What is the knowledge about Chinese stone carving and how much do you know about it?

It is solid and weather-resistant. Therefore, in Lingnan architecture, in addition to stone towers, stone bridges, stone squares, stone pavilions, and stone tombs, it is more widely used in building components and decorations.

Generally divided into three categories:

First, they are door frames, railings, drum stones, steps, column foundations, beams, well rings, etc. that are used as building components; second, they are stone tablets, stone lions, stone tablets, and stone statues that are appendages of buildings; third, It is used as furnishings in buildings, such as stone incense burners, stone five offerings, etc.

In recent years, with the continuous improvement of people's material and cultural living standards and the continuous changes in aesthetic views, the application scope of stone carving products has also been expanding. It has a huge number and a wide range of categories. It is the most diverse type of natural stone products and is also a major category of special-shaped stone products. At present, there are more than a hundred kinds of stone carvings processed in batches, including integral or combined giant carvings that need to be installed with lifting equipment, as well as unlucky ones that can be placed in the palm of the hand, float on the water, hung around the neck, or worn on the wrist. Appreciation items and decorations. For many types of stone sculptures, there is currently no unified national standard, and it is difficult to accurately classify them. According to the development in recent years and combined with traditional habits, stone carving products can be classified according to the following four methods.

1. Divided according to different uses:

1. Appreciate, hang and collect stone crafts, jewelry and stone carvings. Such as jade ornaments, various ornamental stones and furnishings. This type of stone sculpture is relatively small in size.

2. Grottoes and cliff stone carvings. Such as Dunhuang Grottoes, Yungang Grottoes, Longmen Grottoes, etc.

3. Cemetery stone sculptures. Such as various mausoleum stone statues, sarcophagi, tomb sacrifices, etc.

4. Palaces, mansions and garden stone sculptures. For example, the Forbidden City in Beijing, the Summer Palace, and the Refuge Villa in Chengde, Hebei are all equipped with very classic stone carvings.

5. Stone carvings in temples, temples, and altars. For example, the stone pillars, stone railings and shrines in the Yongge Temple in Beijing and the Confucius Temple in Shandong are all stone carvings.

6. Stone bridge stone carvings. Such as the stone sculptures of figures on Zhaozhou Bridge in Hebei and the stone lions on Lugou Bridge in Beijing.

7. Stone sculptures of stone gates and archways. Such as the stone carvings of the Confucian Temple's stele square.

8. Tower building stone carvings. Such as various stone towers.

9. Inscriptions and stone carvings. Such as various monuments, tombstones, etc.

10. Stone sculptures of people and animals. Such as celebrity statues, Buddha statues, stone lions, etc.

11. Stone carvings for daily arts and crafts. Such as tables, chairs, stools, coffee tables, lamps, inkstones, etc.

12. Modern urban gardens and commemorative stone sculptures. Such as large urban sculptures, garden sculptures and commemorative sculptures, etc.

2. According to the different shapes of the carvings:

1. Three-dimensional stone sculpture. Including three-dimensional figures, animal statues, fireplaces, carved capitals, etc.

2. Flat stone carving. Including reliefs, mirror frames, picture frames, openwork windows, engraved plaques, stone carvings, shadow carvings and line carvings, etc.

3. Divided according to the processing tools used:

1. Hand-made carvings. That is, products carved with hand tools such as chisels, hammers, and drills.

2. Semi-mechanized processing of sculptures. That is, stone carvings that are partly made by hand and partly by mechanization.

3. Fully automatic CNC machining of engravings.

4. Sandblasting sculptures. Use a sandblasting engraving machine for engraving. The sandblasting engraving machine uses an air machine (air pressure 5-6kg/square meter) and emery jet to engrave the engraving part of the product.

5. Chemical corrosion of sculptures. That is, the chemical reaction between the chemical corrosive liquid and the stone is used to carve the stone. There are two types: relief (relief) and intaglio.

4. According to the traditional carving surface modeling methods, it can be divided into:

1. Relief. That is, a three-dimensional image is carved on the surface of the stone, which is a semi-three-dimensional sculpture. Because the image is embossed on the stone surface, it is called relief. According to the different degrees of stone removal on the stone surface, it is divided into low relief and high relief. The bas-relief is a single-level sculpture with a relatively simple content and no hollowing out. High-relief sculptures are multi-layered sculptures with complex contents. They are often hollowed out using openwork techniques to make them more attractive. Reliefs are mostly used for wall decoration of buildings, as well as dragon columns and drums in temples. The royal road to the Forbidden City in Beijing is the relief sculpture.

2. Garden sculpture. It is a three-dimensional pseudo-shaped work of art that exists in a single body. Each surface of the stone requires processing. The craftsmanship is famous for hollowing techniques and fine chopping axes. There are many types of such sculptures, most of which are made from a single stone, and some are composed of multiple stones. In recent years, many miniature products have been developed for this type of sculptures, some are as small as fruit cores, and some are as thin as cicada wings. It is so ingenious that it is called "micro-carving". Such products have completely separated themselves from architectural practicality and become pure handicrafts. Because they are compact and easier to carry, they are commemorative treasures and have great development prospects.

3. Shen Diao. Also known as "thread carving", it is a work of art that adopts the "water-milled and sunken" carving method. This kind of carving method absorbs traditional brushwork techniques such as Chinese painting and meaning, overlapping, and line-shaped scatter perspective. After the stone is processed and polished, the pattern and text are traced, and then lines are engraved according to the drawing. The thickness and depth of the lines are determined, and shadows are used to create a three-dimensional effect. Most of these products are used for surface decoration of exterior walls of buildings and have strong artistic quality.

4. Shadow sculpture. A new handicraft developed based on the early "needle black and white" craft. The earliest works were created by Hui'an artists in the 1960s. Because the works were based on photos, they were called "shadow sculptures." This kind of carving is made of Yujing Lake bluestone cut into flat plates. The surface is first polished, and then the fine tools are used to carve out microscopic patterns of different sizes, depths and density by using its characteristic of showing white spots after being cut. Dots are only divided into different levels of black and white, so that the image is displayed not only delicately and realistically, but also with unique charm. It is the development of stone carving into pure art and opens up a new path for stone carving craft production.

In addition, stone carving artists throughout the ages have also created some sculptures with various techniques of roundness, floating and sinking. This type of carvings all show relatively complex content, so they adopt a comprehensive approach of sinking within the floating, floating within the sinking, and sinking within the circle.

Although there are many types of stone carving products and there are many classification methods, their processing procedures are roughly the same. Generally, stone materials are selected to model, blanks are formed, products are formed, partial carving is polished, and products are cleaned and assembled.

Acceptance and packaging. There are four traditional manual processing techniques for processing these stone carvings:

1. "Pinch". It's just the prototype, it's also the creative design process. Some carvings are sketched before being made, and some are made out of clay or plaster models.

2. "engraving". That is to dig out the useless stones inside according to the line graphics.

3. "Tick". Also known as "picking", it means removing excess external stones according to the pattern.

4. "Carving". The final step is to carefully chop and shape the sculpture.

In recent years, our country has successively developed many new multi-functional stone carving processing machines, which have played a very important role in promoting the development of my country's stone carving industry, changing traditional manual operations, improving product quality and grade, and expanding exports. However, there is currently no unified national standard for stone carving products. It is recommended that a complete and unified quality standard system be established to standardize and promote the development of the carving industry.