The unique decorative role of wood carving art in ancient buildings can not be ignored. The lintels, rafters, panes, railings, flying hoods and hanging lines... wood carvings are omnipresent, which can be both simple and elegant, but also magnificent. Throughout the ages, both ordinary people and noble and rich businessmen like to decorate their courtyards with wood carvings.
Since people have aesthetic needs in social life, wood carving has really become an art. Through the inheritance and innovation of generations of craftsmen, various woodcarving schools have gradually formed, which have different characteristics, but without exception, meet people's demands for beauty in daily life.
At the same time, because the wooden beam frame is the mainstream of the development of ancient buildings in China, the beam frame is the most important load-bearing component in the wooden structure. Later, people carved and painted on Liang Fang. The buildings in the north are painted in many colors, while those in the south are heavily carved, which is also the origin of "carved beams and painted buildings".
In order to increase the decorative effect of Liang Fang, the carved beams in the south are not only limited to the two ends of Liang Fang, but also gradually develop towards the center. In particular ancestral halls and residences, they are carved at the bottom. In addition to the hot weather in the south, the halls are basically built in the "Ming Dynasty" rather than the ceiling. In this way, the image of the moon beam is exposed. When people enter the hall, all the beam frame structures and wood carvings are clear at a glance.
The style of "Zao Fa Shi" in the Song Dynasty has been preserved in many places in the south due to the practice of moon beam
Huizhou wood carving: Hui merchants' extravagance
Wood carvings are usually used for erecting beams, corbel brackets, eaves strips, floor balustrades, tile boards, behind windows, railings and other places on Hui style buildings. They are carved with flowers, which are rich and prosperous. Both beauty and practicality are considered. Most of the balustrades and eaves under windows and around patios are embossed; Round sculptures are often used on the brackets, corbels, Queti and even the moon beams.
In terms of decoration, bed and cabinet are the most widely used wood carvings. These furniture are generally made of high-grade wood, and the surface of wood carving is decorated with vermilion paint and gold foil to make it more vivid. After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, with the enhancement of the financial resources of Hui merchants, the awareness of Juyao's hometown became increasingly strong, and the wood carving art gradually transited to exquisite and detailed carving, with multi-layer openwork replacing flat sculpture becoming the mainstream. After entering the Qing Dynasty, the pursuit of the aesthetic sense of wood carving decoration became more intense, even to the point of tedious.
Fujian Woodcarving: Alternative Aesthetics in Architecture
Fujian wood carving is also a kind of wood carving art developed on the basis of architectural decoration, furniture decoration and sculpture of temple statues. It matured in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties.
In the Qing Dynasty, there were three main schools of Fujian wood carving: the Daban village school, represented by Chen Tianci, an artist from Daban village, was good at carving immortal statues and animal images; Xiangyuan Village School, represented by Ke Qingyuan of Xiangyuan Village, is good at representing cordyceps flowers and active sculpture; The Yanta School, represented by Wang Qingqing of Yanta Township, is good at carving patterns, as well as reliefs of flowers and birds combined with lacquer ware.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, architecture and Buddha sculpture began to separate into different types of sculpture systems. In order to adapt to the folk custom of worshiping gods and worshipping Buddhas, longan wood sculpture has developed from large-scale Buddha sculpture to indoor display and appreciation of works of art, and continues to exude different beauty of wood sculpture.
Ningbo wood carving ： Three parts carved, seven parts painted
The Zhu Jin wood carvings in Ningbo, Zhejiang, have great influence at home and abroad. Its shape is simple and vivid, the knife technique is vigorous, gold and color are mixed, and the wood carving is a kind of wood carving art with gold lacquer and red ink pasted on it. This kind of artistic effect mainly comes from the polishing, scraping, painting and gilding of painters, so it has the reputation of "carving in three parts, painting in seven parts".
Ningbo Zhujin wood carvings are mainly used for folk daily furnishings, as well as Buddha statues, figure statues and furniture decoration. In the Zhu Jin wood carvings, the furniture decoration, especially the bed and sedan chair in the wedding ceremony, has more local characteristics and shows a magnificent style, so it is known as "ten thousand work sedan chair" and "one thousand work bed".
Dongyang wood carving: There is a picture in the picture and a scene in the scene
Dongyang Wood Carving is named after its origin in Dongyang, Zhejiang Province. It is a sculpture art based on plane relief. According to Dongyang's Kangxi New Annals, during the reign of Tang Taihe, Feng Su and Feng Ding, two brothers of Fenggaolou Village in Dongyang, served as ministers of the Ministry of Officials and the Ministry of Works respectively. Their houses were "high buildings with painted columns that dazzle people's eyes, and their next steps were half a mile long". The tomb of the Lu family was stolen at the beginning of the 20th century along with the tomb of the Jinshi and the Prime Minister Shu Yuanyu in the Tang and Yuan Dynasties. Both the carved wooden figurines were unearthed, which is enough to illustrate the level and style of Dongyang wood carving at that time. After more than 1000 years of development, Dongyang Wood Carving It has been included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.
In terms of artistic techniques, Dongyang Wood Carving deals with the perspective relationship with high levels, distance and plane dispersion, and takes the scattered point perspective or bird's-eye perspective of traditional Chinese painting as the composition feature. Its content can be more abundant than that of Western reliefs. It can fully display the contents of the screen, and achieve "painting in painting, scenery in scenery".
Chaozhou Wood Carving: The Cultural Code of Architectural Decoration
In the old days, when building houses in Chaoshan, two teams of craftsmen were often invited to divide the houses into "Dragon Bank" and "Tiger Bank" according to the middle line. The conditions were discussed in advance, without peeping at each other, and their skills were applied. After completion, the evaluation was carried out, and the winner could get extra bonus. This mechanism stimulated the development of skills and created a brilliant era for Chaoshan residents in the late Qing Dynasty.
From the middle and late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, as it was close to the concession and a world-famous hometown of overseas Chinese, the cities under Chaozhou Prefecture successively built many large houses with high walls, which created conditions for the heyday of Chaozhou wood carving art. After more than 100 years of development, Chaozhou wood carving has been included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage lists.
