Stone carving and stone carving products classified by production methods will be introduced in detail in the fourth section of this chapter, "Stone carving and stone carving handicraft processing".
Stone carving, stone carving and stone carving crafts have a wide range of uses. Generally, they are used as decorative works of art, and the following categories are the most used in China:
Craft ornaments stone carving
This stone handicraft has been made and used in China for thousands of years, and it is still a favorite thing. It is mainly made of all kinds of jade and colored stones, including all kinds of jade ornaments of various times, all kinds of ornamental stones such as Taihu Stone, Yuhua Stone and Three Gorges Stone, as well as stone carvings and stone vases made of all kinds of marble and colored stones. Taihu Stone has been used to decorate gardens, parks and courtyards since the time of He Lv, King of Wu in the Spring and Autumn Period. These stones are also popular ornamental stones.
Grottoes and cliff carvings
Grottoes and cliff carvings began at the end of Han Dynasty, flourished in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, flourished in Sui and Tang Dynasties, and continued to the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. Its development is closely related to Buddhist culture, and the carving of stone statues mainly depends on Buddhist painting. There are thousands of stone statues in grottoes with different shapes and costumes, which occupy an important position in the history of culture and art. There are also many colorful architectural images in the grottoes, such as temples, towers, ridges, pavilions, beams, arches and caissons, which reflect the architectural characteristics of past dynasties. Cliff carvings in grottoes are generally carved on sandstone or limestone walls.
Graveyard stone carving
Graveyard stone carving is a major type of stone carving in China, with a long history and large scale. Stone carvings are mainly tombs, but also sarcophagus, stone reliefs and tomb ritual vessels. Carved stone statues of civil servants, military commanders, ladies, waiters and other figures, stone horses, stone elephants, stone camels, various stone beasts, stone birds and stone rabbits are lifelike and full of vitality. These stone carvings and stone carvings are national key protected cultural relics, most of which are marble carvings.
For example, the statue of Yuling, located in Malanyu, Zunhua County, Hebei Province, and the statue road of Nanjing Ming Mausoleum.
Stone carvings of palaces and gardens
Stone carvings and stone carvings can be found everywhere in palaces, yamen, houses and gardens of the royal family and relatives. The ancient buildings are huge and spectacular, and the carving skills are exquisite. They are a huge treasure house of culture and art in China, and they are the national key protected cultural relics. Among them, the famous stone carvings are Daming Palace in Tang Dynasty, Confucius Stone Carvings from Jin Dynasty to Qing Dynasty, Forbidden City, Beihai Garden City, Potala Palace, Shenyang Imperial Palace, Summer Palace, Summer Resort, Gongwangfu Garden and Yuanmingyuan Stone Carvings in Ming and Qing Dynasties.
In this kind of architectural stone carving, stone pillars and foundation columns are mostly carved, and dragon carving is the most distinctive, such as the stone carving Panlong column in the Forbidden City and Shilong Imperial Road, which are generally carved with marble. The remaining Dashui stone carvings and immortal stone carvings on the site of Yuanmingyuan in Beijing.
Temple holy land
This kind of stone carving is widely distributed in China and has a long history. There are many famous stone carvings and excellent stone carvings. For example, the marble sculpture of Chongsheng Temple in Tang Dynasty to Five Dynasties, the white marble statue of Shishi Temple in Tang Dynasty and Huaqing official laojunmiao, the Jinci Temple in Song Dynasty, the Confucius Temple in Jin Dynasty to Qing Dynasty, the Suzhou Confucian Temple in Southern Song Dynasty, the Guangsheng Temple in Yuan and Ming Dynasties, the Temple of Heaven in Ming Dynasty, the Lama Temple (the largest Lama Temple dedicated to the royal family) and Wuhou Temple in Qing Dynasty, and the Kaiyuan Temple, Dai Temple and Foshan Ancestral Temple in Song and Qing Dynasties.
Shiqiao stone carving
China has a long history of building bridges with stones, many of which are representative historical sites and occupy an important position in the history of international bridge building. In the construction of stone bridges, it is very common to use stone carving art for decoration, which has existed since ancient times. For example, the Shang Xiao Bridge in Linying County, Henan Province was built in the Sui Dynasty (AD 584), slightly earlier than the famous Anji Dashiqiao in Zhaozhou, Hebei Province. Despite the ups and downs of 1000 years, the people and things carved on the bridge deck are exquisite and unique, so far they have not been deformed and are well preserved. The water-absorbing beast carved in the middle stone of the main hole of the bridge, the luxurious carving of the pier top stone, the flying horse treading clouds carved on the arch of the bridge, and the faucet carved at the connection between the main hole and the abdominal hole of the bridge are all rare stone carvings in China. Stone carvings of stone bridges are mainly shaped like dragons, lions, water-absorbing animals and lux, which are common in piers and bridge railings. The selected stones are sandstone, marble and granite.
Shiquehe memorial archway stone carving
Stone que and memorial archway have a long history, with a large number and a wide range, many of which are precious cultural relics. For example, there were many gaps in the Han Dynasty, such as Taishi, Shao Shi, Qi Mu, Feng Huan, Gaoyi, Fan Min, Shen Fujun, Pingyang Fujun and so on. The stone carvings are exquisite and rich in content.
Stone archways are more numerous and more widely distributed, and stone carving decorative art can be seen everywhere in China. It can be roughly divided into Palace Square, Guandi Square, Temple Square, Gongde Square, Cemetery Square, Garden Square, Chastity Square, Xiao Zhong Square and various memorial squares. Stone materials are mainly sandstone and marble, some of which are stone carving art treasures and famous ancient buildings, such as Guo Xushi Square and "Xuan Yue" memorial arch in Ming Dynasty, stone memorial arch in Kongling and Confucius Temple, and memorial arch in Jie Zhen. For example, in Zunhua County, Hebei Province, the stone carvings of the memorial archway of Malanyu Qing Dongling.
Stone carving of tower building
There are many stone pagodas built in China in the past dynasties, among which the stone carving art is more common, and the stone carving content in the pagodas in temples is mostly related to various religious cultures. For example, the Three Pagodas in Dali from the Tang Dynasty to the Five Dynasties, the Yunju Temple Pagoda and the Shijing Pagoda representing the Jin Dynasty, and the stupas in the Song Dynasty are not listed one by one.
Stone carving, calligraphy and sculpture
There are many kinds of monuments, including monuments, memorial halls, meritorious service monuments, temple monuments, temple monuments, grave tombstones and so on. Except for a few tablets without words, they are generally tablets with words. Usually, the tablet is engraved with words, and some are accompanied by decorative patterns. Decorative patterns, birds, animals, flowers and mascots are carved on the base and cover, and dragons and phoenixes are also carved on the royal cover. Marble is the main stone used to build monuments, and sandstone and granite are also commonly used. Some stone tablets are huge individuals, and some become stone tablets. Stone carving calligraphy replaces paper with stone and writes with engraving, which is wonderful. There are many famous stone tablets and stone carving calligraphy. For example, the forest of steles in Xi 'an includes more than 3,000 kinds of historical steles from Han Dynasty to Qing Dynasty, which is the largest stone collection in China. Together with the Hanlin forest of steles being built in Kaifeng, it can be said that it is a sea of steles, which brings together the calligraphy works of famous calligraphers of past dynasties, including Kai, Xing, Cao, Zhuan, Li,.
In addition to large-scale carvings such as stone tablets and cliff carvings, there are other stone carvings, such as memorial books in the Mausoleum and modern finely carved small stone books, such as more than 0/00 pieces of white marble memorial books excavated in the tomb of the Prince, and six stone books carved with tile slabs in modern Chengdu, with 26 pages 1278 words, bound with eyeliner, each page is very thick.
Shishi stone carving
Among the stone animal carvings in China, the stone lion carvings are unique, with numerous productions, and are widely used for decoration, such as stone lion carvings on both sides of the gates of modern large-scale commercial buildings, hotels and restaurants, and stone lion decorative carvings on bridges, monuments and squares. Stone lions have various shapes, such as standing, squatting and lying down. And there are often regional differences. Carved stone lions are made of various materials, mostly sandstone, marble and granite. Stone painting artware sculpture
There are many kinds of stone carvings, including rock paintings, natural colored stone paintings, mosaic stone murals, stone screen styles and so on. Shandong Duanmiyu, Taohe, Songhua, Tiantan (or Pangu) and Helan stone carvings; Stone carvings of paperweights and stationery; Tea sets, wine sets, smoking sets, lamps, tables and chairs, stool coffee tables and other daily necessities, such as craft stone carvings, are large in quantity and refined in production; Unique styles such as ink stone carving have become the wonders of China stone culture: mosaic stone mural is a new skill of contemporary stone carving art, such as the newly-built colored stone landscape painting in the lobby on the first floor of CCTV Building, which is magnificent and amazing in skill.
Commemorative stone carving
In order to beautify the city, improve people's material and spiritual life and commemorate martyrs and heroes, China has built some urban gardens and memorial stone carvings. Especially since 1978, urban sculpture, garden sculpture and memorial sculpture in large and medium-sized cities all over the country have developed rapidly, and marble and granite sculptures are unprecedented, and some of them are rare.
Precious stone carvings, such as the white marble relief of the Monument to the People's Heroes in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, the white marble statue of Chairman Mao Memorial Hall and Chairman Mao Zedong in Renmin South Road in Chengdu, and the white marble statue of Zhou Enlai in Nankai University in Tianjin.
The above kinds of stone carving art often include two or more large buildings. For example, stone carvings in temples often include monuments, workshops, towers, lions and other stone carvings, which set off each other and are beautifully decorated, forming a complete stone carving group art, and its cultural and artistic comprehensive value is extremely high.