Dongyang woodcarving is named after it was produced in Dongyang, Zhejiang. Together with Qingtian stone carving and boxwood carving, it is also called Zhejiang three sculptures. According to legend, as early as 1000 years ago, Dongyang people began the history of wood carving. They have been handed down from generation to generation, creating countless masterpieces and creating thousands of woodcarving artists, thus becoming a famous hometown of carving. Dongyang woodcarving began in the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Since the Song Dynasty, it has a high level of technology. According to the records of Kangxi Xinzhi in Dongyang, during the reign of Tang Taihe, Su Feng and Ding Feng, two brothers from Fenggaolou Village in Dongyang, were the ministers of the official department and the ministers of the Ministry of Industry, respectively. The tall building of their house was painted with dazzling pillars, and the lower porch of their house was several and a half miles. The tomb of Lu was stolen in the early 20th century, together with the tomb of Jinshi and Prime Minister Shu in the Tang and Yuan Dynasties, and all the wood carving figures buried with him were unearthed. It can be seen that Dongyang woodcarving had developed to a certain extent before Taihe in Tang Dynasty. The existing statues of gifted scholars and Guanyin Bodhisattva carved by Stegosaurus in the Song Dynasty in two years are simple and dignified, which is enough to illustrate the level and style of Dongyang woodcarving at that time.
Carved wooden boards prevailed in Ming Dynasty, and Dongyang gradually developed into a famous place of wood carving in Ming Dynasty. It mainly produces arhats, Buddha statues and architectural decorations such as palaces, temples, gardens and houses. By the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Dongyang woodcarving had become famous all over the country. At that time, about 400 skilled craftsmen went to Beijing to repair the palace. Some artists were selected to carve palace lanterns, dragon beds, dragon chairs, cases and so on. Later, it developed into folk carving of flower beds, boxes and other furniture. Dongyang woodcarving is widely used in architecture and furniture decoration, forming a set of skills and perfect style. The existing ancient buildings in Ming and Qing Dynasties include Luzhai Suyong Hall, Baitan Wuben Hall, Mashangqiao Yitong Hall, etc., and the furniture includes thousand palace windows and Shili red makeup.
After the Revolution of 1911, Dongyang woodcarving turned to commercialization, and the handicrafts and cabinet furniture made by woodcarvers were bought by businessmen and exported to Hong Kong, the United States, Nanyang and other places, forming the heyday of Dongyang woodcarving products. 19 14 Renyi Factory opened in Hangzhou is the earliest wood carving factory in Dongyang, and will gradually develop to Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore in the future. During War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the revolutionary civil war, Dongyang woodcarving once withered, its products were unsalable, and its artists lost their jobs. After the founding of New China, the Party and the government organized woodcarving artists scattered all over the country and established a cooperative partnership. Dongyang Woodcarving Factory was established in 1954, and its products are exported to more than 80 countries and regions such as Europe, America and Southeast Asia. Up to now, Dongyang woodcarving has developed into seven categories, three branches and more than 600 varieties. Among them, wood carving screen, hanging screen and three-dimensional art screen are products with great artistic appreciation, which is an innovation of Dongyang wood carving industry on the basis of traditional relief techniques. With the development of the times, Dongyang woodcarving has many successful works in combining the traditional woodcarving skills of Han nationality, antique, building modern architecture and decoration. Traditional Dongyang woodcarving of Han nationality belongs to decorative carving, mainly in plane relief, including thin relief, shallow relief, deep relief, high relief, multi-layer carving, through-hole double-sided carving, saw-empty carving, ground carving, colored wood inlay carving and round wood relief. Known as white wood carving, it is rich in layers without losing the basic characteristics of plane decoration, with light color, no dark paint and elegant style. Dongyang woodcarving is strictly selected, using basswood, white mahogany, camphor wood, ginkgo wood and other materials. Dongyang woodcarving works of art are generally not painted, but coated with transparent varnish to preserve the natural color of white wood, so that people can better appreciate the superb skills of the sculptor. Its craft types include painting-free carving and drawing design carving, both of which pay attention to creativity and painting and have high artistic value.
The themes of Dongyang woodcarving are mostly historical stories and folklore. Screen design is closely related to China traditional painting, with rich and varied patterns and decorations. Flowers are also interspersed with rich sculptures, including figures, landscapes, flowers and birds, animals and so on. In terms of artistic techniques, Dongyang woodcarving deals with the scattered perspective relationship of height, distance and plane, with the scattered perspective or bird's-eye perspective of China traditional painting as its composition feature. That is to say, in a certain plane and space, its content can be richer than that of western relief, and it can fully display the picture content without being bound by the laws of western sculpture and painting, Jing Qing and imaginary vision.
The famous artists of Dongyang woodcarving are Du, Huang Zijin and Lou Shuiming. They are called the Carving Emperor, the Carving Prime Minister and the Carving Champion respectively, and they are collectively called the Three Masters. They are outstanding artists of the older generation of Dongyang woodcarving. The traditional style of Dongyang woodcarving is mainly carving and archaizing, and then the micro-carving style, Beijing style and painting style of traditional opera culture appeared. It is believed that the painting style pays attention to the arrangement of the density relationship of the characters' positions, the dynamic changes of the characters' postures are many and vivid, and the scenery is rich in layers, with context, overlap and unambiguous. There are many schools of woodcarving in Dongyang, with family inheritance and mentoring inheritance as the main ways of inheritance, and the inheritors include Lu and others.
Dongyang woodcarving has a division of labor in process operation, such as drawing design, blank making and polishing. Old artists who are good at carving and painting, knowledgeable and skilled can carve directly without making a draft. When creating a new work, they can draw a drawing first, then carve it by memorizing and reciting, and listen to people read aloud. Many people are not qualified for this specialty.
The main raw materials of Dongyang woodcarving are camphor wood, pine and poplar, but also cypress wood, mahogany (rosewood), Fraxinus mandshurica, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, spruce, yew and Taiwan Province pine. China is a country that advocates sculpture and is very good at it. Among hundreds of kinds and schools of folk carving techniques, Zhejiang Dongyang woodcarving, which has been tempered for thousands of years, is the most influential and prestigious of all schools. It is famous at home and abroad for its long history, rich categories, vivid charm, exquisite carving, exquisite skills and extensive performances. It is a treasure of our nation and a dazzling pearl in oriental civilization. It contains the wisdom of the people of China and combines the unique temperament and cultural accomplishment of the Chinese nation. This is also unique in the history of world folk sculpture.
Since the reform and opening up, Dongyang woodcarving has also entered a new period with the development of the times. On the basis of inheriting fine traditions and unique styles, Dongyang woodcarving keeps innovating, moving towards modernization and domestic and foreign markets. In Beijing Great Hall of the People, Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, China People's Liberation Army General Logistics Department Auditorium, Shanghai Revolutionary History Museum, Hangzhou Louwailou Restaurant, Singapore Oriental Palace Restaurant, and many German Chinese restaurants, it has been surprisingly successful. This indicates that Dongyang woodcarving has adapted to modern times on the basis of inheriting and developing its characteristics, showing the maturity of modern carving technology.
However, great changes have taken place in people's lives in the past twenty years. Traditional wood carvings are no longer used to decorate modern buildings. Dongyang woodcarving's ingenious craftsmanship, ingenious conception and rich traditional connotation have all lost their environment and gradually declined. It is difficult for modern young people to concentrate on traditional skills, so there is a phenomenon of unskilled and general loss of employees. Facing the endangered Dongyang woodcarving skill, it must be rescued and protected as soon as possible.