stone carving

stone carving

Stone carving refers to the art of creating a visual and touchable artistic image with a certain space by using all kinds of carved stones, so as to reflect social life and express artists' aesthetic feelings, feelings and ideals.

Commonly used stones are granite, marble, bluestone, sandstone and so on. The stone is hard and weather resistant, which is the main material of large-scale commemorative sculpture.

In 2008, it was included in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.

Historical origin

It has a long history in China. In the long Paleolithic and Neolithic age, stone processing was a means of livelihood for Lingnan primitive ancestors. Many rock carvings were found in Hong Kong, Macao and Zhuhai at the mouth of the Pearl River. They are mainly complex abstract patterns and adopt chiseling techniques. The largest rock carvings are 3 meters high and 5 meters long at Gaolan Island, nanshai Town, Zhuhai. The lines are clear and the characters and boat carvings can be identified from the complex lines.

According to research, the age of the rock carving is about 1000 BC, which is a work of the bronze age. Many octagonal prismatic stone railings with square base were found in the site of Nanyue royal palace. They are the earliest known stone railings in the history of Chinese architecture. The Yuyuan site of Nanyue state is the first site of Qin and Han Dynasties in China. It is made of stone slabs, such as stone pools, zigzag stone canals, huge stone chambers and various stone components.

The tomb of Zhao Mei, king of Nanyue, is the largest stone chamber tomb in Lingnan known so far, with a huge stone weighing 2.6 tons. The 244 pieces (sets) of jade unearthed from the tomb, including 71 jade walls, two blue and white round carved dancers, one blue and white jade corner cup with embossed cirrus pattern, silk carved jade clothes, jade belt hook with dragon and tiger body, jade pendant with dragon and phoenix pattern, and wall with animal head, are all exquisite treasures, reflecting the superb craftsmanship of jade processing at that time. It can be seen that South Vietnam has mastered the skills of cutting materials and making In addition, it also introduces the techniques of shaping, drilling, chiseling, polishing, reforming and inlaying. In the tomb of Nanyue King, talc oven, ear cup, pig, pillow, inkstone and grindstone were also found. Stone sharpening and finely ground stone axes, etc. It shows that stone carving is also an important craft.

From the origin of human art began the history of stone carving. It can be said that up to now, none of the all inclusive art forms of mankind is more ancient than stone carving, and there is no skillful art form, which is more popular and everlasting.

The history of stone carvings can be traced back to the Middle Paleolithic age, which was one or two hundred thousand years ago. Since then, stone carving has been handed down to the present. In this long history, the creation of stone carving art has been constantly updated and improved. In different periods, there are great changes in the type and style of stone carving; different needs, different aesthetic pursuit, different social environment and social system are restricting the development and evolution of stone carving creation. The history of stone carving is not only the history of art, but also the history with rich cultural connotation, and also the vivid and real history of mankind.

Stone carving in the pre Qin Period

Around 10000 years ago, the primitive ancestors bid farewell to the economy of gathering and hunting, ended their wandering life, and moved into the Neolithic Age of settlement. People began to engage in settlement life dominated by farming and animal husbandry. When the primitive people bid farewell to the gathering and hunting environment in the mountains and forests and moved to the river banks and hills in pingye, the vivid hunting art of the past is no longer reproduced. It is found that the painted pottery patterns of the Neolithic age are often concise, abstract, deformed and even geometrically formalized animal patterns. Therefore, in the areas where the Neolithic Revolution flourished, the stone carving and rock paintings have become secondary and even extinct.

The ancestors of the Neolithic Age in China were able to make pottery about 10000 years ago, but they began to enter the age of painted pottery about 7000 years ago. In contrast, the technology of grinding stone tools invented by ancient Chinese people was used in the late Paleolithic period. The stone ornaments of the cave people on the top of the mountain were made by grinding and piercing, which is a milestone in the history of ancient Chinese sculpture, because only with the invention of grinding technology, stone will become the carving material that human beings can conquer.

During the period of Peiligang and Yangshao culture, the end of the glacial period in China was a warm climate suitable for human survival and development. The settled farmers, who know their fate happily and peacefully, weave the ode of peace. They make all kinds of pottery, and like to use abstract, concise and generalized patterns of human face, fish and various geometric patterns for decoration. People's understanding of the beauty of form has greatly expanded, and plastic arts have also expanded to all fields of sculpture.

The earlier stone carving works of Neolithic Age in China can be represented by the stone grinding plate and rod of Peiligang culture. It is made of sandstone, and its appearance is designed as the geometric shape of sole shape. It is neat and generous, and its center of gravity is stable. Its processing is very difficult. It needs to be knocked, cut, polished and trimmed, involving various basic techniques of stone carving processing. Compared with all kinds of grinding stone tools at the same time, it has more sense of form. It is not only a faithful record of primitive people's production and labor, but also reflects a higher aesthetic value. This kind of stone tool with dual nature of labor is often placed beside the dead as burial objects. It is the religious charisma that makes artists create this rare stone carving work.

However, in the stone age, due to the easy modeling and the availability of materials, pottery has always been the mainstream of sculpture. Until the invention of iron, stone carving was still a rare work of art, so we have to turn our attention to stone carving and rock painting.

In the border areas where the conditions are suitable, rock carvings and rock paintings are still the main form of original artists' creation, and they are enduring. For example, there are many Neolithic works in Yinshan Rock Paintings. The style of Yinshan Rock Painting has a profound influence. In fact, most of the rock paintings created by the ancient nomads in the north and northwest of China are carved with stone, and their origin should be traced back to Yinshan Rock Paintings. In addition, the description of hunting and animals is always an eternal theme. The pictorial characters in the inscriptions of Shang and Zhou dynasties, the realistic patterns in the bronzes of the Warring States period, and the hunting figures in the bricks of Qin Dynasty are all the extensions of this technique, but the latter is becoming more and more precise, formalized and rhythmic. It can be seen that the abstract generalization and exaggeration of shadow technique can best reflect the aesthetic ideal of Chinese classical art, which pays no attention to form similarity and pursues vivid charm.

In addition, another source of Chinese ancient stone carving techniques, line carving, also appeared in the Neolithic age. The stone sculpture found in jiangjunya, Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, is believed to have been carved by primitive ancestors at the end of the Neolithic age. This kind of line carved stone carving form has been widely used in the stone carving creation of the past dynasties.

Although there are not many stone carvings unearthed in the Neolithic age, their styles are not simple, and they are totally different from those of stone carvings and rock paintings. Several talc carvings from houwa, Donggou, Liaoning Province are all round carvings of small people's heads. The knife technique is rough and clumsy, and the image is simple and vivid, which indicates that they are symbolic works.

Although the technique of expression is immature and abstract, it does not mean that the carving technique was low at that time. For example, the relief face of Daxi Culture adopts the skill of carving and grinding, and its image also has an invisible religious power. Obviously, the sculptors at that time put their main energy on the creation of jade carvings. Because in Hongshan Culture and Liangzhu culture, we have seen many exquisite jade carvings and small stone carvings.

The jade dragon of Hongshan culture is a rare masterpiece. It is made of Xiuyan Jade with high hardness, which is the proof of the application of stone carving techniques in jade carving creation. As we all know, in ancient sculpture, it is difficult to distinguish between jade and stone materials, and there are only relative views in experts' classification standards. But one thing we can confirm is that in the stone age and bronze age, ancient sculptors treated jade and stone equally. Therefore, in the Hongshan Culture and the northern yinyangying culture, we can see that fish shaped stone pendants and Yuhua stone decorations coexist with the five sculptures.

On the other hand, the original artists also applied their skills in the field of practical tools processing, making stone pestles, mortar, grinding plates and various stone farming tools, and also used to carve stone chamber type tombs and stone coffins. Especially the appearance of the latter has a very important position in the history of Chinese ancient stone architecture. The late Neolithic stone shed, discovered in Haicheng, Liaoning Province, is one of the representative works.

In the late Paleolithic age, megalith architecture is a simple combination of natural megaliths without carving, which is stable and powerful. It is the product of primitive megalith worship that makes people detached from the world. It once prevailed in the Eurasian grassland, and then spread to the East Asian continent. When there was no country, it entered the era of civilization. Its remains can still be found in the border areas. In the form of stone shed in Liaoning sea area, the stone slab has been carved into regular geometry, the man-made force has been strengthened, and the natural force and religious spirit have obviously weakened. It should be the end of the stonework. This stone shed building is believed to be a tomb. In prehistoric people's mind, giant stone is usually considered as the residence of soul or God, so it is often used as boundary stone, coffin or object of religious worship.

So far, stone carvings of the Neolithic age have been found, which can be roughly divided into several categories. The first is traditional stone carving, including traditional typical microlithic and small ornaments; the second is grinding utility, including daily necessities, utensils, production tools and weapons; the third is religious idols; and the fourth is utensils

Chinese PinYin : Shi Diao