如琥珀般的光泽——《青花帝国》

　　清康熙青花侍女图花瓣口洗 选自《青花帝国》

　　青花。瓷器。他始终凝视着它，有着一个初恋者对于爱人的恒久激情，也有一个母亲对于婴儿的无限耐心。他看着它在历史的河流里风云变幻，他看着它在日常生活里起居有度，他看着它从时间的枝头跌落，成为博物馆里安静的展品。他的凝视，终于在文字里逐渐显形，凝结成一本小册子，却有着绚烂而宏伟的名字——《青花帝国》（广西师范大学出版社2017年11月出版）。

　　我常常猜想，一个作家的写作动力是什么？沉浸在乡村日常生活的江子，怎么会突然对青花产生了浓厚的兴趣，以至于必须要用一本书来描摹它、走近它？江子自己大概也会经常被这个问题所困惑。所以，在序言里，他必须要对这个问题作出回答。他说：“我是被瓷器这种带有几分魔幻的物什迷住了。”似乎是这样的。在序里，或者说，在整本书里，他都在描述青花的迷人之处——瓷是生活，是哲学和艺术，是诗，也是史。这些我都赞同，但我依然觉得，江子并没有把最后的底牌交给我们。有时候，散文家也如小说家一般狡黠。要我说，江子其实是被时间迷住了。

　　时间无形无状，时间无色无味，没有开端，也没有结尾。如何捕捉时间？在青花上，江子竟然发现了时间的形象。他强抑内心的狂喜，喃喃自语，“那是时间的幻象”“瓷是国家的使臣、时间的卧底”“那白霜皑皑的荒野仿佛一座时间的迷宫”。是啊，时间，青花既是时间本身，也拥有抵抗时间的力量。也就是说，它既是日，又是月，既是人间，又是彼岸；或者，就像江子说的：“瓷同时收藏了月光与流水、火焰和坚冰。瓷坚硬如铁，可又脆弱如冰。瓷是卑微的泥土，可又是高贵的礼器。”如此珍贵美好，可又如此难以捉摸，于是，江子决定，创建一个“帝国”，以收藏他珍爱的青花。从这个意义上说，江子简直有点像他所写的奥古斯都二世，只不过，奥古斯都二世要用宫殿来收藏瓷器，而对于江子来说，纸上的“帝国”更为迷人。

　　他将“帝国”命名为景德镇。不知为何，我始终觉得，这个景德镇并非现实生活中的那座城，它只存在于想象之中、意念之中、审美之中。他详细地追述这一“帝国”建立之初的情景：它来源于北宋第三个皇帝赵恒的一道旨意，景德镇由此获得了真实的生命。江子将之形容为“对时间的突围之旅”。他有着这样的描述——

　　那因宋真宗的赐予得名的景德镇，从此开始了新的纪元。这个中国南方民间的瓷器生产基地，因为赵恒的封赏，进入了皇家的话语体系，仿佛一个并无显赫身世的平头百姓，因为皇帝的册封，成为了地位高贵的皇亲国戚。获得重生的它从此开始了苦心孤诣的艺术探索，在岁月长河中逐渐建立起了自己独一无二的美学体系。景德镇那经过高温炼就的盛开在瓷壁上的青花，成为摇曳在全世界视野中、让人心旌摇荡、永开不败的东方文明之花。

　　我以为，这段话里，埋藏着《青花帝国》的全部秘密。这是一个写作者最初心动的地方，也是他高远的雄心所在。于是，我们看到，一个“帝国”，从江子摇曳多姿、汁液饱满的文字中诞生了。他一丝不苟地经营着关于“帝国”的一切。他相信，民间深藏着“帝国”的真精神：精益求精的技艺，解救民众于危急之时的英雄，慷慨赴死的决心以及反抗不义的热血。所以，《青花帝国》的开篇，是从一个叫童宾的工匠开始的。江子叙述了关于童宾的种种传说，并随着叙述的逐渐深入，由传说的缝隙中发现了虚构的痕迹。但江子并不将之统统归结于“无稽之谈”。恰恰相反，他认为，庞大的工匠是“青花帝国”坚实的根基，而童宾这样一个籍籍无名的人，实为工匠的精神象征。火焰吞噬了童宾，然而，火焰也成就了童宾，成就了“青花帝国”。当然，如果仅仅只有工匠，“帝国”还是一盘散沙。对秩序有着某种确信的江子给他的“帝国”里放进了督陶官陶英。这是一个有着儒家理想的人物，“有孔子门生风范，心怀修齐治平之愿。他少言寡语，这或许是在宫廷日久形成的脾性，却心思缜密，举止间秩序井然，目光中有坚忍不拔之精神。他看起来不温不火，不喜不怒，其实蕴含了武将的血性和读书人忧国忧民、舍生取义的担当”。唐英，一定是江子最爱的那一类人，也是他自己最想成为的人。他慷慨地让唐英成为“青花帝国”的管理者。在唐英的治理下，“帝国”井然有序。当然，“帝国”怎能少了艺术。说到底，江子是个文人，艺术也是江子心灵深处的秘密。他理想的“帝国”里，一定会赋予艺术以重要的不可替代的位置。在《狷狂的画师》和《诗人们》两篇文章中，我们一一领略昊十九、周丹泉、程门、邓碧珊、徐顺元等画师和弘历、唐英、田鹤仙等诗人的风采。他们醉心于艺术，也把自己的精魂奉献给了艺术。艺术犹如“青花帝国”这只巨兽的眼睛，令它有了别样的风采。因此，这两篇在全书中显得格外逸兴遄飞，风流倜傥。

　　与此同时，江子是一个明察世事的人。他深知，再美好的东西也会经受命运的试炼。青花也不能例外。于是，他写了青花如何被这世上曾经最有权势的人所迷恋，又如何从权力的手中滑落（《皇帝的花朵》）；他详尽描述了青花如何因为被珍视而被寄身荒野，又从荒野中骤然现身的故事（《藏家：高安的元青花》）；他甚至让他的青花跨越海洋，随着郑和的船队收获无尽的来自异域的赞美（《使者：郑和的船队》）；他还让青花染上斑斑血迹，去见证江湖的腥风血雨……青花经历了权势与富贵，也经历了泥土深处的蛰伏，度过了时间，也因此染上了时间的釉光。再后来，它成了时间本身。《青花帝国》似乎是结束了，但我依稀觉得，青花的故事尚未结束。这么说吧，江子的“青花帝国”是一个开放的结构：他不仅让我们与他共同沉醉于青花的美，他还邀请我们加入关于青花的想象。假以时日，江子再捧出一本《青花帝国2》，我也是毫不稀奇的。

　　读完这本《青花帝国》，脑海里“青花帝国”的形象逐渐清晰——那是一座燃烧着熊熊火焰的城市。江子不止一次描述它火光冲天的情形。在我的想象中，江子心中也怀揣着熊熊火焰，用低温的文字小心翼翼地包裹着青花，令它如琥珀一般，在三四年间凝固下来，以最为迷人的光泽与姿态驻留世间。

来源：光明网

Such as amber gloss -- the blue flower Empire

The Qing flower maid of Qing Dynasty, Kangxi, was selected from the blue flower empire.
Blue and white。 Porcelain。 He stared at it all the time, with a long passion for the first love of a lover, and a mother's infinite patience for the baby. He watched it changing in the historical river. He watched it live in daily life. He watched it fall from the branches of time and became a quiet exhibit in the museum. His gaze, finally gradually revealed in the text, condensed into a booklet, but has a splendid and magnificent name -- "blue and white" Empire (Guangxi Normal University Press published in November 2017).
I often guess, what is the motive force of a writer's writing? Jiang Zi, who is immersed in the daily life of the country, will suddenly have a strong interest in the blue and white flowers so that it must be used to describe it and get closer to it. Jiang Zi himself would probably be often confused by this problem. So, in the preface, he has to answer the question. He said, "I am fascinated by the magical things of porcelain." It seems like this. In the order, or in the whole book, he is describing the charm of the green flowers - porcelain is life, philosophy and art, poetry, and history. I agree with this, but I still feel that does not take Jiang Zi last card to us. Sometimes, as a novelist of cunning essayist. Let me say that Jiang Zi is actually fascinated by time.
The time is invisible, the time is colorless and tasteless, there is no beginning, no end. How to catch the time? On the green flowers, Jiang Zi found the image of time. He suppressed inner ecstasy, muttered, "that is the illusion of time" "porcelain is the country's envoy, the time that" undercover "frost capped wilderness like a labyrinth of time". Yes, time, the green flower is both the time itself and the power to resist the time. That is to say, it is not only the day and month, both human, and the other side; or, like Jiang Zi said: "at the same time, a collection of porcelain moon and water, fire and ice. Porcelain as hard as iron, and fragile ice. Porcelain is the humble earth, but is a noble ritual." So precious and beautiful, can be so elusive, so, Jiang Zi decided to create a "empire", to collect his precious green flowers. In this sense, Jiang Zi is a bit like Augustus II written by him, but Augustus II will use the palace to collect porcelain, but for Jiang Zi, the "empire" on paper is more charming.
He named the "empire" as Jingdezhen. Somehow, I always think that this Jingdezhen is not the city in real life, it only exists in the imagination, in the mind, in the aesthetic. He recalled the details of "empire" at the beginning of the establishment of the scene: it is the source of a will in the Northern Song Dynasty third emperor Zhao Heng of Jingdezhen, which won the true life. Jiang Zi described it as "a journey through time". He has such a description -
It began a new era since Song Zhenzong's bestowed Jingdezhen. This China southern folk porcelain production base, because of Zhao Heng's invitation, entered the Royal discourse system, as a common people have no distinguished background, because the emperor's canonization, became the noble status of a kinsman of the emperor. The rebirth of it began a painstaking exploration of art, in the years of long gradually established their own aesthetic system of the one and only. The Jingdezhen after bloom in high temperature on the wall of the blue and white porcelain, become the whole world in view, swaying in the hearts of people falter, forever open unbeaten flowers of Oriental civilization.
I thought, in this paragraph, all the secrets of the blue flower Empire were buried. This is the first place of the writer's heart, and the high ambition of him. So we saw that a "empire" was born from the swaying and juicy words of the river. He was meticulously running all about the "empire". He believed that the real spirit of "empire" was hidden in the Folk: the skill of improving, rescuing the heroes of the people when they are in danger, the determination to die generously and fighting against the blood of injustice. Therefore, the opening of the "blue flower Empire" begins with a craftsman called the child. Jiang Zi narrated all kinds of legends about Tong Bin. With the gradual deepening of the narration, the fictional traces were found in the crevice of the legend. But Jiang Zi did not attribute it to the "nonsense". On the contrary, he believes that the huge craftsman is the "blue Empire" solid foundation, and Tong Bin such a nameless man, is a symbol of the spirit of the craftsman. The flame engulfed the child guest, however, the flame also achieved the child guest, the achievement of the "blue flower Empire". Of course, if only a craftsman, "empire" or lacking spirit of cooperation. There is a certain river sub to his "empire" put on the order of the British governor Tao Guantao. This is a Confucian ideal character, "Confucius students style, with ethical philosophy wish. He may be in the court this wordless, resulting form temperament, but careful, orderly manner, with the eyes of firm and indomitable spirit. He looks tepid, not happy not angry, but in fact the generals play bloody and reading people's spirit". Tang Ying, he must be the most loved one of Jiang Zi, and the one he most wanted to be. He generously made Tang Ying to be the manager of the "blue flower Empire". stay