Short Story Liaozhai Edition Full Time [Yu Wang] Yuhuchun
Yu Wenzhou felt that something was not right with him recently.
He has been repeating a dream these days. In the dream, there is always a pair of steady and skillful hands, practicing clay, pulling blanks, adjusting glaze, and firing the kiln... The fire finally went out, and the hands reached into the kiln and took out a
The cyan porcelain bottle with smooth lines and as moist as jade was rotated, looked at, and held high——
"Bang!"
It was thrown hard and the porcelain was broken all over the floor.
Yu Wenzhou woke up sweating profusely. He tossed and turned on the pillow for a while, then reluctantly put on his clothes and got up, sitting in front of the workbench downstairs. After calming down, he turned on the lamp and took out a cup from the shelf behind the workbench.
Here comes a boxwood box only half a foot long and half a foot wide.
When the lid of the box is opened, the room is filled with light.
He picked it up last month in the antique market - or rather, a street stall on the antique street. As he was walking by, a glimmer of light reflected into his eyes. He turned his head and saw a piece of green porcelain among the messy broken porcelain on the floor.
A corner of blue water.
Love at first sight.
Without thinking, Yu Wenzhou knelt down and rummaged around in the large travel bag behind the stall owner for two hours.
Under the light, the young restorer lowered his eyes and gently brushed the porcelain surface with his fingertips. The clean and warm touch spread from his fingertips to his heart. He couldn't help but curl his eyes, smiled and whispered:
"You want to be put together as soon as possible, right? Be patient, it's about to start."
He turned around and picked up a piece of porcelain half a palm long from the basin in the other corner of the studio. The shape of the broken porcelain was quite unique, half a palm long and two fingers wide, with the narrow part converging inward to form an arc.
The seemingly narrow and unfilled grip unfolds from the top and the bottom. It looks like a top ballet dancer, with his head raised, his toes pointed behind him, his body bent back to the limit, and his arms wrapped around each other.
Just standing there in front of me gives me a sense of quietness and elegance.
This is the last piece.
When I first brought this bag of porcelain pieces back, most of them were dusty and stained. He picked them up piece by piece with his own hands and washed them until they were as clean as water now.
Yu Wenzhou concentrated and held his breath. He held the porcelain piece with his left thumb and middle finger. He first went under the faucet and washed it over and over with the porcelain piece in hand for almost a minute. After it was rinsed, he dipped a soft-bristled brush into the water in the basin and pressed it.
Pay attention and brush carefully one by one.
The inside, outside, and the bend at the mouth of the bottle are the most likely places for dirt to accumulate. The sharp cross-section stubble must be brushed without even a trace of stain. It must be clean and delicate off-white, so that it can be bonded smoothly in the future.
Not to mention those criss-crossed openings that are either oblique or upright. They have been buried in the kiln pits for thousands of years, and the soil and dust have already penetrated deeply into the depths of the openings.
Only the expert hands of a restorer can make them shine away from the dust.
Yu Wenzhou spent more than an hour brushing the porcelain tile that was half a palm long and two fingers wide. He turned it over and over under the lamp and observed carefully. He saw that the porcelain tile was completely shiny and clean, with no trace of stains on it. Only then was he satisfied and painted the last piece of porcelain.
A piece of broken porcelain was put back into the wooden box. Then he washed his hands under running water, applied hand cream, and took a breath of air.
--pain.
The porcelain tiles are covered with age-old dirt. Just washing with water is useless. You must add acetone to clean it. Acetone has a first-class decontamination ability, but if you soak it for a long time, it will become red, swollen, rough, dry and cracked.
, all suffered at their own hands.
However, when stroking the porcelain piece, there was only a warm smile in Yu Wenzhou's eyes.
"Okay, we can start fighting tomorrow!"
*********
The next night, the porcelain vase did not fall asleep again. However, Yu Wenzhou could not start working hard immediately - he worked as a restorer in the city museum, and although he had a quiet nine-to-five job, he could not afford to go on business trips occasionally. This was
No, just after taking photos of the fragments, there was suddenly a tomb in the next city that needed rescue excavation. Yu Wenzhou was urgently transferred there as a member of the cultural preservation system. He was stationed in the wilderness for half a month.
After finally coming back from his work, Yu Wenzhou washed away all the dust from his travels, stuffed his food with a few hasty mouthfuls, and then sat back down in front of the workbench. When the lid of the box was opened under the light, twenty-three pieces of broken porcelain lay quietly on the black cloth substrate, each piece
They are full of brilliance, just waiting for the owner to glue them back together as before.
Yu Wenzhou picked up a piece. Although he hadn't started comparing the pieces yet, he had washed them piece by piece with his own hands for more than a month. The shape and curvature of the restored pile of broken porcelain pieces had already been clearly sketched in his mind.
The two pieces on the left hand side are the mouth of the bottle, and the three pieces on the right hand side are the bottom of the bottle. As for the dozen or so pieces in the wooden box, they are larger in area and have a relatively flat curvature. They are obviously part of the bottle body. As for which piece is connected to which
One piece, are there any missing parts? These puzzles can only be solved after the puzzle is finished.
According to custom and the difficulty of the puzzle, Yu Wenzhou first picked up a piece of bottle bottom and carefully adjusted the angle in his hand so that the thumb, index finger, and little finger of his left hand could firmly press against the porcelain piece without cutting his fingers due to the stubble.
.Then, pick up another piece with your right hand, hold your breath, and move it step by step along the break of the piece with your left hand.
A little further—a little farther—that’s it. Inward, with a little force—close it!
The fractures on both sides were tightly closed, without any gaps. Yu Wenzhou breathed a sigh of relief, and quickly slid his left thumb and index finger forward, firmly pinching the connection point of the two pieces of porcelain. Then he could release his right hand and pick up a pencil, carefully
Mark the serial numbers "1" and "2" on the two pieces of porcelain respectively, and draw a rice shape on the gap between them to mark the direction of bonding.
Then, the next pair.
Next pair.
The bottom of the bottle is easier to piece together, and the mouth of the bottle is easier to piece together; as for the bottle body, the fragments have no pattern, not even engraved patterns, and can only be assembled piece by piece according to the curvature and the shape of the edges of the fragments.
Yu Wenzhou sat under the light, immersed in the work of searching, comparing, and marking. This pile of broken porcelain, ranging from half a palm to as small as a bean, totaled twenty-three pieces, adding up to seventy or eighty pieces.
Stubble - From a mathematical point of view, if you want to match them one by one, you would have to compare them 4,900 times.
In fact, of course it is not used. However, the ratio of hundreds or even thousands of times is still essential.
Under the pure white desk lamp, a whole week and more than ten working hours flowed quietly through his fingertips, never to return.
Logically speaking, for places that are not easy to make mistakes like the bottle mouth and the bottom of the bottle, you can glue them together as soon as you put them together. But Yu Wenzhou refused to do this. He always had to sort out the pieces piece by piece and spell them out clearly. He traced them with his eyes, rubbed them with his hands, and felt them in his heart.
Only after careful consideration can he proceed to the next step. Therefore, he is a famous slow-hand in the restoration circle. Fortunately, his craftsmanship is delicate and his work is beautiful. Gradually, he has become a top leader in the restoration of local cultural relics.
Such hands sometimes move quickly. This is the case when gluing - squeeze a small amount of colorless epoxy resin on the heavy white porcelain plate, pour a spoonful of gypsum powder into it, and then immediately use a sharp tip to
Brush the plastic skewer on the head several times and stir evenly quickly. Adjust the glue, use the plastic skewer to apply a thin layer on the stubble, pick up the corresponding tiles that have been marked before, sew them together, and put them together.
A series of movements, stretching naturally and flowing smoothly.
Yu Wenzhou has a pair of hands suitable for cultural relic restoration. In the words of his mentor, they are "craftsman's hands." The fingers are slender and long, and even the palms appear a bit thin. They even show a bit of greenish white under strong light, which makes people feel...
, there is no need to think about repairing bronzes, it is absolutely impossible to carry the cauldron with these hands - it is just right for sticking porcelain and the like.
Pure white light shines on Yu Wenzhou's working hands. The skin is not necessarily so delicate. After all, his hands have dealt with glue, paint, acetone and the like a lot, and they will never be perfect. But the fingers are spread out, and the fingertips are slightly
The tilted look makes people feel that these hands must be stable and sensitive enough when handling the delicate porcelain pieces.
Just like this, two broken pieces of porcelain that had just been glued together glowed in his palm, like a pool of gentle clear water.
The five fingers of the left hand hold the tiles in place. The fingertips of the right hand gently move around in the palm of the hand to clean and fix the tiles. The movements are dexterous and delicate, whether it is wiping away the overflowing glue in the gaps or using transparent tape along the front and back of the tiles.
It was tightly attached and fixed without causing any ripples in the clear water. Finally, it was gently put down without disturbing the dust.
When the task is completed, leave it aside and move on to the next group.
That night, twelve sets of porcelain pieces were quietly placed in the box, and Yu Wenzhou dreamed of a strange young man, walking slowly towards him in the spring breeze. In the dream, he could not see his face clearly, but he only remembered a pair of large and small pairs of porcelain pieces.
The slightly different eyes are bright and full of hope.
The corners of the light blue gown were raised slightly as the person walked. The person's posture was as tall and straight as a new bamboo.
*********
Gluing porcelain pieces is a job that requires infinite patience. No matter how fast your hands are, you can't even think of gluing a porcelain bottle or anything else in one go - the glue takes 24 hours to solidify and can only be used in groups.
Come piece by piece.
Therefore, even though Yu Wenzhou had made enough preparations in advance to avoid going back on pieces and disassembly, it still took him a full week to glue the bottle together completely and hold it in his hands, turning it around and admiring it.
So beautiful, he thought to himself.
This is a jade pot spring vase from Ru kiln. The neck of the bottle is slender and the body is round, like a drop of dew falling from the tip of a leaf. The proportions and curves are perfect. There is no pattern or even any pattern. It only relies on its own beauty.
The shape, standing there, naturally conquers everyone's eyes.
The bottle rotates. The light flows over the bottle without any obstruction, like shining into a pool of spring water. The bottle rotates, and the brilliance flows silently, like the breeze ruffling a pool of spring water.
This is pink cyan glaze. It is not the most expensive one in your kiln. The azure color is described as "the sky is clear and cloudy after the rain", but it is one of Yu Wenzhou's favorite colors. It is quiet, gentle, full of vitality, and even has a
A moist sweetness.
A glaze layer needs to be thick enough, but not so thick that the glaze flows, to form such a uniform glaze color; a precise glaze ratio is required, and even precious agate must be used in the glaze to make the glaze color as thick as gelatin and not melt.
It flows, forming a texture that resembles jade, but is better than jade but not jade.
The temperature of the kiln needs to be strictly controlled between 1150 and 1200 degrees. If the temperature is less than 1150 degrees, the color will be moon white, if it is higher than 1200 degrees, it will be azure, and if it is higher than 1220 degrees, the glaze will even flow; the degree of oxidation and reduction in the kiln is required.
Just right - in that era that didn't know what redox was at all; the cooling rate was just right to prevent the jade-like texture from becoming turbid...
The time, place and people are favorable.
It takes the painstaking efforts of countless top craftsmen and countless momentary coincidences of God's mercy to obtain such a perfect porcelain vase.
Of course, the one in front of me is not perfect. Yu Wenzhou thought as he turned the porcelain vase in his hand. Maybe there was a gust of wind blowing in the kiln, or maybe it was slightly askew when it was put into the kiln after being dipped in glaze.
On one side of the bottle, the glaze was applied in a thin layer, but it was not completely even.
It was this single flaw that prevented it from becoming a tribute. Instead, it was ruthlessly smashed to pieces as soon as it came out of the kiln, and never saw the light of day again.
——But I like it.
Yu Wenzhou thought.
I like the uneven enamel on the bottle mouth. I like the faint whitening of the cracks after bonding. I also like the two defects on the bottle mouth and bottle belly.
So what if it's missing.
I'm here.
I'll fill it in for him.
He put down the porcelain bottle and took out the proofing paste from the drawer. He actually snatched the proofing paste from Huang Shaotian. In the hands of Huang Shaotian, a dentist, that thing has been used to take impressions of dentures. So "Everyone must have one."
"A dentist friend" makes sense - Yu Wenzhou thought so as he applied release agent on both sides of the bottle mouth, applied proofing paste, and squeezed it tightly.
Take a mold, apply plaster, and wait for the plaster to solidify naturally; then, use a skewer, a scraper, and coarse and fine sandpaper to sand it carefully over and over again. After the bottle mouth is perfect in shape and curvature except for the different color, Yu Wenzhou washes the brush
, lay out the paint.
He never uses mixed paints. There are only five colors in the paint can.
The three primary colors of red, yellow and blue create countless changes in the world. The two colors of black and white control the light and dark shades of all colors.
That's enough.
One stroke at a time, a warm and soft pink color that is indistinguishable from the porcelain tiles is created; one stroke at a time, on the plaster and on the cracks where the porcelain tiles are bonded, apply it carefully so that these places can no longer be seen.
There is no difference in color and luster; finally, use a special spray painting tool to spray imitation glaze paint all over the porcelain pieces to restore them to the glaze-like luster.
A few days passed. The defects at the mouth of the bottle had long been repaired. Yu Wenzhou looked at the thumb-sized hole under the bottle and fell into deep thought.
Of course, it's not that he doesn't know how to repair. He has become very proficient in filling plaster, sanding, coloring, and spraying glaze over the years. However, this time, he wanted to use other techniques.
It is not an orthodox method of cultural relic restoration. In fact, it can be said that it violates the principles of "no harm", "no traces" and "as reversible as possible" in cultural relic restoration that he has adhered to since he entered the industry. However, only this time, he wanted to be willful.
, do it according to your mood.
——This is mine, Yu Wenzhou thought.
I want to leave my unique mark on it.
He took a deep breath, took out an anvil, a carving knife, scissors, and a palm-sized piece of silver. He thought about the plan from beginning to end, measured it on the bottle, and began to immerse himself in carving.
Engraving silver is naturally different from engraving plaster. Fortunately, Yu Wenzhou has extensive experience in carving, and his carving skills are also quite good. With just a few cuts, he can carve out a clump of green bamboo on the silver, with scattered shades, sparse and strong knots. Follow the scissors as they circle, along the
After drawing the outline in advance, carefully cut out the green bamboo pattern, press it on the gap of the porcelain bottle, and mark it carefully.
Then, he pulled out a small electric drill with a drill bit not even as thick as the tip of a ballpoint pen. He closed his eyes, opened them again, wiped the sweat from his palms, and tried his best to keep his hands a little more steady.
This next step cannot go wrong at all.
The electric drill buzzed as it approached the porcelain bottle. Yu Wenzhou held the electric drill with his right hand, adducted his wrist, tilted the drill bit at 45 degrees, and touched the porcelain bottle. For a 1 mm thick porcelain body, drill seven points, leave three points, and leave one point shallow.
If the nail is not firmly fixed, the carcass will be drilled through if it is deeper, and the nail will still be difficult to fix. The subtle control of depth, angle, etc., all depends on the skill of the hands.
After drilling the three holes, Yu Wenzhou was already sweating slightly. He settled down, picked up the scissors again, and trimmed the three slender triangles deliberately left at the top of the silver triangle. Then, he used needle-nose pliers.
Bend these slender, nearly straight triangles and carefully insert them into the holes in the porcelain bottle.
One stick.
Two.
Three roots.
Safely embedded, exactly.
The inwardly bent nail pins rely on the pulling force between the nail pins and the silver piece to firmly fix themselves on the porcelain vase and cannot move any further.
Yu Wenzhou breathed a sigh of relief. He still didn't dare to slack off. He used a small hammer to carefully hammer the silver piece so that it fit perfectly with the curvature of the bottle body, and then used a small file to trim the nail feet. Then, he applied porcelain powder, filled in color, and sprayed glaze...
…
After some trivial but meticulous modifications, this thin piece of silver engraved with bamboo was finally firmly embedded on the belly of the bottle, like an elegant and unique seal.
Looking up, the moon fills the sky.
*********
That night, Yu Wenzhou couldn't bear to fall asleep for a long time.
From time to time, he would turn to look at his latest achievement. Under the south window of the bedroom, on the specially moved crabapple-style sandalwood table, the reborn porcelain vase stood quietly. The moonlight outside the window was shining brightly, and the light blue jade-like porcelain vase was shining brightly.
The glaze surface was suddenly coated with a light layer of liquid silver.
"If there is an imperial ooze falling, you might be able to survive like this..."
The young restorer muttered one last sentence, smiled, and closed his eyes peacefully.
In the dream, the young man in the light blue gown came towards him with a pot of fine wine. Silver threads shone on the lapel of his clothes, and a clump of bamboo stood out in front of his eyes.
When I woke up the next day, the room was filled with the smell of wine.
Especially in the bottle.
*******
References to this article:
1. "A Brief Analysis of the Porcelain Making Technology of Ru Kiln in the Northern Song Dynasty" - Zhang Yibo, Master's Thesis of Cultural Relics and Museums at Zhengzhou University
2. "Research on Ruguan Kiln Celadon Glaze Technology" - Xu Wenjun, "Chinese Ceramics" August 2007
(Thanks to @东君 for providing the above two papers)
3. [Exploration and Discovery] Chronicle of Restoration - The Story of Restoration (Part 1 and 2)
4. [CCTV Documentary] Jiang Daoyin, expert in restoration of ancient Chinese ceramics