Cao Sugong

Cao Sugong

Cao Sugong (1615-1689), formerly known as shengchen, was born in Shexian County, Anhui Province. He was one of the four famous ink makers in Qing Dynasty. In his early years, he devoted himself to the imperial examination career. Because of his failure, he returned home to make ink. At first, he borrowed Wu Shuda's ink mold and ink name and opened a shop. Later, the ink quality and process modeling became better and better, and the reputation became more and more popular, and the ink industry became more prosperous. Later, he moved his shop to Suzhou, Shanghai and other places, where he often made ink for dignitaries and celebrities. He had a great influence on the upper class of the society, and was known as "the ink of the world pushed Shezhou, and the ink of Shezhou pushed Cao".

brief introduction

Cao Sugong's descendants have kept their business for more than 300 years. Cao Sugong has two volumes of Mo Lin, which mainly collects precious Mo and Ci poems. During Kangxi's southern tour of Jinling, Cao Sugong advanced with ink, and the emperor granted the word "ziyuguang" to declare that queqi was born. Since then, he has also created his own famous inks, such as "Tianchen", "qianqiuguang", "Tianrui" and "Bao Nang congshang". MoZhuang first moved to Suzhou, and then settled in Shanghai. According to the descendants, after more than ten generations, it lasted for more than 300 years. It has a good reputation of "the ink of the world pushes Shezhou, and the ink of Shezhou pushes Cao", which is called "yisuzhai".

history

At the 1914 World Expo, all kinds of exquisite works of MoZhuang selected by Cao Lin Bo, the 11th grandson of Cao Sugong, won the gold medal. At the Philadelphia Expo 12 years later, Cao Sugong's MoZhuang selected 11 famous products such as "great landscape" and won the prize again.

Cao Jiakun, the 14th generation descendant of Cao Sugong, and Lu Jianqing, the 14th generation descendant, and Cao Jiakun, the 14th generation grandson of Cao Sugong; Lu Jianqing, the 14th generation descendant of Cao Sugong and "master of Chinese ink making", the former is the manager of "Cao Sugong ink garden" on Jinling East Road, and the latter is the vice president of Shanghai Zhou Huchen Cao Sugong Ink Co., Ltd. They are still closely related to this world-famous literary treasure, either because of their blood or because of their skills.

The 300 year history of Cao Su Gong Mo can be divided into three peaks. First, MoZhuang was founded. Cao Sugong became a scholar in 1655, but he was granted the chief secretary in 1667. So he set up MoZhuang in Shexian County, Anhui Province, which has the reputation of "the ink of the world pushes Shezhou, and the ink of Shezhou pushes Cao". Second, Cao Yaoqian, the sixth grandson, said that "Yao Qian is the crown of Cao". The third is the period when Cao LiNbO, the 11th grandson, took over. In 1864, the ninth grandson Cao Duanyou moved more than 10000 ink molds accumulated from generation to generation to Shanghai, where thousands of merchants gathered, and the ink making formula became more and more perfect. Cao LiNbO, who loved painting since he was a child, was also taught by the famous ink sculptor Wang suizhi. He once personally created "RUOYE charm" and other fine works of calligraphy, painting and ink. During the period of Tokyo Expo, MoZhuang was very famous. The famous Japanese calligrapher and painter tooka tiezhai customized products to MoZhuang. This ink is still the first choice in the market of calligraphy and painting ink. However, when Cao LiNbO died early, his younger brother took over and did a good job. Feng Yuxiang once personally inscribed "the treasure of the arts". In 1949, Cao LiNbO's younger brother passed away and was directly taken over by my father, the 13th grandson. He became an apprentice in the ink factory in 1978. At that time, I was the only one of the five apprentices who followed Master Cheng Jiachen. Although Cao Yaoqian's performance in the palace was full of fragrance and praise when he hammered the ink slab, actually hammering was a very tiring job. When he was an apprentice, he had to hammer for at least half a year. Eight pounds (about 3.6 kg) of hammer had to be hammered thousands of times a day, and he couldn't lift his hand the next day. But I'm glad that not only the pure manual ink making process has been inherited, but also the precious cultural memory of this city has been carried.

In order to create the World Expo commemorative ink "flowers bloom", a set of four ingots, a ingot weight of 62 grams, elegant and beautiful design, full of fun. It takes two months for the complex carving mold, and it takes six to eight months for the ink ingot to dry completely. It's hard to get good ink. It's a process of artistic creation. Contemporary calligraphers Kao Shixiong, Zhang Sen, Wang Dongling and Xu Sihao each wrote two words on the front of the ink, respectively in seal script, official script, cursive script and running cursive script. This is our best wish for the Shanghai World Expo. At the same time, we look forward to Cao Sugong, a time-honored Chinese brand, taking advantage of the opportunity of the World Expo to carry forward.

Related attractions

In the Qing Dynasty, Cao Sugong was on the bustling Jinling Road in Shanghai. There was a shop with the architectural style of Ming and Qing Dynasties, with cornices and corners, purple gold and antique. It is the Sales Department of Shanghai ink factory - Cao Sugong ink garden. The four treasures of the study, calligraphy and paintings in the shop attract Chinese and foreign customers.

Cao Sugong was one of the famous "four masters" of ink making in Qing Dynasty. She County, Anhui Yansi Town, Shunzhi years scholar. He was fond of Mohism when he was young, and paid attention to collecting and studying ancient ink. In the sixth year of Kangxi's reign, he was not appointed as the chief executive. He met many new literati and mastered the long-standing ink making skills of Hui ink. Knowing the hobbies and interests of the upper class at that time, and advocating the social psychology of painting ink by themselves, he started to make ink for the officials and celebrities on the basis of Wu Shuda, a famous ink worker in the late Ming Dynasty. His masterpiece "ziyuguang" is very popular. It is said that during Kangxi's tour to the south, Cao Sugong went into ink and got appreciation. He personally inscribed "ziyuguang". Qianlong also praised his ink. According to legend, it is also known as "in ancient times, it is difficult for an author to bend his finger, pan of the former dynasty was born, and Cao of the present.". There is also a record in the annals that "all the tribute and ink of the great ministers in the sea were made by the Cao family".

Development of posterity

After the death of Cao Sugong, his descendants passed on from generation to generation, inherited their ancestral heritage, and some of them made innovations. In order to expand the market, his ninth grandson brought ink tools to Suzhou and then moved to Shanghai during the Xianfeng Period. He opened an ink shop near Xiaodongmen in Nanjing, an old city, and continued to make ink.

Shanghai is the largest economic center in China, where thousands of businessmen gather and the industry, commerce and culture are very developed. In such an environment, Cao's descendants, adhering to their ancestors' ink making formula and business characteristics, selected managers who were familiar with the business from the staff and made great efforts to develop. The ink shop gradually expanded and became one of the four famous stores in Shanghai, and moved to Henan Middle Road, where the cultural goods stores are relatively concentrated. The shop sign of "huishe Cao Su Gong Mo Zhuang" was written by Tan Yan she.

style of art

Celebrities and painters, in order to give full play to their artistic characteristics of painting and calligraphy, pay attention to the choice of the four treasures of the study. Cao Sugong ink shop attaches importance to the quality of ink making, and often customizes ink ingots for famous artists according to customers' requirements. Many calligraphers and painters and celebrities who love painting and calligraphy have contacts with Cao Sugong ink shop. Yu Youren, the late Yuan Laoren of the Kuomintang, once ordered "Yuanyang qizhizhai" ink to the Cao family. Cao Yin, the grandfather of Cao Xueqin, a writer in the Qing Dynasty, and Li Hongzhang, the leader of the Westernization school, all made ink versions for Cao family. According to the memories of the old workers, every time general Feng Yuxiang went to Shanghai, he would go to CaoShi MoZhuang to buy some four treasures of the study, and personally inscribed the praise of "the treasure of the arts".

Brand culture

At that time, the Cao family ink shop encountered all kinds of difficulties, but they had a belief: to keep their ancestral property, not to "cut" the signboard. On the eve of liberation, Shanghai's prices rose several times a day, the market was stagnant, the business of MoZhuang was light, and the boss and staff worked hard to support it until liberation.

The founding of the people's Republic of China has opened up a bright future for the revitalization of all industries. When MoZhuang resumed production, its output reached more than 13500 kg, breaking the highest record of the ink industry in 20 years. In 1957, Cao Sugong ink village resumed the production of high-grade ink, and famous inks such as "ziyuguang" and "canglongzhu", which had been popular for hundreds of years, appeared on the market again. In 1958, it merged with Shanghai hukaiwen factory to become Shanghai ink factory. With concentrated technical force and complete production equipment, it created more favorable conditions for the development of production.

Shanghai ink factory - there are thousands of ink molds, most of which are made by famous artists. The themes are elegant and colorful, including pavilions, birds and animals, scenic spots, flowers and ladies. They are not only full of ink, but also full of interesting scenery. Ren Bonian, a famous painter in the Qing Dynasty, painted a set of "Twelve famous flowers" for Cao's ink shop during the reign of Guangxu. Each painting is elegant and unique. A set of "West Lake scenery map" is as many as 45 pieces.

Cao sugongmo, who participated in Tokyo Expo in 1914, won a gold medal. He also won a certificate at Philadelphia International Expo in 1926. The products of Shanghai ink factory have also won many quality awards.

The best collection ink made by Cao Sugong, a famous Mohist in Qing Dynasty

Cao Sugong, taking advantage of Emperor Kangxi's southern tour, brought his masterpieces to present. He was praised and granted the name of "ziyuguang". Later, the name was used to make Shujin Ziyu light ink. The ink is made in 10 spindles, rectangular strip. Each ingot is 5.8 cm in length, 2 cm in width, 0.6 cm in thickness and 13 g in weight. This set of ink is engraved with a scene of Baiyue on the surface of each ingot, totaling 10 scenes. They are Tianzhu peak, Wulao peak, Luohan peak, Xianglu peak, Wanshou mountain, ziyuping peak, Yuping peak, Jianfeng peak, Shizi peak and Chenxiang cave. On the back of the ink, there is a seal of "ziyuguang" in the regular script engraved on the sun. There are some words in the text, such as "ancient she cao Sugong collection", "master of art studio imitating ancient Qing Mo", "Tiandu Cao Sugong system", "Xin'an Cao Sugong appraisal" and so on. The whole body washes gold, the ink color is like lacquer, the black is shiny, the texture is exquisite, hard and dense. Ink painting, carving vivid, heavy peak overlapping rock, full of ancient. It is now in Anhui Provincial Museum.

Chinese PinYin : Cao Su Gong