One is stone carving and the other is jade carving. Each has its own advantages. It is better for you to make your own decision.
Hui'an Stone Carving Craft
Hui'an County is located on the west coast of the Taiwan Strait. The protruding part of the southeastern coast of Fujian Province is between Quanzhou Bay and Meizhou Bay.
Hui'an stone carving craftsmanship originates from the Central Plains culture in the Yellow River Basin, and integrates and absorbs the essence of Fujian and Yue culture, maritime culture and foreign cultures introduced along the "Maritime Silk Road", and is in harmony with architectural art. Together with each other, after more than 1,000 years of reproduction and development, it has formed its own unique artistic style. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Hui'an stone carving technology was very developed. After the late Ming Dynasty, Hui'an stone carving technology became more mature and became a representative of the southern stone carving art. After the founding of New China, Southern Stone Sculpture entered its heyday, with hundreds of thousands of stone carving artists spread across more than 20 provinces and cities across the country. There have been many famous teachers in the past dynasties, and there are records of genealogical inheritance since the Southern Song Dynasty. There are many schools and unique styles.
Hui'an stone carvings include five series: stele processing, environmental garden sculptures, building components, craft carvings, and practical utensils. Its craftsmanship includes five categories: round carving, relief carving, line carving, sunken carving, and shadow carving, with thousands of varieties. Mainly practical works of art.
Hui'an stone carving has a strong national character and distinct characteristics of the times. As a representative of the southern stone carving art, it has influenced half of the Chinese stone carving art and spread overseas early. It is highly popular in Taiwan and Southeast Asian countries. It is highly praised, and the domestic sculpture circle generally agrees with the saying that "Hui'an is in the south and Quyang is in the north."
Nanyang Jade Carving
Nanyang Jade, also known as Dushan Jade or Nanyang Jade, is produced in Dushan, north of Nanyang City. It is one of the four famous jades in the country. Dushan jade is tough and slightly dense, delicate and soft, with a transparent luster and mottled colors. There are 6 pigments, green, white, yellow, purple, red and white, and 77 color types. It is the first-class raw material for jade carving.
Dushan jade carving has a long history. The jade shovel produced at the Neolithic Site of Huangshan near Dushan in 1959 proves that ancestors had known and used Dushan jade more than 5,000 years ago. The ruins of Yujie Temple at the foot of Dushan Mountain were the place where jade articles were carved during the Han Dynasty. According to the "New Nanyang County Chronicles" of the Qing Dynasty, residents in the north of the county mostly make a living by treating jade. In old China, Nanyang jade carving has formed a major industry. There are more than 80 workshops in the city, most of which have workshops in the back and shops in the front, carving and selling by themselves. Jade carvings mainly include more than 120 varieties of figures, flowers, birds and animals, landscapes, statues, furnaces, jewelry, etc. The single jade carvings are sparkling and exquisite, making them a famous specialty of Nanyang. Zhenping County holds a large-scale international jade carving festival every year, attracting many domestic and foreign merchants. Nanyang jade carving enjoys an international reputation.
When talking about Nanyang’s jade carvings, we must first mention Dushan Jade, one of the four famous jades in my country, which is the “treasure of the town” that Nanyang people are proud of. Dushan Jade is produced in Henan Province. It is named after Dushan Mountain in Nanyang City, also known as Duyu. Nanyang Basin is rich in jade resources, has excellent texture, and has a long history of mining, carving, and management. It is famous throughout the country and is known as the "Hometown of Chinese Jade Carving". It occupies an extremely important position in the history of the development of Chinese jade culture.
1. The history of Nanyang jade carving: it began in the Neolithic Age 6,000 years ago
The production of Dushan jade in Nanyang has a long history. The Duyu shovel and Duyuhuang unearthed from Neolithic sites such as Huangshan, Xinye Fenghuangshan, Zhenping and Sheqi in Nanyang City indicate that the industrious and intelligent ancients here began to use and carve them in the Neolithic Age 6,000 years ago. Only jade appeared, and jade culture began to sprout and initially prosper. By the Han Dynasty, Nanyang jade had been mined and carved in large quantities, and the scene was spectacular. There were residential areas for processing and carving jade, with two rows on one street and many workshops, and the sound of jade carving could be heard all the time. At least in the Western Han Dynasty, Nanyang jade carvings had reached a considerable scale. Today, in Shagangdian at the foot of Dushan Mountain, there are still the ruins of the "Yujie Temple" in the Han Dynasty. After the Tang and Song Dynasties, Nanyang jade carvings gradually evolved from being simply tributes for dignitaries to appreciate and enjoy, and developed into both decorations and utensils for daily use. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the variety of Nanyang jade carvings was very rich. After the Qing Dynasty, Nanyang jade carving has formed a major industry. The development and utilization of Dushan jade has attracted much attention, and significant progress has been made in mineral deposit research, mining, carving, processing, and marketing. Especially since the reform and opening up, the prestigious Nanyang jade carving industry has attracted a large number of people from both inside and outside the industry, thus Let Dushan Jade be understood, appreciated and accepted by more people.
Nanyang jade carvings have a wide variety of designs and colors, including more than 30 color types such as red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and purple. They have bright colors, high hardness, good gloss, fine texture, and high transparency. They are The best raw material for carving jade is comparable to jade, and the Germans once called it "Nanyang Jade". The varieties of jade carving products can be divided into four categories: characters, flowers and birds, and animals. The character shapes are mostly based on myths and legends and ancient opera stories. There are 23 kinds of flowers and birds, including birds paying homage to the phoenix, magpies making plum blossoms, phoenix peony, and long-tailed bird screen. . There are 16 kinds of animals, including lions, elephants, tigers, oxen, and horses; Tingxun has more than 120 kinds of jade bottles, jade rings, converters, pavilion furnaces, and jade tripods. Carvings can be divided into two categories: floral sculptures and plain sculptures according to different techniques. Floral sculptures include flowers, converters, birds, animals, ladies, etc. The carving skills are exquisite, the knife skills are complex, and the meaning is profound; the plain objects include rings, bracelets, earrings, etc. In addition to inheriting traditional carvings, modern artists have integrated traditional Chinese painting styles such as landscapes, figures, flowers and birds. Through the painstaking research of jade carving artists of the past generations, they have gradually formed the characteristics of using techniques to create wonders in flower work and elevating color in plain work.
2. Nanyang Jade Carving Art: From "Dushan Jade Sea" to "Nine Dragon Sundial"
After jade carving artists and scientific and technological workers excavated and sorted out traditional techniques and absorbed experience from other places, Nanyang The craftsmanship of jade carving has been continuously improved, and it has gradually formed its own unique artistic style, which is famous for its flexible skills and noble color. Wu Yuanquan, chairman, general manager and senior arts and crafts artist of Nanyang Tuobao Jade Ware Co., Ltd. said that because jade is rich in color and has both dark and light colors, a piece of stone often has a variety of colors on it. This requires the sculptor to consider everything, not only to have a wonderful layout concept, but also to use various colors skillfully to make the whole work interesting and natural, so that the appreciators can't help but marvel. "Wolong Comes Out of the Mountain" made by Nanyang Jade Carving takes advantage of the rich color and fresh element of jade, rigorous layout, clever use of beautiful colors, fine carvings, and majestic momentum. It weighs 3.8 tons, is 2.5 meters long, and 1.6 meters high. It is the most famous work in my country. The largest giant jade carving at present is a rare artistic treasure. The five-ring furnace and flower incense made of selected Dushan jade absorb the characteristics of ancient bronzes and other handicrafts, creating multi-layer rotating ball flower incense yellow, with simple and dignified shapes and ingenious skills. The international handicraft exhibition held in France At the meeting, it won widespread praise. Nanyang people use a wide range of raw materials for jade carving processing. In addition to single jade, they also come from Liaoning Xiu jade, Burmese jade, Afghan white jade, Canadian jasper, Russian white jade, as well as coral, agate, hibiscus stone, crystal stone, amethyst stone, red jade, etc. More than 150 types of jade including sapphire.
Indeed, the jade carving industry that has flourished for thousands of years has formed a rich, extensive and profound Nanyang jade culture, and has nurtured an endless stream of Nanyang jade carving artists with superb skills who have been passed down from generation to generation. Nanyang's jade carving art masters continue to introduce, absorb and innovate artistic design and carving techniques while inheriting traditional craftsmanship. It is the combination of long history, profound cultural heritage and unique jade resources that allows Nanyang jade carving, an artistic treasure, to be passed down from generation to generation and carried forward, with stunning works constantly being produced. Up to now, more than 40 exquisite works designed and carved by the masters of Nanyang jade carving art have won national and provincial awards, such as "Wolong emerging from the mountain", "Nine dragons turning flowers", "Deer and crane spring together", "Great Wall" and "Nine dragon sundial". level awards, many products are collected as rare treasures by the Palace Museum, art galleries and collectors. The "Nine Dragon Sundial" gift is 199cm long, 110cm wide, 80cm high and weighs 500kg. The design style of the gift is novel and unique, cleverly conceived and ingenious. It makes clever use of the various colors unique to Nanyang Dushan Jade, using relief, openwork and hollow. , line engraving and other carving techniques make this product smooth in lines, full of form and spirit, and majestic. Nine coiled dragons surround the sundial, which shows that the Chinese people in Jiuzhou are closely united and live in harmony, and at the same time expresses the meaning of unity. The entire work implies national unity, national prosperity, and motherland reunification, and expresses the deep feelings of Henan's 90 million people welcoming the return of Macao.
Known as the "National Treasure", the 3,500 kilogram jade "Dushan Jade Sea" was a vessel used to serve wine when Kublai Khan rewarded the three armies in the Yuan Dynasty. It is the earliest and largest giant jade in Chinese history. Jade carving is an epoch-making art treasure in China and a rare masterpiece in the history of the development of gems and jade in the world. However, over the past 700 years since its creation, its jade material has been controversial and has not been identified. Recently, a high-level forum on Chinese gem and jade culture sponsored by the Chinese Traditional Culture Promotion Association of the Ministry of Culture, the Asian Jewelry Federation and other units was held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
At the forum, after careful observation and research by more than 20 well-known domestic jade archeology and collection experts, and repeated comparison and identification with samples from the Dushan jade mine in Nanyang, it was determined that the "Jadeite" was produced in the Yuan Dynasty and is now displayed in Tuancheng, Beihai Park, Beijing. The jade material of "Dushan Big Jade Sea" is Nanyang Dushan jade. At this point, an "eternal unsolved case" has been finalized.
3. Nanyang Jade Carving Industry: The “Hometown of Jade Carving” is well-deserved
Nanyang’s jade carvings travel all over the world. This is a true portrayal of the world-famous Nanyang jade carvings. Before the reform and opening up, Nanyang's jade carvings had initially entered the stage of large-scale development. The total sales of jade carvings in Zhenping County reached 14.9 million yuan in 1974, becoming the first county in the province with foreign trade exceeding 10 million yuan. After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the jade carving industry in Nanyang mushroomed and developed vigorously. Large and small processing enterprises with hundreds, dozens of people or even one household have developed rapidly, increasing to more than 11,000 in just 10 years. Nowadays, wherever there is jade, whether in the south of the sky or the north of the sea, in a foreign country or a foreign land, it is related to Nanyang. Nanyang jade carving people have spread all over the country in all large and medium-sized cities and many towns, where they process, produce and market products.
Zhenping is now the largest jade carving production and processing center in the country. In addition to Nanyang jade, its raw materials come from all over the country and 12 countries and regions including Myanmar and Afghanistan. It employs more than 200,000 people and processes them. There are more than 4,000 enterprises, forming more than 20 block processing and sales belts with different characteristics and sizes, with an annual output value of 1 billion yuan. The Jade Carving World in Zhenping County, the Jade Carving Bay Market, Jade Agate Boutique Market, Yushuzhuang Jade Bracelet Market, Hezhuang Ornaments Market and other professional jade carving markets in Shifosi Town enjoy high reputations at home and abroad.
It is understood that one-third of the people doing jade business in the country are from Zhenping in Nanyang City. When talking about Zhenping County, we have to mention a small town known as the "Hometown of Jade Carvings", which is Shifosi Town. "There are machines in every village, and every house is filled with the sound of jade-carving" is a true portrayal of the town. Asia's largest professional jewelry and jade market was built in 1992 with a total investment of 6.5 million yuan. It covers an area of ??32 acres and a construction area of ??24,000 square meters. It accommodates more than 800 merchants, receives thousands of merchants every day, and has annual sales of more than 240 million yuan. In recent years, the town has 16 professional jade carving villages, 4 professional markets, more than 20,000 employees, more than 4,000 jade carving processing enterprises (households) of various types, and an annual production and sales of more than 13 million jade products of various types, with an output value of 5.6 billion, becoming the largest jade carving processing and sales distribution center in the country.
Today, in Zhenping County, jade carving has become a pillar industry of the county’s economy. 85% of the towns and villages in the county have jade carving processing industries, with nearly a hundred professional villages. The sound of carving can be heard in 8 towns and villages including Shifo Temple and Chao Bei. There are more than 11,000 jade carving processing enterprises in various forms, including state-owned, collective, individual, and Sino-foreign joint ventures, employing 117,000 people. In China, relying on the reputation and quality of Nanyang jade carving products, more than 100,000 operators of Nanyang jade carvings have opened 5,000 sales stores in almost all large and medium-sized cities across the country. Nanyang jade carvings are sold in many tourist attractions, making jade carving products It has continuously entered the domestic market, with an annual sales value of more than 1 billion yuan.