The ancients said, “The craftsmen of the Yangtze River are all from the Xiangshan”. Over the past 700 years, the craftsmen of the Xiangshan gang in Suzhou …
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The ancients said, “The craftsmen of the Yangtze River are all from the Xiangshan”. Over the past 700 years, the craftsmen of the Xiangshan gang in Suzhou have been handed down their virtuosity from generation to generation, and the virtuosity of that have been also listed as the representative works of the human intangible cultural heritage.
Suzhou Landscape and Garden Investment and Development Group Co., Ltd is the only state-owned enterprise in Suzhou engaged in investment, construction and operation of landscape and garden design.From June 19 to 21, Suzhou Garden Group held the Xiangshan craftsmen research activity, schemed “Never Forget the Original Heart, Ingenuity Serves the Country”. More than 40 craftsmen and Xiangshan Gang apprenticesof the Group went to Beijing to communicate closely with the ancient building masters of the Imperial Palace, visit the World Horticultural Exhibitions, watch the flag-raising ceremony, for strengthening cultural and technological confidence, fostering patriotism and striving to be pioneer craftsmen in the new era.
Visiting confirms cultural confidence
Since the Ming dynasty, a large number of skilled craftsmen have emerged in Xiangshan, Suzhou, which has become a key link in the history of Chinese architecture. From folk residences of the Yangtze River, classical gardens in Suzhou to temples, Taoist buildings and imperial palaces in Beijing, these craftsmenhave creatednumerous outstanding works.
“Beijing is a city floating on the water.” As early as the Ming dynasty, the craftsmen of the Xiangshan Gang came to Beijing along the Grand Canal to participate in the design and construction of the Imperial Palace. In the process of studying in Beijing, more than 40 Xiangshan craftsmen and model laborers visited Tian An Men, the Temple of Heaven and the World Horticultural Exhibitions. They felt the exquisite design of their predecessors and learned the gardening styles of various places.
Entering the Jiangsu Garden of the World Horticultural Exhibitions, there are all kinds of landscape forms of Soviet garden, such as pavilions and galleries, bridges and running water, which make all participants feel like “returning home”.
As the successors of Xiangshan Gang in the new era, they often stop to exchange professional opinions on the construction of these landscapes in the process of visiting.
Wang Zifeng is a young apprentice who just joined the “Xiangshan Talents Training Plan” of Suzhou Garden Group this year. After visiting Tian An Men, the Temple of Heaven and the World Horticultural Exhibitions, especially viewing the friendly Soviet garden landscape in the World Horticultural Exhibitions, he was very proud, meanwhile, he felt the heavy mission and responsibility.
Experts analyze the non-heritage culture
In order to make the participants realize the profound cultural charm of “the intangible heritage” and persevere in it, we invited Yuan Li, the Researcher of Chinese National Academy of Arts and the Doctoral Tutor; Li Yongge, the Director of the Ancient Architecture Repair Center of the Beijing Palace Museum, the Expert and Representative Successor of the ancient architecture, and the national intangible cultural heritage project”Official Architecture Building Skills (Beijing Palace Museum)”, gave a lecture on the intangible heritage and traditional techniques.
Themed with”Password of Inheritance”, Yuan Li, the researcher of Chinese National Academy of Arts, detailedlyintroduced what is the intangible cultural heritage, why and how to protect it.
Yuan Li explained the intangible heritage with two grounded sentences: the intangible heritage is not Qin Han brick tile, but it is the firing technology of that; the intangible heritage is not the Imperial Palace, Great Wall, but it is the building technology of that.
“Traditional architecture has both the material cultural heritage and the intangible heritage. The entity of architecture is material, while the construction and related cultural customs are intangible.” Li Yongge, the Representative Inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage project “Official Architecture Building Skills (Beijing Palace Museum)”, explained the traditional skills of official ancient architecture in the Palace Museum, such as tile, wood, earth and stone, the weighing system of official ancient architecture in Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the “language” of the big carpenters for the craftsmen in Xiangshan.
“The lectures of the two masters have broadened our cultural horizons and let us more confident about how to carry on the intangible heritage inheritance in the future. As the masters said, we must learn more from our mentors, and test the intangible heritage in ancient books as well as inspect at the scene, to inherit the oldest and best craftsmanship system in a complete way.”Li Jiayin, theyouth Xiangshan Gang apprentice said.
Protect and breed the intangible heritage successors
Yuan Li, theResearcher of Chinese National Academy of Arts, believes that the key to the protection of the intangible heritage is to protect its inheritors. Only by protecting the intangible heritageinheritors can we continue the traditional culture and cultivate a high degree of cultural self-confidence.
For meeting the dilemma of inheritance, Suzhou Garden Group has formulated the “Xiangshan Talents Training Plan”. In the future, the protection and inheritance of the human intangible cultural heritage will depend on the inheritors and young people, so that the intangible heritage can grow naturally and vividly. It is understood that there are 28 apprentices to participate in the first batch of “Xiangshan Talents Training Plan” , and half of that are post-90s.
Superpower craftsmen inherit the human intangible cultural heritage; Pioneers of the times demonstrate cultural confidence. It also organized all the participants to watch the flag-raising ceremony in Tian An Men Square. The ancestors of Xiangshan Gang participated in the construction, wearing uniform clothes printed with “Never Forget the Original Heart, Ingenuity Serves the Country”, and accepted a patriotic education and spiritual baptism to strengthen the belief of literature and art in serving the country and the confidence of culturally strong enterprise.
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