Some of you may still vaguely remember that when you were in elementary school, you learned a text like “A Magnificent Brocade”:
In ancient times, there was a flat land at the foot of the mountain. There are several huts on the flat ground. There was a Dabu living in the hut…… Dabu weaves a good brocade. The flowers, plants, birds and beasts woven on the brocade are alive and fresh. People buy her brocade to make backpacks, quilt covers, and bed felts. A family of four lives on Dabu’s hands……
This folk tale that circulates in the Zhuang region is not only beautiful and moving, but also full of romantic fantasy imagination. It is from this text that many people know Zhuang Jin and perceive Zhuang culture.
In 1965, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the founding of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, a song “Zhuang Jin Dedicated to Chairman Mao” was sung in the land of Bagui. This song, which is based on Zhuang folk songs, expresses the admiration of the people of Zhuang Township for Chairman Mao, and also profoundly reflects that in the minds of contemporary people, Zhuang Jin has become a representative and symbol of Guangxi’s national culture and art in a sense.
Migration of Zhuangjin’s “production territory”.
Zhuangjin, as one of the most magnificent and splendid cultural creations of the Zhuang people, has a very long history.
Strong people are good at weaving, and it is also recorded in ancient books. In the “Geographical Chronicles of the · of the Han Book”, there is a description of the Zhuang family’s “men ploughing farmers, planting rice and hemp, and good silkworm weaving”. In the 70s of the last century, archaeologists excavated several pieces of orange-red brocade fragments in the No. 7 burial pit of the Luopowan Han Tomb in Guigang, Guangxi, which is the evidence that the ancestors of the Zhuang people had mastered the brocade weaving skills in the Han Dynasty.
According to the records of “Tang Liuqu” and “Yuanhe County Chronicles”, in the Tang Dynasty, the banana cloth, bamboo cloth, jibei cloth, banban cloth, Duluobu, linen cloth, silk cloth and other fabrics woven by the Zhuang people were listed as tribute by the imperial court.
In the Song Dynasty, the handmade textile industry of the Zhuang nationality further developed, and in addition to ordinary cloth, there was also a brocade interwoven with silk, linen and silk cotton. During the Yuanfeng period of the Northern Song Dynasty, Lu Dafang set up the Shu brocade courtyard in Sichuan. Among the four kinds of brocade, there is Guangxi brocade (Zhuang brocade), one of the brocade silks included in the tribute. It can be seen that the brocade is precious. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Zhuang brocade became more and more prosperous, and the craft became more and more mature, and Zhuang brocade developed to weave with a variety of colors of velvet thread, so that Zhuang brocade showed a gorgeous color, and it was gradually widely used in the folk. At that time, the prosperity of Zhuang Jin, as recorded in the “Guangxi Tongzhi”: “Zhuang Jin from the states and counties, the Zhuang people love color, where the clothes and skirts are not to take the five-color velvet mixed with weaving, such as flowers and birds…… “Qing Dynasty Shen Rilin described in the “Guangdong West Trivia”: “The strong women are quite handicraft, and the dyeing and silk brocade are colorful…… All nobles and wealthy businessmen will compete for them. At that time, weaving Zhuang brocade was an indispensable “female red” for Zhuang women, and Zhuang brocade was an indispensable thing in the dowry. The so-called “dowry, the soil brocade quilt is indispensable, and everyone in the hometown can weave the past.” The soil brocade is made of willow velvet, matched into five colors, thick and durable, worth five taels, and the daughter of the unfinished is to learn to weave”.
Since the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, with the rise of modern industrial textile industry, the production of Zhuangjin in the family workshop has been greatly impacted, and the output and origin have begun to shrink, and the main use of Zhuangjin has also changed from daily necessities to decorative fabrics.
After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the government attaches great importance to the inheritance and development of national culture, and Guangxi’s Zhuangjin has become the best carrier for the revitalization of national traditional crafts. In the 50s of the last century, Guangxi was set up in Xincheng, Jingxi, Binyang three counties Zhuang brocade factory, and in the folk to recruit brocade craftsmen and train new weavers. After 20 years, the new and old craftsmen weave a large number of both inherited the tradition, but also rich in the atmosphere of the times of the brocade handicrafts. The splendid and colorful splendid brocade once again ushered in the peak period of development.
Since the reform and opening up, the “production map” of Zhuangjin has undergone very interesting changes — it has migrated from the Zhuang nationality to the Han nationality area, and Binyang County in Guangxi is at the “node” of this migration route.
As one of the designated production enterprises of national products and one of the scientific research and production bases of brocade craft in China, Guangxi Binyang National Brocade Factory established in 1956 made Binyang County the largest brocade production base in the country. In 1991, at the 4th National Minority Traditional Sports Games and the 40th anniversary celebration of the founding of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in 1998, the Zhuang brocade produced by Binyang National Brocade Factory became the designated product. In 1994, at the World Conference on Women held in Beijing, the brocade bags produced by Binyang National Brocade Factory became a special document bag for delegates from all over the world.
Binyang Zhuangjin has been famous all over the country from this time on.
The master and apprentice both won the highest honors
Zhuangjin, which represents the folk crafts and traditional culture of the Zhuang nationality, has taken root in Binyang and bloomed luxuriantly, which is not unrelated to Binyang’s solid industrial and commercial tradition since ancient times and the geographical convenience of trade. However, from a microscopic point of view, it is most directly related to the ingenuity and craftsmanship of the two brocade girls in Binyang.
It can even be said that it is these two brocade women who have achieved the glory of Binyang Zhuangjin.
Liang Shuying and Tan Xiangguang, the master and apprentice, are actually the most outstanding representatives of the two generations of brocade girls in Binyang. After Liang Shuying was named the master of Chinese arts and crafts in the 80s of the last century, Tan Xiangguang also won the title of master of Chinese arts and crafts in 2007.
This is also recognized in the field of Chinese Zhuangjin crafts, and it is also the only two masters of arts and crafts.
In a county, two generations of brocade women have been rated as Chinese arts and crafts masters, which is not only in Guangxi, but also looking at the whole country, such a phenomenon is probably not rare. For a time the story of the master and apprentice is passed on as a good story.
The production of Binyang Zhuang brocade began in the 40s of the last century, inherited from the traditional brocade technology of Xincheng. For at least hundreds of years, the center of Guangxi Zhuangjin production has been Xincheng County, which is famous far and wide. Before the liberation, the Zhuang brocade quilt and the back heart of Xincheng weaving were sold to Yizhou, Laibin, Binyang and other places, and the beauty and practicality of Zhuang brocade were widely favored by people.
So, there was the beginning of the Binyang Han family girls learning to weave brocade.
In the early 40s of the last century, Liang Shuying went north to learn art and became the first craftsman to learn art from Binyang to Xincheng. More than 40 years later, when Liang Shuying won the honor of master for his exquisite and superb brocade weaving skills, people realized that Liang Shuying’s art of going to the north not only passed back the skills of weaving brocade to Han women. More importantly, the brocade technology she brought back made Binyang’s brocade industry flourish day by day, thus becoming the new brocade production center in Guangxi and rewriting the pattern of China’s brocade geographical distribution.
Tan Xiangguang is Liang Shuying’s proudest personal disciple, and Liang Shuying almost regards Tan Xiangguang, who is 40 years younger than him, as his own daughter. When Tan Xiangguang was 17 years old, she entered the Binyang National Brocade Factory as an apprentice, and Liang Shuying always taught her hand-in-hand by her side, carefully teaching what she had learned in her life.
Back then, in Binyang, people had a sense of mystery about Liang Shuying’s brocade weaving skills and living habits. Liang Shuying learned brocade at the age of 8, never left the loom every day, and never married, vegetarian. Until she died at the age of 82, the day before she died, she completed the last magnificent painting of her life.
Tan Xiangguang was interviewed by reporters in Binyang a few days ago, and said with emotion that watching the old man Liang Shuying weaving brocade is completely an artistic enjoyment. The old man moves slowly and smoothly in front of the loom, and his dexterous hands make the colorful silk threads constantly change into beautiful patterns in the sound of the loom.
In 1983, Liang Shuying was invited to Tokyo, Japan to perform a brocade performance, and at that international folk craft fair, the old man and her ancient loom, beautiful brocade, and magical brocade operation became a “magnet” with special charm, attracting everyone to stop and watch. After 10 days of performances, many Japanese people knew and loved Binyang Zhuangjin, and Binyang Zhuangjin began to be sold to Japan.
Tan Xiangguang learned weaving at the age of 17 and became the director of the Binyang National Brocade Factory at the age of 29. According to the generation of the traditional folk teacher-student relationship, she belongs to the second generation of Binyang brocade heirs.
In order to make Binyang’s brocade colors and styles richer, and the products can be loved by more people, the master and apprentice can be said to have exhausted their efforts for this. In order to learn the traditional style of ethnic minorities in the design of clothing patterns and understand the dos and don’ts of ethnic minorities’ living customs, the two went to Sanjiang, Rongshui, Longsheng and other ethnic minority villages many times to collect style. Whenever they find some novel and unique traditional brocade patterns, they will borrow them from their hometowns and return to the hostel where they live to trace them, as a reference and reference for Binyang brocade weaving.
The unremitting creation and efforts of the two masters of arts and crafts have made Binyang Zhuangjin survive and develop tenaciously under the situation of the overall decline of the Zhuangjin industry in Xincheng, Jingxi and other places, not only assuming the historical responsibility of the inheritance of Zhuangjin, but also calling the brand of Binyang Zhuangjin.
Binyang Zhuangjin’s road to the future
Zhuang Jin has been together with the famous Shu Jin, Yun Jin and Song Jin in history, and is called “China’s Four Famous Brocade”.
Binyang Zhuangjin strictly inherits the ancient weaving equipment, weaving technology, weaving materials and pattern style of traditional Zhuangjin.
The biggest difference and feature from other brocade instruments is undoubtedly the large bamboo cage hanging on the brocade loom. Therefore, the Zhuangjin loom is also vividly called the “bamboo cage machine”.
Nowadays, Binyang Zhuangjin still uses a traditional small wooden machine when weaving, and the huge bamboo cage with a diameter of fifty or sixty centimeters above the machine is particularly eye-catching. In fact, Zhuangjin is on such a handloom equipped with a support system, a transmission device, a heald device and a jacquard device, with cotton yarn as the warp, with various colored velvet as the weft, and the method of warp and weft breaking is cleverly intertwined. Usually the brocade warp is generally the primary color, the weft is matched with different colors according to the brocade people’s conception, and the big bamboo cage above the loom is dedicated to the weaving pattern, and it is also the mystery of the infinite changes in the brocade ornamentation.
After thousands of years of development, Zhuang brocade has three types of self-contained system, more than 20 varieties and more than 50 kinds of patterns, which are known for their exquisite skills, exquisite ornamentation, and durability.
Zhuangjin mostly uses heavy colors, with red, yellow, blue, green as the basic color. The rest is complementary color. The contrast is bright and strong, with red as the background, full of warm, active, jubilant atmosphere. With green as a backdrop, there is a cheerful mood. If it is configured in yellow and green, it is gorgeous and moving. A magnificent brocade is often composed of several colors or even a dozen colors mixed and matched. The ingenious color matching makes the brocade colorful and gorgeous, flashy and vulgar, which can be described as rich in simplicity, colorful in plain and elegant, bright and strong contrast, natural and durable.
“Ten pieces of brocade and nine pieces of phoenix, like a phoenix out of the brocade”, the pattern of the phoenix is the most common in the brocade, which is because the Zhuang people especially love the phoenix, which symbolizes the auspicious bird. In addition to the phoenix, there are many traditional patterns on the brocade. Most of them are selected from the visible things in life and the patterns that symbolize auspiciousness and happiness, such as water, clouds, flowers, grass, insects, fish, birds, beasts, as well as complex double phoenix chaoyang, butterfly love flower, double dragon playing with pearls, lion rolling ball, phoenix wearing peony, peacock in the sea, mandarin duck playing in the water, carp jumping dragon gate, etc., as well as checkered pattern, water ripple, cloud pattern, hollow pattern, weaving pattern, concentric circle pattern and other geometric patterns.
The pattern of Binyang Zhuangjin is also innovative on the basis of inheriting the tradition, “Sunflower to the Sun”, “National Unity”, “Guilin Landscape”, “Grain Harvest”, “Red Cotton” and so on have become the classic patterns of Zhuangjin in the new era.
With the impact of commodity economy and weaving industrialization, the traditional craft of Binyang Zhuangjin is not spared, and it has fallen into an unprecedented predicament.
The government of the autonomous region has given positive support to the predicament of Zhuangjinye. How to maintain the vigorous vitality of Zhuang brocade in the new century, and inject new elements of the times. This important task was shouldered by the Guangxi Institute of Arts and Crafts. In recent years, the relevant departments from the capital, equipment introduction and personnel training, vigorously to this contemporary Zhuang brocade R & D and production modernization base inclination, the results have become increasingly apparent.
In 2002, after Tan Xiangguang retired from Binyang National Brocade Factory, Guangxi Institute of Arts and Crafts hired her as the director of the brocade workshop in order to rescue the endangered brocade craft and protect the folk brocade talents. In the past few years, Tan Xiangguang has made great gains from Zhuangjin’s process upgrading, design innovation, and marketing, and his vision and thinking have reached a new level. The Guangxi Institute of Arts and Crafts in the excavation and protection of Zhuangjin culture at the same time, focuses on the development of both practical value and artistic value of Zhuangjin new products, in the ancient Zhuangjin and the direction of the development of the times, a new level.
Tan Xiangguang said that just like when she first entered the industry to learn brocade, she now almost re-understands the value of Zhuangjin, “I see the light ahead again.”
Not long ago, Tan Xiangguang newly registered and established a workshop named after himself in Binyang – Guangxi Binyang Xiangguang Brocade Workshop, which is located on Binzhou Street. The reporter saw in the workshop, rows of brand-new handlooms, the hands of the brocade women are shuttling in the five-color silk threads through the heaven and latitude, and the looms are making bursts of rhythmic light sounds, which makes people seem to have walked into the ancient atmosphere of brocade weaving.
After all, the traditional brocade weaving technique still needs to be completed by hand, and Tan Xiangguang asked his personal disciple Huang Aiqun to be responsible for training a new generation of brocade weavers and learning for three months for free. Trained and qualified brocade weavers are provided with a loom free of charge, and can choose to work in the workshop or at home, depending on their circumstances, and are paid for completing the order of the brocade brocade provided by the brocade workshop.
Tan Xiangguang’s move not only solved the employment problem of rural surplus labor force for the local area, but also made Binyang Zhuangjin shine again. More importantly, the training of a new generation of brocade weavers has also injected fresh blood into the inheritance of brocade craftsmanship. In this way, since the old man Liang Shuying, Binyang now has the fourth generation of brocade heirs.
On April 30, 2009, Huang Aiqun, as a representative of the Guangxi Ethnic Affairs Commission, went to Hong Kong to participate in the exchange activities of the 3rd Chinese National Culture Week. During this period, Huang Aiqun performed a magnificent brocade weaving technique at the Convention and Exhibition Center, and the onlookers were like clouds, and there was a lot of praise.
In fact, every time he looks at Huang Aiqun’s skillful weaving figure next to the loom, Tan Xiangguang always feels like seeing his former self. The new generation of brocade hands is the hope of Binyang Zhuangjin, and the future will be as colorful as Zhuangjin.
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