From: Yuncheng Urban Collective Industrial Association
Issue Time: 2020-05-18 10:10
Xinjiang County in Yuncheng city, Shanxi Province, also known as Jiangzhou in ancient times, is an ancient city of culture with a long history of more than 1,400 years. Xinjiang County is famous for its handicraft industry, especially the production of the four treasures of the study: brush, ink, paper and inkstone. Walking along the stone road of Zhongcheng Lane in Old Street of Xinjiang County, you feel as if you have traveled back to the Ming and Qing dynasties, when this was the “street of ancient Jiang ink and brush” that was in full bloom. In the middle of this street, there is a signboard of “Jiwenzhai Brush and Ink House”, where there are two intangible cultural heritages of Shanxi Province—the Jiang pen and the Jiang ink and their representative inheritors, ZHANG Xiting and WANG Zhuangsheng couple.
Xinjiang County has a long history and many cultural relics. In addition to Jiangzhou Lobby and Biluo Tablet of the Tang Dynasty, “Jiang Copybook of Calligraphy” is one of the four famous hornbooks in ancient times and has very profound cultural deposits. The traditional arts of Xinjiang County have been the first in China for many years, and Jiwenzhai Brush and Ink House is famous at home and abroad.
It is said that XING Yi of the Zhou Dynasty invented the ink and MENG Tian, a great general of the Qin Dynasty invented the writing brush. Jiangzhou has a long history of making brushes. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Xinjiang Xiuyuantang and Yipinzhai have been widely known. By the Qing Dynasty, Xinjiang writing brush industry had been very developed, with more than 20 kinds of writing brushes. In 1934, there were more than 100 brush and ink workshops in Xinjiang County, including Xiuyuantang, Yipinzhai, Wenchengtang, Jundetang, Qiangzhai, Tongyi Book Company, Jinxiangzhai and Hanxingzhai. Brushes were exported to Japan, Korea and other countries. During the Japanese invasion, most of these workshops were closed. In 1936, ZHANG Yongfu, the founder of Jiwenzhai, opened a writing brush store in partnership with DENG Kaiqian. It was registered in Tianjin in 1949. After years of research and development, ZHANG Yongfu summed up a complete set of brush and ink production technology on the basis of predecessors’ brush making techniques. In 2009, Jiwenzhai’s brush and ink was included in the first batch of intangible cultural heritage protection in Shanxi Province because of its exquisite craftsmanship and high quality.
ZHANG Yongfu, born in 1918, passed away in 2016 at the age of 98. For more than 70 years, he relied on the traditional Chinese artisanal spirit to carry forward the art of making brushes and ink in Jiangzhou. The brushes of Jiewenzhai are made by pure hand with exquisite craftsmanship, exquisite materials and excellent quality, and are glorious for a time. ZHANG Yongfu, who has more than 70 years of experience in making brushes, has developed a unique set of experience in making brushes. It takes nearly a month from selecting materials for a batch of brushes to making them into brushes. Every step of the process requires the maker to work hard, and some of the steps even require the artisans to hold their breath and complete the process continuously. Otherwise, if you are not careful, the brush bristles will be scattered by the breeze of the skirt or body movement, and the previous process can only start from scratch. “It takes a lot of patience to make a brush. There are 82 procedures to make a wool brush and 96 procedures to make a part-wool brush, each of which needs to be done quietly and without any haste. This is also the main reason why young people are reluctant to learn: they can’t sit still!” ZHANG Yongfu’s successor, ZHANG Xiting, said.
In addition to the craftsmanship, the selection of materials is also crucial. The wool used in Jiwenzhai Brush and Ink House comes from Wuxi, which is the best wool for making brushes in China. Its brush is also unique in that a special kind of hemp is added in the process of making. Although it is more troublesome to add hemp, it is particularly good in water and ink absorption, which is one of the reasons why the brushes from Jiwenzhai Brush and Ink House are so popular among calligraphy enthusiasts.
The spirit of craftsmanship is the most beautiful spirit of our times. Since ancient times, many people have the spirit of craftsmanship, which has become one of the spirits of China's development. The spirit of craftsmanship has promoted social progress and the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
After five thousand years of Chinese civilization, the skills need more than simple inheritance. They need to be developed and sublimated in the inheritance, so as to show its thousand-year’s charm. Only by endowing the craft with new vitality, can it stand forever in the forest of world culture.
The inheritance of Jiwenzhai Brush and Ink House has witnessed the inheritance of Chinese national culture and civilization. At present, the technique of making brush and ink has been passed down to the third generation. The founder ZHANG Yongfu passed the skill on to his daughter ZHANG Xiting in 1989, who passed it on to her daughter-in-law ZHAO Sumei in 2003. The inheritance of the ink-making skills in Jiwenzhai was also passed from ZHANG Yongfu to his son-in-law WANG Zhuangsheng, who in turn passed it on to his son WANG Gang.
Nowadays, Jiwenzhai Brush and Ink House, has made a number of achievements. In 2015, “Jiwenzhai Writing Brush Series” was collected by the Intangible Heritage Exhibition Hall of Yuncheng Cultural Bureau; in 2016, it won the Excellent Skill Award in Yuncheng Intangible Cultural Heritage Traditional Skills Exhibition; in 2017, “the Special Seven Purple Three Wool Brush” won the silver Award of the second Hedong Cup Traditional Craft Fine Works of Yuncheng city; in 2018, Jiwenzhai brush won the gold medal in the second Intangible Cultural Heritage Expo in Luoyang. The ink making technology of Jiwenzhai Brush and Ink House is also innovative. since being persuaded by his father to learn the art of making ink ingots, after years of dedicated study, WANG Gang, not only seriously learns the family skills, but also often goes out to learn the relevant technology as well as participates in the exhibition, and gradually works out a set of their own ink making skills. His works “Dragon Gate” “Zhu Zi Family Motto” has become a well-known brand of arts and crafts, and got unanimous praise by calligraphers and the community.
The spirit of craftsmanship needs to be respected and inherited. The inheritance of Jiwenzhai Brush and Ink House is not only the inheritance of Jiwenzhai, but also the inheritance of the Chinese nation’s thousands of years of brush and ink making skills, which witnesses the Chinese civilization and skills passed down from generation to generation.
The brush is the warp of the ink, and the ink is the weft of the brush. When the ink ingot is carefully grinded in the inkstone, the ink will follow the brush producing a vast area of Chinese painting and calligraphy. With the development of the times, various kinds of ink appeared. The traditional ink ingots gradually faded out of people’s view. But the brush and ink making skills of Jiwenzhai, as well as their brushes and ink ingots, which is like a postmark of Chinese culture, has become a memory imprinting on the Chinese national culture.
