Chapter 37 Grain wood color

It is said that huanghuali wood was gradually scarce and extinct in the Qianjia period, which made the standard of Xiangxiang classical furniture and miscellaneous utensils more expensive.In fact, Hainan is a hot land with many suns, ten thousand trees in the shade, and since there are huanghuali trees with a diameter of only a few hours, there must also be burly Dalbergia japonica in the deep mountains.Not long ago, I read an article in the English magazine "Asian Business" about Chinese ancient wood furniture. I also said that a cluster of flower palm trees was recently discovered on Hainan Island. Device and so on.Overjoyed, I asked people everywhere to ask for information from news agencies and agricultural and forestry units in the Mainland, but so far I have not been able to get the essentials.Fortunately, these precious trees in China have always grown slowly, and those who are crazy about trees don't have to rush to kiss them.The Museum of Chinese Classical Furniture in California has done research and found that the yellow pear tree has grown for many years, and its diameter is only 25 o'clock; , a centenarian is only four or five inches in diameter.

I don't have a deep relationship with Ming-style furniture. I read Wang Shixiang's "Appreciation" and "Research" while I was in trouble.Over the years, I have been obsessed with some ancient wooden pen holders and small boxes of Ming and Qing Dynasties, as well as official leather boxes and plain sedan chairs. The materials are not large, and they don’t cost too much wood. I feel pity for those old trees that grow slowly and beautifully. . Speaking of sympathy, I really don't like to carve cumbersome wooden utensils. I think that the grain of wood should be interesting because of the grain, and the grain is the most precious. Otherwise, wouldn't the ghost-faced raccoon spots on the huanghuali be useless?What's more, the grain of the wood is curved, and the grain of the tender wood is vertical, each of which is a work of nature, which can be handed down to the world, and there is no need to ruin its future.Wang Shixing of the Ming Dynasty praised Gusu people for their intelligence and love of antiquity. Their houses were clean and playful, and their beds were simple and unsophisticated, which was obviously much more open-minded than the people of Shang, Zhou, Qin, and Han.

However, wood with beautiful textures is indeed quite rare.I have a nanmu pen holder, the color is elegant and even, and there are no galls and grains all over the body, but it does not reduce its ethereal beauty.On the contrary, in the hall, Wang Yanmohe’s long desk with its head upturned is a bit unique: the desk surface is actually made of three pieces of galled nanmu, covered with grapes, magnificent and incomparable.However, the most eye-catching pattern is beech wood; the small beech box in hand really has layers of overlapping mountains, which is the pagoda pattern mentioned by Suzhou Carpenter.I just think it is too majestic, not as soft and graceful as the wood grain of those waist-wrapped huanghuali pen holders.

Of course, the honey-colored crystal yellow of huanghuali wood, the more plain the body, the sweeter it is. It seems that only the light and mature appearance of boxwood can compete with it.People in the Ming Dynasty seemed to know how to cherish such a light texture of wood.It is said that after the Qianjia reign, the royal court and dignitaries loved red sandalwood and mahogany, so black was more popular than yellow, and even the light-colored huanghuali products were darkened by Zaju.At the beginning, I inevitably collected dark-dyed huanghuali woodware, and I also hid some small pieces of red sandalwood. Later, I learned that Westerners in the 1930s liked to search for Chinese old wooden furniture with light colors and patterns. Since then, he has neglected red sandalwood, and only wants to be yellow and not black.

Among the wooden utensils in the family collection is a small square birch pen holder, stuffed with boxwood wood reliefs of dragon, fish and auspicious sheep on all sides. The landscape of this competition. (Originally published in the first edition of "The Creation of Prose" Volume 2, Taipei United Publishing Company, July 1994)