周氏父女傾心營造“紅樓”

周長興父女微雕藝術展在香港取得成功，國畫大師劉海栗當年曾到現場參觀并向周氏父女祝賀

After the success of their micro-sculpture exhibition in Hong Kong， Zhou Changxing and his daughter receive warm congratulations from Master Liu Haisu.

六千杰作構成“立體紅樓”

微雕大師周長興出生于上海，20年前我們相識在京華。爾后，因本人常駐南美當記者，除偶通書簡之外，已多年沒有直接聯系。

不久前我重返故里到他家拜訪時，不想他出了驚人成就：他將曹雪芹在《紅樓夢》各章回中敘述的廳堂陳設和院宅點綴，以微雕的手法，精雕細刻加以立體化，形成“紅樓微型系列新設”。這一系列可以歸為六大文化：古陶、青銅、瓷、家具、茶、文字，他分別以6000件作品將它體現，形成洋洋大觀系列。其中怡紅院、瀟湘館、稻香村和攏翠庵以體積1∶10的比例縮小；秋爽齋微縮比例則為1∶5；天香樓以1∶20縮小。他把這批寶貝統統收容在六扇博古架中，每扇僅半尺有余，只是一本雜志的大小，每架陳設有180余件石制器皿，其中有造型逼真的美人拳和玲瓏剔透的玉如意，賈寶玉房內的博古架則是參照臺北故宮陳列的乾隆帝漱芳齋多寶格精制。

方寸之間，別有洞天。周長興從11歲起開始迷戀《紅樓夢》，對它反復吟誦，百讀不厭。他同筆者細述對紅樓研究的獨到心得時，簡直是眉飛色舞、滔滔不絕。他說他的6000件紅樓“新設”，件件都有根有據。就說大觀園怡紅院多寶格所在之地吧，因為這里乃寶玉日常起居之所，也是賈府中待人接物的場所，所以多寶格上陳列之珍品，當然是其望族身價的一種顯示。

周長興創作的這些作品與宮廷收藏毫不遜色，造型或天圓地方，或葵花蕉葉、或連環求璧，全隨所陳設的器皿形狀而別。其陳設上至盤古時代的石器陶具、商周時期的青銅鼎爵，下及隋唐五代的官窯工藝和宋元明清的云板玉器，有的銅綠斑駁，古趣橫生；有的巧奪天工，栩栩如生。在取材用材方面十分講究品種和質地，其中名貴的木材有楠木、紫檀、紅木、烏木、綠木、雞翅、黃楊、黃花梨、紅花梨等；石料有田黃石、雞血石、笑容石、青田石、壽山石、黃凍、孔雀凍、荔子凍、玻璃凍、紫砂凍、歙石和烏鴉皮等；其他名貴材料還有琥珀、珊瑚、珍珠、翡翠、瑪瑙等。其中有塊雞血石其紋路呈鮮紅色，簡直像一掛瀑布從九天潑灑而下，另一塊紅珊瑚重約三兩，市價1萬多元，還有孔雀石和羊臘桃花凍石均屬不可多得的絕品。周氏杰作所用之材非木即石，這是與《紅樓夢》深刻的隱喻和寓意相吻合的，書上的賈寶玉前身原是青埂峰下的一塊頑石，而林黛玉的前身則是靈河岸上三生石畔的一棵絳珠仙草。無怪賈寶玉曾一語道破“木石之盟”的天機：“都道是金玉良緣，俺只念木石前盟”，由此足見周先生構思立意和定型設計的良苦用心。

百萬字“石頭記”雕琢巨制

與紅樓“新設”相配套的稀世之珍《石頭記》，是系列歸結為六大文化中的文字部分，用老到而規范的石刻微雕藝術再現《紅樓夢》的全部文字，共計100萬字。這項巨制宏篇，是由周長興大師的千金周麗菊完成的。

周麗菊長得眉清目秀，性格文靜嫻淑，上學時亭亭玉立，出落得似一個《紅樓夢》里的人兒！她本當是求學于醫學院的，因受其父的熏陶也愛上了微雕藝術，始則見習家傳，跟著父親刻字把玩，誰知成了癖好欲罷不能，心有靈犀一點通的藝術天賦使她在試身微雕領域時觸類旁通，很快入了門道。

自學成才的周先生的行草書法如鐵劃銀鉤，筆韻遒勁老練，頗得二王懷素之神韻。在父親手把手的傳授下，周麗菊小小年紀也深得真諦，她的隸書落筆有神，古樸雄渾中略帶娟秀飄逸，人們從她象牙雕刻《阿房宮賦》《蘭亭集序》和《滕王閣序》等早期作品中已足以見其功底。80年代她的作品赴橫濱展出，日本觀眾的熱情贊揚，深深地激勵著她的上進心，她決心要讓有限的生命閃爍出燦爛的火花。她在父親的啟迪和支持下，萌生了一個采用微雕藝術將《紅樓夢》這部傳世之作刻成一部名副其實的《石頭記》的大膽設想，并決意憑自己的毅力將《紅樓夢》還原到石頭上，使這部可以經天緯地的古典文學名著，成為一部名副其實的《石頭記》！從1989年春節開始，她便全力以赴地投入了這項巨大工程中去：她以《紅樓夢》三家評本為藍本，全部用繁體隸書來刻寫，其中每一回目則用小篆刻寫。她廢寢忘食地足足花費了兩年光陰，終于把整部120回《紅樓夢》的100萬字分別刻在了總面積不到1個平方米的280塊名貴彩石上。這些彩石有的大如手掌，有的小如拇指，分別來自我國四大山系，其中有遼寧的艾葉綠、壽山的白芙蓉、青田的封門冰紋和昌化的雞血凍。她在雕刻過程并未借助放大鏡，全憑肉眼直視操作，聚精會神，精雕細刻。最小的字僅為0.25平方毫米，相當于一粒大米的1／65，如第105回的全文5000字，便是刻在一塊拇指大小的一方寸彩石上，第一回5400字刻在一塊手掌般大小的紅色昌化石上，正文左側還刻有《石頭記》的陽文印章，而回目則另刻于一塊綠色青田石上。紅綠對應，相映成趣，不失為“怡紅快綠”之含義。

創作過程既復雜又艱辛，每塊彩石在動工之前她都經過精心選材、劃線、定型、構思，進入創作之后，又得屏息凝神，全身心地投入，并且必須保持絕對安寧的環境。有一個星期天，周麗菊正在埋頭操作，恰巧有位朋友來訪，在樓下高聲喊叫，這一喊便攪亂了她的注意力，于是在微刻中留下敗筆，只好忍痛將已刻成的2500字統統磨掉，重新再刻。

自學成才的“雕癡”

周長興原是上海汽車拖拉機研究所的金屬造型技師，祖籍浙江嵊州。這個山明水秀、茂林修竹的越劇故鄉能工巧匠輩出，環境的熏陶使他從小便忘情于山水，對藝術情有獨鐘，尤其在竹木雕刻上有股子癡勁。少年時他父母雙亡，舉目無親，8歲便外出學藝，闖蕩江湖，只身來到十里洋場上海進了一家工廠當學徒。他從勤雜、鉗工一直干到鈑金工，雕、鏤、切、刻、銼、創、鍛，百般手藝樣樣都會，這為日后的微雕絕技打下了堅實基礎。業余時間他憑著自己的天賦和鉆研精神，一邊默習名家印譜，一邊臨摹諸家字帖，博采眾家之長，經過天長日久的探索和磨礪，漸漸領悟藝中三昧，逐步掌握了微雕藝技的要領和規律。有時為捕捉一個稍縱即逝的藝術靈感，他常常夜不成寐，甚至在睡夢中尋覓或遨游理想的藝術境界，一旦有了新的靈感，即使在數九寒夜他也會立即披衣下床勞作起來。他在藝術上的用心追求幾乎達到了如癡如醉的地步，難怪人們賜他一個雅號叫“雕癡”。一個出身清寒，既無家學淵源，也沒進過課堂深造的人能終成大器，全憑天資聰穎，好學深思，勤奮刻苦。

這位微雕大師用不無感慨的詩句袒露心聲曰：“無情歲月石磨人，遍體鱗傷五內損，雖已紅樓夢成真，奈何殘燈油耗盡。”是的，長年累月嘔心瀝血的創作和操勞，嚴重耗蝕了老周的健康，早年他的大部分胃被切除，如今身體日益消瘦。親友們為他擔憂，都勸他見好就收，保命要緊，而他卻認為真正珍惜生命，就是要在有生之年為世上留下有意義的痕跡。因此，他發誓要在奔向縹緲之鄉以前，多為人民創造些精神財富，為振興中華努力。

Father and Daughter Carve Dreams

By Sun Guowei

I first met miniature sculpture master Zhou Changxing twenty years ago in Beijing. Then I worked as a journalist in South America for a long while and we exchanged a few letters occasionally. I was surprised to see his extraordinary masterpieces when I visited him at his home in Shanghai recently.

He translated all the literary descriptions of houses and furnishings in A Dream of the Red Mansions (also known as The Story of the Stone)， a famous Chinese classic novel by Cao Xueqin (1715-1763) of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)， into miniature sculptures. The complete series contains 6，000 pieces， which are categorized into six groups: ancient pottery， bronze， porcelain， furniture， tea and writing.

Six separate houses in the novel are reduced in size and they can be all displayed on six antique shelves， as large as a magazine， with over 180 stone pieces on each shelf.

Zhou Changxing became an aficionado of the novel long before he became a sculptor. Since he was a boy of 11， he has read the story numerous times. It is obvious that the fiction inspired him as a sculptor. He can easily tell you where and how one of the 6，000 pieces in his master creation series is mentioned in the novel.

Some critics believe Zhou’s creation is as valuable as those in ancient imperial collections of treasures. He chose both precious gems such as jades， ambers， corals， pearls， emeralds， agates and woods such as rosewood， mahogany， ebony， boxwood， etc， for his carvings. It is no coincidence that the materials are of stone and wood. They correspond to the metaphors in the novel: in their previous lives， the hero of the romance is a remaining stone rejected from a sky-mending project and the heroine is an immortal flower on the bank of a magic river.

Zhou Changxing’s daughter transferred the 1 million words of the complete novel onto 280 stones， whose total area is less than 1 square meter. She learned the micro-sculpting techniques and calligraphy from his father and she is a sculptor in her own right. In the 1980s her ivory sculptures of Chinese literary masterpieces such as Ode to the Epang Palace and The Preface to the Orchid Pavilion Collection were exhibited in Japan. Inspired and supported by her father， she determined to create a real story of stone of her own by carving the story on precious stones. She started the work during the Spring Festival of 1989. She spent a good two years carving the whole 120 chapters on colored stones， whose sizes are either as large as a palm or as small as a thumb. She did not use a magnifying glass to help her work. She used only her naked eyes. The smallest word is 0.25 square millimeter， equal to the one sixty-fifth of a grain of rice. All the text was done in the style of the seal script with the exception of chapter titles which were in the style of the official script.

All the gems were carefully chosen. Before she put the knife to a gem， she would study the target stone most carefully to decide where to put all the words of a chapter onto the stone surface. Carving required most painstaking attention and deep concentration. She remembers vividly an accident one Sunday， when a visiting friend called her aloud downstairs and she was jolted out of focus for a twinkling of the eye. This distraction led to an imperfect stroke. She had to grind off all of the 2，500 characters already carved and start from scratch again.

(Translated by David)