When did the profession of mending bowls come into being?

Some folk crafts, now it seems, are simply unique skills. Like mending bowls. In a vague memory, there were vendors in the village at that time, such as repairing jars, exchanging chicken feathers for sugar, fortune telling, grinding scissors and kitchen knives, selling candied haws, and so on. It is strange that there are so many burdens and shouts, but only the bowl is not full. It is estimated that young people under the age of 40 have never seen this extinction business. Based on this, it can be inferred that in the 1950s and 1960s, the scenery of bowl repairers walking through villages and lanes was basically lost. Most of the remaining people are on TV and newspapers, almost like strangers. Modern people look at their craft, a bit like watching magic acrobatics, dumbfounded. I'm afraid no one will know when such a trivial matter as repairing bowls began, because it is not recorded in the official history. Subjective speculation began with the popularity of ceramics, but more vividly, it began with the poverty of days. Such poverty is not ordinary poverty, not a few poverty, nor short-term poverty. This kind of poverty is almost innate and persistent. What can we do in the face of endless poverty? Even if it is a small rice bowl, even if it is broken, ordinary people are reluctant to throw it away, because it is cheaper to make it up than to buy it, and because it can still be used, so the bowl is broken, waiting for the craftsman to make it up, break it again, and wait for the craftsman to make it up, make it up, and make it up. The last bowl is bruised beyond recognition. This is the appearance of a bowl, and it is also the appearance of life. Some literary works truly record the scene of mending bowls in the last era-Lu Xun wrote in "The Storm": "In summer, they still eat in the mud yard at home; When everyone saw it, they all smiled. The old lady Jin Jiu has passed her eightieth birthday. She is still rugged and healthy. Six pounds of double maids became big braid; Although Yi has been entangled in her feet recently, she can still help her sister-in-law with seven pounds, holding eighteen rice bowls with bronze nails and limping on the clay court. " Yu wrote in Where is the Country Pass: "What I left behind was a very poor village. When eating, the child accidentally broke a coarse porcelain bowl, which will attract parents to chase after it crazily, and the neighbors take it for granted. There is no serious habit of sitting at the table to eat. At most, a crooked Xiao Mu was put on the mud at the door. When the family ate there, they ordered some food, squatted in the west station, holding a bowl in their hands and staggering it into their mouths. Therefore, there are many opportunities for children to break bowls. The rough black palm shook the child like a storm, so he carefully picked up the broken pieces of the bowl and pieced them together. A few days later, the bowl mending master who was carrying the burden came and spent a long time mending the broken bowl. " Wang Anyi also wrote in Past Lives: "At that time, there were many craftsmen and bowls! If there is a broken bowl, as long as it is not broken into slag, he can match the stubble and nail a row of nails on it without leaking at all. People today will sound like myths. " Some movies prefer to use this as a lens, such as Zhang Yimou's film My Mom and Dad. There is a plot of mending a bowl: the blind girl fumbled for a few pieces of the bowl, and the master mended the bowl neatly, screwed up, put on a few needles, knocked and knocked, and miraculously recovered the broken bowl. In the play, the old master who filled the bowl had a conversation with the old woman, which sounded like hitting the floor: "I must make this bowl watertight!" " How I wish I could restore the details of the bowl mender at that time! However, due to the lack of negative memories and limited life experience, we can only draw the outline of this old craft with the help of materials. Most people in Jiangxi are engaged in bowl repair, and they are called "Jiangxi cousins". This is not difficult to understand, because Jingdezhen is a famous porcelain capital, from which the industry of "mending bowls" is derived, which is also very logical. There is a two-part allegorical saying: "Jiangxi people fill bowls-take care", which is caused by the sound of "goo goo" when filling bowls and making holes. Similar to the pronunciation of "take care" in Wu language. Dedicated to attacking those selfish behaviors. There are generally two ways to fill the bowl. One is that one or several pieces have fallen off the edge of the bowl, so it should be put up as it is, which belongs to the type of "mending after the sheep is dead"; The second type is that the bowl is cracked and will break, so it is reinforced first, which belongs to the "rainy day" type. As long as the pieces of the bowl are intact, there is a way to make up for them. The gap is too big or shattered, and the cost of making up is too high, so we have to give up. Those discarded broken bowls and broken porcelain pieces may be used for scooping rice, peeling potatoes, and perhaps for other purposes. The tinker picked a simple burden. Two small wooden boxes, one end is a Mazar stool, and the other end is several small iron cans filled with water and oil; There is a small drawer for tools under the wooden box. The tinker shouted as he walked, "I fixed the bowl, but I can't get it if I have it?" From the long voice, we can hear that they are Jiangxi cousins. At this time, the person who wanted to hold the bowl took out the bowl that had been broken into several pieces. The tinker put down the burden, opened the Mazar stool, sat down, picked up the broken bowl and wrapped it around with long strips of cloth so that the broken bowl could be reunited. Then, he put the bowl between his legs, picked up a drag drill with Jin Gangzuan and began to drill small holes on both sides of the crack in the bowl. The bowl repairman holds the drill frame in his left hand and pulls the crossbar in his right hand. The crossbar and the drill pipe form a cross and are connected by ropes. Pull the crossbar left and right, and the drill rod rotates back and forth, driving the drill bit to drill holes on the tiles. This action is as vivid as playing the erhu. Drilling is the most critical process. Ceramics are hard in texture, and can only play a role if they are made of Jin Gangzuan. As the saying goes, "Without Jin Gangzuan, there would be no porcelain works" is the truth. In order to prevent the bit from slipping, it is necessary to drill before drilling. Whether drilling or drilling, we should be careful, "both soft and hard." Jin Gangzuan is difficult, but Jin Gangzuan alone is not enough. For example, when drilling porcelain, the hole should be drilled properly, not through or shallow, but to the depth where copper nails can be nailed. Wrist strength is the highest requirement when drilling, so it is difficult to hang in the air. Not if it's heavy. When the bowl mender drilled the hole, he also put a copper finger sleeve on the little finger of his right hand, which was very long and sharp, like the one worn on the finger by Empress Dowager Cixi. It is used to immerse water or oil into the hole and point it at the hole to reduce drilling resistance. When drilling, it will make a "goo goo" sound, and the porcelain will immediately spray white porcelain powder. After drilling holes one by one, the bowl-mending master takes out copper nails similar to staples, embeds them in the holes, taps them lightly with a small hammer, crudely tamps the nail feet, and then sticks them together at the cracks with paste-like substances mixed with powder. At this point, the process of nailing the bowl ends. Most potters have stunts, ranging from wine glasses to saucepans, which can be "perfect". At that time, most exquisite porcelain bowls and pots were printed with dragon, phoenix, liger, flowers and birds, insects and fish. And clever potters can fill copper nails in proper positions, making the whole pattern "add flowers without scars" without destroying the overall aesthetic feeling of the utensils. The broken porcelain is stitched with silk thread, covered with copper nails and glazed, and the broken bowl is as good as new. Among the tools used by the bowl repairman, there is also a miniature copper hammer. Holding this small copper hammer in your hand is like playing a beautiful music. The tinker scooped water and tried to leak it on the spot. Only if the bowl doesn't leak will he be paid. Count the number of nails when collecting money, two nails for a penny. It's only ten cents to hold a bowl. When you leave, don't forget to say, "When cooking glutinous rice porridge, put the bowl in and soak it." Because the bowl that has been drilled will easily crack from the place where it has been drilled and nailed in a few days, and the porcelain will be solid when cooked in glutinous rice porridge. How to connect two or more pieces together seamlessly? The tinker must have tried it countless times. Their attempts are like Einstein's invention of electric lights, but they are all so small that no one will remember them. Mended bowls, white porcelain blue and white, wide mouth and shallow bottom, neatly arranged like zippers. Under the light, it even exudes quaint breath, which makes people surprised at the exquisiteness of this craft. After a long time, the copper nails will rust, and the porcelain pieces will be pale crimson and lifelike, just like a landscape. This bowl seems to have been handed down thousands of years ago. But no matter how rich it appears in the vicissitudes of history, its existence and cohesion are still "accessories of poverty". Another derivative process for repairing bowls is chiseling. Carve words at the bottom of the bowl, usually without surname. The tinker has a chisel in his left hand and a hammer in his right. After a minute or two, a word was chiseled out, all dotted. I can see that the bowl repairer has a little culture. Engraving is cheap. If the host holds more bowls, of course, he has time to carve a few words. At this moment, Aunt Zhang and Li smiled while touching the cymbals. The chisel is probably for identification. Because at that time, the neighborhood relationship was very good, and there were not enough bowls at home for a red wedding. It is common to borrow plates from each other. At that time, the bowls looked exactly the same, such as the green bowl and the blue and white bowl. Everyone has a name, so they can borrow and return books without making mistakes. Although the bowl is ordinary, it is an indispensable thing in life. No matter how poor a person is, he still has a rice bowl in his hand. This is the courage and hope of life. Supplement is not giving up, it is nostalgia, it is cherishing, it is continuation, and the value of the bowl will continue to be maintained after remedy. I think a bowl must have other deeper metaphors besides the function of holding rice and water. The burden of mending bowls is as heavy as the sky. Fortunately, we can completely uninstall them. Now, who will cry for the broken porcelain bowl? Nowadays, when a child breaks a bowl, parents will inevitably say, "Baby, be careful of cutting your hand with the bowl." Parents carefully swept away the debris and said, "The debris is safe, the debris is safe." Times have changed. I think, if anyone finds one or two broken bowls with the characteristics of the times at home now, don't throw them away. In a few years, it may be a precious cultural relic! If I have the skills to repair bowls and modern high-tech equipment, then I am destined to make a fortune. Why? Li Yining, an economist, said that "mending bowls is the most fashionable industry in the world", because after the sunken ship is salvaged, all the vases and plates of the past dynasties on board have to be mended, and it will be priceless if they are mended.