In the era of the steam engine, it could only be processed by hand, at most with the help of some simple tools. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

With the advent of the electricity age, these workshops began to have the opportunity to use power, because the small size and easy switching of electric motors were obviously easier to operate and control than steam engines, and easier to combine with simple handicraft tools.

This combination is too powerful.

It may be difficult for later generations to imagine the power of Chinese handicrafts in this era.

For Chinese who admired the spirit of Japanese and German craftsmen in later generations, Chinese handicraft industry was even a strange word.

But in the entire history of mankind, the status achieved by Chinese handicrafts is far beyond that of Germany and Japan.

Not to mention, from the Ming Dynasty, when Japan and China had the most developed non-governmental trade, Japan has always been the largest customer of Chinese handicrafts. This is mainly due to the development of Iwami Silver Mountain in Japan during the Ming Dynasty, which once made Japan the world's largest silver-producing country, and the Ming Dynasty completed the silverization of currency by exporting handmade products to Japan, when the country did not produce much silver.

According to the account records of the relevant customs and merchants of Japan and foreigners, during the Ming Dynasty, China exported hundreds of handmade products to Japan, and there were only two kinds of bulk products exported by Japan to China, one is the Japanese sword, that is, the katana, and the other is the Japanese fan, that is, the folding fan, the Chinese literati like, and there is also the saying that the literati fan, the country of invention of the folding fan is controversial in China, but the international community believes that it was invented in Japan, because Japan has the oldest physical object, and China only has a document.

Controversy aside, to be precise, Japan is also a big handicraft country in the Western world, but until the Ming Dynasty, Japanese handmade products were suppressed by Chinese products and could only be imported. A typical example is that at that time, the necessities of the rich in Japan were purchased from China.

This gave Dr. Jiangnan the impression that Japan had nothing but gold and silver, and Gu Yanwu said, "Japan has no goods, only gold and silver." At that time, some people recorded the relevant trade, "It is necessary in Japan, such as the room must be clothed, and the Chang'an weaving of Hangzhou is also; Women's fat powder, fan lacquer must be gold and silver foil, and Xiwulin is also made; He is like the porcelain of Rao, the silk cotton of the lake, the yarn of Zhang, and the cotton cloth of pine, which is especially important to other countries. ”

Wulin is the old name of Hangzhou, according to the records of the Ming Dynasty, it can be seen that the Japanese like to decorate the mat in the house, probably related to the love of kneeling and sitting, and the mat must be Hangzhou's mat grass woven with Chang'an weaving. A huge Japan, a country that is also famous for its exquisite handmade products in the West, and even the name of the country Japan means lacquerware, is it really impossible to weave a mat, causing the rich people in the country to import mats from Hangzhou?

Of course, it can't be said, it can only be said that Chinese handicrafts at that time not only had uniqueness, so that the Japanese liked it, but also there must be some kind of brand effect, because it was Chang'an weaving from China, so it was superior in Japan.

Even Japan's handicraft country has imported from ancient China, and it can only be said that the ancient Chinese handicraft industry is so developed that in human history, I am afraid that only India can compare with China. Other large empires, such as Egypt and Greece, were too small, such as Rome, which was backward in production, and the Roman Empire was obviously still out of the era of slavery, no longer at a level of development, and after entering the feudal era, Rome perished and lost its scale.

Therefore, in the long ancient times, Chinese handmade products are unique, famous for exquisite silk and porcelain, showing to the West not only exquisite, but also luxurious, so in the ancient West, Chinese products also have a brand effect, the Chinese only know that for tea, the British launched the opium war, in fact, the Roman Empire and the Persian Empire have also broken out because of the Silk Road, as for the Western Regions for the trade routes between small countries war, there are countless wars.

To describe ancient Chinese handicrafts in one word, you can only use one word, and that is brilliant!

In modern times, have Chinese handicrafts declined?

The answer is no.

Historically, until the fall of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, China was the world's largest producer of handicrafts, and they sold well all over the world.

For example, in the Ming Dynasty, Japan could still export folding fans to China, by the end of the Qing Dynasty, it had become China's specialty work, the fans produced in Guangzhou, accounting for eighty percent of the world, and the folding fans of various patterns held by the ladies in European oil paintings were basically made in China, and they were produced in Guangzhou, because Guangzhou was the only treaty port in China for a long time.

Why can Chinese folding fans occupy the European upper class social market, because there is really irreplaceable unique skills, Guangzhou's fans, in addition to being made of silk, are carved with sandalwood, carved with ivory, carved with scallops, and inlaid with various gemstones, Europeans can not make the same kind of water products, recognized as the first class of ivory carving skills in China.

Obviously, folding fans were imported from Japan during the Ming Dynasty, but after they were introduced to China, Chinese craftsmen immediately incorporated various other skills of their own country into them, making fans that were better and more delicate than those of Japan, and then sold well all over the world.

Like the skills of the fan, there are a large number of other handicrafts, silk and bamboo weaving, handmade textiles, various wood carvings and stone carvings, up to hundreds of kinds, and the annual export volume is as high as hundreds of millions of taels.

Historically, some Europeans in the late Qing Dynasty even had such worries, they believed that Chinese and Indian handicrafts would overwhelm European industry, and Carnegie was very worried that Chinese and Indian handicrafts would destroy European industrial civilization.

This kind of worry is actually ridiculous, but people at that time saw that their industrial products could not completely beat the handicrafts of the two countries, India in high-end cotton cloth, China in a large number of daily necessities, are all using their own handmade products, not only in terms of performance is more unique, but even the price is lower, this is the concern of Europeans.

When did Chinese handmade products come to an end? Even once made the Chinese people strange, and even admired the craftsmen of other countries?

To be precise, after the new China.

The founding of New China shattered many things, including the dross of decay and the essence of inheritance.

It is a pity that handicrafts disappeared after New China.

Is it the Republic's intention to crack down on artisanal production? Neither is it. Although the political consciousness of the New China era is a kind of radical worship of big industry, in the handicraft industry, there is really no deliberate attack. The demise of handicrafts and artisans can only be described as a pity.

There are two main reasons, the first is that New China has destroyed the old power class and the rich class, the powerful are gone, and even the ordinary landlords and capitalists have been overthrown, so that the craftsmen have lost customers, and there is no way to eat through the craft channel, and they will inevitably die. The second reason, and perhaps the most important, is the transformation of the handicraft industry in New China.

The transformation of the handicraft industry in New China was not aimed at eliminating the handicraft industry, on the contrary, the countries that were in urgent need of foreign exchange at that time vigorously supported industries that could earn foreign exchange. Seeing that some handicrafts that are popular with foreigners, the state has vigorously supported them, and a large number of handicraft factories have been set up in various places, not only not to eliminate these handicrafts, but to expand production in the form of large-scale industry.

But the problem lies in this kind of handicraft factory, the original intention is good, whether it is to transform the handicraft industry to earn foreign exchange, or to expand the scale, no matter how you look at it, it will not make the handicraft disappear. But the fact is that after the initial period of operation, these handicraft factories are often in trouble, and they cannot be sold for export, and foreigners do not like it. Then the state closed the handicraft factory, and the original craftsmen were relocated to become workers in other industries, and a craft slowly disappeared.

What is the problem, after the industrial revolution, Western craftsmen also introduced machine production, but their products are still handicrafts, they can still live very well, sought after by the world, while China's handicraft workshops have become handicraft factories, but they have closed down, and the craft has disappeared.

It would be irresponsible to simply boil it down to institutional issues.

Zhu Jinglun knows very well that the biggest problem is that the kind of government-managed handicraft factories have left the handicraft craftsmen out of the market and away from their customers, they don't need, they don't have the mind, and they don't have the information to adapt to the market, and use their craftsmanship to produce all kinds of unique products, such as Japanese folding fans to China, Chinese craftsmen don't use paper to make silk, switch to ivory, change to use shells, and do better than Japanese folding fans. But once the handicraft workshop becomes a handicraft factory, the artisan becomes the working class, their products are still there, and after a period of mass production, there is no market, and they have no need to redesign new products, then the product will fail, and the craftsmanship will be lost.

It can be said that the main reason for the disappearance of Chinese handicrafts and handicraftsmen is that craftsmen are separated from the market and customers, which is equivalent to making craftsmen lose their souls, that is, they lose their ingenuity.

Zhu Jinglun likes these handicrafts very much, not because he pays attention to luxury and taste, but because of his old thinking, and he likes this way of life of supporting himself through his own craftsmanship.

Therefore, he has always been very protective of these craftsmen, even if he fought with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Manchu Qing Dynasty, he did not forget to protect the craftsmen, such as bringing a large number of Jiangnan craftsmen back to Daming from Tianjing, and bringing a large number of craftsmen from the Qing Palace Office back to Daming from Beiqi.

Although they were suspected of being captives, the purpose was to protect them, and after the war had subsided, they were allowed to leave freely.

Many of the craftsmen of the Northern Kingdom left after the Taiping, but most of the craftsmen of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom remained.

Even those who are gone often leave behind the most precious thing, and that is their craft.

The craftsmen brought back from the Beiqian Office, the government helped them to open gold, silver, enamel and other handicraft workshops in the Ming Dynasty, and the Qing Palace established 61 royal workshops from the Kangqian era, called the 61 works of the Office, all of which were brought back to the Ming Dynasty.

The craftsmen who were invited back from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to make products for the Taiping Heavenly Kings set up a large number of individual workshops, large and small.

In order to take care of the livelihood of these craftsmen, Zhu Jinglun used his identity as an emperor to order daily necessities for them in a high-profile manner since they came to the Ming Dynasty, so that these craftsmen became craftsmen who made utensils for the Manchu Emperor and the Taiping Heavenly King, and also became craftsmen who made utensils for the Ming Emperor.

But unlike Hong Xiuquan and the Manchu emperors, Zhu Jinglun did not enjoy their crafts exclusively, nor did he spend money to support them, but agreed to sell their products to support themselves, because these craftsmen lived well for the huge brand of making utensils for the royal family.

It is not difficult for ordinary people to make a living, and a few people with the most exquisite craftsmanship or the most flexible brains even directly make the industry bigger, and after Zhu Jinglun slightly supported, it took off, and won a blue sky in the open Daming market.

The more famous is the craftsman of the Qing Palace Glass Factory, who opened a glass workshop in Daming, and only produced glassware at the beginning, many of which were old crafts handed down from the Kangxi period, all kinds of colored glassware. Later, the development of window glass, greatly expanded the private market, after the supply exceeded demand, the glass factory introduced Western technology, built a large glass factory, the production of transparent flat glass, has become the largest glass manufacturer in Daming.

There were also some Qing court craftsmen who used a variety of expensive gemstones to create various works of art, such as gold for branches, jade for green leaves, white jade for white flowers, coral for safflower, gemstones for stamens, and finally to form a bonsai. It takes years to build a plant, but once it is made and valuable, buyers flock to it, often selling it for tens of thousands or more, and craftsmen can often eat it for years when they create such a work of art.

This kind of bonsai requires a lot of craftsmanship, including gold craftsmanship, jade craftsmanship, filigree craftsmanship, etc., which are often completed by many skilled craftsmen, but the real value is not the craftsmanship, but their whimsy.

There are also those who simply rely on clever tricks to eat, such as all kinds of miniature carvings, carving a boat with jujube kernels and olive pits, carving an animal, and they can also sell for some money.

The craftsmen of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom brought the traditional brocade skills in the south of the Yangtze River to the Ming Dynasty, what Song brocade and Yun brocade have always been the best-selling high-end textiles at home and abroad, as well as Suzhou embroidery, Hangzhou embroidery, silk and other exquisite handicrafts, which are also very large.

For example, the British royal family has made a special trip to order Song brocade from the Ming Dynasty all year round, and the French rich prefer the cloud brocade with more colorful colors and more complex craftsmanship.

The export of these exquisite handicrafts, the profit is only secondary, and the benefits to the national image of the Ming Dynasty are immeasurable. The reason why ancient China had such a good image in the West is because when people think of China, they always associate it with silk and porcelain.

Under the influence of these exquisite handicrafts, although Daming's products do not have a strong reputation in the world, there is no bad reputation for low-end products, at least to avoid the old road of copycat countries. The reason why industrial products do not have a reputation is that they are indeed inferior to others, and they cannot be exported to the West on a large scale, light textiles cannot be exported to Europe, and machinery and equipment even need to be imported in large quantities.

However, Zhu Jinglun believes that after the accumulation of Chinese manufacturing, the reputation brought by handicrafts will definitely make large industries harvest in the future.

However, electrification is not very significant for these high-end handicraft products, these products often sell design, sell ingenuity, sell that unique feelings, take the high-end route, and earn high added value.

What electrification really benefits the handicraft industry, and what is really meaningful to the national economy and people's livelihood, is actually relatively low-end, supplying the low-end handicraft products of the Western middle class and ordinary Chinese people.

Electrification has given these products an opportunity to use machines to produce them, saving manpower and increasing yields, and it can even be said that electrification has given private artisanal workshops an opportunity to transform into small businesses.

The Ming government decided to push for this transformation. Let tens of millions of handicraft workshops become small businesses, and let tens of millions of handicraft craftsmen become small business owners. This will already benefit millions of small businesses and hundreds of millions of workers.