Mentioning ancient architecture in Shanxi,
What is the first thing that comes to your mind?
Is it the ancient city of Pingyao? Qiao Family Courtyard?
Imperial Palace? Or Jinci Garden?
In the buildings of these places of interest,
There is a common element, that is brick carving.
Why are ancient buildings in Shanxi so beautiful?
Let the Qingxu brick carvings tell you the answer!
Elements of brick carvings in the ancient city of Pingyao Gao Yuqing
Why is Qingxu brick carving?
"Without carving, you can't make a house, and carving is valuable." Brick carving refers to carving figures, landscapes, flowers and other patterns on blue bricks. It is an important art form in ancient Chinese architectural carving. Mainly used to decorate houses, temples, tombs, etc. Brick carving usually also refers to sculpture crafts carved with blue bricks.
Guan Gong characters like Gao Yuqing
The brick carving of Shanxi folk houses is a traditional brick carving technique spread in Shanxi. It is well-known at home and abroad for its large scale, wide application, ingenious ideas, and sophisticated techniques. It is one of the main schools of brick carving in China. Qingxu Brick Carving is the representative and microcosm of brick carvings in Shanxi residential houses. It was announced as the first batch of provincial intangible cultural heritage in Shanxi Province in 2006. In 2008, Qingxu brick carvings (brick carvings of Shanxi houses) were included in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage lists.
In 2008, Qingxu brick carvings (brick carvings of Shanxi houses) were included in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage lists. Gao Yuqing photo
The brick carvings in Qingxu have a long history, carrying different cultural heritages of various eras, and also leaving different brand imprints. A large number of gray pottery, black pottery and painted pottery have been unearthed in Qingxu. According to expert appraisal, these pottery belong to Yangshao culture, indicating that as early as Xia Shang, Qing Xu Xianmin had mastered the skill of making pottery and brick.
"The heyday of Qingxu brick carving was in the Qing Dynasty." Han Yongsheng, the fourth-generation inheritor of Qingxu brick carving, introduced that with the rise of Jin merchants, in addition to the use of brick carvings in palaces, temples and other buildings, local residential houses are also constantly Pay attention to building scale and carving decoration. "At that time, many professionals were sculpted brick carvings. The people used this component where they needed it, which is also a yearning for a better life."
Photograph by Gao Yuqing
Photograph by Gao Yuqing, a brick sculpture in Shanxi Jinshang University
In the more than two hundred years from the late Ming Dynasty to the early Qing Dynasty, villages and communities in the Qing Dynasty built altars, temples, temples, and viewpoints. "One-in-one"-style "Siheyuan" is everywhere, and the streets with bricks and tiles are constantly appearing. The demand for custom-made ridge collars, shadow walls, flower walls and other brick carving crafts has increased, which objectively promoted Qingxu bricks. The development of the vulture. According to folklore, by the middle and late Qing Dynasty, there was a small brick kiln in the average 4 villages in Qingxu. For over a hundred years, Qingxu brick carving artisans adhered to the traditional hand-made craftsmanship, which allowed the inheritance of brick carvings to continue.
A mud card, a thin wire
Arouse his love for Qingxu brick carving
He is a native of Qingxu, Taiyuan, Shanxi. He had run schools and opened restaurants. For more than ten years, he has devoted himself to protecting the traditional handcraft skills of Qingxu brick carving.
From apprenticeship to mentorship, from the preparation of a brick carving art factory to the establishment of a brick carving workshop in Shanxi, from the establishment of a brick carving art museum to the establishment of a cultural industrial park, he has never stopped on the road of inheritance and protection of non-genetics ...
He is the fourth-generation heir to Qingxu Brick Carving, a national-level intangible cultural heritage protection project-Han Yongsheng.
The national-level intangible cultural heritage protection project Qingxu brick carving fourth generation heir Han Yongsheng Shanxi Jinyun Brick Sculpture Art Museum provides
Regarding the dream of brick carving, we must start with childhood. When I was 7 years old, my grandfather brought back a mud card from the outside. After seeing it, my grandmother who did a good job of embroidering picked up a thin iron wire and carved a "lion rolling hydrangea" on the mud card. Figure. "I thought it was beautifully carved at that time." Han Yongsheng recalled. After that, he decided to grow and paint on the bricks.
In 2003, when he was in his 30s, he let go of his other earning money and made a living, devoted himself to the study of hand-made brick carving skills. He asked Mr. Yang Zongxin, a well-known local brick carving artist, for advice. He learned from traditional brick-burning techniques, selecting soil, making mud, making molds, removing blanks, cooling blanks, entering the kiln, watching the fire, adding water, and exiting the kiln... In one step, from apprenticeship to learning art, to being a teacher, he has insisted on his dream for more than ten years.
Out of love for brick carving, and in order to save the brick carving culture inherited for thousands of years, with the support and help of Master Yang Zongxin, Han Yongsheng successively planned to build the Yaowangbao kiln brick carving art factory in Qingxu County and the Shanxi Folk House Brick Carving Workshop. He recruited magnates, gathered skilled craftsmen, and led the team to always insist on pure hand-carving. The brick carvings they designed and produced were well received by customers at home and abroad.
Carving artists of Qingxu brick carving in Shanxi. Gao Yuqing photo
The brick sculpture "Guan Guan Tu" borrows the "crown" of the cockscomb flower and the "crown" of the rooster and the word "guan". Gao Yuqing photo
Not only is it the inheritance of brick carvings, Han Yongsheng has also been committed to protecting brick carvings. Over the years, he has traveled south and north to raise funds to spare no effort to collect brick sculptures that are scattered in all corners of the province, and rescued and collected more than 2,500 pieces of brick sculptures from various dynasties. In Han Yongsheng's view, it is his mission to rescue and protect these historical remains.
Han Yongsheng's brick sculpture "Hi-Lion Head" by Gao Yuqing
Ming Dynasty brick sculpture "Cat Head" collected by Han Yongsheng Gao Yuqing
In 2013, with the support of the local government, Han Yongsheng picked up his life savings plan to build the Shanxi Jinyun Brick Sculpture Art Museum. "On the basis of carving, in addition to making a part, collecting a part, but also copying a part. So in the process of brick carving production, a brick carving museum was created. Let the children experience it for themselves and appreciate the traditional Chinese culture." Han Yongsheng said.
Shanxi Jinyun Brick Carving Art Museum Photo by Gao Yuqing
The works "Plum", "Lan", "Bamboo" and "Chrysanthemum" displayed in the Jinyun Brick Carving Art Museum in Shanxi
Today, the Brick Sculpture Museum has been upgraded to a cultural industrial park. According to Han Yongsheng, there will be more than ten national and provincial intangible cultures in the future, including Qingxu brick carvings, Shanxi old vinegar, Qingxu color gate, Xugou back sticks, Qingxu films, wood-panel pictures, shadow puppetry, and face sculpture. Traditional handicrafts such as heritage protection projects and traditional folk culture are concentrated here for display, performance, inheritance and protection.
"I have a special liking for traditional Chinese culture." Han Yongsheng said that Shanxi itself is a cultural province, and what our ancestors left us must be inherited, protected and carried forward.
Thousand-year skills, successors
For thousands of years, the skill of brick carving has been based on the precepts and teachings between masters, disciples, and fathers and sons, and has continued the fine work of "Qin and Han bricks and tiles".
Yang Zongxin and Han Yongsheng are the third- and fourth-generation heirs of the Qingxu brick carvings of the national intangible cultural heritage project, respectively, and the young people are the fifth-generation "post-80s" guy Dong Yaohua.
When the reporter saw Dong Yaohua in the studio of the Jinyun Brick Carving Museum in Shanxi, he was holding a carving knife in his hand and leaned forward slightly, engraving a brick carving craftsmanship. The link he carried out is called "detailing", which refers to the further elaboration of the work.
Dong Yaohua, the fifth generation of Qingxu brick carvings, is carving works. Gao Yuqing photo
It is understood that the reason why the finished brick carving can withstand hundreds of years of wind and sun is because it is made through a complicated process.
Soil selection, mud making, mold making, degerming, cooling billet, entering the kiln, watching the fire, watering, out of the kiln, drafting, engraving, arranging... Qingxu brick carving needs 12 steps from material selection to completion of all processes Steps, more than 30 links.
In the workshop of Shanxi Jinyun Brick Carving Art Museum, the craftsmen are making brick carvings. Gao Yuqing photo
At the 2nd Shanxi Cultural Expo in 2015, Dong Yaohua and Qingxu Brick Carvings got together. He had been engaged in the traditional industry for more than ten years before, and decided to learn from Han Yongsheng and study the skill of brick carving wholeheartedly.
The process of learning skills is boring. During the day, apart from eating and sleeping, Dong Yaohua spent most of the time with blue bricks and knives. In Dong Yaohua's view, to make brick carvings, "you must calm down and be patient, and make every piece of work with your heart".
Day after day, year after year, one step at a time. After five years of hard work, Dong Yaohua today has been able to skillfully produce all kinds of brick carving crafts.
"He is a man of integrity and conscientious work." Master Han Yongsheng often teaches Dong Yaohua to insist on traditional skills and pure hand-made, and truly be a person who inherits Chinese traditional culture. Talking about the future, Dong Yaohua said that he hopes to innovate on traditional skills and make something of his own.
Author: High Yuqing