Xu Guqing’s hometown is in Meiling Village, Linshan Township, Kaihua County. Next to the village is the highest peak in the county, "Baishijian." My father is an old party secretary in the village. He is reasonable and reasonable, but sometimes he accepts death. His wise saying throughout his life was: "It's good to be at home for a thousand days, but it's hard to go out for half a day." He saved some money and asked Xu Guqing to walk the 20-mile mountain road to study in Xucun School. Xu Guqing worked very hard and studied well. However, when he graduated from junior high school, he dropped out of school and followed his father's arrangement to learn to be a cooper.

Being a cooper is a craft that was quite popular in the civilized rural areas more than 20 years ago. But Xu Guqing is not a person who is willing to settle for the status quo. With his studies interrupted, he turned his energy to other things. In addition to working and farming, he studied wood carving, murals and calligraphy. Even a small book can excite him so much that he lay alone on a small bed made of bamboo and drew it over and over again.

After this little fussing for a while, Xu Guqing’s artistic passion really began to burst out.

It was one day in the second half of 1983. He was working in the county town and came across a brightly colored pictorial on the ground. He couldn't help but pick it up and stared at the root art works on the picture for a long time. Seems to be enlightened. In the twelfth lunar month of the same year, my father bought a New Year picture from the county and posted it on the wooden wall in front of the family hall. Coincidentally, the pattern of the New Year picture is also a section of vigorous tree roots. He looked at the New Year pictures and couldn't help but think about it. He wanted to try carving himself.

It happened to rain the next day and there was no need to do farm work, so before dawn, he took his ax and hoe and went up the mountain to look for tree roots. The rainy day in the twelfth lunar month gave people the feeling of being cold, but in order to facilitate walking on the mountain road, Xu Guqing only wore a single coat and set off. Wearing straw sandals and a raincoat, he was full of energy and shuttled between the hills of Meiling. Pumu, rhododendron, black rice fruit, yellow vitex... At the end of the day, he brought back a lot of dead tree roots from the mountains. Later, the roots of a large camphor tree abandoned at the entrance of the village also lay in front of his house.

In this way, Xu Guqing officially started the road of establishing root art. Every moment when the knife is carved in the hand, the flower of artistic thinking blooms on the roots of the dead trees. After countless nights of hard work, in the spring of the following year, the roots of the huge camphor tree were transformed into a set of root-carved chairs. Those rotten wood and tree stumps that others thought were only worthy of being used as firewood were slowly shaped by Xu Guqing according to the trend. Their ugly appearance was replaced by beauty, and they were transformed into interesting works of art.

From then on, whenever he had free time, he wandered around the mountains and forests, looking for strange roots, visiting strange piles, and creating root art. His works emerged one after another. When friends come to visit and see his wonderfully conceived and thought-provoking root art works, they fall in love with them. If they want to buy them, he generously gives them away.

Turning decay into magic

The tree stumps that were rotten on the mountain and burned in the kitchen stove have become fine works of art under the "playing" of a mountain boy. A strange thing happened, Xu Guqing, who was playing with his roots, naturally became a strange person.

In 1984, Xu Guqing was 18 years old and completely obsessed with root art, but everything could only be "amateur". The cooper's work still had to be done, the farmland and fish ponds at home were still taken care of, and all the income from the work had to be given to his father.

Making root carvings requires many tools. At the same time, Xu Guqing also needs to learn oil painting, gongbi painting, and murals. He needs various books to broaden his horizons and improve his skills. To do these things, money must be available to pave the way. For this reason, Xu Guqing chose to find another "money path" on his own. He often used his spare time to do part-time work, carrying mud and raising beams for houses built in the village and neighboring villages, and picking torreya trees from the tall torreya trees at the village entrance. No matter how hard the work is, he can persevere.

Slowly, through hard study, Xu Guqing’s skills of root carving and mural painting gradually spread in Kaihua County. He has been working in neighboring towns and villages all year round to create and show off his talents. This kind of traveling around and splashing ink greatly released Xu Guqing's thinking and art, publicized his personality, and accumulated experience for him to later reach the pinnacle of Genyi creation.

Turn decay into magic! A tree stump that used to be rotten on the mountain and burned in the stove turned into a fine work of art under the "playing" of a mountain boy. This is a strange thing in a mountain city, and Xu Guqing, who plays with his roots, naturally became a strange person.

In this way, talented people who are thirsty for talents embark on the road of Meiling over and over again.

In 1988, after Ye Changying, the former director of the Kaihua County Cultural Center, visited many times, Xu Guqing was invited to the County Garden Management Office to engage in flower and tree management and bonsai making. At that time, Xu Guqing's monthly salary was seventy or eighty yuan. Although his income was meager, he believed that this was a good opportunity to expand his knowledge. He worked during the day and learned painting, decoration, and calligraphy from Ye Changying at night. After returning to his residence, he quietly read and comprehended written knowledge about poetry, bonsai, root carving, etc. under the light.

In the spring of 1989, Xu Guqing learned from a publication that the Zhejiang Museum would hold a folk art exhibition. With the mentality of giving it a try, he sent his moso bamboo root art "Long-tailed Chicken" to the exhibition, but he didn't want it to become a blockbuster. The "Long-tailed Chicken", which has experienced many vicissitudes of life and is eager to fly, won the only award at the exhibition - the Development Award. As soon as the news spread, various media rushed to report it, and Kaihua City was even more excited. Xu Guqing became a celebrity overnight.