“賣炭翁，伐薪燒炭南山中。滿面塵灰煙火色，兩鬢蒼蒼十指黑。”唐朝詩人白居易所刻畫的賣炭翁形象深深地印在人們的腦海中。如今，木炭在人們的生活中早已不像古代那樣重要，卻因耐燒、便宜等因素受到火鍋店、燒烤店的歡迎，在平陰縣東阿鎮(zhèn)小屯村，這種燒炭的職業(yè)仍在傳承著，工藝也沒有太大的改變，依然是人工在土窯中燒制。

燒木炭的技術(shù)，關(guān)鍵在火候的掌握上，“看火閉窯”要求的技術(shù)性很高：閉窯早了出生炭，閉窯晚了木炭化成灰。燒一窯炭約需7天。首先是裝窯，將木柴豎立于窯坑，其間留有通火道，使窯火均勻燃燒。然后是封窯，用磚塊將窯門壘死再糊上熟泥，先糊上一半等待窯火點(diǎn)燃后，看煙色再全部糊死。再是點(diǎn)火，從燒火口慢慢地?zé)?，使窯內(nèi)的木材受熱，將水分逼干蒸發(fā)掉。接著是燒窯，溫度的控制十分重要，太高或太低都會(huì)導(dǎo)致燒出的木炭質(zhì)量不好。要時(shí)刻觀察煙眼里冒出的煙的顏色，濃煙，就得添加柴火；如果全部是青煙，就可以徹底封窯，將所有通氣孔全部封死，讓窯洞里灌滿濃煙。這主要是熏烤那些還沒有燒透的木柴，大約“燜”上4個(gè)晝夜，也就是說，這期間窯內(nèi)沒有明火，只有暗火。經(jīng)過一周左右晝夜不斷的熏烤，窯火會(huì)慢慢熄滅，待窯內(nèi)溫度逐漸降下來，便可以出窯了。而從裝窯、封窯到出窯，整個(gè)過程大約為12天。

陳遠(yuǎn)智是一位燒炭人，從1996年開始學(xué)習(xí)燒炭，已經(jīng)有10多年了，現(xiàn)在夫妻兩人搭檔燒炭。陳遠(yuǎn)智在這一行很有名氣，因?yàn)榧夹g(shù)好，所以為鄉(xiāng)親們稱道。他介紹，燒炭的原材料都是砍伐的淘汰的果樹、廢棄木材和邊角料。一個(gè)普通的木炭窯10多天可以熏烤出40多袋木炭，大約能賺到150多元錢，他們一共經(jīng)營了3個(gè)這樣的土制炭窯。前幾年燒烤行業(yè)火爆，木炭的生意好做，近幾年日漸冷落?！肮麡浞ヒ豢蒙僖豢茫牧线M(jìn)價(jià)一再漲，而用鋸末、秸稈、木屑等原料制成的機(jī)制木炭也開始上市，對傳統(tǒng)木炭的沖擊特別大?！标愡h(yuǎn)智對這份職業(yè)的前景表示擔(dān)心，周圍的燒炭人越來越少了，許多人不干這個(gè)外出打工了，有的改行養(yǎng)雞了。而自己的木炭窯能開到哪一天，他心里也沒底。

Nowadays， charcoal is not very important in people’s life. However， it is still popular in hot pot restaurants and barbecue restaurants for its high resistance to burning and low price. In Xiaotun village， Dong’E town， Pingyin county， burning charcoal still exists as a job. There is no change in techniques—people burn charcoal in traditional kilns.

The key technique of burning charcoal is the temperature. To burn one kiln of charcoal takes seven days. The whole process requires about 12 days.

Chen Yuanzhi， a charcoal burner， has been learning burning charcoal from 1996 and now works with his wife. He is very famous in his village for his good skill. He explained that the raw materials of burning charcoal are non-productive fruit trees that have been cut down and wooden scraps. An ordinary kiln can make more than 40 bags of charcoal in ten days and these can earn 150 yuan. They operate three kilns. In previous years， barbecue was very popular， so the charcoal sold well. In recent years， the business is dull. “The number of the fruit trees is falling off. The charcoal made of sawdust， straw， and wood chips is also coming into the market， which has had a big impact on the traditional charcoal.” Chen Yuanzhi is worried about the prospects for this job and his charcoal kilns.