Villagers learning to make brick carvings. Courtesy of respondents
Ningxia Longde, February 27, 2017 Title: Brick carving non-hereditary inheritors: "breaking" and "standing" in "shou art"
China News Network reporter Yu Jing
Brick carving, commonly known as "flower work", is one of the "three sculptures" of traditional Chinese carving art, and is an important art form in ancient Chinese architectural carving. Bu Wenjun, the fourth generation inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage Wei's brick carving project, has been accompanied by green bricks for more than 30 years, and the tip of the knife has flown exquisite skills.
On February 27, this reporter came to the studio of Bu Wenjun in Fengling Township, Longde County, Guyuan City, Ningxia, where he was buried in the case, and the blade touched the green brick, bursting out straight or graceful lines. After the brick chips flew away, the cold and hard brick surface was full of branches and flowers...
In Bu Wenjun's studio, several wide walls are brick carvings, the blue-gray bricks and stones are a little simple, and the exquisite and delicate knife work is admirable.
Bu Wenjun (first from right) instructs the fifth generation of Wei's brick carving inheritors to carve brick carvings. Courtesy of respondents
Brick carving as an architectural carving technique originated in the Shang Zhou, developed in the Tang and Song dynasties, and flourished in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Wei's brick carving is based on the absorption of the strengths of the family and the inheritance of traditional craftsmanship, founded by Wei Xiaozu, a brick carver in the late Qing Dynasty, and has a history of more than 120 years. Wei's brick carving is exquisite, simple and generous, and the works are mainly based on the auspicious and popular content such as "dragon ridge beast", "five-maned ridge beast", "lion rolling hydrangea ball" and "double dragon pattern".
Bu Wenjun told reporters that Wei's brick carving production process is varied, from soil selection, ingredients, mud brewing, to kneading, carving, and then to the construction of kilns, firing, etc. Are exquisite, the birth of a brick carving work to go through seven processes, more than twenty steps. Of course, the most test of craftsmanship is hard carving, which needs to be fired first and then shaped, and when encountering relief and through carving, you have to be careful and careful, the beard of the animal, the petals of flowers and plants, and the rhizomes, with a little strength, will be carved or broken.
Making green bricks a work of art is the pursuit of Wei's brick carving inheritance and development for more than 100 years. Bu Wenjun's brick carving skills were inherited from his father-in-law, Wei Shixiang, the third generation of Wei's brick carving. Taking over the burden of inheritance from his father-in-law, Bu Wenjun knows the responsibility on his shoulders. "Inheritance is not just a continuation, but to let this skill be familiar and loved by more people, so that the 'intangible cultural heritage' will have lasting vitality."
"If this craft is to be carried forward, it cannot be conservative." Bu Wenjun said that in order to let wei's brick carvings be passed on in its original form, he broke the family's ideological concept of "passing on men not to women, passing on the inside and not passing on the outside", carried out training and art activities for the society, led the surrounding villagers, left-behind women and the disabled to employment, drove the villagers to earn "cultural money", made the former family craftsmanship a new way to get rich in his hometown, and successfully explored a path of "intangible cultural heritage productive protection and industrialized development".
In addition, he also followed the ancient method, improved the brick carving process, replaced animal hair with cotton during the mud making process, and solved the problem of cracking in the firing process and the shortage of ingredients. And the development of more than 300 kinds of new products, the production of various types of handmade brick carving works, construction batch brick carving products and other popular market, products sold to Gansu, Shaanxi, Qinghai and other places.
"I don't have any reservations, I teach them. Brick carving is a very practical thing, and we do it very standardly, and the vitality of the craft will not be lost. Bu Wenjun said that in 2011, he also set up a market-oriented company to quietly turn the dream of promoting this traditional craft into a reality.
Bu Wenjun believes that it is of great significance to break through the shackles of old ideas and innovate and inherit the "Wei's brick carving" technique. He told reporters, "Now advocating the spirit of craftsmanship and paying attention to the inheritance and development of traditional skills, I am very encouraged, I feel that the era he pursues has arrived, and he must do his best to inherit and develop the art of brick carving." (End)