The jurisdiction of ancient Huizhou includes Huangshan City, Jixi County, Anhui Province, and Wuyuan County, Jiangxi Province. Huizhou three sculptures are decorative sculptures of Ming and Qing architecture in ancient Huizhou area, which have strong local cultural color. Huizhou Three Carvings refers to the abbreviation of brick carving, stone carving and wood carving with Huizhou style. Shexian County, yi county County and Wuyuan County are the most typical of the three Huizhou sculptures, and they are relatively well preserved. It is mainly used for decoration of houses, ancestral halls, temples, gardens and other buildings, as well as craft carving of ancient furniture, screen couplets, pen containers and fruit bowls. Huizhou three sculptures (stone carving, wood carving and brick carving) are the artistic crystallization of the wisdom of the ancient Huizhou people and an integral part of the profound Huizhou culture. Why did Huizhou Three Carvings only appear in ancient Huizhou and not in other places?
first, Huizhou merchants are giants, and they are proud of their ancestors. Huizhou merchants who have left their hometown and worked hard for a lifetime have the financial resources and desire to build ancestral temples, memorial archways, mansions and water gates in their hometown, and also have enough financial resources and elegance to carve them carefully to show their luxury and wealth.
second, elaborate, disguised beyond the limit. In the era of "emphasizing agriculture and restraining commerce", the mentality of Huizhou merchants has always been in a depressed dilemma. On the one hand, they want to take this opportunity to make a big splash and release a little bit, but on the other hand, they are limited to the rules and regulations of etiquette, so they have to spend all their financial resources, energy and venting desire on elaborate carving, so they can go beyond the limit in disguise and still be brilliant and spectacular.
third, a skillful craftsman will do his best. Since ancient times, Huizhou has been a versatile craftsman, and Huang Binhong, a master of traditional Chinese painting, once commented on "Huizhou Duoqijie's talented man". Yangzhou gardens are mostly made by Huizhou craftsmen, and the carved dragons on the pillars of Dacheng Hall of Confucius Temple in Qufu are also made by Huizhou craftsmen. It is precisely because there are so many skilled craftsmen in Huizhou that the artistic characteristics of Huizhou Three Sculptures are unique, exquisite and meaningful, becoming more and more perfect and reaching the peak. One of the traditional "Huizhou Four Carvings". Brick carving is a kind of architectural decoration formed by exquisite carving on the hard and fine blue-gray bricks in Huizhou. It is widely used in Huizhou-style gatehouses, door covers, lintels, eaves, roofs and roofs, making buildings look elegant and solemn. It is an important part of Huizhou architectural art that has risen since Ming and Qing Dynasties.
The production procedure of "Huizhou Three Sculptures" varies with different materials, tools and techniques. For example, the production procedures of brick carving include brick repair, lofting, blank making, thinning, polishing, repair, etc. Traditional tools mainly include charcoal sticks, chisels, brick planers, crowbars, mallets, grindstones, emery cloth, bow saws, brown brushes, drag drills, etc. The production procedures of woodcarving include taking materials, lofting, roughing, roughing, polishing, wiping oil and painting, etc. Traditional tools mainly include small axe, hardwood hammer, chisel, carving knife, wire saw, grindstone and emery cloth, etc. The production procedures of stone carving include stone processing, drafting, clearing, roughing, hollowing out and fine grinding. The traditional tools mainly include chisel, wedge, flat chisel, carving knife, hammer, axe, chop axe, hammer, chop and grinding head.
The representative works of Huizhou's three sculptures, the woodcarvings are Chengzhi Hall and Woodcarving Building in Hongcun, yi county, especially the carved beam woodcarving in Chengzhi Hall, "The Hundred Immortals Making Lantern Festival"; The stone carvings are the Tangyue Paifang Group in Shexian County and the "Songshi" and "Zhumei" sister stone carvings handed by yi county Xidi, especially the sister stone carvings are leaking windows, one on the left and one on the right, and they are paired, which has reached the artistic perfection of poetry without words and painting meaning; Brick carving is a large-scale brick carving of "5-Li Yellow Mountain Map" in Tunxi Riverside Corridor, which is an unparalleled masterpiece in terms of many scenic spots, large frame area, various perspectives and carving techniques.
The contents of Huizhou's three sculptures are mainly folk tales, operas, flowers, birds, animals, dragons, lions and red deer, scenic spots, customs, fishing and firewood, the Eight Immortals of Light and Dark, and Bo Gu's auspicious pictures. Its carving techniques are generally relief, mixed with through carving, round carving, line carving and a variety of techniques. Brick carving is a decorative art of traditional Han architecture, especially folk architecture, which is a very important art form in ancient Han architecture carving. It was initiated by Bao Si, a kiln worker in Huizhou in Ming Dynasty. According to legend, Bao Si learned how to burn kiln with his parents. Although the brick business is good, it takes a lot of time and manpower to burn bricks, and he can't make much money. He saw that those Huizhou merchants who knew how to do business often came back rich, and they paid out a lot of money, so they were greedy and bought brick kilns to do business in Huai' an. After four years of business, Bao made countless money and became the richest man in Huizhou. He was so proud that he showed that he was rich everywhere. He built the Baosi Temple in Huai 'an, molded his whole body, and unveiled a list to build a Baosi Street, saying that he had countless money. At this time, a middle-aged woman with a long-necked bottle in her hand and a bottle in Yang Liuzhi came to Bao Si and said, "Boss Bao, don't brag. There is no end to skills in the world, so how can there be unlimited money?" Bao Si blushed and said, "What skills do you know!" The middle-aged woman said, "I can be a lotus flower." Bao Si didn't believe it. With his own money, he offered to bet that he would put a lotus flower one step at a time, and the other side would have to follow suit to win or lose. The woman readily agreed, took a step forward, pointed to the ground with her hand, and a lotus flower appeared on the ground, followed by Bao Si with an ingot. This step by step, half a mile down, the woman's lotus is still there, but Bao Si's ingot is not. Bao Si had to give up, and Huai 'an people used the gold ingots on the ground to build a street house on the road where lotus flowers were placed, and named it "Lotus Street". Bao Si was penniless, so he had to smash his own image in the temple, make up some travelling expenses, and return to Hui3, so he had to return to his old job-burning kiln. Someone told him that the woman who gambled on the silver ingot with lotus flowers was Guanyin, and Bao Si realized that "money is limited, skills are endless" was the immortal's teaching. From then on, he devoted himself to burning bricks. Because he was too impressed with lotus flowers, he burned lotus bricks and gradually carved flowers, trees, people and pavilions on the bricks. Three years later, Bao Si became more and more skilled, and took in several masters to study brick carving. At that time, after getting rich, some Huizhou merchants went back to their hometown to build large-scale buildings, repair word halls and build mansions, often at great expense. Beautiful and exquisite, fresh and elegant brick carvings are widely used. From then on, Huizhou brick carving developed and became famous all over the country.
Brick carvings include flat carving, relief carving and three-dimensional carving, with themes including feathered flowers, dragons, tigers and lions, gardens and landscapes, dramatic figures, etc., with strong folk colors. The style of brick carving in Ming dynasty was too rough and simple; In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, due to the pursuit of luxury life by wealthy businessmen, the style of brick carving in Qing dynasty became more and more delicate and complicated, paying attention to plot and composition, and deepening the level of through carving. Carve a picture with complex plot and empty floors on a brick that is more than square feet and less than inch thick. From close-up to long-term, it is clear-cut and has nine levels at most, which makes people feel exquisite and incomparable.
The materials and production of Huizhou brick carvings are extremely exquisite. Generally, the blue bricks that are fired by special techniques, hit the floor and pure in color are used as materials. First, they are finely ground into blanks, on which the parts of the picture are outlined, the depth of the image is chiseled, and the distance level of the picture is determined. Then, according to the contours of each part, they are carefully carved and partially thinned, so that the pre-designed pattern-I stands out. Brick carvings can be seen everywhere in Shexian, yi county, Wuyuan, Xiuning and Tunxi. Brick carvings embedded in ancient houses, feeding halls, temples and other buildings, although honed by years and eroded by wind and rain, are still exquisite and intriguing. Shexian Museum has a brick carving of Zaoshen Temple. On the square brick surface, there is a round carved bodhisattva wearing a golden helmet, armor and steel mace. According to research, this exquisite brick carving cost 12 craftsmen, which is a classic work of Huizhou brick carving art. In 198s, with the establishment of Huizhou Ancient Building Materials Company, brick carving, as a practical decorative art, regained its vitality. Huizhou Three-Carved
stone carvings are widely distributed in Huizhou urban and rural areas, and there are many types. They are mainly used for the decoration of pillars, gate walls, archways and tombs of temple houses. They belong to the art of relief and round carving and enjoy a high reputation. The theme of Huizhou stone carving is limited by the carving materials themselves, and it is not as complicated as wood carving and brick carving, mainly including animal and plant images, Bo Gu patterns and calligraphy, while the stories of people and landscapes are relatively rare. In terms of carving style, the relief is mainly shallow through carving and plane carving, and the integration trend of round carving is obvious, and the knife method is refined in simplicity and generosity, which is not as delicate and cumbersome as wood carving and brick carving in Qing Dynasty. Huizhou mountain area is rich in wood, and most buildings are brick, wood and stone structures, especially the use of wood, which has become a place where woodcarvers can give full play to their talents. Huizhou woodcarving is used as decoration for old buildings and household appliances, covering urban and rural areas, and its distribution is only a handful in the country. The screen, window frame, column, bed, table, chair, desk and stationery in the house can all be seen in wood carving, which is almost everywhere. Huizhou woodcarving has a wide range of subjects, including figures, landscapes, flowers, animals, insects and fish, cloud heads, palindromes, Bo Gu with eight treasures, tin couplets, and various auspicious patterns. Huizhou woodcarving is based on the needs and possibilities of building objects, using round carving, relief carving, through carving and other expressions.
The "Three Carvings in Huizhou" is closely and steadily coordinated with the whole building, and its layout, ingenious structure, beautiful decoration, exquisite construction and deep connotation are amazing. Whether it is wood carving, brick carving or stone carving, many techniques such as relief, through carving, round carving and line carving are used together, from which we can see the inheritance of architectural decoration carving art in China since the Han and Tang Dynasties, and also reflect the influence of other artistic styles in Huizhou culture, such as Xin 'an Painting School, Huizhou Printmaking, Huizhou Seal Carving, Huizhou Ink Carving and Ink Carving, on Huizhou architectural decoration carving style.