Chaozhou Wood Carving

01 · Historical Records

When Chaozhou wood carving began is unknown. On the beam frame of the Hall of the Heavenly Kings at the Kaiyuan Temple in Chaozhou there is a dougong bracket set decorated with 'grass-tail' (caowei) ornament, a relic of the Tang dynasty, while the wooden dragon that hangs the bronze bell is a relic of the Song dynasty. The Xu Fuma (Imperial Son-in-Law) Mansion in Chaozhou was built during the Zhiping era (1064-1067) of the Northern Song, and the wood carvings decorating its architecture are also dominated by 'grass-tail' motifs. By the Ming and Qing dynasties, the techniques of Chaozhou wood carving had reached perfection.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Chaozhou wood carving is a folk carving art of the Chaozhou region of Guangdong, used mainly to decorate architecture, furniture, and ritual implements. From this it can be seen that Chaozhou wood carving already existed in the Tang and Song periods. In the late Ming, grotto art largely came to a halt, and major monasteries mostly produced wooden Buddha statues, wooden ritual vessels, and wood-carving decorations for tables and cases; multi-layer openwork carving techniques emerged. Chaozhou wood carving is equally renowned with Dongyang wood carving, both being characterized by multi-layer openwork; many carvings are decorated with applied gold leaf, set off by black lacquer or by polychrome colors, the former being called 'black-mounted gold' and the latter 'five-color-mounted gold'. There is also 'plain-wood carving' (bense sudiao), used to achieve a plain and unadorned effect. The Jilue Huang Gong Ancestral Shrine in Chaozhou, a national key cultural relic protection unit built in the thirteenth year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty (1887), has beams and columns throughout decorated with auspicious animals such as dragons, phoenixes, and lions, displaying the various expressive techniques of Chaozhou wood carving; it is praised as 'a peerless masterpiece of Chaozhou wood carving'. In the early years of the Republic of China, Chaozhou merchants rose to prominence, and building temples, erecting ancestral halls, and acquiring grand residences became the fashion; against this background, wood-carving artisans used Southeast Asian mahogany to create works such as 'mahogany square vessels' (hongmu fangqu) and 'ruyi clogs' (ruyi ji), forming a new wood-carving style that was refined, dignified, and luxurious. Chaozhou wood carving mostly uses camphor wood of moderate toughness as its material; its openwork forms are rich and varied, with techniques such as relief carving, sunk carving, round carving, openwork, and through-carving, and the finished pieces are exquisitely delicate and richly layered. On a single carving, Chaozhou wood carving often adopts a zigzag ('zhi'-shaped) compositional layout, using mountains, waters, pavilions, and towers to skillfully divide a tortuous, continuous story into different scenes, so that the figures are numerous but not chaotic and the plot is vivid and orderly. In consideration of the viewer's sightline, wood-carving decorations placed high on rafters and beams often appropriately exaggerate certain parts of the figures, such as deepening the eyes, raising the nose, and protruding the mouth, so that they look exactly right when one looks up. In compositional treatment, Chaozhou wood carving either imitates Chinese painting or models itself on the opera stage; its characteristic is to express simultaneously on a single carved surface stories occurring in different times and spaces, and its narrative manner employs what is called a 'pathway' (jinglu) — a special compositional approach to handling the threads of the figures' actions. The most striking aspect of Chaozhou wood carving's decorative design is the door: a door is divided into decorative sections such as the top horizontal panel, the balustrade band (fanglan), the door and window panels, the vertical panel, the middle horizontal panel, the main panel, and the lower horizontal panel, each section differing in the motifs, forms, and techniques used. Besides architectural decorative carving, Chaozhou wood carving is also used to make decorations for ritual objects such as spirit shrines, spirit palanquins, offering boxes, incense-burner covers, candlesticks, and fruit dishes. Its carving forms are broadly divided into sunk carving, relief carving, through-carving, and round carving. Considering only the Chaoshan and Xingmei regions: Chaoshan wood carving features complex layouts, tight structure, and fine delicacy, excelling at depicting continuous plots; Xingmei wood carving has concise cutting methods and few figures, characterized by highlighting the main storyline. In the late Qing, a prodigy named Huang Kaixian appeared in the Chaozhou wood-carving trade, winning a reputation for Chaozhou wood carving with his superb skill. Famous modern wood-carving artisans who carry on this craft include Zhang Jianxuan and Chen Shunqiang. Zhang Jianxuan held that the techniques of Chaozhou wood carving could be summed up in six characters — 'even, mixed, open' (yun yun, za za, tong tong): 'even' means clear distinction between primary and secondary amid density and void; 'mixed' means having layers as well as interweaving; 'open' means openwork and transparency. Because of changes in the modern living environment, Chaozhou wood carving has lost its former supporting conditions; with traditional folk customs fading, objects such as spirit shrines and spirit pavilions have receded from daily life, so the scope of use for Chaozhou wood carving is shrinking day by day. On the other hand, Chaozhou wood carving is finely wrought and difficult to create, with many processing steps and mostly manual operation — both laborious and incapable of forming large-scale production, with poor economic returns; as a result, fewer and fewer people are engaged in wood-carving production, and the younger generation is especially unwilling to take up this work, which has led Chaozhou wood carving into a situation of lacking successors, urgently in need of rescue and support.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

This craft is mainly practiced in Lianshang Village and Xidu Village of Yixi Town, Xiangqiao District, Chaozhou City, while also spreading to the counties and cities of Raoping, Shantou, Chaoyang, Jieyang, Jiexi, Puning, Lufeng, Dabu, Wuhua, Xingning, and Meixian, as well as the coastal area of southeastern Fujian. Because of its wide distribution, regional stylistic differences have emerged. Chaozhou wood carving is mainly practiced in Lianshang Village and Xidu Village of Yixi Town, Xiangqiao District, Chaozhou City, while also spreading to the counties and cities of Raoping, Shantou, Chaoyang, Jieyang, Jiexi, Puning, Lufeng, Dabu, Wuhua, Xingning, and Meixian, as well as the coastal area of southeastern Fujian. Because of its wide distribution, regional stylistic differences have emerged: Chaoshan wood carving features complex layouts, tight structure, and fine delicacy, excelling at depicting continuous plots; Xingmei wood carving has concise cutting methods and few figures, characterized by highlighting the main storyline.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Chaozhou Wood Carving · Chaozhou Wood Carving.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Li Denong (record from the official file of an associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in 1945, from Chaozhou, Guangdong. Representative inheritor of Chaozhou wood carving, a first-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project; master of arts and crafts of Guangdong Province. To deepen his theoretical understanding, he pursued further study at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 1977. While preserving and absorbing the traditional techniques of Chaozhou gilded wood carving, he boldly innovated, breaking through the weaknesses of the traditional form, which sought only surface coverage and the formula of 'even, mixed, open'; he dared to work with thick wood blanks, accentuating contrast, a sense of volume, and a sense of space. Combining points, lines, and planes, with rich layering, dense but not chaotic, interweaving density and openness, and uniting motion and stillness, his work emphasizes thematic meaning. Representative works include: Mu Guiying Takes Command (Mu Guiying Gua Shuai) and Tang Poetic Conception (Tangren Shiyi), among others. Chen Peichen (record from the official file of an associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in 1950, from Chaozhou, Guangdong. Representative inheritor of Chaozhou wood carving, a first-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project; master of Chinese arts and crafts. In 1962 Chen Peichen entered the Chaozhou Arts and Crafts Research Institute with his father Chen Shunqiang to study the traditional techniques of Chaozhou wood carving; after more than forty years of artistic practice he developed consummate skill, and he was particularly original and distinctive in the design and making of the large wood carving Crabs and Shrimp in a Basket (Xia Xie Lou). He handles every production technique of Chaozhou wood carving with ease; his works are uniquely conceived, fully composed, finely made, delicately crafted, thin and translucent in their openwork, and true to life in depiction. He also organized and founded the Chen Shunqiang Wood-Carving Art Promotion Association, guiding his colleagues in the Chaozhou wood-carving world to cooperate and advance together. Representative works include: Incense-Burner Cover (Xuanlu Zhao), The Fertile South Sea (Furao de Nanhai), and Crabs and Shrimp in a Basket (Xia Xie Lou), among others.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

• Li Denong 01-0101
• Chen Peichen 01-0102
• Guliuxi 04-1786
• Chen Defeng
• Jin Zisong
• Lin Hanxuan

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Chaozhou Wood Carving (Chaozhou, Guangdong) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Li Denong · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Chen Peichen · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗