Hui 'an stone carving has a long history, and its exquisite craftsmanship has formed a unique artistic style and cultural connotation. It is a wonderful flower of Chinese excellent traditional culture and is known as "the national light" and "the best in China". 200 1 was awarded the title of "China Stone Carving Craft City" by China Stone Industry Association, and was awarded the title of "China Stone Carving Capital" in September 2003. The earliest stone carvings in Hui 'an can be traced back more than 600 years/kloc-0 years ago, and the round carvings of Wenwu, Huyang in the tomb of the ancestor of the Jin Dynasty. In the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, Wang Chao, the elder brother of Wang Shen, the ancestor of Ming Dynasty, made a stone carving in front of the tomb. There was a civilian warrior, a stone horse and a stone sheep. The tomb structure, architectural techniques and stone carving art of his tomb all inherited the Central Plains style of that era.
Since the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Hui 'an stone carving has matured, which is also the period when the Southern School art represented by Hui 'an formed its own distinctive and unique artistic style. If the northern school is compared to the majestic, then the graceful and graceful style of the southern school should be the style feature of the southern school stone carving art of "apricot blossom and spring rain in the south of the Yangtze River", which is embodied in the three main representatives of Huian stone carving, Shishi and Dragon Ball. Luoyang Wan 'an Bridge is a beam harbour bridge built in the early Northern Song Dynasty in China. It is the largest stone carving project in the history of Hui 'an and a pioneering work in the history of bridge building in the Gulf. It has the reputation of "the first bridge on the sea" and "the first bridge in the world". Built in the 20th year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty (1387), there is only the most complete ancient T-shaped stone city in China-Chongwu Ancient City in Hui 'an (Qin Long in Ming Dynasty and Shunzhi in Qing Dynasty, where Qi Jiguang and Zheng Chenggong fought against the enemy respectively). Its buildings are all made of locally rich granite, which is a veritable stone city, which can best reflect the connotation of Huian stone literature.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Hui 'an folk stone carvers summed up the experience of carving the image characteristics of dragons, winds and lions, which were called "crying lions, laughing phoenixes and falling jaws dragons". Therefore, under their hands, lions always show a funny expression of Gherardini. In artistic treatment, the thick curly beard and eyebrows often cover the eyes of the lion's bronze bell as much as possible, trying to make the mighty lion look amiable to cater to southerners who like to dance. This shows that Hui 'an Stone Carving has got rid of the traditional characteristics of the northern part of the Central Plains in Ma Pingchuan, absorbed some aura of the beautiful landscape in southern Fujian, formed its own distinctive and unique artistic characteristics, and moved towards maturity and independence, which has since influenced half of the stone carving art in China.
In terms of artistic form, Zhou Li also invented "needle black and white", and created a brand-new artistic expression by using the principle of black and white imaging, which is the mature shadow play sculpture in modern times. Shadow play sculpture shows the exquisite and slender artistic characteristics of the Southern School to the fullest, which is a great contribution to China's stone carving technology, further consolidating the position of the Southern School stone carving art represented by Hui 'an stone carving in the country, and is a "patent" owned by the Southern School art. ..
As far as artistic influence is concerned, Hui 'an stone carving was famous all over the country in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. In the fifth year of Daoguang reign, namely 1825, the stone archway outside the East Gate of Xianyou, Fujian, built by Jiang and Jiang Tang, was carved with dragons, phoenixes, lions, unicorns, flowers and birds, inscriptions and so on. It is the masterpiece of Nanpai stone archway, and is called "the flower of ancient architecture".
After the founding of New China, Hui 'an's carving skills were reborn and perfected. There are countless excellent works. At the invitation of Chen Jiageng, the leader of overseas Chinese, aoyuan was built in Jimei, Xiamen, which is a concentrated expression of modern stone carving skills in Hui 'an. There are 650 blue stone carvings in the whole park, which are all-encompassing, with ancient historical themes, China revolution history and new China construction history. It is a great miracle in the history of arts and crafts in China, and is known as the Grand View Garden of China Stone Carving Art.. The Jimei Liberation Monument inscribed by President Mao Zedong was also built by Huian sculptors. In the 1950s, the monumental buildings in several important historical periods in Beijing, such as the Great Hall of the People and the Monument to the People's Heroes, left immortal works by Hui 'an craftsmen.
Since the reform and opening up, Hui 'an stone carving has made a new leap. The main works in the 1970s are: the stone pillars in front of the Great Hall of the People; Chairman Mao Memorial Hall; August 1st Nanchang Uprising Monument; Statue of the tallest figure in Gulangyu, Xiamen, 15.7-meter-high statue of Zheng Chenggong; Statue of Peace in Meizhou Island Strait, Putian; Fuzhou Xichan Temple is the tallest stone pagoda in China. Premier Zhou Memorial Hall in Huai 'an, Jiangsu; Yancheng New Fourth Army Memorial Hall; Nanjing Yuhuatai Memorial Hall; Jinzhou Liberation Monument; Liaoshen Campaign Monument; Mao Zedong Poetry Forest in Shaoshan, Hunan; Xi 'an Terracotta Warriors Exhibition Hall; Shaanxi History Museum; Emperor's mausoleum; Tibet Hotel; Qinghai-Tibet Sichuan-Tibet Highway Monument; Jinggangshan stationed monument; Guangzhou Xuanwu Tower; Taiwan Province Fengshan 500 Luohan; The 200-square-meter Kowloon Wall and Kowloon Pond of the congenital Jade Palace in Chiayi, Taiwan Province Province are even more magnificent, which are rare in the world and can be called the first in the world! There is also a statue of Zheng He in the Straits of Malacca, Malaysia; Japanese monks in Jian Zhen and "Fuzhou Garden" in Naha are numerous.
After 80 years, the main works are; Splendid china, a cultural and folk village; Hu Xian Hongfa Temple; Shenzhen Liberation Monument; Statue of Luhuitou in Sanya, Hainan; Chongwu "Yulong Cave" stone carving group; China Stone Carving Technology Expo Park; Baishi Park and Huian Keshan Park; China Millennium Monument: Quanzhou "Carp, Fish and Dragon" stone carving (diameter10m, total weight of 340 tons, which is the largest hollow stone carving ball in China at present); The white granite "Kowloon Column" with a height of 19.99 meters in Shenzhen Yongfu Square was awarded the "Shanghai Guinness World Record".
In recent years, on the basis of retaining the original style, traditional sculpture has been combined with modern sculpture art, with higher cultural content, more categories and higher technology, and has become a stone carving distribution center with the strongest processing capacity, the most sophisticated technology and the largest export volume in China. Stone carving crafts have a complete range of products. From the perspective of traditional sculpture, there are three major industries: stele carving, lantern carving and sculpture, which form six categories: round carving, line carving, relief carving, shadow carving, heavy carving and micro-carving. Among them, shadow play sculpture is known as "a must in China"; Monuments, garden carvings, garden stones and building components have been produced on a large scale, and their products are widely used in buildings, gardens, urban sculptures, temples, cemeteries, archways and bridges. Huian is one of the largest stone and stone products distribution centers in China, and has formed a relatively complete industrial system, including mining, waste materials marketing, processing and sales of various stone products, manufacturing of stone machinery and its raw and auxiliary materials, environmental protection technology and display of stone industry, and supporting professional markets. Products sell well in Japan, Europe, America, Southeast Asia, Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. There are about 1300 stone carving and supporting carving industrial enterprises in the county. Among the 34 1 enterprises with an annual output value of more than RMB 0/0 million, there are 93 stone carving crafts 1 0, with more than 10,000 employees110,000. 20 1 1 year, the total output value, scale and export volume of stone are among the best in the same industry in China.