Bamboo Carving

Bamboo Carving

Bamboo, pine and plum, called the "three good friends in the cold years," have always been popular among people, including poets, artists and handicraftsmen. The common bamboo gives a sense of transcendent beauty, and collecting bamboo carvings has been the hobby of Chinese people for a long time.

China was one of the first nations to use bamboo. Archeologists once unearthed a painted dragon-pattern bamboo spoon from the Western Han Dynasty (206BC-AD24) at the No 1 Han tomb of Changsha Mawangdui in Hunan Province. From this, we can see that as early as 2,000 years ago people carved bamboo into elaborate utensils.

Very few bamboo carvings pre-dated the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), but mid-Ming-Dynasty bamboo carvings have become a professional industrial art, and more and more artists have taken it up, shifting its role from practical use into an art form. Jiading and Jinling areas that teemed with bamboo were the two bamboo-carving centers during the Ming and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties.

The Jiading School was represented by Zhu He, Zhu Ying and Zhu Zhuizheng, who were three generations of the same family. They were all good at painting, embossment and round carving, among which the embossment consists of bass and high embossments. With the efforts of the Zhu family, the Jiading School became the biggest branch of bamboo carving in the world of that period. Carvers like Hou Xiaozeng, Shen Dasheng, Wang Yongfang, Wang Zhiyu, Wangzhi, Wu Zhifan, Shi Tianzhang, Zhoupo and Gu Zhangyu were all outstanding members of this school.

 

The Jinling School featured another style, which paid no attention to the exquisite carvings, and pursued natural tastes with minimal cut and polish. Its main technique was the bamboo concave carving, which not only involved lines but also the side inlays of the bamboo and could vividly recreate the sentiment embodied in the landscape. The Jinling School was set up in the mid-Ming Dynasty by Pu Zongqian, and it was unfortunate that his craftsmanship was not handed down after his death.

Two other carving methods are called "peel then carve" and "carve then peel," which were based on the development of bamboo carving in the Ming. In the first method, bamboo is sawn into bamboo tubes with the burls and green surface removed, then inlaid into a wooden matrix after cooking, basking and pressing. Lastly, the surface is polished with patterns carved on it. The second technique was developed in the mid-Qing Dynasty, retaining the green surface with carved pattern on it. The surface is then removed to reveal the real bamboo body.

A Cultural Symbol - China's New Year Picture

A Cultural Symbol - China's New Year Picture

Spring Festival, China's most celebrative occasion, begins its annual felicitations with the posting of New Year pictures on the walls and windows on the 24th of the 12th month in the lunar calendar according to tradition. The pictures convey people's jubilation and expectations of the coming new year.

However, in a century of rapid globalization, how many traditions have been lucky enough to survive? Is the New Year picture bound to disappear from people's memory?

 Traditional New Year pictures mainly feature local people's life and customs with intense colors and violent contrast. Famous pictures like "Fat Baby," "Abundant Harvest of All Food Crops," and "Surplus Every Year" have been prevailing across China for hundreds of years. Nonetheless, today, these pictures can hardly be found in some modern metropolises like Shanghai, which was once a prosperous place for New Year picture manufacture and consumption. Some think that the disappearance of New Year pictures is unavoidable. So what remains beneath the continuing disappearance?

  Epitome of traditional customs

Chinese New Year pictures not only serve mainly as an embodiment of folk customs, but also boast decorative and appreciative values.

"People post these pictures around the walls of the kang (a heatable brick bed in North China) and on the windows for ornament. The pictures' contents include folk tales, ancient legends, historic stories, and real life scenarios, and thus boast appreciative value," noted Feng Jicai, a famous writer as well as the president of the China Folk Artists Association that is dedicated to rescuing China's folk culture, including the investigation and rescue project of woodblock.
 

New Year pictures from Tianjin Yangliuqing, Suzhou Taohuawu, Weifang Yangjiabu, and Hebei Wuqiang are acknowledged as the "Four Great Woodblocks in China," each of which boasts unique features. Nonetheless, the four places of New Year's picture production have been gradually declining since the 1980s, and are at the verge of extinction.

 

"In fact, Chinese New Year pictures began to disappear as early as the beginning of the Republic of China (1911-1949)," said Feng, adding: "Shanghai clearly demonstrated the disappearing trace of New Year pictures."

Su Zhou Taohuawu New Year's pictures entered the Shanghai market at the beginning of the Republic of China, and over time evolved into Xiaoxiaochang New Year pictures.

"They (Xiaoxiaochang New Year pictures) reflected the life in the concessions, echoing the time spirit and containing local flavor," said Feng. "But the introduction of Western printing skills changed the fate of China's New Year pictures. … However, the New Year pictures with new printing skills do not have the original and traditional flavor."

  Rescue

In Wuqiang County of North China's Hebei Province, there are only about 80 experienced artists with an average age of 40 engaged in cutting woodblocks and printing New Year pictures. Many seasoned craftspeople changed their profession when the industry began to decline.

Although now, many famous places that produce New Year pictures have developed the place's culture and tourism with the support of woodblock, hence greatly enhancing the artworks' popularity and protection, with its root no longer in the traditional customs, Wuqiang's original flavor has weakened.

"The disappearing course of China's New Year pictures is also a process in which we throw away our traditions," noted Feng. "We could only really pick up New Year pictures again by meditating upon history, folk customs, and cultural bearings."

Spring Festival is usually mentioned in the same breath as Christmas. While China has fireworks and New Year pictures, the West boasts Christmas trees, Santa Claus, and Christmas cards.

The Art of Chinese Chop Engraving

The Art of Chinese Chop Engraving (two)

The most important part of chop carving is the engraving of the stamping surface. And half the task of carving a chop is done once the calligraphic style has been chosen, and the arrangement of the characters decided: this is called the "composition" of a chop. Carving the characters with skilled, confident cuts is called "knife technique". The marriage of these two technique results in a totally new form of written expression, referred to as "calligraphic technique". Chop engraving that is of a certain standard or higher displays excellence in the three areas of "composition", "knife technique" and "calligraphic technique." To further increase the refinement and beauty of the chop design, chop engraves may in addition to carving the stamping surface, create an elaborate sculpture on the top of the chop, or cut out a scene on the sides in shallow relief. Or based on the natural grain and colouring of the stone used, they may sculpt a unique and breathtaking original design into the chop to further increasing it's artistic value. The combination of two the three-dimensional art on a chop gives it special artistic depth and sophistication.

After a chop has been engraved, it must be pressed into red ink paste, then stamped onto paper before it becomes an object of practical use; so red ink paste is an indispensable implement in chop art. Red ink paste is made from cinnabar, a mercuric compound. The most important feature of red ink paste is its hue and lust; good ink paste has a brilliant, lustrous red colour that retains its original beauty over the ages. Porcelain is the most ideal material for the ink paste container. Ink paste must be frequently stirred with a stirrer so that the oil does not separate to the top, leaving dried out paste underneath. Those who take their chop implements seriously store the ink paste container in a wooden or satin tapestry box to protect the paste from accidental bumps or knocks.

Chop art provides opportunity for quiet and satisfying leisure activity that is well worth promoting among the general population. Its culture importance cannot be underestimated.
 
 

 

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