手藝守藝，向傳統(tǒng)致敬

蔣攀 鄔定飛

“精美，太精美了！”金秋時(shí)節(jié)，在寧波國(guó)際會(huì)展中心舉行的2020海絲之路（中國(guó)·寧波）文化和旅游博覽會(huì)上，參觀的市民一邊發(fā)出贊嘆，一邊對(duì)著嚴(yán)海斌的朱金漆木雕“鼓亭”不停地拍照，并曬在了微信朋友圈：“阿拉寧波老底子的手藝就是精美！”

一時(shí)，寧海朱金漆木雕“鼓亭”亮相文旅博覽會(huì)的內(nèi)容，刷屏寧波人的微信朋友圈。朱金漆木雕是寧波傳統(tǒng)工藝“三金”之一，嚴(yán)海斌這件朱金漆木雕作品“鼓亭”，是他和團(tuán)隊(duì)歷時(shí)兩年完成的，花費(fèi)50余萬(wàn)元，單單金箔就用了六七千張。

為何要耗時(shí)耗金打造這件作品？嚴(yán)海斌把目光轉(zhuǎn)向“鼓亭”，金箔反射出的金光讓他的眼睛顯得炯炯有神。“你看，稻田又變金黃了！”嚴(yán)海斌突然說(shuō)了一句。隨后，43歲的他再次堅(jiān)定地說(shuō)：“是致敬！畢全身之技，展現(xiàn)于‘鼓亭上，我在致敬傳統(tǒng)手藝！”

一

時(shí)光回到30多年的前童鎮(zhèn)嚴(yán)家村，五六歲的嚴(yán)海斌喜歡上了家里爸媽的大眠床，被上面雕刻著的精美圖案以及圖案的故事吸引。

1994年，高中畢業(yè)那年，嚴(yán)海斌拜師寧波市前童鎮(zhèn)知名朱金漆木雕師傅童帝壽。看到師父雕刻的一塊浮雕花板無(wú)比精美，他深感震撼。自此，嚴(yán)海斌立志要學(xué)精這項(xiàng)技藝。

在浙東地區(qū)，朱金漆木雕廣泛應(yīng)用于千工床、萬(wàn)工轎、雕花木船、佛像等民間生活用品上，其主要技藝是在木雕件上漆朱貼金。其雕刻精致，漆工講究，可謂是“三分雕，七分漆”。一件朱金漆木雕作品，要經(jīng)歷20余道工序，匠人要能吃苦、沉穩(wěn)、坐得住。

嚴(yán)海斌選擇了這條路，便沉下心來(lái)苦練本領(lǐng)。

“剛開(kāi)始學(xué)習(xí)，我們幾個(gè)師兄弟先學(xué)著刮幾天樹(shù)皮。”嚴(yán)海斌說(shuō)，刮樹(shù)皮考驗(yàn)的是耐心，學(xué)藝沒(méi)耐心是堅(jiān)持不下來(lái)的;打砂紙同樣是基本功，也枯燥得很。“有的師兄弟學(xué)不到一個(gè)月就堅(jiān)持不下來(lái)了，甚至學(xué)了兩年離開(kāi)的都有。”

繪圖、木雕、上漆、貼金箔、罩漆……每一道程序都是一次考驗(yàn)。“我是第3天開(kāi)始學(xué)鋼絲鋸的，練習(xí)鋼絲鋸的基本功。這樣一個(gè)禮拜后，我就學(xué)習(xí)雕刻洋花板，并正式接觸鏤空雕。”嚴(yán)海斌回憶道，“自覺(jué)天分不足，只能更加勤奮，白天學(xué)習(xí)基本功，晚上向師兄請(qǐng)教第二天要雕刻花板、圖案的結(jié)構(gòu)層次等。師傅也手把手地教，各種格子洋花、草龍、花鳥(niǎo)魚(yú)蟲(chóng)、龍鳳、人物都是必學(xué)的。到了第二年，我就開(kāi)始帶新來(lái)的師弟了。記得當(dāng)時(shí)跟師傅出去做室內(nèi)裝修，剛好主人家兩個(gè)隔壁都在裝修，就各自暗中較上勁了，我們做的圓門(mén)，有龍鳳呈祥，鳳穿牡丹等，無(wú)不栩栩如生。對(duì)比了鄰居家的裝修后，我們得到了主人家的贊嘆，那種感覺(jué)特別的自豪。”三年滿(mǎn)師后幫師父又做了一年，嚴(yán)海斌便選擇了獨(dú)闖江湖。

嚴(yán)海斌說(shuō)，他是手藝人，也是守藝人。25年來(lái)，嚴(yán)海斌在藝術(shù)的道路上努力精進(jìn)，如今已是寧波市非物質(zhì)文化遺產(chǎn)朱金漆木雕技藝的代表性傳承人，這讓他也擔(dān)負(fù)了更多技藝傳承的責(zé)任。如今，他把朱金漆木雕技藝融入自己的每件作品中，用自己的方式讓更多人再次了解這項(xiàng)非遺文化的魅力。

二

在前童古鎮(zhèn)的“鼓亭館”里，嚴(yán)海斌參與制作的“鼓亭”，差不多占了一半的位置。

以朱金漆木雕工藝制作的鼓亭，是前童古鎮(zhèn)特色民俗“前童行會(huì)”的重要物品，通過(guò)抬鼓亭來(lái)紀(jì)念前童先人童濠的偉績(jī)并祈禱豐年，距今已有500余年的歷史，因此前童也被譽(yù)為“鼓亭之鄉(xiāng)”。

從設(shè)計(jì)圖紙開(kāi)始，雕刻鼓亭上的每個(gè)小構(gòu)件，雕刻龍身，上漆打磨，拼接并檢測(cè)構(gòu)件……嚴(yán)海斌把一身技藝，如靈魂般地注入到這件作品上，仿佛要給予它生命一般。“貼金箔前要先上一遍生漆，‘三分雕，七分漆，上漆是非常重要的步驟——上生漆時(shí)要非常小心，寧愿上得薄，不能上得厚。上完生漆，在適當(dāng)?shù)臏囟群蜐穸认铝郎弦惶欤涂梢栽谏厦尜N金箔了。”嚴(yán)海斌向我介紹，生漆又稱(chēng)“國(guó)漆”或“大漆”，是從漆樹(shù)上采割的一種乳白色純天然液體涂料，接觸空氣后逐步轉(zhuǎn)為褐色，上漆后在器具表面形成漆膜，具有耐磨、耐腐、耐酸、耐溶劑、耐熱等特性，一公斤價(jià)格就要600元。而貼金用的金箔含金量達(dá)98%，這樣才能讓朱金漆木雕作品長(zhǎng)久保持光澤。

內(nèi)行看門(mén)道，外行看熱鬧。“你看看這些龍，你數(shù)一數(shù)，有多少條？再看看它們有什么不一樣？”嚴(yán)海斌說(shuō)，不懂的人就只能看到表面的精美，其實(shí)最精華的“傳承”在雕刻后的紋理里，在每一個(gè)構(gòu)件里。這座鼓亭至少有60條龍，從周朝開(kāi)始到明清，每一個(gè)朝代的龍的風(fēng)格，都能在這里找到。“最頂上這條龍是唐朝風(fēng)格的。唐代是我國(guó)歷史上最富強(qiáng)的朝代之一，國(guó)力強(qiáng)盛，經(jīng)濟(jì)繁榮，文化發(fā)達(dá)。龍的造型表現(xiàn)出來(lái)就是威武雄壯、富態(tài)華麗、蓬勃向上。”

每件鼓亭作品都離不開(kāi)寓意美好的圖案。五子登科、五福同壽、和合二仙、雙獅戲球、麒麟送子……嚴(yán)海斌把20多種寓意吉祥美好的民間傳統(tǒng)圖案雕刻在這件作品上。“不僅是集美好于一身，而且各種制作手藝完全遵從明清雕法，諸如‘美女無(wú)肩、老爺凸肚等等，讓朱金漆木雕作品變得妙趣無(wú)窮。”嚴(yán)海斌說(shuō)。

整座鼓亭結(jié)構(gòu)上完全采用榫卯結(jié)構(gòu)，使用大小“花板”近500片，技法上運(yùn)用了鏤空雕、淺浮雕、深底雕和圓雕等。“我要使我所有的技藝在每個(gè)作品上得到最優(yōu)展現(xiàn)，讓人看得見(jiàn)摸得著。”

“正常大小的鼓亭一般需要600工左右，這次參展的鼓亭大小按比例縮小了三分之一多，但工時(shí)卻達(dá)700工，按照我原先計(jì)劃，是要花一千工的。”嚴(yán)海斌笑著對(duì)我說(shuō)。原來(lái)為了趕上參展，這件精美得讓人贊嘆不已的朱金漆木雕鼓亭還是個(gè)“早產(chǎn)兒”。“本來(lái)底座側(cè)大板要做九龍圖的，兩邊雕上盤(pán)龍旗桿，二層這里雕四方神獸，每一層都配上名著的立體人物。”學(xué)海無(wú)涯，藝無(wú)止境，留下的些許遺憾，或許會(huì)成為嚴(yán)海斌追求心中最高境界的動(dòng)力吧。

A wood sculpture artwork painted in red and decorated with gold foil caused a sensation at a culture and tourism event held at Ningbo International Conference and Exhibition Center in Ningbo in September 2020. It took 43-year-old Yan Haibin and his assistants two years， 500，000 yuan and 7，000 gold foils to complete the woodcarving masterpiece. It is called ?（drum pavilion， literally） and looks like a miniature multi-storied pavilion.

“Red Paint and Gold Foil Woodcarving” is a traditional craftsmanship in Ningbo. In Ningbo and regions around it in eastern part of Zhejiang， the craftsmanship is widely employed to make traditional furniture such as canopy beds， bridal sedans， miniature boats and Buddha statues. The main part of the craftsmanship is to apply red paint and gold foil to a woodcarving piece. According to masters specialized in this traditional craftsmanship， 30% of the craftsman lies in woodcarving and the rest is focused on applying the red paint and gold sheets onto the target woodcarving.

If it took Yan and his team two years to complete this specific masterpiece， it had taken Yan about three years to learn the craftsmanship from his master. Yan has been in the field since 1994.

He was born into a satellite village of Qiantong， a town of history and culture in Ninghai， a county of Ningbo. Upon his graduation from a local senior high school in 1994， Yan was apprenticed to study under the guidance of Tong Dishou， a master of red paint and gold foil woodcarving in Qiantong. Yan was dedicated. There are over 20 steps in the craftsmanship and one needs to do each job perfectly. He worked day and night. On the first day， he and some fellow apprentices learned how to remove barks from timber. On the third day， he began to learn how to use a fret saw.

“Persistence is the name of the game，” recalls Yan. “Some quit before their apprenticeship was a month old. Some left even after two years of apprenticeship. I knew I wasnt gifted. So I worked hard. I practiced essentials during the day and at night I asked my fellow apprentices to help me view what we would carve the next day. I learned to carve all kinds of patterns， such as window patterns， dragons， birds and flowers， fish and insects， dragons and phoenixes， figures. In the second year， I began to teach new apprentices even though I was still an apprentice and work as assistant to my master in home decoration projects. One decoration project we did that year stands out in my memory. There were other two inner decoration projects going on in two neighboring houses at the same time. The door we made was ornately decorated with dragons and phoenixes and looked vivid. After seeing what the neighbors got， our employer was happily proud of the door we made. We were proud， too.”

Yan Haibin is now a master of the craftsmanship designated by the local government to carry on the tradition. At the ?center in Qiantong， nearly half of the exhibits are his works. ?is a centerpiece in the annual parade in Qiantong in honor of Tong Hao， a resident of Qiantong who made town prosperous. The memorial parade is more than 500 years old in the town. And Qiantong is famed for all the best ?pieces made in history.

A normal ?takes about 600 man-days to complete， according to Yan Haibin. The ?Yan made for this event is one third of the normal size and it took about 700 man-days. He had planned to spend 1，000 man-days on the piece. As he ran out of time for this culture and tourism event， he omitted a nine-dragon pattern， two dragon-circled flagpoles， four magic animals on the second story， and standing figures for all the stories.

Even this abridged version of the ?piece is intricate enough to be fascinating. For nonprofessionals， they are elated by the outside extravagance and splendor at first glance. For professionals， they look for ingenuity in details.

The ?piece Yan and his team created is composed of about 500 separate intricately carved pieces. They are fitted together with a mortise-tenon connection system， that is， no nails were used. “There are more than 60 dragons in this . All the dragon images from the Zhou Dynasty down to the Ming and the Qing are represented here. The dragon on the top is in the style of the Tang， one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of China，” explains the master.