The first village of Producing Imitations of Bronze Statue
Like the most houses in the village, Lu Junwei’s home is a typical courtyard-style house made from bricks concrete. Tall walls of the building are covered with tiles and the two strong iron gates half open. Spacious and neat courtyard shows the owner’s hardworking, thrifty and wealth. In the front side of the newly printed business card are his name of his shop as well as the contact address, phone number and Email. While in the back are the scope of his business: The production, package, sale of the bronze sculpture of Chinese successive dynasties, plus all kinds of model and design of copper crafts, the bronze chariots of Eastern Zhou and Qin Dynasty, Horse and Swallows in Eastern Han and lotus Crane square pot in Spring and Autumn period, etc. are included, too.
In smoke stream, peasants like Junwei design, produce, display, sell and advertise their own bronze statue are not few. Almost every antique bronze shop you get into, the owner will give you a beautifully printed card. At present, in response to the role of economic levers, the villagers who have been devoted their whole life to managing the agriculture for generations have already realized that only through their own efforts to face and adapt to the society can they step on the path to a better-off life. In this regard, I have to say the reproduction of the antique bronze statue is a major social progress.
In smoke stream, I almost have visited every family workshop that produce and process the imitations of chinese bronze statue, consequently, met a large number of villagers and made lots of friends with them. Concerning the related knowledge of the history of casting and the imitations of bronze statue, many villagers are able to come out with a coherent story, but lack of authority and theoretical property after all.
Dr. Xu Hong, the leader of the second team of the Erlitou culture in the institution of archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, is an old acquaintance of the writer. When the author was interviewing in Erlitou, he had once inquired Xu about the bronzes. Xu told him that, Luoyang is China’s first region in the aspect of producing bronze statue. During the archaeological excavations in the Erlitou site, they have found many large areas of ruins of the casting copper. The distinguishing features of these sites lie on three main fields.
First is the earliest age. Initially, the bronzes the ancients employed are not man-made copper, an alloy mixed by tin and lead but the natural red copper. Afterwards, although there was the appearance of bronze statue cast, a site of casting copper has never been found. However, in the ruins of Erlitou not only unearthed a large number of china bronze statues but also some equipments associated with casting bronzes, such as diverse shapes of melting pots, fireplaces and the ceramic model and so on.
Second, the relics of the casting copper are large with a longer duration. Among many ones in Erlitou site, there is one site extends to more than 10,000 square meters and continued to be in use in 300 years. From the unearthed ceramic model, quite a few were applied to cast giant or peculiar bronze statue. Some have beautiful patterns which can not be held by the commons.
Third is highly skilled casting technique of bronze statue. It can be seen from the ceramic models, the method of co-model had already shown up, proving the casting technique is not in a primitive stage but quite advanced. What the experts have said states clearly that Luoyang is a place long in possession of china bronze sculpture tradition, but is there any causal connection with this small mountain village producing imitations of bronze statue?
When I talked about this issue with Lu Junwei, he was neither sure, but he recommended me a person, “This old man can be taken as a forefather on the aspect of fabricating antique bronze statue in our village. Without him, the village could not be so famous and prosperous as today and so many people could not grasp the bronze casting technology. Exactly because of him, our villagers can enrich our families. I am sure that he does can give you a clear answer.”
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