Text/Yangcheng Evening News All-Media Reporter Lu Nanfang
Photo/Yangcheng Evening News All-Media Reporter Deng Bo
In the late Qing Dynasty, Cixi overhauled the Summer Palace and recruited skilled craftsmen across the country. Li Wenyuan, a craftsman from Shawan Town, Panyu, Guangzhou, came to Beijing to take the exam, but he did not expect to win the top murals in one fell swoop. From then on, he worked in the inner court to wait for the orders of the emperor.
In 2016, He Shiliang, a villager and brick carving artist of Li Wenyuan, won the highest award in Chinese folk art – the Mountain Flower Award with his craftsmanship that was as skilled as his predecessors. In July 2022, the national version of the National Edition, known as the “Chinese Culture Seed Gene Gene”, was unveiled, and He Shiliang’s works were also written.
From Li Wenyuan to He Shiliang, Lingnan architectural culture has gone from being partial to entering the hall, and has been passed down from generation to generation and has a continuous cultural heritage. Tracing their common origin, Shawan, Panyu, is an ancient cultural town with a long history in Lingnan. The surnames Li and He are both big surnames in Shawan Town. Most of their ancestors were officials and nobles, and they moved here one after another to avoid military chaos in the late Southern Song Dynasty. Because of his wealth, Shawan people built civil engineering and valued culture and education. To this day, the town has engraved the mark of history and civilization everywhere, and the legend of hiding dragons and creeping tigers is even more talked about.
He Shiliang
He Shiliang is 52 years old this year, bornBabaylan, grow up and live in Shawan. Walking on the old street of the ancient town, the old man under the banyan tree greeted him warmly – “Master He”, but he looked shy and never said a few words of scenes. Although he has long been a celebrity in Shawan, he never regards himself as a “master”. In his opinion, he was just immersed in the “Ancient Style and Ancient Rain” of Shawan since childhood, and it was a fate to be connected with ancient buildings.
Starting from bricks, He Shiliang was addicted to carving beams and paintings of roads and building Lingnan. People may not believe it. As the first traditional architectural craftsman in Guangdong and the “brick carving craftsman” in the country, he learned it.The brick carving skills are almost entirely self-taught. Like many folk art geniuses, he has a low education and can learn without a teacher. In the past ten years, the concept of intangible cultural heritage has been deeply rooted in people’s hearts. As a inheritor, He Shiliang devoted a lot of energy to “passing on the teachings and helping”. He hopes to work with his apprentices to work hard and through the integration and innovation of traditional art and modern aesthetics, the art of brick carving will move from the scenic spot exhibition hall to ordinary life, and from the ancient city of Lingnan to a broader world stage.
In 2015, He Shiliang (third from left) created the stage brick carving wall “The Six Kingdoms Grand Priest” for the Guangdong Cantonese Opera Museum, and won the China Folk Literature and Art Mountain Flower Award.
Strange Man: From an apprentice in the furniture factory to a famous brick carving craftsman
Shawan Ancient Town has a history of more than 800 years. It still preserves many “living specimens” of Lingnan traditional culture, including Guangdong music, puffing colors, fish lanterns, ancient ancestral halls, etc., which makes Shawan a veritable national-level folk art hometown.
Scraping out various patterns with a knife on a blue brick was just a kind of entertainment to He Shiliang when he was a child. Where He Shiliang was born, there were brick carvings left on the old houses and ancestral halls. At that time, he only thought it was ordinary. Faced with these “small tricks”, He Shiliang did not make a wish to use this as his career. In comparison, he loved painting more.
Until after graduating from junior high school, he entered a furniture factory as an apprentice. He was fascinated by the wood carving techniques of his master and master, so he didn’t sleep in the middle of the night and secretly took out white paper to copy their design drawings. After discovering this, the master of the seventies did not blame him, but instead developed a love for talent. He taught He Shiliang to carve and paint pictures step by step, just like he regarded him as his successor.
The master Hu Zhi was born as a master of Lingnan Wood Carving Factory. After retirement, he continued to engage in wood carving design. He was a “big name” in the Cantonese furniture wood carving industry in the 1990s. Master Hu Minqiang is the son of his master. He received the true teachings of his master and had profound attainments in furniture and wood carving. The experience of learning wood carving with his master and his master changed He Shiliang’s lifelong destiny.
In 1996, he had the opportunity to participate in the reconstruction of Baomo Garden in Panyu and undertake the task of wood carving. The project commander-in-chief wanted to make a large brick carving screen wall. He took a fancy to He Shiliang’s carving skills and forced him to change from wood carving to brick carving – you should know that He Shiliang had never touched brick carving at this time. With the spirit of a newborn calf not afraid of tigers, He Shiliang spent three years to complete the BabaylanThe artistic brick carving “Tu Yan He Ming Wall” is 22.35 meters long and 5.83 meters high. This brick carving combines techniques such as round carving, openwork, relief and line carving. Its overall momentum is magnificent. The meticulous craftsmanship breaks through the traditional expression techniques, set a precedent for the display of single brick carving artworks, and was selected as the best record in the Shanghai world in Guinness at that time.
For a time, CinemaHe Shiliang became famous. Three things about traditional Chinese architectureCinema “Wen” ornaments, wood carving, brick carving, stone carving, He Shiliang is proficient in two things. In 2001, he founded a crafts studio with brick carving as the theme. In the eyes of outsiders, this is a thankless choice. With He Shiliang’s craftsmanship and fame, if he opens a wood carving furniture factory, he can get rich quickly. But what He Shiliang thinks is that Lingnan brick carving is on the verge of losing, and he must carry forward this traditional and exquisite craftsmanship again.
He Shiliang (right)’s studio in Shawan Town
Wiz: From Lingnan brick carvings to Lingnan architecture
The history of Lingnan brick carvings can be traced back to the Western Han Dynasty and the Nanyue Kingdom period. A brick walkway was unearthed in the ruins of the palace of the Nanyue Palace Garden of the Western Han Dynasty at the Fourth Road of Zhongshan, Guangzhou, which was excavated in the 1990s, with geometric patterns and small seal characters engraved on the floor tiles. Some brick carvings painted in vermilion or green are also discovered one after another. By the Ming and Qing dynasties, brick carvings had been widely used in ancestral halls, temples and houses in Lingnan, forming a unique style.
However, He Shiliang’s love for brick carving art was not just because it is an “antique”. On the contrary, he liked the lifestyle exuded by Lingnan brick carvingsCinema pieces and brick carvings in the sky were also discovered. By the Ming and Qing dynasties, brick carvings had been widely used in Lingnan ancestral halls, temples and houses, forming a unique style.
However, He Shiliang’s love for brick carving art was not just because it is an “antique”. On the contrary, he liked the lifestyle exuded by Lingnan brick carvingsKomiks is daily, friendly and full of vitality. “Lingnan brick carvings are different from brick carvings in other places, and have a very unique charm. If the northern brick carvings are bold and the Jiangnan brick carvings are elegant, the Lingnan brick carvings are exquisite in the roughness, and they are more civilian and fireworks in the choice of subject matter. ”
In the brick carvings created by He Shiliang, Lingnan scenery such as lychee, banana leaves, Buddha’s hands, red cotton, lotus flowers are common elements, and the characteristics of South Guangdong are vividly displayed. These objects have deeper meanings. For example, lychee is homophonic to Cantonese pronounced “Laizi” in Cantonese, BuddhaKomiksHand is homophonic with Cantonese pronounced “Fu Shou”. This belongs to the Lingnan cultural secret hidden in brick carvings. Only locals can understand it.
The Lingnan scenery in He Shiliang’s brick carving works is a part of “Hundred Bats and Spring” in Yuehui Garden, Dongguan.
Precisely because of the unique folk atmosphere of Lingnan brick carving, He Shiliang’s ideal brick carving art is not an exhibit placed in a museum or scenic spot, but an art that is truly integrated into the architectural pattern of Lingnan, with both functional and decorative nature.
“The characteristics of Lingnan brick carving in each era are different, but its development is progressing in parallel with the development of Lingnan architecture. Like the Liugeng Hall in Shawan Town, it is a typical ancient Qing Dynasty building. It uses brick carved brackets to replace the wooden components of the past, which is more functional and has a more simple and extensive style. But when you arrive at the Chen Family Ancestral Hall, you will find that the characteristics and uses of brick carvings are completely different, the techniques are more complex, the subject matter is richer, and the decorativeness overshadows the functionality. “When talking about the combination of Lingnan brick carvings and ancient Lingnan buildings, He Shiliang was very excited. However, the “Weishi History” of brick carvings is coming to an end in modern times. Later, the popular architectural types of arcades, small villas and other buildings in Guangzhou gradually replaced traditional buildings, and brick carvings are difficult to find a place to be used in construction projects.
Until recent years, Lingnan brick carvings have attracted more and more attention as an intangible cultural heritage, and He Shiliang was able to participate in the collective creation of some urban landmark buildings. In 2015, He Shiliang created a stage brick carving wall for the Guangdong Cantonese Opera Museum “The Great Secret of the Six Kingdoms”, the work restores the lively scenes and rich character shapes in the same title, and fully displays the traditional Lingnan brick carving craftsmanship. It won the 12th China Folk Literature and Art Mountain Flower Award Art Work Award.
Based on brick carving, He Shiliang spent a lot of effort to study ancient Lingnan buildings and is committed to exploring and inheriting Lingnan architectural culture from all aspects. He did not stop being a “driller”, and has achieved great achievements in the space design, component creation, decoration and decoration of buildings – in 2022, he was the national versionCinema Wenhan Pavilion, the Central General Pavilion of the museum, has produced 200 Manchurian flower windows with Lingnan characteristics, and customized two VIP rooms with Lingnan culture for the Guangzhou branch. “I cherish such a job opportunity, which allows more people to experience the charm of Lingnan architecture without having to go to the Chen Family Ancestral Hall or Liugeng Hall, and can also feel the charm of Lingnan architecture.. We hope that our contemporary urban landmark buildings can have more boutique projects that integrate traditional architectural culture, spirit and skills, and lead our contemporary architectural design to a higher and richer artistic level. ”
He Shiliang made Manchurian Flower Window for the Central General Pavilion of the National Edition Pavilion
Qizhi: From the national to the world
In 2008, Lingnan brick carvings were listed as a provincial intangible cultural heritage in Guangdong. He Shiliang had a complicated mood at the beginning of the identity of the inheritor of intangible cultural heritage. He was worried that the positioning of intangible cultural heritage means announcing that the brick carvings were inevitably becoming “antiques”, which was the last thing he wanted to face. href=”https://funnybookish.com/”>Komiks.
So, with the studio as the base, He Shiliang began to recruit apprentices everywhere. In order to support himself and his apprentices, He Shiliang opened a factory to undertake some commercial projects of brick carving and wood carving to “transfusion” for him in the Lingnan brick carving process.
Ding Junyun began to learn carving from scratch with He Shiliang from 2004 and participated in the carving of “Hundred Bats and Huichun” in Dongguan Yuehui Garden. “Hundred Bats and Huichun” is another masterpiece of screen wall brick carving created by He Shiliang after “Tu Yan and Mingbi”. It is about 50 meters long and 9 meters high. It is also spent from design, production, installation to completion It took nearly three years. Ding Junyun recalled that in those three years, he went out early and returned late with his master almost every day, accompanied by the harsh sound of electric drills, dull carvings, and dust coming to his nose.
In the view of Ding Junyun, who was less than 20 years old at the time, brick carving was a hard and boring job. He chose to follow He Shiliang as an apprentice just to make a living. Until the whole work was completed, Ding Junyun was deeply shocked. He took photos of the work to his hometown in rural Guangxi to see, and no one believed it was his masterpiece.
“I didn’t have the confidence to learn brick carving at the beginning. It was the master who encouraged me to be patient and to think more. Gradually, I fell in love with this art and hoped that more people would understand brick carving. “Ding Junyun is now the most enthusiastic among all He Shiliang’s apprentices who participate in public publicity. He often goes to schools and communities to display and explain brick carving skills. In 2018, he was named the district-level intangible cultural heritage inheritor of the Guangzhou brick carving project.
The working environment for brick carving production is very difficult
He ShiliangjingI often advise my disciples to read more books and watch more exhibitions. He hopes that his apprentice will not only position himself as a traditional architectural craftsman, but will study brick carving as an art. He wants to change people’s stereotypes about intangible cultural heritage – not just to pursue retro and conservativeness, but to creatively develop traditional art and truly build people’s confidence and pride in their aesthetic traditions.
In He Shiliang’s view, aesthetics are more important than techniques. When a brick becomes a work of brick carving, it must go through multiple processes such as drafting, roughing, fixing, polishing, and installation. It not only requires craftsmen to have a foundation in painting design, but also have an accurate grasp of the three-dimensional depth. In addition, the creation of traditional brick carving themes requires a very solid knowledge reserve for local culture, folk history, ancient novels and operas. In order to “make up lessons”, He Shiliang once collected books on Lingnan literature and history everywhere. Because brick carvings like to use flowers and birds, he repeatedly studied the “Hundred Birds”, “Hundred Beasts” and “Hundred Flowers”. He even learned photography by learning about his master, spending a long time every year in search of ancient buildings in various parts of the Pearl River Delta. After returning home, he washed out the photos and used a magnifying glass to study them one by one in order to learn from others’ strengths.
He Shiliang is in his brick carving factory
“He Shiliang has a tenacity in his body. He has to learn everything he learns to the extreme. Although he often doesn’t say anything, what he makes is always unexpected and extraordinary.” Yangcheng Evening News reporter Deng Bo and He Shiliang met in an interview more than 20 years ago. His first impression of He Shiliang was that he was “unreasonable in eloquence.” After getting familiar with Komiks, Deng Bo realized that the shining points of He Shiliang were not easy to see in artistic geniuses.
Archivist Wang Enhan also met He Shiliang because of an interview. He has visited famous brick carving masters across the country, but there are almost very few people like He Shiliang who can surpass his predecessors in craftsmanship and techniques, and at the same time grasp the grand theme creation. “The magic of folk art lies in the artist himself. Many of his achievements are created by his personal talent. This is difficult to replicate, and it also leads to the extinction of folk art.”
NoAfter all, He Shiliang himself is not so pessimistic. Despite the bleak benefits, he has been working diligently in running his studio and factory for decades. In 2020, he also built the He Shiliang Art Museum in the central square of Shawan Ancient Town, which displayed 50Cinema many brick and wood carvings, all of which were his ingenious work. In 2021, the screen wall brick carving “Ancient Rhymes and Tengfang·Present Times” he created for Shawan Town was born, becoming another new building landmark in the ancient town. “Does tradition have to be behind the times? I never think so. There is a saying that goes, the more national it is, the more world it is. Lingnan architecture is full of treasures, and it should be seen by more people.”
In 2021, He Shiliang created a large-scale screen wall brick carving “Ancient Rhymes and Tengfang·Present Times” for Shawan Ancient Town
Dialogue with He Shiliang
Yangcheng Evening News: What steps do you need to go through from a blue brick to a brick carving work?
He Shiliang: The processes of brick carving are divided into material selection, cutting, blanking, grouping, polishing, installation, overall, cleaning, etc. The cutting material is to cut off the blank layer on the surface of the old blue bricks to form bricks of equal size and square angles. The draft is designed, composed, and drawn according to the size of the work and the expression of the subject matter. The blanking is based on the line draft, and the part of the base in the picture is chiseled off, and the outline, high and low levels and three-dimensional shape of the work are carved. The final process is to produce fine details, and deeply depict the details on the basis of the rough blank to achieve the effect of careful crafting. Lingnan brick carvings are divided into two categories: single-piece brick carving and combined brick carving. The single-piece brick carving has a simple structure and is often embedded in brackets, window grilles, Shenhe frames or small seat decorations under the eaves. Combined brick carving has a wide range of applications and is often used in large-scale decorations such as walls, softheads, door lintels, hangers and even screen walls. During construction, it is necessary to carve piece by piece according to the pattern. If it is large, thousands of bricks need to be used, and then spliced, inlaid, and polished according to the parts until the whole work is combined.
Yangcheng Evening News: Why do brick carvings have to be made of old blue bricks?
He ShiKomiks Liang: The hardness of blue bricks is smaller than that of red bricks, it is not easy to weather, and the texture is delicate. It is very important to choose bricks. The so-called “choose old but not new”, we all look for high-quality bricks from the bricks that were demolished from old houses. For example, the more than 30,000 bricks used in “Tuyan and Mingbi” in Baomo Garden were demolished when the old house was built during the construction of Guangzhou Metro Line 1, and we found them from construction waste. These old bricks have experienced dozens or even hundreds of years of wind and rain, and the texture has been “annealed”, and they are not easy to burst during carving. The finished products carved are ancient, simple and charming.
Yangcheng Evening News: What do you think the inheritance of Lingnan brick carvings still face Challenge?
He Shiliang: The most important thing in inheriting Lingnan brick carving is to maintain quality and promote the aesthetics of traditional craftsmanship. First of all, it is necessary to inherit teamwork, continue the technical level of the ancestors and the traditional charm of the works, and then innovate, combining traditional charm with modern aesthetics. As for the current creation, it is also necessary to inject more novel techniques and modern elements into the works in ancient techniques, and should be more inclined to develop in a direction that is close to life, magnificent composition, exquisite and unique shapes, and concise and exquisite carvings, adapt to the needs of social aesthetics and be accepted by the public, so that they can have the motivation for inheritance and development.
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