Palace comb name grate, feeling the same; Yanling specialty, flowers bloom side by side. Changzhou was originally called Yanling, and this song of Changzhou Han folk song is a famous specialty of Changzhou, that is, wooden comb and grate.
Comb Comb is called comb, which is one of the eight ancient hair accessories in China. In ancient China, combs, hairpin, hairpin, victory, stepping, gold cymbals, bamboo flowers and fun were called the eight major hair accessories. Comb is a kind of comb. In ancient times, Han women often put exquisite combs on their hair bun as hair accessories. There is a cloud in Xu Shen's Shuo Wen Jie Zi in Han Dynasty: comb, comb is also a general term. The ancients had long hair, and a comb was a necessity for combing their hair every day. The pitch of the comb is loose, which is used to comb hair; The dense gaps between the teeth of the grate are used to remove dirt from the hair, keep the hair clean, and make people radiant. Combs can also stimulate scalp nerves, promote metabolism, prolong life, and can be inserted into hair for jewelry. Changzhou comb has been popular since Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, with a history of 1500 years.
The founder of grate industry should be Chen Zizi. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Chen Zi became an official and was imprisoned for crimes. Due to the harsh living conditions in prison, Chen Zizi's head is covered with lice and itches terribly. Once, Chen Zizi was beaten by the jailer with a bamboo board and found that the bamboo board had cracked into a grate. After Chen Zizi tidied up and pressed it, he used it to remove dirt and lice from his head. This is the original fireplace. The wood comb industry in Changzhou is different from the grate duster industry. The founders of the wood comb industry are He Lian and Huang Fu, and the founder of the grate duster industry is Chen Zizi. He Lian and Huang Fu were legendary craftsmen in the era of the Yellow Emperor. Helian Bobo is sometimes written by He Lian and He Lian. It is said that every year on February 18 and September 28th of the lunar calendar, the comb industry will hold ancestor worship ceremonies to pray for a prosperous business. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal dug in the Sui Dynasty passes through Changzhou. At that time, the whole street on both sides of the canal was a comb workshop, so it was called Muqam Street and Biji Lane. Standing on Wenheng Bridge, with the bright moon overhead, eyes hanging down the streets and lanes, moonlight, lights and waves reflected, underwater sound, footsteps, oars and bamboo sounds played in unison. The ancients said: the text crosses the moon and the grate beams are bright, which is the first of the eight scenic spots in the western suburbs of Changzhou. There is a saying in Jiangnan: "Yangzhou rouge Suzhou flower, Changzhou first comb." Changzhou comb began in the Jin Dynasty (AD 265-420) and has a history of 1600 years. Among the cultural relics unearthed from the tombs of the Eastern Jin Dynasty in the eastern suburbs of Changzhou, there is a semicircular wooden comb, which has a history of 1500 years. Changzhou Buhengshun Comb Shop was founded in the Apocalypse of Ming Dynasty (1622), which has been handed down from generation to generation and has five skills of "carving, tracing, engraving, printing and embedding".
In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, Changzhou combs enjoyed a good reputation in the north and south, and tens of thousands of people engaged in comb production around the west gate and south gate were handed down from generation to generation. There are Biji Lane and Musha Street in the city, all named after comb distribution centers, and there are thousands of old shops such as Bu Hengshun and Wang Dachang. "Changzhou Fu" has the description that "bamboo cuts the grate, and there are more doors facing Beijing", and "Wen Heng wears the moon grate and beams" is one of the eight scenic spots in the western suburbs of Changzhou in the late Ming Dynasty, which shows the grand production of combs in Changzhou in history.
In the Qing Dynasty, in order to flatter the emperor, officials of Suzhou Weaving Institute always went to Changzhou to customize a batch of high-grade combs to pay tribute to the palace every July of the lunar calendar. The Changzhou ivory comb that Li used to comb the hair of the Western Empress Dowager is still in the Forbidden City. Therefore, Changzhou comb enjoys the title of "Palace comb".
Changzhou comb is famous for its strict selection of materials, unique technology and excellent production. Changzhou comb is a boutique. Tooth tip lubrication, water does not come off. For example, the wooden comb is made of boxwood, heather wood and jujube wood that have been used for hundreds of years and refined through 28 processes. This is not only a commodity, but also a handicraft. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, with the invention of raw lacquer gluing technology and the export of its products, its popularity spread far and wide overseas.
The exquisite Changzhou comb combines practicality and decoration, and has been deeply loved by the people for more than 1000 years. Today, the traditional comb has gradually faded out of people's daily life, but its great cultural and artistic value can not be ignored. In June 2008, Changzhou comb was selected into the national intangible cultural heritage list, which once again attracted people's attention. The earliest comb in China is the ivory comb unearthed in Dawenkou, Ningyang, Shandong Province in 1959, about 6000 years ago. Judging from the combs that have been unearthed and handed down from the Han people, Han, Tang and Song are different. The Han dynasty was a long horseshoe, with moire as the main decorative pattern, and occasionally birds and animals entered the feathers; The Tang Dynasty was horseshoe-shaped, with a slightly wider lower part; In the Song Dynasty, it was crescent-shaped. Ancient combs were mostly made of wood or bamboo and precious materials, such as gold, silver, ivory, rhinoceros horn, crystal, tortoise shell, tin and jade beads.
According to documents, women in the Tang Dynasty not only liked to insert combs, but also liked to insert grates. In the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, there were countless patterns and colors of local combs, which were more than two feet long. Since the Northern Song Dynasty, the texture has become more and more valuable, and gold and silver combs are quite popular. Women in Song Dynasty advocated inserting combs, which was not inferior to that in Tang Dynasty, and reached the level of infatuation. Su Dongpo, a great writer, once wrote a poem, "When a mountain man is drunk, the iron crown falls, and when a woman laughs, the silver comb is low." In the Yuan Dynasty, Changzhou comb sailed from the canal to the sea via the Yangtze River and spread overseas along the Silk Road on the water. After the Yuan Dynasty, the habit of grooming gradually declined, and it was almost forgotten in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Changzhou comb production has embarked on the road of collectivization and semi-mechanization. While inheriting and carrying forward the traditional skills of "carving, tracing, engraving and ironing", we combine the characteristics of daily necessities, handicrafts and decorations to constantly bring forth the old and bring forth the new, making the comb a daily-use handicraft full of national traditional style and artistic charm. Since 198 1, Changzhou combs have been upgraded to three levels in two years: the first generation is simple daily necessities, the second generation is the combination of daily necessities and handicrafts, and the third generation is art appreciation and small gifts. Among them, there are "Longevity Comb" which integrates art appreciation and health care functions, modeling appreciation combs such as "Four Beautiful Women" and "Twelve Hairpins in a Red Mansion", tourist commemorative combs such as butterflies, dragons and phoenixes, facial makeup and national dolls, and all kinds of beautiful jade grates.
By the end of June, 2005, there were nearly 1000 professional technicians and more than 10000 assistant producers in Changzhou. The annual output of dustpan is more than 6.5438 million +0.3 million, and the annual output of wooden comb is 2 million. Changzhou exports millions of combs to all parts of the world every year.
From the first generation of daily combs, to the second generation of daily craft combs, to the third generation of art appreciation combs and tourist combs, Changzhou Comb Factory has created the fourth generation of hair combs and chest combs. These combs are lifelike in shape and bright in color, integrating practicality, appreciation, decoration and collection.
Changzhou comb, once a palace comb, has now become a necessity and collection for people to comb and clean their hair every day.