Small utensils in ancient Chinese life hide the beauty of endless sculpture rhythms
When people in later generations categorized "sculpture", they often ignored the practical utensils in daily life in ancient China, and turned to those ritual utensils, Ming utensils, Buddha statues and architectural parts that had been out of historical use situations. This is probably because the utensils are too close to life, and the label of the practical object conceals the aesthetic connotation of art. In fact, such vessels are also an important part of the characteristic works of sculpture in the history of ancient Chinese art. Sculptures made for religious worship and architectural decoration exist in both Chinese and Western art history. Unlike Western sculptures purely out of space design aesthetics and spiritual expression needs, ancient Chinese sculptures are mostly combined with practical utensils. It was only in the late Qing Dynasty that separate statues that matched the plots of the characters in literary works became popular.
When the ancients combined small sculptures with the main body of the vessel, the sculpture part may be used as decoration or as a practical part, especially the handle of the vessel. The white jade Chihu Daxi made in the Ming Dynasty represents the highest level of this kind of vessel making technique. level. The three tigers clinging to the surface of the wash form a handle distributed on three sides of the wash, which adds interest to the overall shape of the vessel and makes washing more convenient in actual use. It can be said to kill two birds with one stone.
The jade carp flower inserts of the Ming Dynasty are made of fish as a whole. The body of the fish is vertical, the eyes are protruding, the mouth of the fish is open to the sky, the tail of the fish is curled up, and the lower end is carved with waves and water patterns, creating a picture of a fish leaping forward. The water scene. This shape implies the auspicious omen of "fish jumping over the dragon's gate", which is like a poor boy who passed the exam after studying hard and entered the official career. Although this utensil is a flower arrangement, it expresses the beautiful hopes of the ancients through its shape
In the hands of lacquer carving craftsmen, using lacquer layers as paper and carving knives as brushes, the grand scenes created in a square inch are not just as simple as highlighting a single object image. The picture shows the sunflower-shaped plate of Yongle Tihong landscape figures in the Palace Museum. The characters have different shapes, precise movements, and full of dynamics, which enhance the narrative of the carved pictures.
A gilt embossed silver basin with double fish patterns unearthed from the Song Dynasty silverware cellar in Xiaopingqiao Village, Pingqiao Township, Liyang County, Jiangsu Province. The bottom of the basin was made with a pair of embossed carps
The lotus leaf-style water container carved by Zhu Sansong in the Ming Dynasty with bamboo roots is shaped like a lotus leaf into a water container, and the whole is presented as a lotus leaf that rolls up in the wind and covers four folds.
The silver cups made by Zhu Bishan, a silver craftsman at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, show clearly visible artistic sculpture.
In the history of ancient Chinese art, there is no such thing as "sculpture" as an independent category. The ancient works that people classify as sculpture mainly include some attempts in the primitive society period, such as pottery human faces and double-faced pottery in Yangshao Culture and Longshan Culture. Jade carvings of human faces, etc.; bronze ritual vessels with sacrificial meanings and utensils used by nobles in the pre-Qin period, such as owl statues, jade scorpions, etc.; pottery figurines and porcelain products of various colors specially used as funerary artifacts, such as terracotta warriors and horses, piled plastic jars, etc.; The stone sculptures standing inside and outside the mausoleum, such as the stone horse in front of Huo Qubing’s tomb, the stone sculptures of civil and military officials on both sides of the Ming Xiaoling’s Shinto, etc. Buddhist statues of different styles spanning multiple dynasties can still be seen in temples and grottoes today; Architectural components and decorations, such as portrait bricks, animal-faced pillars, etc.
In addition to the above-mentioned types, utensils such as dish boxes, pen holders, flower holders, water washers, and drinking utensils used in daily life in ancient times, in addition to satisfying practical functions, were also created by craftsmen who are good at carving and shaping. Endowed with beautiful and flexible surface decoration and shape changes, the overall beauty of sculpture is symmetrical, balanced and rhythmic.
The Art of Concave and Convex on the Plane
The concept of relief in Western art is mostly expressed on portrait bricks in Chinese art. This form of combining sculpture techniques and painting techniques enables the image that the craftsman wants to create to escape the plane of the material body, and uses perspective and other factors to create a three-dimensional space with a shallow depth. However, in the hands of lacquer carving craftsmen, using the lacquer layer as paper and carving knife as brush, the grand scene created in a square inch is not just as simple as highlighting a single object image. The underlying material of carved lacquer is multiple layers of color paint brushed on the carcass made of gold, silver, porcelain, wood, etc., as many as two or three hundred layers, until the color paint itself forms a corresponding thickness, and then it is painted on the paint layer. Engraving patterns. The book "Painted Decoration Records" describing the production of lacquerware during the Longqing period of the Ming Dynasty recorded: "'Tihong' is carved red lacquer. The thickness of the layers, the light and shade of vermilion, and the fineness and roughness of the carving are also very ingenious. Tang Dynasty There are many printed boards carved with flat brocade and vermilion colors, the carving method is ancient and clumsy, and there are those who have sunken yellow brocade. The Song and Yuan dynasties have clear fronts, hidden and smooth, delicate and delicate." It can be seen that the author did not appreciate the carved lacquer of the Tang Dynasty, and pointed out that the Song Dynasty Carving lacquer in the Yuan Dynasty has the characteristics of round, hidden front and slender lines.
The narrative content of Ming Dynasty lacquerware carvings is extremely strong, and is no longer limited to single themes such as flowers, animals, and auspicious patterns, but is replaced by broader scene descriptions, such as waterfall viewing pictures. This kind of highly painterly relief carving requires craftsmen to be familiar with the spatial composition of paintings while mastering the carving skills. The composition of the scenes carved on the surface of lacquerware in this period is mostly similar. The figures and pavilions are concentrated in the middle and lower part of the picture, leaving a large amount of blank space in the upper part. Just like the paintings of Ma Yuan and Xia Gui, only the corners are used as the main scene. The carving method of pavilions, terraces and pavilions uses the method of boundary painting, pays attention to straight and precise lines, and creates a sense of profound space. The engraving of lacquer ware in the Ming Dynasty was very proficient, and the landscape of the carved pavilions and pavilions can be compared with the boundary paintings of the Song Dynasty. For example, the sunflower-shaped plate with red landscape figures in the Palace Museum, the center of the plate is carved with a curved garden surrounded by mountains, rivers and cypresses. In the garden, there is an old man standing, holding a wooden stick and looking back. Standing beside him is a pair of boys, one of whom carries a piano under his armpit. , holding the box with both hands. There is a person sitting upright in the pavilion, his right fingertips seem to be pointing out of the pavilion, and another person is leaning on a column in the corridor to probe, still peeping secretly. On the second floor of the tall pavilion in the distance, there is a man lying on a couch, looking out of the window. The carved figures are too small and the facial expressions are not vivid, but the figures have different shapes, precise and dynamic movements, which enhance the narrative of the carved pictures. The eaves, animal-shaped ridges, window lattices, railings, lake ripples, pines and cypress needles are all exquisite, and the background and the main body of the painting are subtly divided according to the degree of concave and convex. On the background picture, the extremely dynamic and beautiful scales of the lake and the high-altitude cirrus clouds are reflecting the beautiful mountains and rocks and a round of daylight. Ten kinds of flowers are engraved clockwise on the ten petals of sunflowers on the inner wall of the plate, and another ten kinds are engraved on the outer wall, echoing in the physical space. The whole lacquer plate is rich in lacquer, the carving is round and vigorous, the grinding is fine, the hidden edge is not exposed, the edges of the lines are smooth without edges and corners, the lines are clear and not rigid in visual effect, which makes people feel warm and soft to the touch.
Carved lacquer belongs to the engraving method in sculpture. There is another technique that also shows the beauty of sculpture-like concavities and convexities on the flat base material, which is hammering and chisel engraving, which is more common in gold and silverware. During the Song and Song Dynasties, silver was no longer an exclusive material for the royal family. While the private demand for utensils rose, the private handicraft industry also developed rapidly. The hammering process demonstrates the most vivid relief technique in the production of gold and silverware in the Song Dynasty. The craftsmen took advantage of the strong ductility of gold and silver materials to repeatedly beat and anneal the sheet, and finally finalized it into the desired shape. The difficulty is that craftsmen need to be familiar with the degree of ductility of the material, choose corresponding tools and strength according to the characteristics of different shapes, and grasp the difference in thickness of the relief in order to express the ideal shape without cracking the sheet. For example, the gilt embossed double-fish pattern silver basin unearthed from the Song Dynasty silverware cellar in Xiaopingqiao Village, Pingqiao Township, Liyang County, Jiangsu Province. Because the shape of the basin is relatively simple, the silver plate can be beaten and pressed on a mold first. On the bottom of the basin, a pair of embossed carps were created using the hammering technique. The carps are quite similar in shape and should come from the same copy. The body of the fish is thick and the edges are thin, plump and round yet not lacking in a curved and light state. The raised fish tail imitates the scene of a carp swimming in the water. The bas-relief effect of duckweed and water plants is created around the carp with the chisel technique, and the decoration of curly grass patterns is chiseled on the wide edge of the silver basin, but the relief of the curly grass patterns is weaker than that of the water plants at the bottom of the basin. The carp, aquatic plants, and curly grass patterns are all thick and thin, and the proportions are adjusted, making the overall scene vivid. During the Southern Song Dynasty, the high-relief technique of embossed flowers became more and more mature. The silver-gilt and gold-plated Ruiguo plate and the silver-gilt lion-playing hydrangea-shaped octagonal plate in the Taining cellar of Fujian are typical vessels of this technique.
Lifelike utensil parts
The embossing technique highlights "sculpture on a plane". As far as space construction is concerned, it is similar to painting on the basis of further exploring the expressiveness of deep space, but this method does not break the limitation determined by the thickness of the substrate. space constraints. At the same time when the relief carving method matured, craftsmen in the history of Chinese art also made attempts to create small sculptures—some chiseled and polished the lid of a vessel to form an inverted lotus leaf, some welded twig flowers as silver cup handles, and some The whole piece of jade is used to carve the panchi lying on the edge of the washing mouth, which is not only a decoration, but also easy to grasp. Craftsmen are good at combining small sculptures with various container bodies, which exist as one of the components.
On the jade horn-shaped cup of the Han Dynasty collected by the National Palace Museum in Taipei, the dragon body coiled around the cup body skillfully integrates three-dimensional sculpture and relief techniques. The middle and rear part of the dragon body is a three-dimensional sculpture of the detachment table. The dragon's tail is curled up, and its angle just makes up for the blankness of the lower half of the cup body sunken to the left. Viewed from the front, the dragon's neck is hidden behind the cup, and the dragon's head protrudes from the upper part of the cup in the opposite direction to the dragon's tail. The dragon's head is close to the body of the cup, the dragon's horns are slightly curved, the dragon's mouth is flaring, and the eyes are drooping, showing a docile mood. The high-relief technique accentuates the sense of fusion between the dragon head and the cup body, while the dragon tail detached from the surface of the cup body highlights the winding posture, making the jade cup and the coiled dragon seem to be one, yet inseparable. The overall shape of the jade cup is graceful and curvy, and the dragon body is vigorous and powerful. In addition, the cloud and wave patterns in the shallow relief of the cup body add a bit of freshness to the combination of rigidity and softness.
This green and white jade horn-shaped cup is a drinking vessel, which is speculated by scholars to be a product of cultural exchanges between the Han Dynasty and Central Asia, highlighting the unique majestic momentum of Han Dynasty handicrafts.
When the ancients combined small sculptures with the main body of the vessel, the sculpture part may be used as decoration or as a practical part, especially the handle of the vessel. The white jade Chihu Daxi made in the Ming Dynasty represents the highest level of this kind of vessel making technique. level. The overall size of this wash is relatively large, with a wide fold, a wide and deep belly, and a straight cup wall, which provides enough space for the three chi tigers clinging to the surface of the wash to be evenly distributed. These three chi tigers have hornless heads, shrimp-shaped eyes, slightly open mouths, ears pressed back and attached to the back of the head, distinct back spines, and shallow lines engraved on the whole body. Judging from the shape, the Chihu's shoulders are tall, the front two claws are attached to the edge of the mouth, the rear claws seem to be kicking with force, and the body is arched, showing the shape of struggling to climb. The jade-carved chi-tiger is looking at each other on the edge of the mouth. The bow-shaped body just forms the handles distributed on three sides for washing, which adds interest to the overall shape of the vessel and makes washing more convenient in actual use. It can be said to kill two birds with one stone.
In addition to the above two utensils, there are also Panchi silver cups unearthed from the tomb of Qian Yu in the southern suburbs of Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, Pantao silver cups in the Nanming cellar of Guadi Village, Tongdao County, Hunan Province, a silver pot with a lotus leaf cover now in the Wuxi City Museum, Hubei The flower-shaped silver cups of the Provincial Museum, etc., can be regarded as the design products of the combination of sculpture and utensils by the ancients. This method is more common in the silver wares of the Song and Yuan dynasties, most of which are cups and cups. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, it has been common in the design of elegant objects such as washing, flower vases, and inkstones. In the cognition of practical utensils in the past dynasties in China, Laozi advocated "the use of utensils"; "Book of Changes" has the saying "preparing things for use"; Guanzi and Han Feizi agreed. Even in later generations, Ouyang Xiu once said that "it is appropriate to use things, regardless of ugliness and beauty", and Wang Anshi also said that "it is not applicable, not because it is a utensil". The emphasis on sex also indirectly created the situation that the status of craftsmen is always lower than that of calligraphers and painters, and they are not remembered by later generations. And this kind of "empty space" created outside the vessel to place small sculpture objects gave ancient Chinese craftsmen room to develop their own techniques and creativity. If the parts of these vessels are taken out and viewed separately, each piece is a lifelike pictographic sculpture, with the facial expressions of birds and beasts coexisting with the dynamics of the limbs, and the carvings of flowers, branches and leaves are soft and light, with a certain degree of relaxation and great vitality.
Exquisite bionics and mimicry
The shapes of most of the ancient Chinese utensils are pictorial shapes, simulating animals, plants, figures or other scene-based shapes. The word "xiang" can be explained by "making utensils still like images" in "Book of Changes". This concept advocates taking tangible utensils as an abstract symbol, and embodies the metaphysical level by simulating and symbolizing natural things. "road". The inheritance of this kind of thinking has had a great impact on the ancient Chinese creation thought. Since the primitive society, the Chinese creation art in the past dynasties has never deviated from the artistic interest of pictographic meaning. They are very different, but the technique has its own subtleties.
Under the concept of pursuing pictorial forms, craftsmen may not only deliberately carve pictographically on a certain part of the vessel, but also directly imitate the whole vessel as a natural thing. This does not reduce the practicality of the device, but increases the aesthetic interest. In the Song and Yuan dynasties, flower-shaped cups were common. The lids were filled with petals to make the flowers hollow, which was similar to the empty space of the container body. Jiading Sanzhu, a family of bamboo carvings in the late Ming Dynasty, is famous for its superb relief techniques and bamboo root round carvings. Among them, the lotus leaf water container carved by Zhu Sansong with bamboo roots is a water container in the shape of a lotus leaf. The overall appearance is a lotus leaf that is rolled up and covered in the wind. The edge of this "lotus leaf" was eaten by insects, and it is slightly broken and dark. The outer wall depicts obvious veins of stems and leaves, while the inner wall is shallower. In the space created by Shuisheng, what matches the small crab is an old lotus protruding horizontally from the bottom of the lotus leaf. In the past dynasties, there have been works that meticulously depict the postures of flowers and leaves, which are meticulous, lifelike, subtle and elegant, but there are also standing sculptures that carve flowers and leaves to such a degree. Its uniqueness lies in that the lotus is an aquatic plant, and it is used as a vessel for holding water, just like folding leaves to get water.
In addition to elegance, the ancients also relied on creations to "create auspicious omens". Auspicious patterns and symbols have always maintained a very strong vitality in the design of utensils in all dynasties. The jade carp flower inserts of the Ming Dynasty are made of fish as a whole. The body of the fish is vertical, the eyes are protruding, the mouth of the fish is open to the sky, the tail of the fish is curled up, and the lower end is carved with waves and water patterns, creating a picture of a fish leaping forward. The water scene. The most noteworthy thing is that the head of the fish has grown long beards, protruding nose and double horns that do not belong to fish, and it is clearly in the stage of turning into a dragon-headed fish. Scholars believe that this shape implies the auspicious omen of "fish leaping over the dragon's gate". The fish leaping over the dragon's gate originally refers to the natural phenomenon of carp jumping over the "Dragon Gate" of the natural danger of the Yellow River. Although this utensil is a flower vase, it entrusts the beautiful hopes of the ancients through its shape.
