"Jade" in Nanyang, Henan is all over the world.
April 28, 2004 Zhejiang Online News Website
Zhejiang Online Nanyang News (special correspondent Paula Tsui): One-third of the people who do jade business in China are Nanyang people, and as many as 300,000 people are engaged in jade carving technology; Nanyang jade carving products have reached more than 10 categories and more than 10 varieties. In terms of product quantity, ornaments account for more than 90% of the national products, pendants account for about 40% of the national products, and tea sets, wine sets and musical instruments are unique in the country. In the words of Nanyang locals, Nanyang is one of the three best jade carving industries in the country.
One third of the people who do jade business in China are from Nanyang. Someone once did a survey, and nearly half of the flights from Nanyang and Zhengzhou to Guangzhou were from Nanyang, which was a jade business. There are more than 100 buses from zhenping county, the largest hometown of jade carving in Nanyang, to dozens of large and medium-sized cities such as Kunming, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Qingdao and Urumqi. Every day, 80% of the passengers on the bus are Nanyang people who are engaged in jade business.
In Beijing alone, there are 1250 jade carving merchants in Nanyang. In busy neighborhoods such as Wangfujing, Xidan, Cuiwei and Hualian, in some big famous restaurants and hotels, in the Capital Airport and many tourist attractions, most jewelry stores are opened by Nanyang people. Many merchants in the "Chengguzhai" on Wangfujing Street and the Arts and Crafts Building, as well as "Bao Zhiyuan" and "Oriental Xiaoming Company" are all opened by Nanyang people; In Panjiayuan's flea market, there are hundreds of jade carvings, and nine times out of ten the stall owner is from Nanyang. Over the years, many Nanyang jade carving operators have become wealthy billionaires.
The Chinese nation regards jade as beauty, and jade culture has a long history.
Xu Shen in Han Dynasty said in Shuo Wen Jie Zi: "The beauty of jade has five virtues. Jade is warm and shiny, and it is also a benevolent person; From the texture of the appearance, we can know that the inside is the same as the outside, and the heart is open and just; The voice of jade is stretched and clear, which is the wisdom and virtue of foresight; Jade is hard, unyielding and brave; Honesty and integrity, Jed also. " In ancient times, there were sayings that "a gentleman must wear jade" and "a gentleman cannot leave his body without reason".
It can be seen that jade is born of "taking the aura of heaven and earth and the essence of the sun and the moon". Jade, in China's thousands of years of long-standing culture, has occupied a lofty position in the hearts of every Chinese descendant and Chinese son and daughter. She is a symbol of holiness, nobility, wealth and civilization. Nanyang, as a highly developed area of Central Plains civilization, has a long history of jade culture.
According to verifiable historical records, Nanyang jade carving began in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, flourished in the Han, Song and Yuan Dynasties, followed by the late Qing Dynasty and flourished today.
By the Han Dynasty, Nanyang jade had been extensively mined and carved. At that time, Shagangdian at the foot of Dushan Mountain was a famous jade carving street with two rows of workshops and the sound of cutting jade. Zhang Heng, a scientist and writer in the Eastern Han Dynasty and a native of Nanyang, praised Meiyu in his famous literary work "Nanyang Fu": "If its treasure is precious, it will be as golden as jade, and it will shine together with pearls ...".
According to Nanyang County Records, dushan jade was officially mined in the Western Han Dynasty. At the foot of Dushan Mountain, there is still the site of Yujie Temple in Han Dynasty.
In the Northern Wei Dynasty, Li Daoyuan's Notes on Water Classics also said: "There are Yushan in Nanyang ... Jasper comes from the mountains." During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Nanyang jades were mainly used for daily life and ornamental decoration. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the jade industry in Nanyang was large, and jade merchants from all over the country gathered in Nanyang, which made the jade carving industry in Nanyang develop rapidly.
From "Yujie Temple" at the foot of Dushan Mountain in the Western Han Dynasty to "Shifosi", a famous jade carving town in Zhongzhou, the jade carving industry has flourished for thousands of years, forming a rich and profound Nanyang jade carving culture, which has nurtured Nanyang jade carving artists handed down from generation to generation, with endless and exquisite skills.
Since the reform and opening up, the Nanyang Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government have sized up the situation, seized the opportunity, and made great efforts to build the jade carving industry, which integrates production, processing and marketing, into a characteristic economy and pillar industry of the city. Through the International Jade Carving Festival sponsored by Nanyang Municipal People's Government or zhenping county Municipal People's Government every year since 1993, the contact and communication with jade carving industry at home and abroad have been strengthened, and the rapid development of jade carving industry has been accelerated.
On the development of jade carving industry, Nanyang people are first proud of Nanyang's "treasure of town and city"-"Nanyang's unique jade".
Nanyang Duyu, one of the four famous jade in China, is located in Dushan, 8 kilometers north of Nanyang. It was first collected in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. There are more than 70 kinds of natural colors such as red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue and purple. It is colorful and dazzling, and its multi-tone is full of brilliance. High hardness, good luster, delicate texture and high transparency are good raw materials for carving jade, which can be compared with jade. People call it "jade" and have the reputation of "Nanyang jade".
The Great Wall of Wan Li, carefully carved by Nanyang jade carving masters, is known as a national treasure and displayed in the Great Hall of the People.
From 65438 to 0999, the rare treasure "Jiulong Qi" presented by Henan Province to the Macao Special Administrative Region was carved from a selected piece of high-quality Nanyang dushan jade. This handicraft has a novel and unique design style, ingenious conception and originality. The unique colors of Nanyang dushan jade are skillfully used, and various carving techniques such as relief, hollowing out and line carving are adopted to make this product have smooth lines, both form and spirit, and great momentum. It is coiled in Kowloon, performing artistic performances according to materials, skillfully using clever colors and vivid images, as if from nature. At the celebration of Macao's return to the motherland, the unique artistic charm of this rare treasure was praised by guests from all over the world.
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However, Nanyang people are not only satisfied with their unique jade. In the processing of jade carving, raw materials are very rich. Besides jade, there are more than 65,438+050 kinds of jade, including Xiuyu in Liaoning, Cui Yu in Myanmar, afghanistan white jade, Canadian jasper, Russian white jade, coral, agate, hibiscus, crystal stone, amethyst and ruby.
Jade carving belongs to the category of folk arts and crafts, and each finished product has a certain cultural and artistic content. A large number of successful jade carving talents have injected cultural color and unique style into Nanyang jade carving works.
Approved by the authority of the national gemstone industry, Nanyang jade carving embodies multi-channel culture, draws on many strengths, and integrates the grandeur of Beijing-Tianjin craftsmanship, the exquisiteness of Su Yang craftsmanship, the exquisiteness of Guangdong-Fujian craftsmanship and the ruggedness of Yunnan-Myanmar craftsmanship, fully demonstrating its unique artistic charm. Figures include lifelike figures, Buddha statues, Chinese and foreign classical works, and figures in myths and legends. Flowers and birds have different forms of birds, insects and flowers. Landscape category, there are wonderful landscapes, gardens, bonsai, pavilions. Fumigation includes all kinds of fuming and tripod tower appliances. Mammals have lifelike natural species. Jewelry includes jadeite, agate, crystal, ring, bracelet, necklace and pendant. In addition, the newly developed series of musical instruments such as tea set, wine set and jade chime, jade chime, Yu Di and Yu Di are unique in China, adding new connotations to the jade carving industry. Nanyang jade carvings with complete categories are colorful, dazzling and exquisite, all of which show the brilliance of Nanyang jade culture.
While inheriting the traditional crafts, the jade carving masters in Nanyang constantly introduce, absorb and innovate the carving techniques of artistic design, which makes the amazing jade carving crafts in Nanyang come out continuously.
1993 The giant Nanyang jade carving Wolong Mountain weighs 3.8 tons, is 2.5 meters long and is 1.6 meters high. It is a combination of abstract exaggeration and modern design techniques in Nanyang Han Dynasty stone relief art, which uses the unique characteristics of rich colors and fresh elements of jade to design green into green pines and cypresses. White is designed as white clouds and flowing water ... People and animals are cleverly distributed on this scenic Wollongong. In The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, three stories like "Xu Shu recommends Zhuge", "Climbing to the Cottage" and "Burning Bowangpo" come to the fore, giving people a feeling of being in their own country. The whole work is magnificent and exquisite, and truly belongs to the jade carving art treasure.
Up to now, more than 40 masterpieces designed and carved by Nanyang jade carving masters, such as Wolong Mountain, Kowloon Swirling Flower Scene, Liuhe Tongchun, Wan Li Great Wall and Jiulong Pavilion, have won national and provincial awards successively, and many products have been collected as rare treasures by the Palace Museum, art galleries and collectors.
Driven by the radiation of leading enterprises and leading products, under the influence of a long jade culture and the technical guidance of a large number of outstanding talents, Nanyang jade carving industry has gradually matured and formed a scale. Large and small processing enterprises such as hundreds of people, dozens of people, several people and even one household have developed rapidly. In a short period of 10 years, various processing enterprises have grown to more than 1. 1 10,000.
"Every village has machines ringing and every family is screaming." This is a true portrayal of Shifosi Town in zhenping county, which is known as "the famous town in Zhongzhou" and "the hometown of jade carving". In recent years, the town has 16 jade carving professional villages, 4 professional markets, more than 20,000 employees, and more than 4,000 jade carving processing enterprises (households). The annual production and sales of jade carving products130,000 pieces, with an output value of 560 million yuan, is the largest distribution center for jade carving processing and sales in China.
Industry supports the market, and the market pulls the industry. In order to make the jade carving industry form a one-stop industrialization system of processing and sales, Nanyang has successively opened up a jade street in Nanyang City, built a jade carving world in zhenping county, and built four jade carving professional markets in Shifosi Town, including Hezhuang ornaments market, Yushuzhuang jade bracelet market, Shifosi jade agate boutique market and jade carving bay market.
Zhenping Jade Carving World, the largest professional jewelry and jade market in Asia, was built in 1992 with a total investment of 6.5 million yuan, covering an area of 32 mu and a construction area of 24,000 square meters. It accommodates more than 800 merchants and receives thousands of merchants every day, with annual sales exceeding 240 million yuan.
The Stone Buddha Temple built in 1997 is connected with U-shaped Avenue and Chaobei Liangtang in the county town, which makes the Jade Carving Street in 16 Jade Carving Professional Village on both sides of the Avenue end to end, and more than 4,000 large, medium and small jade carving processing enterprises and more than 5,000 business shops are connected into a prosperous jade carving processing and production chain.
Jade carving Bay, invested by 1998 1 100 million yuan, covers an area of nearly 2 square kilometers and integrates tourism, shopping and leisure culture. The natural landscape and human landscape here complement each other. The industrial zone full of urban flavor, artificial lake with rippling blue waves, lush green promenade, Longxiang and Rainbow Bridge with double flying frames, and European-style jade carving business buildings constitute the panoramic view of Jade Carving Bay. At present, Jade Carving Bay has more than 400 enterprises, 200 shops and booths 1.200, and receives more than 5,000 visitors from outside the area every day, with a daily turnover of more than 2 million yuan.
When there is a market, invite guests in. Open Nanyang people are not satisfied with the status quo. They set their sights on the big markets at home and abroad and wanted Nanyang jade carvings to travel all over the world.
With the first-class product quality, Nanyang jade carving products are sold in batches to more than 50 countries and regions such as the United States, Japan, Germany and Southeast Asia. With an annual export turnover of over 800 million yuan, it is the largest jade carving handicraft production and export base in China.
In China, Nanyang 65438+ 10,000 jade carving operators have more than 5,000 sales stores in large and medium-sized cities, many tourist attractions and towns, which makes jade carving products continuously enter the domestic market, and the annual sales output value exceeds 1 100 million yuan.
In the history of jade carving industry today, it can be said that Nanyang jade carving has one-third of the world! Nanyang jade carving is indispensable!