipment, and continued to do the lacquer business. Many people came out to open factories back then, but he was the only one who persevered.
At that time, the annual production and sales volume was dozens of tons, and after I saved the first pot of gold, I wanted to open a decent factory, and finally rented 5 acres of land at No. 388 Jihong Road, but something happened. As he spoke, he patted his amputated right leg. In September 2002, Yuan Rongfu was seriously injured when he was hit by a truck while delivering goods on a motorcycle, and his right leg was amputated at a high level. "Originally, the amputation was below the knee joint, and I wanted to keep the knee joint, but then there was bad water and I couldn't close it, so I also amputated it. ”
Although he was physically disabled, he always felt that the lacquer craftsmanship could not be lost and should be passed on, so he continued to plan and arrange the relocation of the lacquer factory from the hospital bed, and a month later, he sat in a wheelchair and went to the new workshop installation site to direct the installation of equipment. At the end of the year, his Guofu paint factory was opened, and it has been operating ever since.
Chinese lacquerware has been passed down for thousands of years.
When the restoration team took over last year, the situation at the Temple was not optimistic. "Many of the eaves have traces of water flow, and the wooden components are also decaying and cracking to varying degrees. Yin Jie said. "If the wood isn't too badly damaged, it doesn't need to be replaced. Yuan Rongfu pointed to the pillar at the entrance of the lobby and said that he used the method of making lacquerware, first using linen cloth to protect the pillar, tie it well, and then use the traditional process of mixing linen tile ash to extend the service life of the column.
The Temple of Confucius last summer (provided by the interviewee).
Today's Confucian Temple.
Over the years, Yuan Rongfu has devoted himself to making all kinds of lacquerware. "The most important thing to make lacquerware is to grind it by hand, and you can't wear gloves during the grinding process, but you have to rely on the feel to find out the gloss and flatness of the lacquerware. He stretched out his right hand, which was bare. After grinding with his right hand for a long time and touching with his left hand, all the fingerprints on his right hand have been polished, and after working for a long time, he often can't hold things for a long time and can't hold chopsticks.
On the second floor of his studio, there is a diameter of 1The 58-meter lacquer plate, jet black and shiny, is one of the works he is proud of in recent years. From the mold, the ramie cloth is mounted on the mold with lacquer, and finally ashed, painted, reborn, polished, polished, and ...... polished* The production lasted more than a year, using the most traditional clamping process, which is very difficult to make.
The diameter of the plate is up to 158 meters, extremely testing technology, no one in China has ever made such a big one. Yuan Rongfu said that in the process of production, the ramie cloth should be glued to the mold with lacquer, and this ** has a total of nine layers of ramie cloth, and each layer must be covered with tile ash until the surface is smooth before proceeding to the next step.
Yuan Rongfu's lacquerware works.
Large lacquer disc. Secured with clips (provided by the interviewee).
Freeze the South Lake Red Boat with eggshell inlay on a lacquer plate.
In the production of lacquer plates, when the lacquer encounters tile ash, it will produce serious shrinkage, destroy the shape and proportion of the lacquer plate, and fail to achieve the desired effect. It is precisely because of the shrinkage reaction that it is difficult to make the previous lacquer disc larger, with a diameter of 1The 58-meter contraction was even more severe. "I tried many times and decided to go around the disc and clamp the ramie cloth tightly with a clamp to solve the shrinkage. He said that it is to make a layer of fixed layers, so that the paint plate gradually becomes stronger, and then after repeated painting and water grinding, until the surface of the paint plate is mirror-like.
Archaeological discoveries have found that there were utensils that used lacquer about 7,000 years ago, and the lacquerware unearthed in Mawangdui still retains a magnificent luster. Yuan Rongfu's wish is also to leave works that can be handed down. During the days when he was making lacquer plates, he would rush to his studio every morning from his home, 10 kilometers away, and he never stopped working in the cold winter. "The doorman saw that it was raining and snowing, and the temperature was below zero and I was still beating the water film, and I thought it was strange. But I don't feel cold, and my heart is hot when I do what I love. ”
The next bigger goal.
Liberation**·Shangguan News original manuscripts, not allowed without permission**.
Author: Liu Xueyan.
WeChat editor: Antong.
Proofreading: Knock knock.