Finding history in the building blocks of yore
Print Edition
Shu Pinyuan, 69, has paved his retirement years with ancient bricks.
“An old brick is like a witness to history, silently telling us its story,” the retired factory worker said.
Shu has collected 262 old bricks so far. They are part of the architectural history of Songjiang’s 1,200-year history as a cultural root of Shanghai.
This February, he donated his collection to the Songjiang Archive, where they are available for public viewing.
“It’s more meaningful for those bricks to be in an exhibition hall than hidden in my house,” he said of his gift.
Shu’s brick collecting started five years ago, when he moved to Songjiang from the downtown Xujiahui area. One day, walking around an older, rundown area, he spotted two large bricks, vaguely inscribed with the ancient characters “Songjiang City Wall.”
Not knowing exactly what the bricks were, he took them home and consulted historical records on ancient bricks.
In the beginning, this curiosity was just the pastime of a retiree with time on his hands. But the more he researched, the more fascinated Shu became about the treasures in old rubble.
Ancient bricks date back to the Shang Dynasty (17th -11th century BC). From the late Zhou period (1046-249 BC), bricks were commonly used in building. During the West Jin period (266-316 AD), with its shift in politics and culture, bricks became more decorative. Skilled craftsmen made them with delicate carvings and patterns.
Long before Shanghai existed as an entity, Songjiang used brick to reinforce its city walls. “Songjiang once had the most magnificent city walls of the region,” Shu said. “But in time they were completely dismantled. Could I possibly find their remains today?”
With this question burning in his mind, he began a serious search for ancient bricks in Songjiang. His collection includes bricks made for defense and bricks used in civilian and religious architecture. Shu has discovered more than 260 ancient pieces, spanning over 1,000 years.
One of his bricks bears the carving “Songjiang Regiment” and weighs 7.5 kilograms. It dates back to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), when it was used to build a military fort against Japanese pirates. Shu found it in a redevelopment area on Jingde Road.
He has bricks made during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), during the reign of the Daoguang Emperor, and city wall bricks from the Tang (618-907 AD) and Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties.
“This squares with history books that tell us Songjiang’s city walls were built, widened, heightened, thickened, repaired and renovated during different dynasties,” he said.
His collection comprises 200 pieces and 15 varieties of Songjiang city wall bricks.
Shu explores old areas of Songjiang, using ancient maps. Weather permitting, he totes his tool kit along on his scouting trips. It contains a shovel to dig out bricks, a hammer to knock off modern cement, a brush to cleanse surface dust and a magnifying glass to read the carvings.
Whenever he hears about a demolition in Songjiang, Shu is among the first to reach the site.
Such sites attract all manner of collectors: people looking for old coins, tiles or porcelains among the rubble.
“I was coming for the bricks, which were worthless in their eyes,” he said.
A brick can weigh as much as 8 kilograms, and Shu can carry two at most at one time.
“I hide the rest in the grass and move them home in batches,” he said.
Sometimes he cycles around on his old bike; other times he takes the bus.
“Found any bricks?” the bus drivers who know him sometimes ask.
“Yeah, they know me well,” Shu said with a smile. “They’ve become good friends.”
One category in his collection are fu lu shou bricks that express good wishes for people. On these bricks, patterns such as Buddhism symbols, deer (wealth), round moons (family get-togethers), bamboo (getting promoted) and red-crowned cranes (long life) are carved.
Shu even discovered 30 Beijing bricks in a dilapidated section of Songjiang.
As the capital of many dynasties, Beijing was home to royal families. However, the soil of northern China wasn’t good for brick-making, so building materials were often imported from southern China. Famed for the quality of its clay, Songjiang was once a major center making bricks for the capital.
“Many collectors have looked for the legendary royal bricks, but few have found any,” Shu said. “I’ve got 30. Maybe I was guided to them by a god’s hand, a god who knew I would treasure them and not sell them for money.”
One Beijing brick he found weighed more than 12 kilograms.
“It was killing me when I carried it home,” he recalled.
Shu also found two plain-looking tiles, made in the Republic of China (1912-1949). The pieces were shabby and coarse, but were both carved with a blue sky and a bright sun, symbolizing “freedom and democracy.”
“It was obviously carved by masons and had great political significance at the time,” Shu said.
In 1911, Sun Yat-sen, the first president and founding father of the Republic of China, visited Songjiang, where he gave an inspirational speech.
“These two tiles show just how inspirational it must have been if even illiterate masons were moved by his words,” Shu said.
The two tiles are now displayed in the Songjiang Museum.
Shu has always refused offers to buy the bricks he found.
“Old bricks are fewer and fewer,” he said. “I hope young people can learn something from bricks and if they happen to stumble across any, they should retrieve them and give them to the museum.”
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
