Riding the wind of rebirth

The other set of partition doors with intermittent ancient floral patterns is also a Zhejiang craft.

This set of partition doors is divided into three parts: upper, middle and lower.

The upper part is a hollow carving of the Baoxiang flower.

The lower part is made of wooden footboards and waist boards. The footboards are plain without any carvings or decorations. The waist board is carved with a window pane surrounded by continuous and complex lines, and the center of the window is carved with the traditional four gentlemen of flowers: plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum.

If you look closely at the window pane surrounding the flowers, you will find that it is composed of an extremely complex, winding but uninterrupted "one-stroke" line, which is a great test of the carving knife skills.

But what is even more amazing is the central part.

The stone decoration of the center part is made of Ya'an stone produced in Shuzhong. This stone has various colors and rich textures. Some of it looks like black and white marble, but it is colorful. The picture can be left to the viewer's imagination and is full of natural interest.

However, what is even more amazing is the "window panes" that wrap these stone slabs, which are also made up of uninterrupted "one-stroke" lines. However, this time they are no longer carved, but made up of pieces of curved wood. Because the workmanship is extremely delicate, even after a hundred years, there is still no visible gap or crack, as if they were naturally generated.

It is truly a work of art that is so ingenious that the window pane, which looks like it is made of long noodles, is called "unbreakable".

The four gentlemen among flowers are elegant and fragrant, proud and unrestrained, and they despise the world. They are deeply loved by literati and poets of all ages. In addition, the "unbreakable" window panes and the naturally painted Ya'an stone, as well as the partition doors, are much taller than windows. Therefore, compared with the ten groups of windows just now, these four doors are much higher in terms of artistic achievement, precious subject matter, cultural relic value and wealth value.

"Who is so crazy that he sells all these things!" Zhou Zhi shook his head: "Even if he is an amateur, anyone who comes here can tell at a glance that this thing is a good thing!"

"Well, I should hold it in my hand and leave it for you to pick up the bargain, right?" Ma Ye teased Zhou Zhi, "Just look at the things carefully, why are you talking so much?"

Lin Wanqiu was laughing on the side: "The best thing to do is to send it to the auction house, and everyone can bid and compete, no one will be cheated!"

"Tsk!" Both Ma Ye and Zhou Zhi were unhappy: "This way we won't have any fun picking up bargains!"

In addition to the two sets mentioned above, there are many other good things here, such as the ironwood queti from Huizhou.

The bracket is installed at the intersection of beams and columns in ancient buildings. It extends from the columns and supports the cross beams or lintels at the top. It not only provides mechanical structural support, but also plays a decorative role.

Chinese ancient architecture is majestic and magnificent, carrying the history and wisdom of the Chinese people. A large part of its beauty lies in the exquisiteness and attention to detail.

The most common joints between beams, columns and rafters are decorated with very delicate carvings.

Brackets and ox legs are indispensable elements of expression.

Both are used to strengthen the supporting structure of the building, but many people confuse corbels with brackets. In fact, both are important components in ancient Chinese architecture. However, brackets are generally wooden carved components under the beams, which are used to shorten the span of the beams and thus enhance their load-bearing capacity, while reducing the downward shear force at the junction of the beams and columns, and preventing the angle between horizontal and vertical components from tilting; while corbels are basically wooden carved components under the eaves, which mainly play the role of supporting the bearing capacity of the building's cantilevered wood, eaves and purlins.

Because of their different functions, a pillar has only one corbel, but if it has a corbel, it must be a pair, shaped like a skylark spreading its wings, hence the name.

This pair of brackets collected by Mr. Ma is made of ironwood, a kind of hardwood with an iron color. Some of its textures are slightly similar to chicken-wing wood, and its bristles are obvious. Because it is commonly found in large pieces, it was used as beams in Guangdong in ancient times. The decoration is a carved dragon, which is lifelike. Although its bristles are obvious, it is the hardest and strongest known domestic wood, so ironwood is generally used to replace redwood in furniture and building components.

This pair of brackets is from the late Ming Dynasty. Over the years, most of the bristle holes have been filled in. In addition to its extremely high hardness, it has been covered with a layer of lacquer. Perhaps when it was first made, it was inferior to the previous two rosewood utensils. However, with the addition of time, it now looks better than the rosewood door panels.

"Shouldn't this thing be very old?" Zhou Zhi was a little confused. "Looking at the patina and carvings, it must be from the late Ming Dynasty. But who would dare to use dragon patterns as a bracket in the late Ming Dynasty?"

There were many dragon-like patterns in ancient times, such as python, Jiao, Kui, Chi, flying fish, Bai Ze, etc.

The dragon has five claws, which could only be used by emperors in ancient times. Then a dragon without toes, or with four or three claws, should be called a python.

The Jiao is actually similar to a dragon, also called a "horned dragon", but its body is more slender.

Kuilong's ears and tail look like flower branches with antique patterns.

Chi is a dragon without horns.

A flying fish has two legs, the front two legs are fins, and there is a fish tail.

Bai Ze has a dragon head, but his body is more like that of an animal than a reptile.

There were strict hierarchical regulations on the use of many patterns in feudal dynasties. The places that dared to use the Chi were generally the ancestral temples of important royal family members or high-ranking officials, and ordinary people were not allowed to use it.

"They were taken down from an old ancestral hall in central Zhejiang. Unfortunately, the roof of the ancestral hall had been destroyed, and they have been exposed to wind and rain for many years. Only this pair of pieces are still intact." Mr. Ma sighed when he talked about this: "If I had gone there a few years earlier, I might have found more good items."

"Let's not talk about that. Come, look at this."

"This is also in the late Ming style, with crabapple-shaped windows with brocade patterns." Lin Wanqiu said, "But the actual era should not have come yet. What do you think, Elbow?"

"The style is indeed from the late Ming Dynasty. There are similar windows in the Huafu in Stephen Chow's "Flirting Scholar". But although this window is exquisite and grand, it is a bit solemn and rigorous, and has lost its lively and agile spirit, so it should be an imitation of the early Qing Dynasty." Zhou Zhi said while looking at the window: "The reason why Master Ma asked us to see it is because of its design?"

"The design is indeed quite clever." Lin Wanqiu nodded and said, "The window is connected with long wooden pieces as the basic elements. The mortise and tenon structure that is most popular in traditional woodworking is abandoned, and the 90-degree or 60-degree angle grooves are used to connect to form pattern units. The strength of the structure is maintained by the force of mutual squeezing. It's really amazing!"

"Because the main body of the plug-in is too monotonous, we also changed the decoration on the lattice to make up for the aesthetic deficiencies." Zhou Zhi nodded and just said this, he suddenly found something special: "No!"

"What's wrong?"

"Master Ma is so proud of this window, not because of what we just said." Zhou Zhi reached out and touched the lattice in the window pane: "Damn! These lattices are all made of polished clam shells!" (End of this chapter)