蘭偉香
一片竹片、兩根竹竿、數(shù)條彩線,一端系于腰間,另一端拴在凳腳或者屋柱上。經(jīng)過(guò)配線、整經(jīng)、做棕、織紋、挑花,一雙巧手來(lái)回穿梭于絲線之間,一個(gè)個(gè)具有畬族特色的圖案逐漸顯現(xiàn),這是編織畬族彩帶的全過(guò)程。2020年12月,在全國(guó)第五批國(guó)家級(jí)非物質(zhì)文化遺產(chǎn)代表性項(xiàng)目名錄中,畬族彩帶編織名列其中。新春剛過(guò),麗水市非物質(zhì)文化代表性傳承人鐘銀英又忙開(kāi)了,對(duì)作為非遺傳承人的她而言,雖然彩帶編織程序繁雜、過(guò)程單調(diào),但她卻深深地愛(ài)上了這門(mén)手藝,彩帶編織成了她生活的重要部分。
彩帶織出美好情懷
鐘銀英1968年出生在蓮都區(qū)老竹畬族鎮(zhèn)沙溪黃蘭自然村一個(gè)畬族編織世家,作為非遺傳承人,她從小就受長(zhǎng)輩們的熏陶,看著身邊的人編織各種形式的彩帶?!爱屪逡恢庇锌棽蕩У膫鹘y(tǒng),它既是一種生活用品,也是年輕姑娘的定情信物。姑娘到十七八歲時(shí),會(huì)把自己編織好的彩帶送給情郎,定下自己的終身大事?!彼偸呛芎闷?,慢慢地,她知道了畬族彩帶的故事,了解了畬族彩帶上千年的歷史,越來(lái)越喜歡上這一被畬族人民作為褲帶、腰帶、攔腰帶、刀鞘帶等使用的彩帶。
“長(zhǎng)輩們常常在我耳邊嘮叨,我們畬族的彩帶要失傳了,你一定要學(xué)起來(lái),把這門(mén)手藝傳承下去?!辩娿y英一邊看一邊學(xué)?!皠傞_(kāi)始學(xué)的時(shí)候,我常常弄得手忙腳亂。雖然編織彩帶看上去很簡(jiǎn)單,但織法很獨(dú)特,要用到多種顏色的經(jīng)緯線。編織花紋、圖案或文字時(shí),很容易搞錯(cuò),而一出錯(cuò)就白忙活了?!闭f(shuō)起彩帶編織,鐘銀英侃侃而談。
“我經(jīng)常自己拿線摸索織法,但是經(jīng)常會(huì)織錯(cuò)?!彼龔淖罨A(chǔ)的“平紋”開(kāi)始學(xué),常常一坐下來(lái)就是好幾個(gè)小時(shí),一個(gè)符號(hào)要摸索半天。就這樣拆了織織了拆,反反復(fù)復(fù)。但是她覺(jué)得這是一個(gè)熟能生巧的手工活,自己一定能編好。她一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)留意大人們的編織過(guò)程,默默地記在心間。
隨時(shí)隨地,一有空閑,鐘銀英就編織起彩帶來(lái)。以前農(nóng)村織彩帶沒(méi)有特制的織帶機(jī),屋里屋外乃至山野都可編織。她常常把絲線的一端拴在凳腳、桌檔或屋柱上,另一端系在自己的腰間,坐在凳上編織。要是在山野編織,就把絲線的一端拴在小樹(shù)干或樹(shù)樁上,另—端仍系在腰身上,坐在地上或跪在地上編織。
“彩帶以絲線編織為主,也有用棉紗編織的?!本€以紅、綠、黃、紫等色線與白線相間,行數(shù)隨寬窄而定,一般以十三行較普遍。經(jīng)線多則寬,經(jīng)線少則窄,寬的有兩寸多,窄的不足半寸。不論帶子寬窄,穿梭編織花紋圖案皆在正中的七根線上,其余的編織平面花邊?!币槐楸榈貒L試后,鐘銀英掌握了其中的訣竅?!艾F(xiàn)在我看到別人織的花紋,觀察一下我就能知道是多少根線織的、怎么織的,看后自己就可以織出來(lái)了。”憑借對(duì)彩帶編織的喜愛(ài),鐘銀英不斷提高編織技藝,并創(chuàng)新地將彩帶花紋與文字相結(jié)合。經(jīng)過(guò)幾十年的探索,創(chuàng)作出了具有時(shí)代性和個(gè)人風(fēng)格的畬族彩帶。
“彩帶之家”讓游客免費(fèi)體驗(yàn)
鐘銀英常常思考,如何把這一技藝傳承給更多的人。
“現(xiàn)在畬族彩帶面臨著后繼無(wú)人即將失傳的無(wú)奈和尷尬。”彩帶成本雖不高,但是靠手工編織,一絲一扣花時(shí)多。現(xiàn)代畬族年輕姑娘大多外出經(jīng)商打工,很少學(xué)編織彩帶。送彩帶的傳統(tǒng)族規(guī)也逐漸被打破,流傳千百年的畬族彩帶已不再“風(fēng)光”。隨著現(xiàn)代化的發(fā)展,青少年缺少接觸畬族傳統(tǒng)文化的機(jī)會(huì),畬族傳承人老齡化嚴(yán)重。
2014年,鐘銀英被評(píng)為“蓮都區(qū)非物質(zhì)文化遺產(chǎn)(織彩帶)代表性傳承人”,2017年,被評(píng)為麗水市非物質(zhì)文化代表性傳承人?!俺蔀閭鞒腥酥?,我覺(jué)得肩上的責(zé)任更重了。最重要的是對(duì)于非遺要沒(méi)有私心,只要有人來(lái)學(xué),我便愿意把我會(huì)的都教給他們。但是有些人即使我說(shuō)是免費(fèi)教,她們也不愿意學(xué)?!辩娿y英只好從身邊的人教起,先教會(huì)了自己的女兒、侄女等。
隨著東西巖旅游景區(qū)的發(fā)展,2010年,鐘銀英將自己家騰出了150多平方米,創(chuàng)辦了“彩帶之家”工作室,用于展出畬族彩帶、服裝,體驗(yàn)彩帶編織等。
她不斷推陳出新,運(yùn)用畬族彩帶的編織技藝手法編織出字帶,巧妙地運(yùn)用到首飾中。把一條彩帶剪裁成若干小段,與金屬絲等進(jìn)行組合設(shè)計(jì),改造成嬌小玲瓏的耳飾等。還將畬族彩帶運(yùn)用到畬族傳統(tǒng)服裝的裝飾上。
2017年,因?yàn)樵谖幕瘎?chuàng)意中推動(dòng)優(yōu)秀文化的傳承與發(fā)展,鐘銀英獲浙江省網(wǎng)絡(luò)文化協(xié)會(huì)、新浪浙江頒發(fā)的“十大匠心”獎(jiǎng)。2020年,在首屆中國(guó)畬族文化創(chuàng)意產(chǎn)品設(shè)計(jì)展演中,鐘銀英的畬族特色首飾系列作品獲得了三等獎(jiǎng)。
為了讓更多的人在自己的工作室能快速體驗(yàn)彩帶編織,鐘銀英根據(jù)自己的經(jīng)驗(yàn)設(shè)計(jì)了彩帶支架,大大減少了以往在桌檔、屋柱等處織彩帶所花費(fèi)的前期準(zhǔn)備時(shí)間。雙休日,節(jié)假日,寒暑假,工作室供學(xué)生和游客免費(fèi)體驗(yàn),鐘銀英免費(fèi)傳授彩帶編織技藝。
讓彩帶編織代代相傳
在多年織彩帶生涯中,鐘銀英越來(lái)越覺(jué)得傳承的必要性和緊迫性。從2015年起,鐘銀英被聘為蓮都區(qū)老竹民族學(xué)校、麗新小學(xué)彩帶編織課程教師。借助學(xué)校的平臺(tái),每周三,她走進(jìn)學(xué)校的拓展課程課堂,與學(xué)生面對(duì)面交流,讓學(xué)生近距離體驗(yàn)、感受畬族彩帶這一非物質(zhì)文化遺產(chǎn)的獨(dú)特魅力。
同學(xué)們總會(huì)一邊編織畬族彩帶,一邊向她詢(xún)問(wèn)問(wèn)題。鐘銀英總是耐心地和孩子們一起研究花紋的編織方法等。7年來(lái),她已將彩帶編織技藝傳承給了四百多位學(xué)生。
蓮都區(qū)老竹民族學(xué)校8年級(jí)學(xué)生藍(lán)雯悅跟隨鐘銀英學(xué)習(xí)編織彩帶三年,如今她已經(jīng)能熟練地編織彩帶,還能在彩帶上編織好看的花紋和圖案,如田字、井字、蝴蝶等。她說(shuō)自己還會(huì)將編織好的彩帶分享給好朋友,當(dāng)起小老師教同學(xué)們一些入門(mén)的技巧。
老竹民族學(xué)校副校長(zhǎng)李平介紹,彩帶編織課程的開(kāi)設(shè)助推了彩帶編織技藝的傳承,學(xué)校充分利用校外資源,邀請(qǐng)非遺傳承人鐘銀英授課,讓更多的學(xué)生了解畬族的民族文化,培養(yǎng)民族情懷。
鐘銀英一邊授課,一邊還著手編寫(xiě)圖書(shū)。她說(shuō),畬族只有語(yǔ)言,沒(méi)有文字,彩帶編織等靠口口相傳,多以師傳徒、母?jìng)髋男问竭M(jìn)行傳承,她想突破這一局限性。多年來(lái),她一直在尋找能繪圖的專(zhuān)業(yè)人員幫助繪制畬族彩帶的圖案。2017年,一次偶然的機(jī)會(huì),她將這一想法說(shuō)出后,得到了同學(xué)的女兒張瑞芳的認(rèn)可,鐘銀英用了一年時(shí)間將彩帶編織基本技巧傳授給了她。如今,兩人正聯(lián)手將彩帶的編織過(guò)程,用“圖解+文字”的形式寫(xiě)到書(shū)本里。她想,不遠(yuǎn)的將來(lái),會(huì)有越來(lái)越多的人參照書(shū)本自學(xué)彩帶編織。
一個(gè)簡(jiǎn)單的織帶架,一個(gè)簡(jiǎn)易的小梭子,一把色彩斑斕的絲帶……鐘銀英一直在彩帶編織之路上不斷摸索創(chuàng)新,她把對(duì)美好生活的向往密密地編織進(jìn)了彩帶里。
Weaving a Better Life into Colored Ribbons
By Lan Weixiang
With a slice of bamboo, two bamboo rods, and numerous colored threads tied to the legs of a chair on one end and the craftsman’s waist on the other, a pair of deft hands shuttle back and forth. Before long, patterns bearing the marks of the She people appear one by one.
Colored-ribbon weaving, as the craft is known, was added to the list of the fifth group of China’s national intangible cultural heritage in December 2020. It is regarded as a “l(fā)iving fossil” of the She ethnic culture.
It is only a few days after the Chinese New Year celebrations, Zhong Yinying is busy weaving again. As a representative inheritor of the ribbon weaving craft in Lishui city, she is deeply in love with it, despite the complexity and the monotony. Ribbon weaving has become an important part of her life.
Born in 1968 into a weaving family in Laozhu She ethnic township, Liandu district, Lishui city, Zhong has been greatly influenced by her elders since childhood, watching people around her weave colorful ribbons in various forms. “The She people have a long tradition of weaving the colored ribbon, which is not only an article of daily use, but also a token of love for young girls,” Zhong explained. “When a girl turns 17 or 18 years old, she would give her loved one the ribbon she has woven and marry him.”
Zhong has always been full of curiosity, and gradually she got to know the story of the colored ribbon and its thousand-year history, increasingly taken to the item used by the She people as pants belt, waist belt and even scabbard belt.
“I was often told that the She people’s craft of weaving colored ribbons was going to be lost, that I must learn it to pass it on.” Therefore, Zhong observed, and mastered the skills. “I stumbled a lot when I first started. Although ribbon-weaving looks simple, the method is unique, using a variety of colored warp and weft threads. When weaving patterns, designs or words, it’s quite easy to make mistakes, in which case, all your work is wasted,” said Zhong.
She began with the most basic, the plain weaving, often sitting for hours, fumbling for a symbol, woven and unwoven over and over again. But to her, it is a craft that is made perfect by practice. ?Whenever she had time and wherever the place, Zhong would weave ribbons. In the old days when no ribbon-weaving machine was available in the countryside, she often did her weaving with the threads tied to the leg of a stool or a table on one end and her waist on another. In the mountains, she would tie one end to a tree trunk or stump and the other end to her waist while sitting or kneeling on the ground.
After trying time and again, Zhong got the hang of it. “Now when I see a pattern, I can tell quickly how many threads were woven and how they were woven, and then I can do it myself.” With her love for weaving, Zhong has been constantly improving her skills and innovatively combined patterns with written characters. After decades of exploration, Zhong’s colored ribbons have been full of her personality.
More importantly, she often thinks about how to pass on her weaving skills to more people.
In 2014, Zhong was first awarded the title of “representative inheritor of the colored ribbon weaving craft in Liandu district”, and then in 2017, she became the “representative inheritor of the colored ribbon weaving craft in Lishui city”.
“The craft faces the threat of being be lost,” Zhong said. “After chosen as an inheritor of the colored ribbon heritage, I felt I should do even more on its inheritance.” While weaving colored ribbons costs little, it takes a lot of time. With most young ladies of the She people looking for jobs in urban areas, few have been left to learn the craft. “As long as someone comes to learn, I’m more than willing to teach them. But some people are just not interested even when I teach for free.” Indeed, Zhong had no choice but to teach those around her, first her daughter, then her niece and so on.
In 2010, Zhong set aside a space covering 150 square meters in her own house and turned it into a studio to showcase the colored ribbons and the traditional clothing of the She people, and to invite the ever-growing number of tourists to have a try at and learn the weaving process and skills free of charge. In the past few years, she has also made quite a few innovations to the craft, which helped to win her multiple prizes and awards. One of the innovations that Zhong made, for instance, is that she would cut a regular colored ribbon into smaller sections and, combining them with metal wires, transform them into attractive earrings.
Since 2015, she has been teaching weaving in a couple of local primary and secondary schools; in the past seven years, more than 400 students have taken her classes, learning not only the weaving skills per se, but experiencing firsthand the cultural heritage that lie in the colored threads. Now, Zhong and her daughter are busy writing an illustrated book in Chinese on the craft of weaving colored ribbons — since the She people have no written language, such a book is the best way for more people to learn the skills.
With a simple frame and a simple shuttle, Zhong has woven her hope for a better life into colored ribbons.