Inheritor of An Ancient Craft

文：_晓燕

Born in the òHome of Wax Printingó, I saw my elder generation working on wax printing and the product became scenery of my hometown in my eyes. As early as 2,000 years ago, the forefathers had already become skillful in wax printing. Grown up in such an environment wax printing became part of my life. I studied in the attached school to the Art Department of Guizhou University from 1957 to 1959 and in 1960 I was assigned to work in Anshun Cultural Center where I started a wax-printing life. By the time, a wax-printing workshop was set up in the province and I was selected to work in the workshop as a full-time designer. I often went to countryside and was surprised to see that people, though experiencing a natural disaster and even could not eat enough, continued to carry out the work of wax printing. I was deeply moved by spotting that touching scene. Women were busy waxing, either by riverbanks or in yards. I was somewhat confused. Why they stuck it out when they had not enough to eat, and it was amazing they worked out beautiful patterns with penetrated cultural connotation. Is it why the ancient art could survive’

I have been encouraged by their spirit and started to learn wax printing from local masses ever since. Gradually, wax-printing study became a habit of mine. As I understood more and more the art I found the beauty in it: a bird carrying a peach on the head, with flowers on its body and a guava on its tail; flowers blooming on head of a butterfly which having a long tail belonging to a phoenix and four season flowers blossoming in one branch with fruits in pistils. The combination of fish and bird turns to be a bat and a recombination makes flowers. Finally, the human, birds, animals and worms together make a pile of flowers. This wonderful feeling made me excited. Perhaps, from that time I really walked into the world of wax printing. At that time I traveled more than 100 villages around my hometown Anshun.

My major in university is art design and on bases of the Miao wax printing I have absorbed essence of other painting schools to enrich the folk wax printing art. Unfortunately, just as Anshun Wax Printing Mill started production in 1966, the òcultural revolutionó began and wax printing was taken for òfour oldsó (old ideas, old culture, old customs and old habits). Finally the mill was shut up and I had to put the work aside.

In 1973, when the government encouraged the study of wax printings the Anshun Wax Printing Mill was established again. I visited every place where wax printing existed in the province. My wax-printing design began to have a new realm and the 36 wax-printing works of mine were for the first time collected by China Art Gallery in 1982. Ten years later, I held a wax-printing exhibition in the United States and won a lot of praises. Soon, with support of my wife I began to run a wax-printing mill, becoming boss of my own. In fact, it was a domestic workshop and all employees were my family members. We designed, waxed and dyed. It made me feel that we returned to the stage of our forefathers two thousand years ago.

The beginning was hard but I was run over with happiness, indulged in the beauty of wax printing. People loved my works very much and many merchants from other places nationwide came to buy my products and even government departments sent orders for wax printings and take them as guest presents. In 1997, I was honored as one of China’s ten folk artists.

Now, I have business with famous scenery areas in big cities such as Shanghai and Beijing. At the beginning of this year and financially supported by myself, I went to France for a sales exhibition of my products and received a good result. I have set up a wax-printing museum, which is named after my own name.

When my Fuyuan Wax-Printing Mill gained reputation many friends and acquaintances tried to talk me over and move the mill to the provincial capital or to Beijing and Shanghai. I turned them down. I am an Anshun man and my Fuyuan Wax-Printing Mill must have a root. The root should be at this piece of land. Besides, I am not young and do not want to go far. The 30-year plus affection with wax printing makes me feel that I could not tear it off from my life; the wax scent, the dye vat and everything related with wax printing, together with the craftsmanship of the forefathers have solidly rooted my mind.

According to the Ancient Miao Songs, an epic as important to the Miaos as Bible to Christians, ancestors of the Miao ethnic group used gold and silver pillars to hold up the sky, the sun and the moon. This may explain why silver ornaments are so popular among them.

Textual research, however, has resulted in the discovery that during the Qin and Han dynasties from 221 BC to 230 AD, ancestors of the Miaos, who lived mainly in the Wuling area in what is now Hunan Province, were already using juice extracted from plants to dye textiles with. Their clothes had ornaments in the shape of animal tails, and such ornaments can still be seen among people of the current Miao ethnic group.

In the year 629, chieftains of ethnic minority groups living in China’s southern border areas went to Chang’an, the national capital, to pay tribute to Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty. Xie Yuanshen, head of the delegation, is depicted in Chinese classics as wearing fur garments while having a gold ring round his skull. About the same time, Miao women began wearing earrings, mostly of glazed porcelain. History records also have description of Miao people of the 15th century, when China was under the Ming Dynasty, wearing silver ornaments.

Historians attribute use of silver ornaments by Miaos of the Ming Dynasty to the following reasons:

First of all, Guizhou, where the Miaos lived in compact communities, was designated a province in 1413, instead of being under the jurisdiction of separate neighboring regions as in the past. The subsequent economic and social progress promoted use of silver ornaments.

Second, silver ingots an copper coins came into circulation in ethnic minority areas, gradually replacing barter trade practiced over the past centuries. That means people now had the material for making silver ornaments with. In some areas, silver coins are still used on clothes. In the collection of Guizhou Province Museum, we find women’s clothes with scores of copper coins hanging from the hems. Wearers of such clothes obvious wanted to show off by displaying their wealth.

Third, the Miaos kept migrating until the late period of the Qing Dynasty. Roaming from one place to another, they chose to have silver ornaments on their clothes as such ornaments were expensive and easy to carry.

In Qing Dynasty archives we find many records about silver ornaments of the Miao ethnic group. According to these records, Miao people believed that the more silver ornaments one wore, the better, so there was a trend to have as many of them as possible. There were clothes with silver ornaments weighing several dozen kilograms. Silver ornaments became increasingly diverse in style as their use increased.