Jin Yongcai said: "The burst of inspiration often comes from chance, but before the accident comes, it takes necessary efforts. ”

Today, Jin Yongcai, who is already a master of black copper and silver, has completely preserved the ancient traditional crafts, and has created more than 100 pieces of black copper and silver boutiques, won many awards, and also founded the "black copper and silver craft museum" and "black copper and silver learning hall" to open the museum and teach apprentices, and concentrate on inheriting this intangible cultural heritage.

In the past, the skill of black copper and silver was passed down from generation to generation. You can accept a lot of apprentices, and all ordinary skills are passed on, but the core secret recipe is only passed on to one person, and it is passed on to men but not women. In order to pass on this skill better, he broke the rule that black copper goes to silver and is passed on from generation to generation. At present, he has 12 disciples, of which he has passed on the secret to 4 people. He hoped that his apprentices could do a good job of inheriting and carrying forward the black bronze and silver skills.

However, Jin Yongcai's criteria for selecting apprentices are very strict, character is the first assessment criterion, and even if the character is not good, even if he is talented, he should not do it. He believed in Buddhism and often said that "there are virtuous people, the world is wide", and he also believes in this principle in dealing with people.

Secondly, be patient. He often said that the "three products" life: it takes six or seven years from character to works, and it takes twelve or thirteen years from works to high-quality products. It is impossible for an impatient person to persevere.

Finally, there is the need for understanding. Savvy is the only way to ensure flexible innovation rather than conventionality.

At first, there were 36 people who came to Master Jin to sign up, and he strictly selected 6 people with outstanding character and talent in all aspects as his disciples, and named them Jinyun, Jinnan, Jinwu, Jintong, Jingo, and Jinyin with the six words "Yunnan Wutong and Yin".

Then these 6 people took apprentices separately, and so far there are 12 people. During this period, there were also many college students who came to learn from them, but in the end, because they couldn't calm down, they left after working for a year. He said that only those who are as calm as water can make noble and mysterious "black beauties".

When it comes to the future, Master Jin said that he has two major wishes: the first is to bring more apprentices. The second is to truly give full play to the social and economic benefits of black copper and silver.

"The heyday of black copper and silver was the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China," Jin Yongcai said. At that time, there were twenty or thirty shops in Kunming dealing in black copper silverware, and the annual orders alone amounted to four or five thousand pieces, and many Kuomintang officers and even Chiang Kai-shek, the principal of the Whampoa Military Academy, liked to order black copper silver as saber decorative gifts.

After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, people's purchasing power declined, and it was difficult to purchase precious metal materials, and the people who owned the formula also died one after another. It wasn't until after the reform and opening up that fewer and fewer people were engaged in this craft, and in the end, only Master Li Jiaru remained," Jin Yongcai sighed.

"I hope that the black bronze and silver can be known and loved by more people in my hands, and passed on from generation to generation."

The black copper silver handicrafts are elegant and chic, dignified and elegant, the ornaments are rich and colorful, the characteristics are distinct, the colors are antique, black and white, giving people a strong visual impact and artistic shock.

Its long history, unique appearance, exquisite craftsmanship and delicate carving have won people's love, and it has high research and ornamental value, collection value and cultural and artistic value. In recent years, with the expansion of the foreign influence of black copper and silver, its value-added space is huge, and the value of commercial development is very high.

The production process of black copper and silver is varied, delicate and detailed, requiring the people to learn to have good patience, serious and meticulous work, flexible mind, strong innovation ability, the production process is:

1. Refining black copper alloy

It is smelted into a black copper alloy with high-quality copper and a certain proportion of gold and sterling silver mixed with more than ten other precious metals.

Second, forging black copper sheets

The alloy is made into black copper sheets of different thicknesses by forging, rolling and other methods.

3. The black copper sheet is engraved with a pattern

Design, cut the material and depict the required pattern or text on the black copper sheet, the lines should be smooth, and then use the chisel to carve out a variety of patterns. The depth of the engraving depends on the thickness of the black copper sheet.

Fourth, go silver

Fill the pattern with sterling silver shavings or pure gold shavings to "walk" to the fullness. After high temperature treatment, silver or gold chips and black copper will be naturally fused into one, this process is the most critical step in the whole black copper silver technology process.

Fifth, molding

The black copper sheet with good silver is polished, assembled, and welded into shape, or the black copper sheet is welded and assembled on the relevant parts of the metal utensils that have been designed and manufactured, so that it becomes a complete utensil.

6. Polishing and grinding

Hand grinding, the initial shape of the utensils for cleaning and polishing. (Nowadays, sandpaper or grinding wheels are mostly used for polishing). Let it show a silvery-white line.

7. Cover up the black

Cover it with the palm of your hand, and when your hand is sweaty, rub it while covering it. Through the reaction between hand sweat and black copper for a long time, the surface of the black copper is oxidized, and a natural oxidation protective film is generated, and the black copper billet is in a black and shiny state (this process also has considerable technical requirements).

Because it is a pure handmade process, the production tools of black copper and silver are also quite traditional, the main tools are bellows, furnaces, hammers, oil lamps, blowpipes (for blowing fire and silver), pliers, chisels (for chiseling patterns), etc., the development of so far, the update of tools has added "skin tigers" and spray guns, which are used for heating and silver process. The main fuels used for silver use are kerosene, gasoline, and natural gas.

The key to the technology of black copper and silver is the "silver" process, that is, how to walk the silver to the black copper. If you do not grasp the proper chemical reaction principle and thermal principle, the silver on the black copper sheet will fall off, or the black copper billet will be destroyed.

In terms of the melting point and fusion effect of metals, it is easier to walk copper to iron, but it is more difficult to walk silver to copper. The black copper and silver are created with its complicated manual process to create its delicate and pure artwork.

The word "go" is the essence of black copper and silver, and the white bank walks on the black copper, like the flow of life, and the action and process leap in front of you. Yuan Kunlin is like a director, Wu Bronze is his carefully created scene, and Yin is an actor who will not make mistakes, step by step, complementing each other.

A native of Jinning County, Kunming, Yunnan Province, he is the inheritor of the intangible culture of black copper and silver, and a master of arts and crafts in Yunnan Province.

Starting from the urban area of Kunming, along the west bank of Dianchi Lake, you can drive for forty or fifty minutes to Jinning County. Dianchi Lake is in sight, this small county town by the water always gives people a sense of vigorous fish and shrimp, but the locals are more proud of the emerging rose planting base, knowing that there are not many black copper and silver, but outsiders often come to look for Yuan Kunlin.

In the past, if he wanted to find Yuan Kunlin, he had to walk for another half an hour to Tianchengmen Village, at that time, he basically positioned himself as a farmer, and doing black copper and silver was just a hobby when he was not working, and he couldn't support his family if he couldn't do business.

After becoming a descendant of intangible cultural heritage in the past few years, he cooperated with a friend's silver building to have a shop and exhibition hall in the county's commercial street, and became a professional craftsman. People called him "Master", and he just smiled when he heard it, but his face was still inherently shy and pure.

Yuan Kunlin's black bronze and silver works, delicate carving, black and shiny complement each other, very literate.

Black copper silver first appeared in the Qing Dynasty Yongzheng period, Shi Pingyue surnamed craftsman in the smelting of copper, accidentally fell into a gold ring, gold melted in copper, unexpectedly cast into the vessel gradually became black under the touch of the hand.

He beat this kind of black copper into thin sheets, engraved various patterns on it, and then filled these patterns with silver water, after polishing, the black copper, silver shining, the contrast is eye-catching, and there is an elegant atmosphere, which is named "black copper silver".

Later, the Yue family opened a shop in Kunming, and after several generations, the inheritance was broken, but fortunately, Yuan Kunlin's grandfather, the Yuan family, had been an apprentice in the Kunming silver shop, and brought the technology of black copper and silver back to Tianchengmen Village.

In Yuan Kunlin's memory, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the black copper silver market was not large, but the custom of marriage and childbirth in the society at that time required silver ornaments, so their family did farm work during the day and made silverware at night.

Later, it was a ten-year catastrophe, the family's silversmith's workshop was cut off as the tail of capitalism, and the black copper and silver treasures that had been collected for many years and the pictures drawn by painters in the past were also destroyed in the "Broken Four Olds", but my grandfather and father did not really give up this craft, and occasionally hid in the back mountains at night to do some silversmith work, in order not to be heard by the villagers.

By the 80s of the 20th century, the whole village was weaving bamboo strips overnight to make money, and the Yuan family, who had been silent for many years, finally did not follow the trend to grow bamboo, but resumed the family silversmith business. Yuan Kunlin is even more against the trend, fond of black copper and silver.

In addition to the unique smelting formula and silver technology, it is necessary to fully master the skills of carving, calligraphy and painting, and miniature carving.

Yuan Kunlin had to buy all kinds of metal raw materials, make tools, and go to other places to study, most of the family's farm work was handed over to his wife, and his income was far less than that of weaving bamboo strips, and the pressure brought by the gap between the rich and the poor was more suspicious than the hardships of the turbulent times, and he once thought about giving up - "It is better to be an honest farmer".

Of course, the enemy can't be a hobby, otherwise there would be no today's "Black Bronze Walking Silver Transmission Hall", and the family would not move into the county seat to complete the historical task of "the countryside surrounding the city".

Smelted black copper, it takes countless hammers to turn into flakes.

During the Republic of China, the ink cartridge of black copper and silver was the most sought after, and the scholars especially liked to use it to give each other gifts, and it is said that several craftsmen in Kunming made black copper and silver at that time, and the monthly quantity could reach three or five thousand pieces. According to the needs of customization, the craftsmen will engrave the words "year, month and day, so-and-so gift" on the cartridge, and the patterns are pine cranes, plum blossoms, five bats, etc., which are small and elegant.

These Yuan Kunlin also did a good job, but it is not the custom of modern society to give each other scholar's elegant utensils, and in the past few years, many antique dealers have asked him to make high imitations of the Yue family.

Except for some small ink cartridges, bracelets, ruyi and wine jugs and wine glasses, Yuan Kunlin's orders are all customized, for example, a guest in Guangdong wants to make a silver bowl, and the outside is inlaid with a small circle of black copper and silver, which may be used to hold dried fruits; Some temples have custom-made pagodas with relics, which are required to be made by hand, and are the same as a famous style in ancient times.

He would also develop more complex pieces on his own, such as larger incense burners and vases, carved with patterns on the armor of a general of the ancient Dian Kingdom that he had learned from the museum, and various hunting villains in a circle, and the blank spaces were densely covered with white silver dots. Such works can be exhibited, and winning one or two awards a year is also a tacit task for him as a successor of intangible cultural heritage.

In order to control the continuity of heat and temperature, Yuan Kunlin will circulate the air.

At first sight, the silver lines and dense dots reflected on the jet-black copper background only felt that the light was shining in the gloom, quiet and dazzling, and there was no time to deduce their origins. The first is the smelting of black copper, and a small amount of other metals such as gold and tin are added to the copper ore solution, and there is a strict ratio, otherwise the copper will not be able to turn black in the end.

Then the smelted black copper is forged into a thin sheet, and the patterns are carved on the thin sheet with large and small chisels, and the lines are thick and thin, deep and shallow, all of which are precisely laid out by hand and experience.

After carving, the silver powder is piled on the pattern, and the melting point of copper is about 1084 °C, the melting point of black copper alloy is slightly lower than that of copper by 50 °C, and the melting point of silver is about 960.8 °C.

After cooling, start grinding, which needs to be "grinded down" to control the temperament, file and brush at the same time, the strength is too light to grind off the surface impurities, the force is too heavy and will grind off the silver at the subtle lines.

The last process is quite humane, the pattern of complete black copper sheet according to the previous design into the shape of the instrument, but also to hold in the hand to cover a cover to become black, the length of time to cover and the season is related, the summer is the best, the day is hot, half a day can be covered, winter is difficult to cover, sometimes a whole day can not be covered. It is probably the temperature of the human body and the sweat that trigger the oxidation reaction, in short, every black bronze and silver work is hatched with body temperature and patience.

Skilled as Yuan Kunlin, he has to say that his success rate is about 70%, because when carving, a hammer is wrong, a line will be broken, a painting will be destroyed, and the strength of polishing will pass, the end of a line will be worn off, and the whole charm will change.

In order to better integrate the melted silver into the carved lines, he used the method of blowing fire, using air to control the size of the fire, but until it was finished, the flame could not be extinguished, so he learned the cycle ventilation that musicians need, and could breathe continuously for an hour or two.

The final step is to cover the copper black with your hands.

At the door of Yuan Kunlin's black bronze silver study hall, there is a low bench, a tree stump, and there is an iron card slot on the stump that fixes the copper sheet, and then there are large and small chisels and a small hammer.

I didn't see any local young people studying here, but a girl from Jiangsu sat here every day, repeatedly tapping a pine crane pattern. The radial pine needles that ordinary viewers have long been accustomed to, as well as the white cranes standing on one leg, are revealed from under the chisels little by little, the layout must be harmonious, the lines must be smooth, and there can be no superfluity, the Jiangsu girl has been here for a year, and she still feels that she needs a long time to qualify.

The door of Yuan Kunlin's house is open, and those who want to come to learn can come and knock a few hammers to try, and the children will pick up the hammer to play when they return from school.

The ancient craft of black copper and silver has been mastered by the three major factions in Yunnan; They are Master Guandu Jin Yongcai; Master Yuan Kunlin of Jinning; Master of Baoshan Wanguanghong.

Kim Yongjae, who was only 18 years old in 1975, was a silversmith. At that time, he and Li Jiaru often attended the Sunday market as silversmiths and would get together from time to time.

In addition, the residences of the two parties were only half a kilometer apart, and after a long time, he often went to the home of Li Jiaru, a lonely old man, to take care of Li's diet and daily life. In 1982, Li Jiaru officially accepted Jin Yongcai as an apprentice, but did not give him the formula, but just asked him to make "black copper and silver" with him.

Until 1995, Li Jiaru, who was in his 80s, was getting worse and worse, and was often hospitalized. Jin Yongcai said that after being discharged from the hospital, the master had dinner with him, drank a little wine, and was in a good mood, so he said to him: "The skill of making black copper and silver cannot be lost in my hands, otherwise I will become a sinner of the nation." ”

It turned out that the master had already written the formula, he handed the formula to Jin Yongcai, and ordered him to memorize it within 15 minutes. In 1996, Mr. Li Jiaru passed away, and the craftsmanship of "black copper to silver" was inherited by Jin Yongcai.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Sibao Zhai Yinlou hired a silversmith surnamed Wang from Shiping Heavy Gold, and Wang Silversmith was grateful for the grace of the encounter, so he passed on the black bronze silver skills to the ten thousand surnames of Sibao Zhai Yinlou.

By 1966, the second-generation successor Wan Huailin, because of the four old and other reasons at that time, became the object of criticism, can no longer do the craft, Wan Huailin is afraid that the craft will be lost, and secretly taught all the skills of black copper and silver to his wife Jin Laowu.

After the situation improved, Jin Laowu passed on the black copper and silver skills to their son Wan Guanghong. So far, the skills of Baoshan black copper and silver have been continued to be inherited by Wan Guanghong.

Jinning black copper silver craft spread in Jinning County Jincheng Town Tianchengmen Village Yuan family, from Shiping Yue's family, has a history of eighty or ninety years.

In 1989, Yuan Jiahe's two sons, Yuan Wancheng and Yuan Wanli, began to make black copper and silver, which had been silent for many years. Because its skills have been passed down from generation to generation, and the craft formula has been kept secret, there are very few people who know this craft to this day. Today, the inheritance is still limited to the Yuan family, and only a few people have mastered this skill

The black copper and silver have been inherited so far, and the production method is still based on the most primitive manual forging and production, coupled with the cumbersome skills, high cost, and small output, and the yield rate has always been maintained at two to three pieces per month. Such a model far restricts the development of black copper and silver. Take a look at the latest chapters of "Dream Claw Book House in the Great Era" and read it for free for the first time.