China's bamboo carving art has a long history. According to the Book of Rites, Yuzao, "the scholar bureaucrats decorated bamboo as a wat, which was used in ancient ceremonies, and there were also decorations." The earliest known object is the carved dragon pattern painted bamboo spoon handle unearthed from Tomb 1 of Mawangdui in the Western Han Dynasty. The king of Jin presented a striped bamboo pen holder named "Qiu Zhong". The Emperor Qi Gaodi of the Six Dynasties once gave the monk Shao Zhugen Ruyi.
From the middle of the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty, the changes in the artistic style of bamboo carving can be summarized as follows: from the simple and unsophisticated quality of the middle of the Ming Dynasty, it developed into the rich and colorful style of the early Qing Dynasty, and then evolved into the plain and simple style of the late Qing Dynasty; In terms of techniques, it has experienced a process from shallow to deep, and from deep to shallow. Deep refers to relief, openwork and round sculpture; Shallow, that is, shallow carving, leaving green and so on.
Bamboo carving has a long history in Jiaxing, and there are many famous artists. At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Jiaxing School, which was characterized by the method of writing in Qingyang, was one of the three major schools of bamboo carving technology in China, of which Fengqiao folk art bamboo carving was the most famous. Fengqiao Bamboo Carving is good at staying green and has various forms of expression. The types of works include arm rest, pen container, bamboo root carving, screen, hanging screen, chess bowl, etc.
The artists engaged in bamboo carving are full of exquisite skills and profound humanistic cultivation. After the liberation, although there were few folk artists engaged in bamboo carving, there were also some outstanding ones. Feng Jiasheng, a bamboo carving artist in Fengqiao Town, Nanhu District, is one of the representatives.
Feng Jiasheng was born in 1946. Influenced by his father Feng Guojie, he began to learn seal cutting and sculpture at the age of 12. At the age of 19, he was sent to Xinmin Village, Fengqiao Town and stayed there for 15 years. While working in agriculture, he learned carpentry and carving skills in his spare time, which laid a solid foundation for him to climb the peak of bamboo carving art in the future.
Faced with the dilemma of the scarcity of bamboo carving artists, Feng Jiasheng has been thinking about how to inherit and carry forward the traditional culture and art of Fengqiao Bamboo Carving. Since 2005, he has set up a bamboo carving training class at home all the year round. Whether men, women, old or young, as long as he has a certain foundation in art and hobbies in this field, he is willing to volunteer. Feng Jiasheng knows that more people who can carve bamboo will have more opportunities to inherit bamboo carving art. Now, another identity of Lao Feng is the outside counselor of Fengqiao Town Central Primary School, who is specially responsible for the training of bamboo carving class in the school. Old Feng Da was very happy when he saw these kids with bamboo carving knives and their tender hands creating vivid and lovely bamboo carving artworks.
In order to better protect, inherit and carry forward the art of Fengqiao bamboo carving, the Nanhu District Government listed Fengqiao bamboo carving as the first batch of representative works of intangible cultural heritage in Nanhu District in 2007. On June 12, 2008, the first bamboo carving exhibition for students of Fengqiao Town Central Primary School was held in Jiaxing City Library, which recalled Jiaxing citizens' beautiful memories of the bamboo carving art of Fengqiao Town.
Lao Feng believed that as long as he and these children were there, the bamboo carving art of Fengqiao would not be interrupted.
The establishment of Yixinxuan Bamboo Carving Society in Fengqiao Town Central Primary School has promoted the art of Fengqiao Bamboo Carving.
Facing the students, Feng Jiasheng explained everything carefully.
The children are very serious at every moment. They understand that this is not homework but an art, and they are the successors of this art.
Every piece of work embodies Feng Jiasheng's painstaking efforts, and every knife is devoted to Feng Jiasheng's feelings for bamboo carving.
Feng Jiasheng's work: Landscape Screen Insertion "Painted Tower, Column Curtain, Smoke and Water"
Feng Jiasheng's "Yu Boya meets a bosom friend on a drum instrument"
The Painting of Celebrities Celebrating Birthday by Feng Jiasheng
This picture, "Picture of the River during the Qingming Festival", is one of Feng Jiasheng's peak works and won the "Heavenly Crafts Award" at the 2005 Zhejiang Ethnic Folk Art Achievement Exhibition.
