Clay sculptures, also known as "art on the fingertips". A seemingly ordinary piece of "mud", after dozens of tedious crafts such as sculpture, polishing, and kiln, has become a lifelike animal or human figure and becomes a beautiful work of art. After a century of inheritance, the Feicheng Wang's clay sculpture, with its simple and generous shape and local characteristics, was included in the seventh batch of municipal intangible cultural heritage representative items in Tai'an City in 2018.
Speaking of Wang's clay sculptures, the character that has to be mentioned is the third generation of Wang Shirong. Wang's clay sculpture is rooted in the land of Taoxiang, originated in the Republic of China period, and has a history of more than 100 years. During the Republic of China period, in shiheng'er village in Feicheng City, there was a family name Wang Mingsheng, known as the clay man king, who was famous in the surrounding areas, and mainly relied on the clay people to make a living in his life.
In 1949, the liberation of New China was finally ushered in, and after the liberation, Wang Mingsheng started the business of selling goods, taking small department stores, pushing on small dirt carts, putting mud dolls, shaking rattles in his hands, and walking the streets and alleys. Later, because of the age, no longer running around, this traditional skill was also taken over by his son Wang Qingshui, Wang Qingshui and the clay people have been improved, the clay sculpture works are colored, making it more beautiful, every New Year's Festival Wang Qingshui will take the clay people to the surrounding areas to catch the market, run the temple fair, the business is booming, then parents to buy a mud doll for the child, mud whistle to play, is the best toy of that era.
During the Cultural Revolution, due to the influence of the "four olds", many traditional cultures and arts were destroyed, in order to prevent accidents, Wang Qingshui protected the clay doll mold with a history of hundreds of years, which has been passed down to this day and has now become a historical witness to clay art. With the change of the times, clay man art has gradually faded out of people's vision.
In the spring of 2001, Wang Qingshui's son Wang Shirong went to Tianjin to do business, accidentally saw the world-famous clay man Zhang works, especially excited, clay man Zhang has become a local distinctive cultural business card, the influence is very large, Wang Shirong looked at the body inspired and inspired, returned home began to concentrate on the study of clay sculpture, due to the influence of his grandfather and father since childhood, he has a good foundation, and soon mastered the entire clay sculpture production process.
The third generation of inheritors Wang Shirong has continuously innovated on the basis of absorbing the experience of his predecessors, forming the unique artistic charm of Wang's clay sculptures. Wang's clay sculptures are made of local clay, which are made through multiple processes such as taking mud, mixing mud, practicing mud, kneading mud, drying, and firing. The selected soil is crushed, dried, concocted with water, and then beaten with a wooden stick, kneaded like a dough, refined the mud, placed for a period of time, the mud has toughness and stickiness, and after dozens of processes to complete the work, through hard work. Wang Shirong finally let the mud dolls, mud tigers and mud whistles that disappeared in the Feicheng area for many years reappear, and his works have a strong local atmosphere, vivid images, liveliness and transmission.
Most of the themes of Wang's clay sculptures are taken from rural farmers, showing folk customs and folk customs, and the local atmosphere is strong. The image of the work is auspicious and festive, vivid and lively, with different forms, unique local atmosphere, interesting and interesting, showing a unique clumsiness and beauty. The works, both men, women and children, use exaggerated body shapes and character expressions to show the diligence, simplicity and kindness of the people of Taoxiang.
The use of clay sculpture as a unique form to record the memories of people who have disappeared or are disappearing is a vivid record of local folk culture. For more than 20 years, Wang Shirong has created hundreds of interesting clay sculptures with folk stories and legends as the theme, which have attracted attention from all walks of life.
"Our Wang's clay sculpture is different from other places, we use a meter of mud under the surface, and the local atmosphere of the works is relatively heavy, such as spring ploughing, New Year's Day, and primitive human scenes, and the wisdom of farmers is expressed by doing these things that exude the local atmosphere." Wang Shirong said.
With a century of history, Wang's clay sculptures are the crystallization of the wisdom of local folk artists in the labor life, in order to do a good job in the inheritance and development of intangible cultural heritage skills, Wang Shirong in the continuous study to improve their own skills at the same time, but also with a number of museums and folk customs hall docking, their own clay sculptures in the museum for exhibition, enhance the popularity and reputation of Wang's clay sculptures. At the same time, he has also entered a number of schools to volunteer clay sculpture classes for students, and has reserved talents for the cultivation of intangible cultural heritage inheritors.
In order to improve the skills of Wang's clay sculpture, Wang Shirong has successively studied in some colleges and universities such as Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, Shandong Academy of Arts, (Shandong) Academy of Arts and Crafts, etc. In order to better pass on Wang's clay sculptures, he came to some schools to teach children so that they can better understand and inherit Wang's clay sculptures.
"Feelings carry the weight of intangible cultural heritage, so that the soul made of mud can enter thousands of households." Cultural inheritance is really a lifetime. Wang Shirong said with emotion. (Reporting by Cao Rufeng, reporter of Dazhong Daily, correspondent Ji Zongyu, Yan Huizhi, Gao Yang)