Buried Wood (Wu Mu)

Look at these tree trunks. They are not something worthless that people discarded on the field. Actually these tree trunks worth millions. They were dug out from a river bed.

These are tree trunks buried under the river bed for thousands of years. As the trunks were resistant to decay and degradation, they survived thousands of years buried under the river bed in the absence of oxygen. They were known as Wu Mu (literally means black wood due to its colour). In the 70s and 80s when China was under a development phase, large quantity of sand was required by the construction industries. So equipment was sent to a river to excavate sand. This was when these big logs were dug out as well. At that time no body knew the value of these logs and they were either threw back to the river or buried somewhere.

Today this buried wood is very valuable as exquisite carvings can be made from such wood and these carvings are highly sought after by collectors. Very good quality carvings from Golden Nan wood can fetch millions of RMB.

 

 

In the 80s when the buried wood was relatively unknown to the public, a wood carver spotted one block of such wood by the road side. He was attracted by this piece of wood and thought that he might be able to do something with it. So he took it home and carved a Lohan figure.

 

 A Taiwanese saw the carving and was very impressed with this artistic piece of art. He immediately asked the person who made it to quote a price. That person quoted 5000 RMB and the Taiwanese quickly paid 5000 without any hesitation. Just imagine, the monthly wage at that time was only 30 RMB and 5000 RMB was indeed a big sum of money. Since then this artist had been heavily involved in the carving of this buried wood. He also stock piled a large quantity of the wood for his carving business.

 

The discovery of buried wood in this town of China also created a small industry (wood carving)where there were 3000 country folks involving in this business of wood carving. Due to the scarcity or raw materials (not much buried wood can be dug out now from river bed), the price of these carvings also escalated. People were paying lots of money just to possess these carvings. Some carvings are not even for sale as the makers decided to keep the carvings themselves.

 

This wood carving artist once paid 300 RMB for a piece of buried wood and carved it into a figurine. There are people willing to pay him hundreds of thousands for it but he decided not to sell it (he really liked the carving and wanted to keep it). He said such carving is one of a kind, there won't be any two that look the same due to the nature of the raw material used.

The Taiwanese businessman himself also started his business dealing in carvings made from the buried wood and his business flourished. He has frequented this place in China to source for carvings for his shop in Taiwan.

 

Meanwhile, the person earlier who started his career in wood carving also produced a lot of master piece. Some carvings he said he would not sell no matter what price was offered as he liked to keep his works.

In a country so rich in history and culture, even tree trunks that were buried thousands of years can become valuable. When people become affluent, they would pay millions to possess the best and the rarest of things.

Hui Mengchen (孟臣款) teapots

Do you know who created the classic shape of this Yixing teapot?

The Bahkut-teh teapot

This is the popular Bahkut-teh (Spare rib soup) teapot for kungfu tea drinking. The reason it is chosen as the teapots to serve with this local dish (Bahkut teh) is because the pots are relatively cheap. So the owner of the food-stall that sells this dish can order large quantity of the pots and loan to the customers to sip a cup of Chinese tea while enjoying the spare-ribs soup. It won't cost much if the customers break them accidentally.

Actually, the design of this teapot first appeared in the 16th century, during the Ming dynasty. The potter was a famous Yixing native known as Hui Mengchen. Hui had a long creative life, for he seemed to have flourished from the Tianqi/Chongzhen (last 2 Ming emperors) until the last quarter of the 17th century (well into the Qing period).

He is well known for his pear-shaped teapots, which exerted great influence on latter potters, both at home and abroad. For this particular shape, so elegant and pleasing to the eye, is capable of many modifications which inspire the imaginative potter. After Mengchen's pots had been exported to Europe in the later 17th century, examples became known to English silversmiths, who based on this shape created what is today known as the Queen Anne silver tea set. This in turn served as a model for other European silversmiths to follow. That is the reason why today you will see Englishmen/westerners brew their English tea in pots closely resembling the tradition Bahkut teh teapots, the only difference is that the teapots for English tea are larger in size and with a white glaze.

The business which Hui started was continued by his descendants up to the 19th century. These teapots have the words made by Jingxi (Yixing's old name) Hui Mengchen 荊溪惠孟臣製 inscribed at the bottom of the pots.

Up until the 60s (maybe early 70s), these small teapots made from Yixing still have the words Jingxi Hui Mencheng inscribed at the bottom. As most of these pots were exported to Taiwan (a major tea drinking nation), it was better to have these words than the ones Made in China inscribed at the bottom of the teapots. For when the custom officers saw the words Made in China, they would surely smashed all these pots ( No diplomatic tie between China and Taiwan then). There are also other Mengchen pots with the words China Yixing inscribed at the base (for markets outside Taiwan).


China Yixing seal

It was said that when Taiwanese tourists came home from holidays in Hong Kong, their luggage were scrutinised for anything that might have comefrom the mainland (China). When the customs found ceramics and porcelains bearing the word China, they would happily crush them in front of their owners. It was heartache for someone to witness your valuable ware smashed to pieces.

Mengchen pot of the 80s

Many Mengchen teapots are now in museums and in private collections. Two are in the Victoria and Albert Museum and one in Groninger Museum. The one in WM Robertson's collection has a date 1652 carved on the base. These are the earliest Mengchen's pots created and made by the master himself. There are still other Mengchen pots made by his descendants and the ones made by Yixing factory for export to Taiwan (via Hong Kong) in the early years.

Crazy wood

I have written stories on crazy stones. Here is another story about crazy wood. Actually, it is not the wood that has gone crazy, it is the people who like the wood so much that they have gone mad over it, as they don't mind paying tons of money for it. There are people who paid millions of dollars for a few old beams dismantled from old houses in villages. There are also people who gamble on the quality of the wood, the way they gamble on jade boulder. This happened in a nation where money is not a problem.

The wood that has become crazy (to some people) is actually a wood commonly used to make furniture in the Ming and Qing dynasties. This is known as the Huang Huali, a popular material for the furniture made in the Ming dynasty some 600 years ago. As the price of Ming and Qing antique furniture escalated over a few hundred times in the last decades, people begin to take note of this wood. It was long considered that this wood, Huang Huali, has already depleted due to massive tree cutting during the Ming and Qing dynasties by the Imperial court for building palaces and furniture.

In the 90s, it was reported that the trees that produced the wood were sighted in Hainan, a small island in the south of the mainland. Ever since the report was published, people began to hunt for this wood there causing a flood of dealings in the wood. Many villagers became rich overnight and businessmen reaped huge profits form the dealings. Eventually the price of this wood reaches 20000 RMB per kg.

A young man was reported to have paid 30000 RMB for 2 small branches of this wood before knowing if the wood was of good quality. He later had the wood cut and realised that the purchase was worth it as he noticed good quality wood that could be made into valuable items that could be sold for a large sum of money. This is considerd by the locals as wood gambling.

The story on Huang Huali

Huang Huali wood is a highly sough after wood due to its characteristic wood pattern and attractive appearance. The texture is smooth, dense and very stable. A light fragrance will emit from the wood.

A branch of Huang Huali being cut




Good wood seen after the cut

Good quality Huang Huali appears in the centre and is surrounded by a layer of white wood. Just imagine, large pieces of wood is required to make furniture. The trees have to be at least 400 years old before the trunks reach the size required for large furniture like beds and table. Hence Huang Huali furniture is very costly.

 

Huang Huali furniture

Huang Huali items

A Huang Huali teapot

 

Furniture made from Huang Huali

Scientific name of Huang Huali

  

A brush container made of Huang Huali, 180000 RMB

Beams and columns sold for millions

There was even one businessman who went to Hainan in the early 90s to look for this wood. He was able to amass 400 kg of Huang Huali products (mainly farming equipment) from villagers. After he had loaded his finds in a container and was about to leave the island, he saw some beams in a nearby house and immediately went to examine them. When he found out that the beams were made from Huang Huali, he had them removed and paid the owner handsomely. After that he went from houses to houses to search for columns and beams. In this way, he was able to collect a large quantity of raw material for his furniture shop in Beijing. The most expensive price he ever paid for this wood was when he paid 1.38 million RMB for 6 beams removed from a villager's house. You may think he was mad to have paid so much for this wood. But he used these beams and columns and turned them into exquisite fine antique furniture in his factory. He ever sold a set of newly made Huang Huali furniture for more than ten millions RMB during an exhibition. He had so much confidence in the wood that he even advertised in the press that his company would exchange gold with blocks of wood. Anybody could bring the wood to his company and be assessed. If it was what he wanted, he would weigh the wood and paid the owner in real gold. This was what they called the Gold for Wood campaign.

Gold for wood campaign

One villager commented that when the wood was very cheap in the early days (less than a dollar per kg), he even burned the wood during winter to get warm. He said unkowingly he burned away millions of dollars.

Today, villagers are encouraged to plant the trees so that future generations are ensure of a continuous supply for the wood. At first, they grow the trees on the mountain far away from where they live. After a few years, and before the trees can grow into full size, the trees are cut illegally but outsiders. This prompted the villagers to plant the trees near where they live and in-front of their houses. The trees are protected with thorns and alarms to prevent them from being stolen. They believe that if every household plants the trees, their children will have a better future.

Planting a tree infront of the house