Wan'an Town is located along the coast of Hengjiang in the Shexiu Basin. It is one of the four major ancient towns in Huizhou . It is named after Wan'an Mountain (also known as Guchengyan) to the east. The prototype of the Ji Town was formed as early as the Han and Sui Dynasty. Its literature has a history of more than 1,700 years. It was once the seat of county and county seats. It is close to Yicheng, located at the top of Yixian , Qimen , Wuyuan , Wuyuan , Tunxi , Yansi, and far away to Anqing and Jiangxi, Hunan, Fujian and other places; and it is located on the upper reaches of Qiantang River, and the main water transportation road in the upper reaches of Qiantang River can be crossed to the Yuxian Fishing Pavilion, and go directly to Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Because Wan'an has both the convenience of cars and horses and the benefits of boats, a large amount of grain, oil, bamboo, wood, tea and other materials produced in surrounding townships are concentrated here for processing, sale or transportation, making it an important commercial port and water transport terminal in ancient Huizhou.
After hundreds of years of development, by the Ming and Qing dynasties, Wan'an Street had been ranked first among the nine major streets in Xiuning County, and the people were known as "Little Xiuning City, Big Wan'an Street". The street is about five miles long and the narrow and winding street is full of shops on both sides, so it is also known as the "first-line" street market. Even in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, when it was already in a recession, there were still cloth, grain and oil, sugar shops, soybeans, pawnshops, Chinese medicine, more than 50 industries, more than 140 shops and handicraft workshops along Wan'an Street, including cloth, grain and oil, sugar shops, sauce gardens, pawnshops, Chinese medicine, more than 50 industries, more than 140 shops and handicraft workshops, which can be imagined to show its prosperity during its heyday.
However, it is not the same as before. Compared with the bustling old Tunxi Street in the center of Huangshan , Wan'an Street now seems depressed and lonely. There are almost no pedestrians on the street, nor do you hear the crowing chickens and barking dogs. Many old houses have been disrepaired and no one lives in the house. The once busy pier has now become a laundry place for women, and there are no traces of shops that were lined up back then. Only the smooth and smooth blue stone roads under your feet are still vaguely showing the crowds of pedestrians on Wan'an Street in the past.
million an old street
While the world changes, there is also a skill that continues. From Wan'an Street to the east, and to No. 70 Shang Street, the sign of " Wu Luheng Luojing Old Store" comes into view. "Rujing" is the respectful title of Fengshui master for compass . According to research, the Wan'an Street compass production began in the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, developed in the Ming Dynasty, and flourished in the middle of the Qing Dynasty. It has a history of more than 600 years. Wan'an is therefore called the "Hometown of Compass". In 2006, the ,000-an compass production skills were included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.
Wu Luheng Luojing Laodian
"Hometown of Compass"
million an compass has flourished and developed, which is related to its geographical, cultural environment and social needs. Huizhou is the birthplace of Song and Ming Neo-Confucianism, and its social culture is deeply influenced by Cheng and Zhu Neo-Confucianism . The Northern Song Dynasty Neo-Confucianists Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi, , the Southern Song Dynasty Neo-Confucianists Zhu Xi, and many later Neo-Confucianists have written Yixue, and have special articles that emphasize the need to study Feng Shui. The New Ancient Society, which originated from Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, has been popular in Huizhou for nearly 700 years, and has had a profound impact on Huizhou society, which has made the Feng Shui activities in this area continue to decline and formed traditional social customs. The Southern Song Dynasty " Xin'anzhi " records: "The people's disadvantages are good at composing personnel affairs. When the mud is buried, the city is filled with houses, and the door is still slightly shaking, and the people are lucky." This shows that the people of Huizhou at that time were already very particular about the Feng Shui of houses and tombs. The "Journal and Quotation Sent" written by Zhao Jishi, a native of Wan'an, Xiuning County in the early Qing Dynasty, has a saying that "the Feng Shui theory is particularly important, and the people of Huizhou are usually concerned about it. They usually form disputes and make up lawsuits, but half of them are stronger for this", which shows the prevalence of Feng Shui in Huizhou.
At the same time, Huizhou has had a Feng Shui system that has inherited its own lineage since ancient times, and its most influential representative is He Lingtong. He Lingtong (922-1019), whose name was Pu, and whose courtesy name was Lingtong, was originally the national teacher of the Southern Tang Dynasty. A geek scholar said that during the Xiande period of the Later Zhou Dynasty (954-960), he was exiled to be the magistrate of the Niushou Mountain Mausoleum because he advised Li Jing to repair the Niushou Mountain Mausoleum and he had rectified the environment of Xiuning County. Later he resigned from his official position as a monk. It has made many achievements in the theory and practice of "Yangzhai" and " Yinzhai ". The Xiuning County Chronicles states: "All people in Hui people's burial place are mostly good because of why the national teacher." He Lingtong's Feng Shui has been passed down in Huizhou.For example, the You family in Jixi, Wuyuan, was "He Ling, the national teacher of the Jiu family, and has produced many famous Feng Shui masters throughout the ages. You Yuanli of the Ming Dynasty also said that at the beginning of Yongle, he received an imperial edict from Bu Tianshou Mountain Mausoleum and was given a gift to return the mountain." He Keda, a famous Feng Shui master of Xiuning, was the planner who transformed the village environment and built the village water system during the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty.
In addition, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, after Hui merchants became rich in business and became rich, they often returned to their hometowns to build houses, build ancestral halls, and repair ancestral tombs. Before these activities broke ground, Feng Shui masters had to choose directions. Feng Shui techniques and compass also had a large sales market. At the same time, businessmen and geomancers from other places also came to Wan'an to buy compass. The above unique cultural, economic and geographical conditions objectively promoted the emergence and development of the Wan'an compass, and the Wan'an compass industry came into being and made Wan'an Town gradually become one of the famous compass manufacturing centers in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
compass
skills inheritance
Wan'an's history mainly includes Fang Xiushui, Wu Luheng, Hu Ruyi, Hu Pingzhi, etc. Wu Luheng Luojingdian was founded in the first year of Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty (1723) and was a rising star in the Wan'an compass production industry. The compass made by the founder Wu Guozhu (named Luheng), sundial , etc., are sold well in various places due to their high quality and high precision. "Wu Luheng" has also become a well-known brand in China's compass industry. His descendants adhered to the ancestral system and also made "foreign sundials" and "solar sundials". Their products were sold in urban and rural areas in China, and even spread to Japan, North Korea, Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States, and were well-known at home and abroad. In the fourth year of the Republic of China (1915), the compass and sundials made by Wu Yuxian and Wu Weicang, the fifth and sixth generation successors of Wu Luheng, were awarded the second prize of the products of China's preparations for the Panama World Expo in the United States, and won the gold medal at the Panama World Expo. The Wu family Luojingdian passed down from generation to generation and closed down until the 1960s. In the 1990s, Wu Shuisen, the seventh generation descendant and later named the representative inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage, resumed his predecessors' old career and restored Wu Luheng's compass making skills.
China is preparing to go to the Panama World Expo product second prize certificate
Wu Luheng's current "shopkeeper" of the old store in Luojing is Wu Zhaoguang, the eighth generation successor. Wu Zhaoguang was born in 1984. He started to be involved in compass production at about 10 years old. He "read three years to practice for three years". At the age of 16, he basically mastered the core technology of Wu Luheng's compass production. But he did not think this was a manifestation of his parents' sense of inheritance. "Do you think farmers would deliberately train their children to farm? That's not training, but to work for the family. You are the labor force of the family." Wu Zhaoguang felt that "the thing he wanted to do most since childhood was to play." Learning compass production was helpless, and he had never considered cultural heritage. At the age of nineteen, he joined the army despite his father's opposition and followed the troops around the country.
When he was in the army, a letter from his father Wu Shuisen touched him a lot. Around 2003, the environment of the entire compass industry was very bad. Wu Shuisen felt that he was old and was unable to make compass. He hoped that his son could come back to take over, inherit this craft, and lead the compass industry to the right track. After much consideration, Wu Zhaoguang returned to Wan'an Town after his service period and took over the operation of the old store. He decided to "do something good."
first is to expand production scale. The compass made by Wu Luheng’s old store must go through seven complex processes: material selection, blank, partition, liquidation, writing plate, oil goods and needle installation, each step must be handmade. The most critical process is to install magnetic needle : first place the steel needle on a natural meteorite to magnetize it. During installation, you must accurately measure the center of gravity of the magnetic needle, so that the fulcrum cannot generate resistance, so that the pointer can rotate freely. This process is the core technology of compass production and can only be completed by the owner in the secret room.
In the past, Wu Shuisen completed all the processes alone. Wu Zhaoguang persuaded his father to recruit workers and take apprentices, and handed over the first six processes to others to handle to increase the yield of the compass. The second is to expand publicity. Wu Zhaoguang established a website to introduce the history and production process of the compass, and also began to sell compass on QQ. These operations that seem very ordinary now made my father feel very incredible at the time.
Two or three years later, the old shop gradually got on the right track, and Wu Zhaoguang and his father faced a choice again: Should they sell the compass to the government or to a professional Feng Shui master? At that time, the government purchased a large number of local specialties as gifts, and Hui ink, inkstones, and compass were all purchased, and the order amount could sometimes reach hundreds of thousands or even millions. However, they feel that the government procurement path is too closely related to policy and is not safe enough. In contrast, although it is difficult for individual customers to do it, as long as the product is done well, the accumulated reputation and resources will continue. Therefore, they positioned their product audience as professional customers. Later, the "Eight Regulations" strictly controlled the three public funds. Due to proper predictions, the reduction of government orders had almost no impact on Wu Luheng Luojing Store.
Many people are also using the idea of "Wu Luheng" as the golden signboard of Wan'an compass. Because Wu Shuisen lacks trademark awareness, "Wu Luheng" was registered in the 1990s. Later, it took nearly 20 years of lawsuit before the trademark was brought back. Some small workshops also put Wu Shuisen and Wu Zhaoguang's famous models on homemade compass, and imitated Wu Luheng's compass on Taobao for sale. In order to keep a close eye on the audio, Wu Zhaoguang also opened a Taobao store to inform the inventory at any time to prevent customers from being deceived.
Mr. Wu Zhaoguang
Compass has high requirements for making raw materials. The rivers around Wan'an Town are crisscrossed with green trees, and are rich in a kind of "tiger bone wood". The material is tough and does not show texture, which is the only choice for making compass. However, tiger bones must be left for three and a half to four years and can only be used after they are fully dried. Compasses come in various sizes, and due to the limitations of raw materials, the number of compasses of various sizes needs to be prepared when storing wood according to the changes in the demand for the disk type. "We need to predict the trend of the compass market in the next 3-4 years. Different schools have different explanations of Feng Shui, so different compass are needed. For example, in the first two years, the market was sold, and there were piles of small markets, but no one bought them; but sometimes the small market was short for several consecutive months, and the market remained unchanged. During a period of time, a large Feng Shui school held more training classes, and the small market would sell more; but if it was a more professional and learned to train more, it would be different. They were more inclined to explain more content to the market."
In order to understand the trends of different schools, Wu Zhaoguang often communicated with Feng Shui masters, but he believed that he still could not fully grasp the trends of the compass market. "We only produced more than 1,000 square meters last year, but the supply is far from in short supply. For example, if the market demand is 10,000, and you only have 1,000, how can we ensure that these 1,000 are the comprehensive reflection of 10,000? Unless it is basically parallel to market demand, it will be more reasonable, but we definitely cannot do it now." There are more than 100 samples of the market samples commonly found in the old store of Wu Luheng Luojing, and the common types are Sanhe, Sanyuan, Zhonghe, Xuankong, Zhu Zi, etc. Customers mainly choose and book the plates from the website of the old store. Wu Zhaoguang processes and produces them according to customer needs.
Wu Luheng Luojing Old Store currently has more than 20 employees, but it cannot be considered a commercial company. Wu Zhaoguang said that their production model is "handmade small-scale mass production". Generally, a batch of compass will not be made more than 20. The old shop produces three products: compass, sundials, and Feng Shui rulers. The price of compass ranges from 400 to 50,000 yuan, mainly based on plate types of 2,000-3,000 yuan; the most expensive product, sundials, can be sold for more than 300,000 yuan, but it takes more than a year to make it. Wu Zhaoguang felt that he was relatively relaxed. The product was not under pressure and did not require special sales personnel. He had sales of more than 5 million yuan every year, and the profit margin was also quite considerable.
Wu Zhaoguang is more cautious in further increasing the yield of the compass. The key to increasing output is to reduce his own workload. After several years of hesitation, he decided to split the most important needle installation link among the seven processes, bring an apprentice to the pointer assembly, and he is only responsible for the most difficult pointer fulcrum production part. He hopes to increase the annual output of the compass to 1500-1600 sides. "If all the technology is really relaxed, I am creating a competitor for myself. If I adopt a process-based relaxation, I can always leave core technology."
Every old store has rules left by my ancestors.There is a rule in the old shop of Wu Luheng Luojing that requires the shop to "enter the shop at a young age and leave the shop at a low age", and each person is only responsible for a certain process of compass making. "In the past, the servants who followed my great-grandfather and grandfather worked until they died. They bought two sets of clothes every year and paid for them every month. I would show you when I was sick. They had to prepare coffins for them when they died. They were a bit like contract workers, and they would take care of them all their lives." There is also "passing on daughter-in-law but not daughter", that is, compass making skills can be passed on to daughter-in-law, but not to daughter. "This is for the sake of keeping the family's intellectual property confidential. My daughter wants to marry, but her daughter-in-law belongs to her own family, and the child she gave birth to is Wu. My father's generation is a typical 'daughter-in-law passing on his son', because my grandfather passed away very early. Fortunately, my grandmother inherited this skill, so that she could pass this skill to my father's hands."
Wu Zhaoguang believes that these rules are all to prevent technology spread. "Maybe because of the reason for being in this industry, our Wu family is not very popular. It has only been passed down for 8 generations for more than 300 years. Since the great-grandfather, it has been 'sedited for four generations'." Mr. Wu Shuisen, the seventh generation descendant, passed away in 2014. Now Wu Zhaoguang is 35 years old and has only one daughter. He said he was considering the inheritance of skills.
Feng Shui Culture
Wu Zhaoguang usually reads Feng Shui books and understands the basic knowledge, but he has never thought about spending energy research. He believed that Feng Shui was not feudal superstition or metaphysical myth, but a kind of experience and law of man and nature summarized by ancient Chinese sages. The wisdom of the ancients was expressed on the compass in the form of symbols. Nowadays, through these symbols, they used these symbols to decipher the experience of the time, like cracking the code.
"No matter it is a yin house or a yang house, it is nothing more than what direction it is. Why does changing the direction of the door make you "wealthy"? In fact, it is very simple. For example, when you walk into the streets and alleys, the doors of some shops do not attract you, you just can't walk in. If the direction of the door is changed according to the terrain and environment, you can walk in naturally. Isn't this money? There is also a "wealthy family", which is the impact of the wind direction of the house, the magnetic field of the earth, the sunshine, etc. on the body of the owner of the house. If the house is always unable to burn the sun, then a If the humidity is heavy, people are prone to rheumatism. Therefore, a person's physical condition is closely related to the environment in which he lives - that is, Feng Shui -. However, ancient Feng Shui masters would not tell you, he would only tell you that the house is good or bad, and he would not tell you why it is good or why it is not good. In fact, I think this is a kind of science, and the attitude of the ancients towards the relationship between heaven, earth and man. "
Hand-painted Feng Shui diagram
The rise and fall of the compass industry also represents the rise and fall of Feng Shui culture. In Wu Zhaoguang's view, Feng Shui culture was a heyday during the Republic of China. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, it entered a period of depression. It suffered a huge blow during the "Cultural Revolution", but it was not really interrupted, but it just moved from the ground to the ground, and it did not recover until the reform and opening up. In 2006, the Wan'an compass production process entered the national intangible cultural heritage list. At the same time, the country's economy grew rapidly. Under the joint action of culture and economy, the compass industry began to take off. "Today we are sitting here, we will definitely be the first to eat. Only after solving the problem of eating can we continue to think about what to wear; after all, we have solved the problem of food and clothing, we will think about whether there is a place to live; when there is the conditions, I can decide whether to live here or there. Doesn't the prosperity of Feng Shui reflect the increase in our needs?"
In order to spread the Luojing culture, Wu Zhaoguang spent more than 10 million yuan to establish the only compass-the Wan'an Luojing Culture Museum, behind the old Luojing store in Wu Luheng. The museum was opened for free in 2012, displaying nearly a thousand cultural relics such as ancient compass, sundials, Feng Shui rulers, Feng Shui ancient books, ancient maps, old compass making tools, original award certificates for Wan'an compass, and other cultural relics. It was selected as one of the first top ten private museums in Anhui Province. In addition, considering that the raw materials for trays have been listed as national security tree species, they are not allowed to be cut down randomly, in addition to reporting to the forestry department for purchase, Wu Zhaoguang also invested in the construction of more than 1,000 acres of raw material base for the use of compass.
million Anluo Jing Culture Museum
