Shoushan Stone Carving
01 · Historical Records
The appearance of independently shaped Shoushan stone carvings dates back 1,500 years. In the Southern Song dynasty, Shoushan stone mines were already being worked, and after development through the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, an independent Shoushan stone-carving industry finally took shape. During the Tongzhi and Guangxu reigns of the Qing dynasty, Shoushan stone carving developed its own distinctive style, giving rise to the two great schools of Dongmen (East Gate) and Ximen (West Gate).
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Shoushan stone carving is a traditional folk carving art that uses Shoushan stone, produced in the Beifeng hills of northern Fuzhou, as its material and, through special techniques, produces small carvings for people's enjoyment. The craft of Shoushan stone carving is mainly transmitted in Gushan, Yuefeng Town, Xiangyuan, Wangzhuang Street and Shoushan Township in Jin'an District, Fuzhou. The stone's texture, colour, form and veining are all extremely rich; it is lustrous and moist, comes in many varieties, has a hardness of between 2.5 and 2.7 on the Mohs scale, and is a first-class carving stone, fine, dense, smooth, lustrous, warm and compact; among the people it is called the 'emperor of stones' and 'queen of stones', and there is a saying that it is 'honoured above jade'. Emperors such as the Qing Emperor Shengzu all used Shoushan stone to make imperial seals, and among Shoushan stones tianhuang stone commands the highest value, as the saying goes, 'one liang of tianhuang is worth three liang of gold'. The Dongmen (East Gate) school, represented by Lin Qianpei and Lin Yuanzhu, excels at round carving of figures, landscapes and animals, while the Ximen (West Gate) school, represented by Pan Yumao and Pan Yuquan, created from the traditional seal-knob technique the bonyi technique with the character of Chinese painting. Later, Lin Qingqing's bonyi carving brought Shoushan stone carving into a realm rich in poetic flavour, raising its cultural refinement. The techniques of Shoushan stone carving are rich and varied, consummate and highly practised; in the course of development they have drawn widely on other arts, absorbing the carving techniques and artistic essence of Chinese painting and various folk crafts. Its principal techniques include round carving, seal-knob carving, bonyi carving, openwork carving, low relief, high relief, inlay carving, chain carving, seal carving and micro-carving. The subject matter of Shoushan stone-carving works is broad, covering figures, animals, landscapes and flower-and-bird motifs. For these reasons, Shoushan stone carving has an extremely wide social reach, possessing the artistic charm of 'accompanying emperors and generals above, reaching literati and refined scholars in the middle, and pleasing the common people below', and it is highly regarded by connoisseurs and collectors at home and abroad. Shoushan stone carving occupies a prominent place in traditional Chinese jade-and-stone culture, and related carvings have become symbols of elegance, beauty, solemnity and wisdom. Shoushan stone carving pursues an artistic effect of simultaneous carving and polishing, advocating a return to natural simplicity; it therefore treats 'reading the stone' (xiangshi) as a crucial stage, stressing the use of the stone's form and colour and the skilful application of technique so as to achieve a state of unity between nature and craft. Shoushan stone is a rare stone material, and its resource management was for a time in a state of disorder in recent decades, leading to over-extraction that has adversely affected the carving craft.
East Gate and West Gate schools
The East Gate excelled in round carving of figures and landscapes, the West Gate created the painting-like thin-relief manner from seal-knob technique.
Thin-relief carving
A painting-like shallow carving developed by the West Gate and brought to poetic refinement by Lin Qingqing.
Tianhuang stone
Fine, translucent and of low hardness, Shoushan stone was prized above jade; its tianhuang variety was costlier than gold.
Lin Hengyun's polar bears
Trained in figure modelling, wood and ivory carving, Lin Hengyun's polar bears are reckoned unique in stone carving.
Reading the stone
Reading the raw stone to exploit its shape and colour is a crucial stage, aiming at a union of nature and craft.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
During the Tongzhi and Guangxu reigns of the Qing dynasty, Shoushan stone carving developed its own distinctive style, giving rise to the two great schools of Dongmen (East Gate) and Ximen (West Gate): the Dongmen school, represented by Lin Qianpei and Lin Yuanzhu, excels at round carving of figures, landscapes and animals, while the Ximen school, represented by Pan Yumao and Pan Yuquan, created from the traditional seal-knob technique the bonyi technique with the character of Chinese painting; afterwards, Lin Qingqing's bonyi carving brought Shoushan stone carving into a realm rich in poetic flavour.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The principal inheritors of Shoushan stone carving today include, of the Ximen (West Gate) school, Lin Wenju, Liu Aizhu, Jiang Yilin and Wang Weihua, and of the Dongmen (East Gate) school, Guo Gongsen, Lin Yuankang, Guo Maojie, Lin Bingsheng and Lin Fashu. At present many older artisans are advanced in years and can no longer continue carving, while the traditional master-apprentice relationship has been broken; the craft of Shoushan stone carving has no successors and faces the danger of dying out, and urgently needs rescue. Feng Jiuhe (recorded in the official file of an associated inheritor): Male, of the Han nationality, born in 1928, a native of Fuzhou, Fujian. A representative inheritor of the first national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage project Shoushan stone carving; a master of Chinese arts and crafts; a researcher in folk creation at the Chinese National Academy of Arts. After three years of apprenticeship he completed his training, mastering the various techniques and knife methods of Shoushan stone carving. He is especially skilled at subjects such as 'Shoal of Pigs', 'Large Basket of Flowers and Fruit', 'Cranes' and the 'Twelve Animals of the Chinese Zodiac', and his command of the skilful use of Shoushan stone's colours is unrivalled. By studying the stone's form and the direction of its colours, he can judge and sketch designs of superb works that are perfectly judged and ingeniously arranged, bringing out to the maximum the natural beauty of Shoushan stone's colour and texture. In 2009 he published the volume 'Feng Jiuhe' in the Complete Works of Masters of Chinese Arts and Crafts. His work 'Fragrance Held Within Jade' was selected by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications for issue as a 'national calling card' postage stamp. Now over eighty, he still insists on creating every day, and his children and grandchildren have also inherited the mantle of stone carving, striving to carry it forward. His representative works include 'Pine and Crane for Longevity', 'Three Sheep Ushering in Spring' and 'Ancient Cauldron Radiating Light'. Lin Hengyun (recorded in the official file of an associated inheritor): Male, of the Han nationality, born in 1930, a native of Fuzhou, Fujian. A representative inheritor of the first national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage project Shoushan stone carving; a master of Chinese arts and crafts. Lin Hengyun studied carving from his maternal uncle from childhood, going on from the modelling of Buddhist images to the creation and research of wood carving, ivory carving and Shoushan stone carving. From 1970, Lin Hengyun devoted himself to the art of Shoushan stone carving; while mastering the traditional techniques of stone carving, he also absorbed some of the carving techniques of wood and ivory carving, so that his stone carving has a unique style of its own; in particular, his skill at carving polar bears is considered unrivalled in the art of stone carving. In addition, he is skilled at carving figures and fish; his carving technique is distinctive and marvellous, and his representative works include 'Bear', 'Undersea World' and 'Goldfish'. His son Lin Fei inherited and developed his father's craft and is also a master of Chinese arts and crafts.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Feng Jiuhe 01-0097
- Lin Hengyun 01-0098
- Chen Lizhong 05-2609
- Chen Yijing
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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