? A 76-year-old man from Hangzhou melted 280 tons of copper and dressed Leifeng Pagoda in colorful clothes. Only 1 millimeter of corrosion occurred in a thousand years.

This poem written by Yin Tinggao, a poet from the Yuan Dynasty, describes the beautiful scenery of Leifeng Pagoda in West Lake, Hangzhou. "Leifeng Sunset" is one of the ten famous sights of West Lake and the first colored bronze pagoda in China.

If you go to Hangzhou, you must go to the West Lake. When you go to the West Lake, you must climb the Leifeng Pagoda. From the tower, you can overlook the beautiful scenery of the entire West Lake, blow the warm wind of the West Lake, feel the strong Buddhist culture, and then reflect on it together. The love story between White Snake and Xu Xian is definitely a wonderful life experience.

We can appreciate such a beautiful pagoda today thanks to a 76-year-old man from Hangzhou. His name is Zhu Bingren. It is precisely because of his efforts that not only the Leifeng Pagoda has regained its former glory, but also thanks to his bronze carving skills, the Leifeng Pagoda has a solid coat that is not afraid of wind and rain erosion.

Zhu Bingren was born in a family of bronze sculpture artists in Hangzhou in 1944. Several generations of his family have been engaged in bronze sculpture-related work. Since the Qing Dynasty, their family has had its own signature with its excellent craftsmanship. Their bronze sculptures have exquisite craftsmanship, lifelike patterns, and powerful calligraphy. They are very popular among people and are well-known in the local area.

After being passed down from generation to generation, Zhu Bingren is already the fourth generation. When he was a child, he could often see his father doing something meticulously in his room. Although he didn't quite understand it, he was very curious and often stood in front of his father to watch. Whenever a beautiful work appears in front of Zhu Bingren's eyes, his eyes open wide and he jumps excitedly and claps his little hands. A small seed about bronze sculptures was deeply buried in Zhu Bingren's heart.

Zhu Bingren’s father saw that his child liked bronze sculptures very much, so he planned to pass on the bronze sculpture craftsmanship to him. At first, his father did not let Zhu Bingren learn bronze sculpture, but started learning calligraphy. Every morning after his father got up early, he would wake Zhu Bingren up and ask him to learn calligraphy from him. Sometimes he is very sleepy and his eyes are always "fighting", but when he sees his father's stern eyes, Zhu Bingren cheers up instantly.

Learning calligraphy is not an easy task. Zhu Bingren thought he could learn it in just a few months, so that he could learn about his beloved bronze sculptures. More than a year later, my father still felt that he was not good at writing, so he kept asking himself to learn calligraphy. He handed in the copybooks again and again, but his father shook his head again and again.

Just when Zhu Bingren wanted to give up, his father called him over and said to him seriously: "Bronze sculpture is a craft that our family has studied for generations. It is the hard work of several generations of us. We You have to treat him like you treat your own life, no carelessness." After listening to his father's words, Zhu Bingren understood a lot and devoted himself to learning from his father without any complaints.

After several years of hard work, Zhu Bingren finally developed good calligraphy and was able to learn bronze sculpture. My father first asked Zhu Bingren to be his helper, starting with some simple things. Only then did Zhu Bingren discover that making an exquisite bronze sculpture requires a very complicated process, which generally involves metal smelting, forging, engraving, gold plating, polishing, red painting, and finally painting and writing on the copper plate. , forming the final product.

Zhu Bingren lived up to his father's expectations. After his father's teaching and his own unremitting efforts, Zhu Bingren finally learned the craft of making bronze sculptures. After completing his studies, Zhu Bingren did not slack off. He was determined to carry forward the art of bronze sculpture.

Leifeng Pagoda was built during the Northern Song Dynasty. King Wuyue believed in Buddhism and ordered the construction of Leifeng Pagoda in order to pray for the peace of the country and the people and accumulate merit. After natural and man-made disasters, the original wooden pagoda had long been destroyed. The brick pagoda rebuilt in the Qing Dynasty also suffered foundation damage due to people's theft and finally collapsed.

Leifeng Pagoda is a famous Buddhist building with extremely high historical and artistic value. Many people want to restore it and restore it to its former glory. During the Republic of China, Mr. Liang Sicheng once proposed the idea of ??rebuilding Leifeng Pagoda, and believed that it would be more appropriate to restore it according to its original appearance. Due to the war in the country at that time, the country had no intention of rebuilding Leifeng Pagoda, so Leifeng Pagoda has never been rebuilt and protected.

In the 1980s, in order to give full play to the unique characteristics of West Lake, people from all walks of life in Hangzhou once again proposed to rebuild the Leifeng Pagoda, and formed the Leifeng Pagoda Reconstruction Promotion Association. However, due to various reasons, the reconstruction work of Leifeng Pagoda was not implemented. It was not until July 1999 that the government finally decided to rebuild Leifeng Pagoda and invited Zhu Bingren to help with the construction and design.

After the reconstruction work began, the first question before people was what material to use to build Leifeng Pagoda. At that time, most people wanted to imitate ancient times and build wooden Leifeng Pagodas. Because when it was first built in the Northern Song Dynasty, Leifeng Pagoda was made of wood, so that the original appearance of the ancient Leifeng Pagoda could be preserved to the greatest extent.

Wooden buildings have their own shortcomings. They are prone to moisture when exposed to water and difficult to save in case of fire. For a city like Hangzhou with a lot of rain, wooden buildings are indeed difficult to preserve.

Everyone has worked hard to rebuild Leifeng Pagoda. It would be a pity if it was damaged just because of a rain.

How can Leifeng Pagoda be preserved permanently? Zhu Bingren thought of many ways, but could not implement them. Just when he was at a loss what to do, Zhu Bingren suddenly saw the bronze sculpture he had made. He suddenly had an idea and decided to make the Leifeng Pagoda into a copper pagoda. Copper is very stable and not easily damaged. It can only corrode one millimeter in a thousand years. If it can be built, the Leifeng Pagoda can be preserved like the story of the White Snake.

Such an idea makes Zhu Bingren very excited, but after all, there is no precedent of using copper towers, so it is difficult to say whether it can succeed. Experts working together also express doubts about this. Zhu Bingren did not give up. He personally searched for information, collected data, and conducted repeated experiments. It took several months just to design the previous plan. After a period of research, Zhu Bingren confirmed the feasibility of building a copper tower and convinced other experts.

After the preliminary preparation work is completed, the actual reconstruction work begins. In order to give Leifeng Pagoda a colorful coat, he alone smelted 280 tons of copper and more than 20,000 copper sheets. The tiles, brackets, beams, columns, walls, and various decorations on the top All made of copper. This process is very laborious, but for Zhu Bingren, as long as he can perfectly repair Leifeng Pagoda, no matter how much hardship he endures, it will be worth it.

Because copper towers have their own advantages compared to towers made of other materials. The copper of Leifeng Pagoda in a copper coat can not only reduce the risk of oxidation of the building, but if there is a fire, the outer copper sheets can also buy people time to save the tower, so that the fire will not damage the internal structure of the tower. In addition, the copper sheets are moisture-proof and can effectively cope with the rainy weather in Hangzhou.

After nearly two years of hard work, a dazzling copper Leifeng Pagoda appeared in front of people, attracting many tourists to visit. It is precisely because of Zhu Bingren's outstanding contribution in rebuilding Leifeng Pagoda that Zhu Bingren became the well-deserved "Father of Bronze Architecture" in China.

Zhu Bingren studied the art of bronze sculpture. In addition to his diligence, he was more passionate. It may be that he has been exposed to the art of bronze sculpture since he was a child, or it may be that the blood of bronze sculpture art flowing from his ancestors has kept him immersed in the world of bronze sculpture. He has continued to study and innovate, so that the art of bronze sculpture has gradually become more perfect and glowed with a different kind of vitality. and vitality.

In 2006, Zhu Bingren participated in the construction of Changzhou Tianning Pagoda. At the last moment of completion, a fire broke out in Tianning Pagoda, and the entire building was almost destroyed. Facing this sudden fire, Zhu Bingren felt very sad. He unexpectedly discovered that the copper melted in the high temperature flowed back and forth, as if something was guiding them to form different shapes, and there was a free and natural beauty.

Zhu Bingren felt moved when he saw this. In the past, when people made bronze sculptures, they used molds. Whatever the mold looked like, the finished bronze sculpture would look like that. So what would be the effect if there was no mold?

After returning home, Zhu Bingren immediately conducted relevant experiments. After little exploration, Zhu Bingren created the art of copper melting based on the traditional copper sculpture art. The art of copper melting he pioneered allowed copper products to break away from the constraints of molds, allowing the copper water to flow naturally until it solidified, giving it a natural beauty.

Beauty comes at a price. Molten copper is different from other bronze sculptures. Zhu Bingren often needs to work in a high-temperature studio, and works for several hours. Every time he came out of the studio, his clothes were soaked with sweat, and he couldn't stand straight for a long time. But as soon as he sees his works, a little smile will appear on his lips. These are the "beautiful flowers" poured by his sweat.

The art of copper melting gives you more possibilities for your copper sculptures. You can make works of different shapes every time, and sometimes you will get unexpected surprises. Zhu Bingren was not satisfied with this. The previous bronze sculptures only had three colors: yellow, purple and green. Even though many shapes could be made, they looked very monotonous.

How can I make it show different colors? Zhu Bingren read a lot of ancient books for this purpose. When he saw the pastels and enamels in porcelain, he was inspired and decided to use the methods of making pastels and enamels in porcelain to make bronze sculptures. After thousands of experimental studies, Zhu Bingren finally realized his idea, making the bronze sculptures show the same colorful color changes as porcelain.

When Zhu Bingren was 60 years old, his father told him that it is enough for a person to produce as many handed down works as can be counted on one hand in his lifetime. You have far exceeded this number. You can retire and enjoy your old age.

Faced with his father’s concern, Zhu Bingren said: I haven’t done enough. The bronze sculptures have only entered the national museum, but have not yet entered the lives of ordinary people. I want everyone to You can feel the beauty of bronze sculpture art.

This is what Zhu Bingren said and what he did. Having passed the age of 50, he never rested for a moment, but rushed to art exchange activities at home and abroad.

He spared no effort to introduce the art of bronze sculpture to people and teach them the experience of making bronze sculptures. Zhu Bingren has only one purpose, which is to let more people in the world know about the art of bronze sculpture.

At the 2016 Hangzhou G20 Summit, Zhu Bingren was invited to give a keynote speech, looking forward to the development and future of bronze sculpture art. He believes that as one of China's intangible cultural heritages, due to the impact of other materials and the limitations of copper products themselves, the art of bronze sculpture has disappeared from people's lives for a long time. Such a beautiful thing needs someone to create it. The best way to pass it on is to let more people like it and let it enter people's lives.

In order to let people take copper culture home, Zhu Bingren and his son jointly created the "Zhu Bingren Copper" brand, and continuously improved the practicality of copper products so that they can truly be used by the people. Thanks to their efforts, "Zhu Bingren Copper" has appeared in many shopping malls in China, attracting many consumers to buy.

Zhu Bingren said in an interview: "Van Gogh is like a 'god' in the eyes of us people. At the same time, I am also very confident in my works! Moreover, we use different artistic techniques. ” From here we can see Zhu Bingren’s confidence in the art of bronze sculpture, believing that it can be accepted and respected by people like Van Gogh’s artwork.

At the 2021 annual meeting of the Boao Forum for Asia, Zhu Bingren, a representative inheritor of national intangible cultural heritage bronze sculpture skills, attended the meeting. At this meeting, two huge molten copper color murals created by Zhu Bingren, which took half a year to create, were permanently collected by the Boao Forum for Asia and displayed in the central lobby.

As time goes by, Zhu Bingren’s copper art is gradually seen by the world. Behind each of the exquisite bronze sculptures is Zhu Bingren’s craftsmanship. It is a spirit that is not afraid of difficulties, keeps studying, and pursues perfection. Through repeated failures and forgings, it has achieved the bronze sculpture art that has attracted the attention of the world.