Ancient Pearl: One Wind and One Merry


Warring States Red Dragonfly Ring

Western Zhou Agate with Yuan Dynasty

Tang Dynasty Melon Pearl

In recent years, beads have become more and more popular accessories. These small beads, either dazzling or sleek, or elegant, or hanging on the neck with a string, or ten pieces in the hands, made of materials, changed by people, satisfied people The pursuit of beauty and personality. In Panjiayuan, you can see the tourist vendors and shop stalls selling gems, agate pine, rosewood agarwood, crystal glass, scorpion coral, various shapes, a wide variety of species.

Responding to the mass market, the ancient beads of the Qing Dynasty and its predecessors began to receive attention in the collection world and became the new favorite of collectors. "There is a beauty in the heart. The good things are first of all beautiful, the beads as decorations have their own beauty. Compared with porcelain, bronzes, paintings and calligraphy, the entrance threshold of the beads is low, and does not require much professional knowledge. It is the entry point to enter the antiques." For the "bead heat", Zhu Jingyu, general manager of Beijing Antique City Co., Ltd. understands this. According to Zhu Jingyu, at the 2014 Beijing·China Cultural Relics International Expo, which was held at the new building of the Agricultural Exhibition Hall, the “Zhulian Yihe” exhibition area was specially opened to display the ancient pearls. "We hope that through this exhibition, we will use the beads to connect the public's collection hobby with the collection of antique art and build a bridge."

Ancient beads throughout human history

Similar to the definition of the time of other collections, the ancient pearls are mainly divided into three periods: Gaogu (before the Han Dynasty), Middle Ages, and Ming and Qing Dynasties. For a long time, Guzhu has been regarded as a gadget that can't be on the table and is not seen by collectors.

"Before we went to buy high ancient jade, people will send you beads, a big pocket to send." The well-known domestic ancient pearl collectors said a woman. A collection of ancient pearls has been collected since the 1990s, and it has been nearly 20 years since. In her view, the rise and fall of the ancient pearls is closely related to the unique cultural and artistic nature of the beads themselves. "Beads are not broken, and its history can be traced back to the Stone Age, which runs through the entire history of human civilization."

Tens of thousands of years ago, Neanderthals in Europe used flowers and beads to bury them in the tombs. Almost all the prehistoric civilizations in China, from the Dawenkou Cultural Site in the Yellow River Basin, the Longshan Cultural Site, to the Hemudu Cultural Site in the Yangtze River Valley, the Liangzhu Cultural Site, and the Sanxingdui Cultural Site in the inland area, all use animal bones. Beads made of various materials such as jade, agate and turquoise are unearthed. In the pre-Qin period, I can see the figure of the beads from the literature. "Book of Rites and Justice" has a record of the system of Zhu Yu's tandem group, and the book "The Book of Songs and National Wind" has a story of men and women giving each other a jade, and "Zhuangzi·Liu Yu" is written in the "Golden Pearl". "The dragon and the jaw", "Han Feizi, the foreign reserve said to the left" contains "Zheng people buy 椟 椟 珠"... In this period, the by-product of the smelting of bronze smelting - glaze was applied to the production of beads. In the Warring States Period, the eyes made of colored glaze became popular. The crystal crafts of Qi State, especially the polishing, cutting and punching processes, are quite mature, and it is difficult for future generations to look back. These skills are fully reflected in the crystal beads made by Qi. The most obvious feature of Qiguo crystal beads is that the pore size is larger and the pores are transparent. Generally, the two ends are drilled, and the middle part of the beads penetrates each other, and the crystal clear and transparent characteristics are never destroyed as a whole.

As for the Qin and Han Dynasties, the popularity of the beads has been quite high. Before the opening of the Silk Road by the Western Regions, the trade between East and West had begun. Professor Tong Enzheng of Sichuan University applied the anthropology and archaeology method in the 1970s to propose the "Semi-moon-shaped cultural communication belt". This transmission belt from Central Asia to Northeast China to Southwest China constitutes a "nation." corridor". With the development of the Silk Road, foreign beads are increasingly flowing into the Chinese market. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Buddhism was introduced to China, and the beads were given a religious meaning.

During the Tang and Song Dynasties, China was in the heyday of the feudal period, the economy was rich, the society was prosperous, and the beads were popular as decorations. In the Tang poetry, there is no lack of description of the beads. In "Minhang", there is a famous sentence of "Big Beads and Beads Falling on the Jade Plate". The description of "Good Songs such as Guanzhu Fu" is more abundant. "The beauty is endless, and the shape is tired and incomparable." Bai Juyi in "The Song of Everlasting Sorrow" "Written in the cloud, the flower is golden, and the lotus is warm." Among them, the "stepping", according to the Eastern Han Dynasty to explain the name of the tool, "Release the name" explained, "stepping, there are beads on the back, the steps are shaken." By the dazzling eye of Zhuyu is enough to see the magnificent weather in the Tang Dynasty . In the Song Dynasty, the beads became part of everyday life. The Southern Song Dynasty's "Wulin Old Things" recorded the urban style of Lin'an (present-day Hangzhou), which mentioned the small craft of "wearing beads". In the "bead shop", the transaction was "10,000". At that time, the demand for beads was visible to the public.

Zhu Jingyu believes that it is this clothing-like daily demand that has led to the long-term underestimation of the cultural value of the beads. “The main items of antiques are mostly the products of dust-making in the history of the production process, such as bronzes, old kiln porcelain, etc. These instruments are no longer produced after the end of its era. And the beads are not. Every dynasty There are beads. But the beads of each dynasty are different in material selection, craftsmanship, and matching. More importantly, the ancient pearls we talked about, like those of bronzes and porcelains, mostly from tombs, reflect the time. Political, economic, social and technological conditions."

Chaozhu reaches the top of the craft

The Ming and Qing Dynasties are the peak period of the development of the beads. On the one hand, in the folk, the beads became an item for ordinary people to dress up and have fun. In the eleventh time of "Jin Ping Mei", Ximen Qing was the story of Pan Jinlian buying beads, and Pan Jinlian took these beads for himself to wear a hoop. On the other hand, since ancient times, beads have the function of distinguishing identity and grade by material. In the Qing Dynasty, this function was enhanced with the unprecedented concentration of the imperial power, and its product was the Pearl.

The Manchu ancestors have the custom of "making the age of the beads". The form of Chaozhu comes from Buddhist rosary, which is related to the emperor's respect for Buddhism in the Qing Dynasty. According to Zhu Xiaoli's "Ancient Chinese Beads", the Pearl is made up of 108 beads, consisting of six parts: body, Buddha head, back cloud, memorial, big pendant and pendant. The main part of the 108 beads is “body”. Every 27 beads are added with a large bead of different materials called “beads” (also known as “beads”), and 108 beads are equally divided into beads. There are 4 beads in total, and the color is the same size, meaning the four seasons. "Buddha" is located at the top of the Chaozhu, and is decorated with a tower-shaped "Buddha Tower". The two ends of the pearl are pierced through the hole of the Buddha's head tower, and the two are combined into one, thereby extending the sash band. The middle part of the sash belt is adorned with a gemstone called "back cloud". There are gems "big fall". When you hang the beads, the back clouds cling to the back. There are 3 strings of beads on each side of the Buddha's Head Tower. Each string consists of 10 pieces, called "commemorative". The end is decorated with "falling angles". When hanging, the side is decorated with two strings and the other side is decorated with a string.

In accordance with the Qing Dynasty ritual regulations, the following princes, five civilians, four martial arts, and more than Han Zhan, Ke Dao, Guardian, Princess, Fu Jin, and more than five official officials, all of them are adorned with Chaozhu, except that they cannot use the emperor or queen. Dongzhu (a freshwater pearl produced in Heilongjiang is the most cherished top of the Qing court), and other materials such as miscellaneous treasures and various fragrances are available.

In addition, the adoring of the beads is also extremely particular, and there are corresponding regulations on different occasions. Take the emperor to the pearl as an example. According to the "History of the Qing Dynasty, the Emperor's Clothing", "(Emperor) uses one hundred and eight of the East Pearl, the Buddha's head, the commemoration, the back cloud, the size of the ornaments, each of which is appropriate, the ceremony is the royal ceremony. The stone is decorated with pebbles, the honey is used for the pearls, the corals are used for the Asahi, the turquoise is used for the eve, and the miscellaneous ornaments are suitable.

“The materials used by the same level of officials are roughly the same, but the shape of the beads is different for each string of beads. Officials can negotiate with the craftsmen of the office according to their own preferences. It is a private custom.” 30 years of collection experience Mr. Qi Jixing has a special liking for the Pearl. "For example, I have two turquoise beads, which are shaped like a bow buckle. They are made on the basis of the concave, and the middle is hollowed out. Each eye is connected, and the shape of the eyes is different. Triangular, round, square. At first glance, it is made by the official."

In addition to the official creation, the bead strings made by folk artists are also unique. Half a year ago, Qi Jixing received a string of beads, woven with sisal and silk. The texture was hard and wear-resistant. After hundreds of years of playing and pinching, the original hemp brown was covered with black patina. "My friends and I are the first time to see the beads of this material. I don't see any records in the book. Who is the owner of this bead? Why is the craftsman weaving with hemp and silk? The story on it is very tasteful." The "taste" in Qi Jixing's mouth is the surprise and joy brought by the cultural accumulation carried by the ancient pearl.

Ancient beads design leads the fashion

With the collection of ancient pearls becoming fashionable, the combination of historical traditions and classic aesthetic beads, its humanistic heritage and artistic value are becoming more and more known.

One word considers the long-term in the promotion and inheritance of ancient pearl culture. In her view, the enthusiasm of the domestic collectors for the ancient pearls is more limited to the material itself, and it is more cautious for the re-creation of the ancient pearls, most of which are simple re-processing of the ancient pearls. In a word, it is the future development of the ancient pearls that the ancient pearls are redesigned and decorated with a modern aesthetic to carry out a new jewellery design and let the ancient pearls return to life.

A word of view has a realistic basis. One, the ancient pearls have been passed down to the present, and the basics have been lost and no longer in a string. Objectively, the re-design of the ancient pearls is required. The number of ancient pearls is limited, but the number of ancient pearls is increasing. Now the market may be able to trade in a series, but over time, the ancient pearls that everyone can have can only be calculated on a per-chip basis. When the beads are precious to the unit, the position of the design is more prominent. The history of the development of Guzhu is also supporting this view. Compared with the styles of the beads in the past, it can be found that before the Han Dynasty, the beads were mixed with the jade and the jade; in the Tang and Song Dynasties, it was mostly used for women's hair accessories; in the Qing Dynasty, hundreds of beads were worn around the neck and became politics. symbol.

This trend has already appeared in Western countries where the Guzhu collection started earlier. Bead enthusiasts are not “crazy” to pursue the material itself, but to participate more in the production process. In the words of the circle of friends, there is a couple who have collected two warring countries' eyes, and the appearance is good, but unfortunately there is a slight defect. Under the suggestion of one word, two ancient beads are set on the ring, and the husband and wife are two people. Re-designing the ancient pearls by making full use of today's technological level and fashion elements is the current focus of work. However, soon after the rise of the domestic collection of ancient pearls, it will take time to form a large-scale design of ancient pearls with artistic and brand values, and more professional designers are still involved.

"The beads of each period have the design that conforms to the aesthetic at that time, and today is no exception." This kind of aesthetic innovation and cultural charm condensed in the ancient pearls is the key to its enduring and long-lasting.

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