Su fan originated in Song Dynasty and flourished in Ming and Qing Dynasties. Silk palace fan, also known as Tuan fan, was first spread. Folding fan and sandalwood fan rose after Ming Dynasty. In the past, the friendship between the monarch and the emperor was mostly based on singing and elegant gathering. When the literati were very interested, they wrote poems and paintings on the round fan and folding fan sector, which gradually became a fashion. Suzhou folding fan, the top grade in the Ming Dynasty, is known as "literati fan", carrying the literati's full of pearls, poetic and picturesque, and has a good reputation of elegance and long run.

Literati, military generals, storytellers, maids or matchmakers use different fans, even in different ways and in different positions. Suzhou literati fan can't fan as much as PU fan. Poetry, calligraphy and printing are reflected incisively and vividly on the fan, which is actually a low-key "display". Scholars often hide fans in their sleeves. Therefore, Su fan has another name - " elegant things with sleeves".

In the late Ming Dynasty, Tuan fan declined, folding fan and sandalwood fan became popular. The manufacturing process of the latter two is more complex than that of the Tuan fan, and there are dozens of them in total. In the Ming Dynasty, Jiang Su Tai, a fan maker in Suzhou City, was good at making fan bones. His bones were as light as nothing, and they were the most precious. There is a record that "one handle of Jiang bone costs three or four gold.".

A qualified Ming fan, weighing no more than one Liang, must be polished to extremely light, which is a severe test for bamboo. Ebony is not as tough as bamboo, so it is a great challenge to the fan maker's hand skill to reach the lightweight standard and ensure its durability. Ebony fan bone sealed with lacquer, elasticity and moisture is not inferior to the ink jade bamboo; Black fan paper covered with large pieces of red gold, and sprinkle gold as a foil, visually dense; Hidden in the fan interlayer of the orchid paper-cut patterns appear vaguely, adding some elegance. Suzhou literati are introverted in temperament, and their tactful feelings are often hidden in these places which are not paid attention to. If other people can find out, it is gratifying; if they do not know it, they will not be lost. They can enjoy themselves.

Xia GUI's painting of "Songxi's Pan moon painting", which is collected in the Palace Museum. In the picture, pine trees, boats and bright moon are painted. The close-up double pines are painted on the lower left. The upper right side of the tree is a boat. Tourists and boatman have different attitudes. The upper left part of the picture is a bright moon with light colors, forming a remote and mysterious artistic conception, reflecting the ingenious spatial layout.

Through the fan, we can have a glimpse of the grand gathering of literati in Jiangnan at that time. At the theme exhibition of the Chinese Fan Museum, the fan of "lacquer handle, Zhang Yu, Zhu Yizeng and other six people's calligraphy and painting group fan" has one side for the green landscape created for "Yiyuan Painting Society"; the other side is the calligraphy written by Zhu Yizeng and other people, which is a typical elegant collection. The painting and calligraphy in the fan echo each other, reflecting a kind of carefree, broad-minded and carefree feeling of mountains and rivers.

Time: July 28, 2020

Source: Guangming Daily