Stone Carving

Ⅶ-56Traditional Fine ArtsSuide, ShaanxiBatch 4 (2014)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

The origins of Suide stone carving can be traced back to the Han dynasty; surviving artifacts excavated within the county — such as Han pictorial stones and stone beasts — can serve as evidence. From the Ming and Qing dynasties onward, the craft has continued unbroken with the construction of cave-dwelling (yaodong) houses, temples, and memorial arches.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Suide stone carving is a traditional carving art that uses stone slabs from the northern Shaanxi plateau as its raw material, which are ground and chiseled; it is both practical and artistic, and is present in the production and daily life of local residents, in architectural decoration, and in folk activities. Suide stone carving is distributed in the townships under the jurisdiction of Suide County, Yulin City, Shaanxi Province, and the surrounding area. Suide County lies in the central-southern part of the northern Shaanxi plateau; its terrain consists of loess hilly-gully country and the rocky mountain areas of the Yellow River gorges. Beneath the loess layer lie stone slabs as flat as a whetstone and of even thickness, providing abundant stone for Suide stone carving. Suide stone carving is a folk art closely bound up with the lives of ordinary people; stone cave-dwellings and kang-head stone lions are its representative works. In addition there are household implements such as stone rollers, millstones, and garlic mortars; production tools such as stone pestles and stone liuzhou (threshing rollers); stone-carved figures such as stone lions and stone dragons that serve protective and decorative functions; and commemorative stone carvings such as memorial arches, dragon pillars, cultural pillars, and stele tablets, as well as decorative carved panels and colonnades whose subjects are chiefly rare birds and auspicious beasts and exotic flowers and grasses, and stone-carved structures such as pavilions, platforms, corridors, and towers. Relying on inherited technique and years of accumulated experience and insight, the artisan, facing the stone, must first 'read the stone' (xiangshi) — observing the stone's form, grain, and spirit, and what it is suited to be carved into, forming an image in the mind; then, following that mental image, through rough hewing, rough carving, fine incising, and polishing, with the hand following the movement of the heart and the chisel following the movement of the hand, the piece is carved into being. Suide stone carving has distinctive carving techniques and artistic forms of expression; throughout the carving process there are certain folk protocols and folk taboos. Beyond serving practical and decorative functions, the works carry rich folk meanings. Combining freehand (xieyi) and realistic techniques, and with a bold, archaic, and vigorous artistic style, Suide stone carving has become the representative stone-carving art of northern Shaanxi and an important component of northern Shaanxi culture.

Archival Record of Process Steps

Relying on inherited technique and years of accumulated experience and insight, the artisan, facing the stone, must first 'read the stone' (xiangshi) — observing the stone's form, grain, and spirit, and what it is suited to be carved into, forming an image in the mind; then, following that mental image, through rough hewing, rough carving, fine incising, and polishing, with the hand following the movement of the heart and the chisel following the movement of the hand, the piece is carved into being.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Stone masons are concentrated mainly in Suide town proper and in townships such as Sishilipu and Yihe, and also in the loess hilly-gully region around Mizhi, Zizhou, and Wubu.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Surviving artifacts attest that Suide stone carving had already reached a considerable level of carving skill in the Han dynasty; its transmission to the present spans more than two thousand years, occurring mainly through community transmission and master-apprentice transmission. Suide stone carving has both practical value in daily life and decorative value; it also embodies northern Shaanxi folk belief and customs, and it provides room to grow and a foundation for the development of folk arts such as folk songs, yangge dance, and papercutting that circulate among cave-dwelling villages. Bao Wuwen (from the official file of the associated representative inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born April 1954, a native of Suide County, Shaanxi Province. At the age of thirteen he took the famous Suide folk stone carver Guo Hanzhou as his master, studying the art of stone carving. Through years of practice he has fully mastered traditional round carving, relief carving, openwork, and the combined use of incised (yin), raised (yang), and line carving; he can design and produce stone works such as large stone lions, memorial arches, classical dragon pillars, relief ornament, and landscapes. The traditional kang-head stone lions he carves are finely crafted, small and exquisite, childlike and charming; the large stone works he designs and carves are grand in spirit, integrated as a whole, massive yet full of vitality. He has participated many times in intangible-cultural-heritage technique demonstrations and exhibitions of works. He is a representative inheritor of Stone Carving (Suide Stone Carving), a national-level intangible cultural heritage project of the fifth batch. In 1982 he founded the Bao Wuwen Stone Carving Factory, later restructured into Bao Wuwen Industrial Co., Ltd., which has undertaken stone-carving projects for numerous parks, temples, and schools; it has been designated by the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Culture as a provincial-level demonstration unit for the productive protection of intangible cultural heritage (stone carving).

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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