On China's traditional utensils

The bridge opening of the stone arch bridge is curved, just like a rainbow. According to ancient mythology, the rainbow is a "bridge connecting heaven and earth" after rain, and you can go to heaven through the rainbow. China poets like to compare the arch bridge to a rainbow, saying that the arch bridge is "lying rainbow" and "flying rainbow", and describing the water arch bridge as "changhong lying wave".

Stone arch bridge appeared earlier in the history of bridges in the world. This kind of bridge is not only beautiful in appearance, but also strong in structure. It can cross rivers for decades, hundreds or even thousands of years, and play a role in transportation.

Stone arch bridge has a long history in China. The "Traveler's Bridge" mentioned in Water Mirror Notes was built around 282 AD, which may be the earliest stone arch bridge on record. Stone arch bridges can be seen almost everywhere in China. These bridges vary in size and shape, and many of them are amazing masterpieces. The most famous ones are Zhao Zhouqiao in Zhao County, Hebei Province and Lugou Bridge in Fengtai District, Beijing.

Zhao Zhouqiao, which spans the Weihe River, is a world-famous ancient stone arch bridge and the oldest stone bridge that has been used since its completion. This bridge was built around 605 AD, and it has been 1300 years now, and it still maintains its original majestic posture. By the time of liberation, the old bridge had regained its youth.

Zhao Zhouqiao is very majestic, with a total length of 50.82 meters, a width of 9.6 meters at both ends and a narrow width of 9 meters in the middle. The design of the bridge completely conforms to scientific principles, and the construction technology is even more ingenious. Zhang said in the Tang dynasty that it was "made strangely, and people don't know why." The characteristics of this bridge are: (1) The whole bridge has only one large arch, which is 37.4 meters long, and it was the longest stone arch in the world at that time. Bridge opening is not an ordinary semicircle, but like a bow, so there is no steep slope on the road above the big arch, which is convenient for horses and chariots to get up and down. (2) A big arch has two small arches on each shoulder. This is a very creative design, which not only saves stones and reduces the weight of the bridge, but also increases the water flow in bridge opening and reduces the impact of floods on the bridge when the river surges. At the same time, add an arch on the arch to make the bridge more beautiful. (3) The large arch consists of 28 arch rings, just like so many arch dragons with the same shape together, making an arc-shaped bridge opening. Each arch ring can independently support its weight. If one arch ring is broken, the other arches will not be affected. (4) The structure of the whole bridge is symmetrical, which is in harmony with the surrounding scenery; The stone pillars and slabs on the bridge are also beautifully carved. Zhang Kun of the Tang Dynasty said that looking at the bridge from a distance is like "the clouds rise at the beginning of the month, and Changhong draws a stream". Zhao Zhouqiao's superb technical level and immortal artistic value fully show the wisdom and strength of our working people. Li Chun, the main designer of this bridge, is an outstanding craftsman, and his name is engraved on the inscription at the bridge head.

Lugou Bridge on Yongding River was built between 1 189 and 1 192. The bridge is 265 meters long and consists of 1 1 semicircular stone arches. The length of each stone arch varies from 16 meters to 2 1.6 meters. The bridge is about 8 meters wide and the road surface is flat, almost parallel to the river. There is a stone pier between every two stone arches, connecting 1 1 stone arches into a whole. Because the arches are connected, this kind of bridge is called multi-arch stone bridge. When the Yongding River flooded, it was very severe. In the past, the embankments on both sides of the river were often washed away, but the bridge rarely had accidents, which shows its firmness. The bridge deck is paved with stone slabs with stone pillars on both sides. Lions with different postures are carved on each stigma. Some of these stone lions hold their mother and son, some whisper to each other, some like to listen to the sound of water, and some like to watch pedestrians, all of which are lifelike.

As early as13rd century, Lugou Bridge was famous all over the world. At that time, an Italian named Kyle Poirot came to China. In his travel notes, he spoke highly of the bridge, saying that it is "unique in the world", and especially praised the lions carved on the bridge pillars, saying that they "* * * together constitute a beautiful spectacle". At home, this bridge has been praised by people. It is located on the main road leading to the capital and is beautifully built. Lugou Xiaoyue has always been one of the scenic spots in Beijing.

Lugou Bridge is also memorable in the history of our people War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. 1July 7, 937, China's army fought against Japanese imperialist aggression here, which opened the curtain of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.

Why did the stone arch bridge in China have such brilliant achievements? First of all, it lies in the diligence and wisdom of our working people. Their stone making technology is very exquisite. They can cut the stone into a whole stone tablet and carve it into various images. There are many creations in architectural technology, and there are even more unexpected methods in hoisting. For example, the Jiangdong Bridge in Zhangzhou, Fujian, was built 800 years ago, and some Liang Shi weighed about 200 tons. How to install it is not fully known. Secondly, the design of stone arch bridge in China has a fine tradition, and the completed bridge has the advantages of saving materials, ingenious structure and high strength. Secondly, China is rich in all kinds of building stones, which are made from local materials, which also provides favorable conditions for building stone bridges.

In the past two thousand years, numerous stone arch bridges have been built in China. After liberation, various forms of highway bridges and railway bridges were built on a large scale all over the country. There are many stone arch bridges. 196 1 year, the world's longest single-arch stone bridge was built in Yunnan province, named as Changhong Bridge, with stone arch 1 12.5 meters. On the basis of traditional stone arch bridges, we have also built a large number of reinforced concrete arch bridges, among which the "double arch bridge" is a new creation of working people in China and the only one in the world. In recent years, China has built this kind of arch bridge with a total length of more than 200,000 meters, of which the largest hole is as long as 150 meters. The rapid development of China's bridge industry shows the incomparable superiority of our socialist system.

& lt Beautiful Bridge >

"The bridge I've crossed is longer than the road you've crossed". Now, probably few people use this tone to teach little boys! Naturally, you have to cross countless bridges in your life. Apart from the engineers who build bridges, I'm afraid painters have seen the most bridges.

Most artists like bridges, and I always look for them everywhere. How beautiful this bridge is! "Bridge Flowing Water" is of course poetic, but in fact it is more inclined to the formal beauty of painting: people's houses are blocks; Running water, it is a long line and a curve, and the line and the block form a relatively beautiful; Bridges intersect with flowing water, and their forms are more varied, which is also the medium between lines and surfaces. It is a bridge to communicate the morphological changes between lines and surfaces! If the stone bridge in Jiangnan water town or Venice is torn down, although the green water still bypasses others, it completely destroys the structural beauty and formal beauty in the eyes of the painter.

The structure of the stone arch bridge itself is very beautiful: round bridge opening, square stone, curved bridge back, square and circle get along harmoniously and appropriately, and the laws of mechanics often coincide with the laws of aesthetics. However, my love for the bridge is not focused on appreciating it as a large-scale handicraft, nor on its development since Li Chun's Zhao Zhouqiao, but on its various forms and functions in different environments.

Wuzhen, Mao Dun's hometown, has dense reeds on both sides of the river. It's really airtight. Whenever a stone bridge appears in it, the seemingly suffocating reed takes a deep breath and exhales a comfortable breath. The strong arc of arch bridge or the simple straight line of square bridge are in sharp contrast with reeds. In the early spring weather, slender willows are floating at the head of the stone bridge in the south of the Yangtze River, and slender hairsprings are blowing hard stones on the bridge. Even if you can't touch the breeze and the waning moon, the painter will be fascinated! The lake is wide and the water and sky are the same. In front of the simple and bright background, a long bridge suddenly appeared, like Wolong, with life, often hundreds of thousands of years. People cherish the beauty of this long bridge. The fake Lugou Bridge in the Summer Palace has only 17 holes, and baodai bridge in Suzhou has 53 holes. Take a slow look by boat, and you will feel as satisfied as reading an epic. Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou and other provinces and mountainous areas often encounter wind and rain bridges. The bridge deck is covered with cloisters and pavilions to shelter from the rain, which is an ideal location for embellishing characters in ancient landscape paintings. Because most of the bridges are rapids, people always stop here to enjoy waterfalls and flowing springs, and painters and photographers are bound to fight here.

Zhang Zeduan regards this bridge as the climax of the picture scroll of Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival. Because the bridge is under the bridge, pedestrians and ships are bound to present a lively scene, and the strong life sentiment of the streets on both sides of the strait is also connected by the bridge to form a concentrated picture. The development of contradiction leads to the climax of drama, and the overlapping and interlacing of images constitute a rich picture. Bridges usually serve to overlap and stagger images. No wonder bridges are often encountered in paintings and photographs. At first glance, it's a bit monotonous. At the end of the path, a small bridge suddenly appeared. The reflection of the bridge is reflected in the river under the bridge, and the reflection is often punctured by duckweed and weeds. Whether it is a wooden bridge or a stone bridge, the vertical and horizontal figure and the water waves under the bridge jointly compose a tangible and colored movement. The field is silent, and painters love to hear the bridge sing in the silence. They look for the bridge just as children look for excitement. Between mountains and canyons, traffic depends on iron cable bridge and bamboo cable bridge. I have painted many cable bridges in Tibet, Xishuangbanna, Sichuan and other places, which are humanitarian cable bridges. In the eyes of the painter, the cable bridge is a line, an elastic line! It's hard to say what vitality an isolated line has. It is the precipitous environment that breeds the life of the bridge, and it is the various lines of rocks, trees and rapids that make the cable bridge obtain the line effect with unique vitality.

Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge is also a straight line from a distance. Is it beautiful? Is the straight line more in line with the new aesthetic? It is not appropriate to ask questions in general, nor can you answer them in general. In the treatment of art forms, it is often a small loss. In order to draw the Yangtze River Bridge, I climbed the Lion Mountain in Nanjing, just to find the points, lines and surfaces that set off, echo and extend the straight line of the bridge! In order to draw the Qiantang River Bridge, I climbed the hillside behind Pagoda of Six Harmonies twice, but I couldn't handle the relationship between the huge Pagoda of Six Harmonies and the Long Bridge, so I couldn't draw it. Although there are many weeping willows and peach blossoms all over the mountain, how can the color of the powder affect the beauty of the structure! On Cheng Kun Road, there are many straight bridges. The train keeps crossing the bridge, entering the hole, leaving the hole and crossing the bridge, almost bridge to hole and hole to bridge. Every time we cross the circular valley, we look forward and backward. Many bridges always cut steep slopes in a straight line, sometimes they look dangerous and beautiful, and sometimes they are dangerous and unattractive. Beauty and danger are not the same thing

Photographers and painters continue to explore the beauty of bridges. Small bridges have their own beauty. Someone painted the Magpie Bridge, which is not only meaningful, but also free and lively in form. Any image that plays a key role in composition and connection actually has the beauty of a bridge!