Chaozhou Wood Carving
01 · Historical Records
Shantou wood carving has a long history, beginning in the Tang dynasty and flourishing in the Ming and Qing periods.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Chaozhou wood carving has a long history: the Chaozhou Kaiyuan Temple, built in the 26th year of the Kaiyuan reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang dynasty (738), already contains wood carvings of the Tang dynasty. The wood carving skills of Guangdong are concentrated mainly in the Chaozhou, Shantou, and Jieyang areas, historically known collectively as 'Chaozhou wood carving'. Chaozhou wood carving is of exquisite craftsmanship; together with boxwood carving, Dongyang wood carving, and Fujian wood carving, it is known as one of China's four great wood carvings. It is renowned at home and abroad for its wide range of subjects, full compositions, fine carving, multi-layered openwork, and dazzling splendor. Jieyang wood carving generally exists as ornament or components of buildings, furniture, and implements used in offering to the gods, and is often decorated with gold lacquer or polychrome painting. Its subjects are wide-ranging, mostly depicting flowers, birds, insects, and fish, as well as historical legends and opera stories that people never tire of hearing. Carving forms include sunk carving, relief, openwork carving, round carving, and tuodi (ground-support) carving, among others, with openwork carving its greatest strength. Jieyang wood carving generally adopts a flexible manner of modeling, using sensuous, dynamic lines and planes: arcs, curves, and the swept and curved surfaces they generate make up its forms. The composition is full, the layout well balanced, the knife work dense without confusion, expressing a beauty of rhythm and cadence. Jieyang wood carving is also called 'gold-lacquer wood carving': in its production, a rough block is first hewn from camphor or fir wood, then finely carved, then polished, then coated with layer upon layer of lacquer, and finally covered with gold leaf, achieving a resplendent, dazzling artistic effect. It has a wide range of applications and rich subject matter: folk legends, figures ancient and modern, flowers, birds, insects, and fish, birds of the air and beasts of the land, creatures of rivers and seas, and theatrical stories are all common themes. Shantou wood carving boasts many famous masters, and its works have won prizes time and again in national competitions. At present, the development of Chaozhou wood carving is impeded: because practitioners earn very little, few young people are willing to learn, and the surviving craftsmen are all over fifty years old. There is already a shortage of successors, and unless rescue comes quickly, the outlook is worrying.
Openwork and undercutting
Sunk, relief, openwork, round and undercut carving are all used, with openwork the most accomplished.
Making gold-lacquer carving
Camphor or fir is blocked out, finely cut, polished, lacquered in layers and finally gilded.
Curved, supple modelling
Supple, dynamic lines and surfaces built from arcs and curves give full composition with lively rhythm.
Buildings, furniture and altar ware
It appears on buildings, furniture and ritual vessels, depicting birds, flowers, legends and opera stories.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Jieyang wood carving generally exists as ornament or components of buildings, furniture, and implements used in offering to the gods, and is often decorated with gold lacquer or polychrome painting; hence it is also called 'gold-lacquer wood carving'. In its production, a rough block is first hewn from camphor or fir wood, then finely carved, then polished, then coated with layer upon layer of lacquer, and finally covered with gold leaf, achieving a resplendent, dazzling artistic effect. Carving forms include sunk carving, relief, openwork carving, round carving, and tuodi (ground-support) carving, among others, with openwork carving its greatest strength.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Chaozhou Wood Carving · Chaozhou Wood Carving.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Jieyang wood carving generally adopts a flexible manner of modeling, using sensuous, dynamic lines and planes: arcs, curves, and the swept and curved surfaces they generate make up its forms. The composition is full, the layout well balanced, the knife work dense without confusion, expressing a beauty of rhythm and cadence. Its subjects are wide-ranging, mostly depicting flowers, birds, insects, and fish, as well as historical legends and opera stories that people never tire of hearing. At present, the development of Chaozhou wood carving is impeded: because practitioners earn very little, few young people are willing to learn, and the surviving craftsmen are all over fifty years old, so there is already a shortage of successors.
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
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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