手艺守艺，向传统致敬

蒋攀 邬定飞

“精美，太精美了！”金秋时节，在宁波国际会展中心举行的2020海丝之路（中国·宁波）文化和旅游博览会上，参观的市民一边发出赞叹，一边对着严海斌的朱金漆木雕“鼓亭”不停地拍照，并晒在了微信朋友圈：“阿拉宁波老底子的手艺就是精美！”

一时，宁海朱金漆木雕“鼓亭”亮相文旅博览会的内容，刷屏宁波人的微信朋友圈。朱金漆木雕是宁波传统工艺“三金”之一，严海斌这件朱金漆木雕作品“鼓亭”，是他和团队历时两年完成的，花费50余万元，单单金箔就用了六七千张。

为何要耗时耗金打造这件作品？严海斌把目光转向“鼓亭”，金箔反射出的金光让他的眼睛显得炯炯有神。“你看，稻田又变金黄了！”严海斌突然说了一句。随后，43岁的他再次坚定地说：“是致敬！毕全身之技，展现于‘鼓亭上，我在致敬传统手艺！”

一

时光回到30多年的前童镇严家村，五六岁的严海斌喜欢上了家里爸妈的大眠床，被上面雕刻着的精美图案以及图案的故事吸引。

1994年，高中毕业那年，严海斌拜师宁波市前童镇知名朱金漆木雕师傅童帝寿。看到师父雕刻的一块浮雕花板无比精美，他深感震撼。自此，严海斌立志要学精这项技艺。

在浙东地区，朱金漆木雕广泛应用于千工床、万工轿、雕花木船、佛像等民间生活用品上，其主要技艺是在木雕件上漆朱贴金。其雕刻精致，漆工讲究，可谓是“三分雕，七分漆”。一件朱金漆木雕作品，要经历20余道工序，匠人要能吃苦、沉稳、坐得住。

严海斌选择了这条路，便沉下心来苦练本领。

“刚开始学习，我们几个师兄弟先学着刮几天树皮。”严海斌说，刮树皮考验的是耐心，学艺没耐心是坚持不下来的;打砂纸同样是基本功，也枯燥得很。“有的师兄弟学不到一个月就坚持不下来了，甚至学了两年离开的都有。”

绘图、木雕、上漆、贴金箔、罩漆……每一道程序都是一次考验。“我是第3天开始学钢丝锯的，练习钢丝锯的基本功。这样一个礼拜后，我就学习雕刻洋花板，并正式接触镂空雕。”严海斌回忆道，“自觉天分不足，只能更加勤奋，白天学习基本功，晚上向师兄请教第二天要雕刻花板、图案的结构层次等。师傅也手把手地教，各种格子洋花、草龙、花鸟鱼虫、龙凤、人物都是必学的。到了第二年，我就开始带新来的师弟了。记得当时跟师傅出去做室内装修，刚好主人家两个隔壁都在装修，就各自暗中较上劲了，我们做的圆门，有龙凤呈祥，凤穿牡丹等，无不栩栩如生。对比了邻居家的装修后，我们得到了主人家的赞叹，那种感觉特别的自豪。”三年满师后帮师父又做了一年，严海斌便选择了独闯江湖。

严海斌说，他是手艺人，也是守艺人。25年来，严海斌在艺术的道路上努力精进，如今已是宁波市非物质文化遗产朱金漆木雕技艺的代表性传承人，这让他也担负了更多技艺传承的责任。如今，他把朱金漆木雕技艺融入自己的每件作品中，用自己的方式让更多人再次了解这项非遗文化的魅力。

二

在前童古镇的“鼓亭馆”里，严海斌参与制作的“鼓亭”，差不多占了一半的位置。

以朱金漆木雕工艺制作的鼓亭，是前童古镇特色民俗“前童行会”的重要物品，通过抬鼓亭来纪念前童先人童濠的伟绩并祈祷丰年，距今已有500余年的历史，因此前童也被誉为“鼓亭之乡”。

从设计图纸开始，雕刻鼓亭上的每个小构件，雕刻龙身，上漆打磨，拼接并检测构件……严海斌把一身技艺，如灵魂般地注入到这件作品上，仿佛要给予它生命一般。“贴金箔前要先上一遍生漆，‘三分雕，七分漆，上漆是非常重要的步骤——上生漆时要非常小心，宁愿上得薄，不能上得厚。上完生漆，在适当的温度和湿度下晾上一天，就可以在上面贴金箔了。”严海斌向我介绍，生漆又稱“国漆”或“大漆”，是从漆树上采割的一种乳白色纯天然液体涂料，接触空气后逐步转为褐色，上漆后在器具表面形成漆膜，具有耐磨、耐腐、耐酸、耐溶剂、耐热等特性，一公斤价格就要600元。而贴金用的金箔含金量达98%，这样才能让朱金漆木雕作品长久保持光泽。

内行看门道，外行看热闹。“你看看这些龙，你数一数，有多少条？再看看它们有什么不一样？”严海斌说，不懂的人就只能看到表面的精美，其实最精华的“传承”在雕刻后的纹理里，在每一个构件里。这座鼓亭至少有60条龙，从周朝开始到明清，每一个朝代的龙的风格，都能在这里找到。“最顶上这条龙是唐朝风格的。唐代是我国历史上最富强的朝代之一，国力强盛，经济繁荣，文化发达。龙的造型表现出来就是威武雄壮、富态华丽、蓬勃向上。”

每件鼓亭作品都离不开寓意美好的图案。五子登科、五福同寿、和合二仙、双狮戏球、麒麟送子……严海斌把20多种寓意吉祥美好的民间传统图案雕刻在这件作品上。“不仅是集美好于一身，而且各种制作手艺完全遵从明清雕法，诸如‘美女无肩、老爷凸肚等等，让朱金漆木雕作品变得妙趣无穷。”严海斌说。

整座鼓亭结构上完全采用榫卯结构，使用大小“花板”近500片，技法上运用了镂空雕、浅浮雕、深底雕和圆雕等。“我要使我所有的技艺在每个作品上得到最优展现，让人看得见摸得着。”

“正常大小的鼓亭一般需要600工左右，这次参展的鼓亭大小按比例缩小了三分之一多，但工时却达700工，按照我原先计划，是要花一千工的。”严海斌笑着对我说。原来为了赶上参展，这件精美得让人赞叹不已的朱金漆木雕鼓亭还是个“早产儿”。“本来底座侧大板要做九龙图的，两边雕上盘龙旗杆，二层这里雕四方神兽，每一层都配上名著的立体人物。”学海无涯，艺无止境，留下的些许遗憾，或许会成为严海斌追求心中最高境界的动力吧。

A wood sculpture artwork painted in red and decorated with gold foil caused a sensation at a culture and tourism event held at Ningbo International Conference and Exhibition Center in Ningbo in September 2020. It took 43-year-old Yan Haibin and his assistants two years， 500，000 yuan and 7，000 gold foils to complete the woodcarving masterpiece. It is called  （drum pavilion， literally） and looks like a miniature multi-storied pavilion.

“Red Paint and Gold Foil Woodcarving” is a traditional craftsmanship in Ningbo. In Ningbo and regions around it in eastern part of Zhejiang， the craftsmanship is widely employed to make traditional furniture such as canopy beds， bridal sedans， miniature boats and Buddha statues. The main part of the craftsmanship is to apply red paint and gold foil to a woodcarving piece. According to masters specialized in this traditional craftsmanship， 30% of the craftsman lies in woodcarving and the rest is focused on applying the red paint and gold sheets onto the target woodcarving.

If it took Yan and his team two years to complete this specific masterpiece， it had taken Yan about three years to learn the craftsmanship from his master. Yan has been in the field since 1994.

He was born into a satellite village of Qiantong， a town of history and culture in Ninghai， a county of Ningbo. Upon his graduation from a local senior high school in 1994， Yan was apprenticed to study under the guidance of Tong Dishou， a master of red paint and gold foil woodcarving in Qiantong. Yan was dedicated. There are over 20 steps in the craftsmanship and one needs to do each job perfectly. He worked day and night. On the first day， he and some fellow apprentices learned how to remove barks from timber. On the third day， he began to learn how to use a fret saw.

“Persistence is the name of the game，” recalls Yan. “Some quit before their apprenticeship was a month old. Some left even after two years of apprenticeship. I knew I wasnt gifted. So I worked hard. I practiced essentials during the day and at night I asked my fellow apprentices to help me view what we would carve the next day. I learned to carve all kinds of patterns， such as window patterns， dragons， birds and flowers， fish and insects， dragons and phoenixes， figures. In the second year， I began to teach new apprentices even though I was still an apprentice and work as assistant to my master in home decoration projects. One decoration project we did that year stands out in my memory. There were other two inner decoration projects going on in two neighboring houses at the same time. The door we made was ornately decorated with dragons and phoenixes and looked vivid. After seeing what the neighbors got， our employer was happily proud of the door we made. We were proud， too.”

Yan Haibin is now a master of the craftsmanship designated by the local government to carry on the tradition. At the  center in Qiantong， nearly half of the exhibits are his works.  is a centerpiece in the annual parade in Qiantong in honor of Tong Hao， a resident of Qiantong who made town prosperous. The memorial parade is more than 500 years old in the town. And Qiantong is famed for all the best  pieces made in history.

A normal  takes about 600 man-days to complete， according to Yan Haibin. The  Yan made for this event is one third of the normal size and it took about 700 man-days. He had planned to spend 1，000 man-days on the piece. As he ran out of time for this culture and tourism event， he omitted a nine-dragon pattern， two dragon-circled flagpoles， four magic animals on the second story， and standing figures for all the stories.

Even this abridged version of the  piece is intricate enough to be fascinating. For nonprofessionals， they are elated by the outside extravagance and splendor at first glance. For professionals， they look for ingenuity in details.

The  piece Yan and his team created is composed of about 500 separate intricately carved pieces. They are fitted together with a mortise-tenon connection system， that is， no nails were used. “There are more than 60 dragons in this . All the dragon images from the Zhou Dynasty down to the Ming and the Qing are represented here. The dragon on the top is in the style of the Tang， one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of China，” explains the master.