Chapter 13 Section 5 Clay sculpture and dough sculpture

Clay sculpture is one of the traditional Chinese folk crafts.Its production method is to mix a little fiber into the clay, and after pounding it well, knead it into a mud base of various figures, dry it in the shade, and then paint it, so that a complete image of the figure is made. Speaking of clay sculpture, there is such an ancient story among the people.Legend has it that when Sun Bin, a general of the State of Qi in the Warring States period, fought against Pang Juan, a general of the State of Wei, Sun Bin made many clay figurines and horses for formation exercises, and later defeated Pang Juan.

This story is fictional.In fact, as early as the end of primitive society before Sun Bin, clay sculptures had already appeared. In 1983, a large Neolithic colored sculpture head was discovered in the Niuheliang Goddess Temple in Liaoning. It is about the size of a real person, with even sideburns in front of the ears, and light blue jade pieces embedded in the eyes.Judging from the broken parts, the molding of this head is first made with wooden sticks wrapped with grass, then coated with fine mud, and then polished and painted on the surface after molding.This kind of molding method is basically similar to the craftsmanship of large-scale painted sculptures of later generations, which also shows that the ancestors at the end of China's primitive society already had the experience of creating large-scale painted sculptures.

During the Qin and Han Dynasties, my country's sculpture art was already very developed. We can appreciate its charm and achievements from the world-famous terracotta warriors and horses in the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang.The size of the terracotta warriors and horses in the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang is similar to that of real people and real horses. The demeanor is used to show the posture of raising the tail of the army horse Fen Lie (lie column), which is very mighty.The pottery figurines used for burial in the Han Dynasty are also very wonderful, such as the cavalry figurines unearthed in Yangjiawan, Xianyang, Shaanxi in 1965. They are colorfully painted, mighty and neat, like a rigorous cavalry force.The acrobatic pottery figurines unearthed from Wuying Mountain in the suburbs of Jinan, Shandong, are molded on a rectangular pottery plate. There are 21 people, 7 of whom perform acrobatics, 2 women dance facing each other, 2 "hold the big top", 1 somersault, and 1 The jujitsu performance was accompanied by 7 people, and some people watched it, which was very vivid.The storyteller figurines unearthed in Chengdu, Sichuan, have a naked upper body, a big belly like a drum, a snare drum in the left arm, and a drumstick in the right hand, with a humorous expression and exaggerated movements.These pottery figurines are all sculpted by combining mold and plastic and then fired into pottery.Without exquisite craftsmanship and careful observation of life, it is difficult to create such vivid works.

After the Southern and Northern Dynasties, with the prosperity of Buddhism, the rulers of the north dug caves and carved Buddha statues everywhere in order to promote Buddhism, which made the colored sculpture technology of our country develop rapidly.Because many grottoes in this period were built in the sandy conglomerate areas of Gansu and Ningxia and other places, the stone was soft and not suitable for carving stone statues, and clay sculptures could only be used to express the beauty of gods and Buddhas.The famous Bingling Temple Grottoes, Maijishan Grottoes, and Dunhuang Thousand Buddha Caves are all grottoes dominated by clay sculptures.

Judging from the characteristics of these painted Buddha statues in grottoes, the early statues of the Northern Dynasties were mostly in the strong Gandhara style. The Buddha statues wore thin clothes close to the body, the belts fluttered, and the limbs were stiff and simple, with the characteristics of standardized Buddhist classics; The Buddha statues are more human-like, with moderate body proportions, which are obviously based on real people and have transformed the traditional Buddha statues.During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, in order to spread Buddhist teachings widely and attract more believers, there was a trend of secularization of statues.For example, at that time people regarded plumpness as beauty, so the shape of the Bodhisattva became a plump face, slender hands, and a gentle and charming image of a woman, with a body decorated with wreaths and a brocade skirt around the waist.Those heavenly kings and strong men were shaped into muscular, majestic and fearsome images according to the appearance of generals at that time, emphasizing their majestic and mighty temperament. This is the result of the increasing daily life of Buddhist Buddha statues.

Some of the statues in the Tang Dynasty are all made of clay, some are all painted, and some are made of fabrics.In addition to Buddhist statues, clay figurines of various shapes in the Tang Dynasty also have a high level of craftsmanship.For example, the figurines of horse-riding warriors unearthed from the Tang Tomb in Astana, Turpan, Xinjiang, ride a white horse, wear helmets on their heads, wear armor, wear a knife at the waist, rein in the horse with their left hand, and hold a flag with their right.The colored sculpture labor figurines unearthed from this tomb, some are grinding, some are pancakes, some are pounding rice, and one is dusting rice with a dustpan. The figures are vivid and full of interest in life, reflecting the superb level of creation (Fig. 28).

During the Liao, Song and Jin Dynasties, due to the weakening of the trend of excavating grottoes at that time, temple buildings expanded and clay sculptures increased day by day.During this period, temple clay sculptures have basically got rid of foreign influences and become completely secular.For example, the statues of the Song court ladies in the Jinci Temple in Taiyuan, Shanxi, are plump and handsome, with vivid eyebrows and lifelike features; the Liao statues in the Huayan Temple in Datong are plump, with fluttering clothes, real expressions, and full of life.

In addition to the above-mentioned clay sculptures, there was also a kind of folk clay sculptures popular in the cities of the Song Dynasty (see the "Toys" section of this book for details).These clay sculptures were originally "playing goods", but later became playthings of the scholar-bureaucrat class because of their exquisite production.According to Lu You's "Deshulou Miscellaneous Notes", "Hangzhou has Haier Lane, which is named after the clay boy who is good at sculpture", which shows the prosperity of folk clay sculpture at that time. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, clay sculpture further developed on the basis of inheriting the secularization of clay sculpture in Liao and Song Dynasties, and formed many schools.During this period, the most influential schools of folk clay sculpture were Wuxi Huishan clay figurines, Chaoan Fuyang clay figurines and Tianjin clay figurines.

Wuxi Huishan clay figurines were founded in the Ming Dynasty. In the early days, they mainly produced simple and plain "playing goods", that is, toys, such as Da Fu, Xiao Hua Nan, Lao Shou Xing, Che Zhuang Yuan, etc., which are full of local flavor.During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, Kunqu opera was popular in Wuxi, and Huishan clay sculpture began to create simple opera characters.After the Qing Dynasty, Peking opera became popular, which enriched the content of clay sculptures. Later, Huishan clay sculptures were divided into "rough goods" and "fine goods". "Rough goods" are mainly children's toys, which are sold in rural areas; "fine goods" are handmade opera stories, which are mainly sold to cities.Huishan clay sculpture pays attention to the combination of painting and sculpture, "painting seven plastics and three", and pays attention to "explosion" in color, that is, boldly using red, green, golden yellow, and cloud blue as the background color, so that the works are rich in color, strong in contrast, and have a unique style and strong local flavor.The "Da Fu" in Huishan clay sculpture is healthy, plump, lively and cute, and has always been loved by people (Figure 29).Well-known Huishan clay sculpture artists include Wang Chunlin, Ding Ajin, Zhou Asheng and so on.Wang Chunlin's Mud Boy, Zhou Asheng's painted sculpture "The Peach Fair", Ding Ajin's hand-crafted drama "Guaier", "Walking the Palace", "Borrowing Boots", "Clothes and Tailoring" are very famous works. All have contributed to the development of Huishan clay sculpture.

The founder of Chaoan Fuyang Clay Sculpture was Wu Jingshan in the Southern Song Dynasty.At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, Wu Jingshan, a native of Fujian, settled in Chao'an due to refuge. He used the local natural resources - a kind of ruddy "Jiangtu" sculpture to make children's toys and sell them for money.Later, due to the gradual improvement of technology, the variety of varieties continued to increase, and the market became wider and wider, so that it was passed down from generation to generation through the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties and lasted for a long time.Fuyang clay sculptures are mainly sold to overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, so that overseas Chinese can use them as family decorations to express their nostalgia for their hometown, so they have a great reputation overseas.The most famous artist of Fuyang clay sculpture is Wu Qianfan in the late Qing Dynasty.He has a keen eye and an amazing memory. When he makes a portrait of a person, he can create a lifelike portrait just by looking at it.The opera characters he created have outstanding personality and have both form and spirit, so that when local temple fairs are held, many people ignore the main drama and scramble to watch his painted opera stories.He once ingeniously made a group of monkeys out of bean curd dregs, and the monkeys were molded so that they were covered with gray fluff. At a competitive statue exhibition, the audience was amazed by the spectacle.

The founder of Tianjin clay sculpture was Zhang Mingshan in the late Qing Dynasty.When he was seven or eight years old, he followed his father Zhang Wanquan to learn how to make ceramics and make some small animals.Later, he tried coloring on unburned clay animals, and because the effect was good, he started the practice of color sculpture.Zhang Mingshan's painted sculpture works have a wide range of subjects, involving folk customs, history and literature, and folk stories, and reflect the ordinary life of the grassroots society.His creations "Yan Rinpo", "Funeral Ceremony", "Sugar Blower", "Bearer" and so on, are vivid in form and spirit, and have a distinctive personality. His thoughts and feelings can be seen from the dynamics of the characters, and have always been highly praised.His works participated in the Panama Games and won the first prize. Dough figurines, commonly known as Jiangmi people or dough figurines, are a handicraft that uses glutinous rice flour or fine flour as raw materials to knead animals and human figures.It is the rheology of folk clay sculpture, and it can also be said to be a variety of clay sculpture. The dough figurines in ancient my country originated from the "happiness pastry" and "flower dim sum" made of noodles with red dates, mung beans, rouge flowers, etc. during the festivals.The origin of this kind of dough figurine food in my country is quite early. According to the records of "Tokyo Menghualu" by Meng Yuanlao in the Southern Song Dynasty, this custom of making "fruit patterns" on the eve of the festival was prevalent in the Song Dynasty at the latest. "The day before the cold food is called cooking." When it is cooked, use flour to make jujubes and swallows, wear them with wicker sticks, and insert them on the lintel of the door, which is called "Zi Tui Yan".There were many "fruit patterns" in the Song Dynasty. According to "Sui Shi Za Ji" and other records, there were "armor" characters, "drama" characters, "baby birds and beasts" and "flying swallow shapes" in pastry at that time. Baiduan".These "fruit patterns" have been inherited, one is the "flower cakes" and "flower snacks" that are now pinched by hand, or patterned foods printed with food molds; the other is the "Jiangmi people" or "face person". Dough figurines in ancient my country are closely related to seasonal customs, and different dough figurines often have different auspicious meanings.For example, in some areas of our country, the "flower pastry" of the Spring Festival should be made into lotus and carp shapes to bless the coming year with surplus; Send large donuts of 12 zodiac signs, or "kylin send a child", in order to achieve "wholeness"; the "happy pastry" given at the wedding is mostly dragon and phoenix, mandarin ducks, double happiness, pomegranate, to wish the newlyweds live in harmony and love each other, Many precious sons.The rest, like the homonym of bergamot with "Fu", the homonym of "Lu" with deer, the peach with face symbolizes longevity, and the flower cake with pagoda shape symbolizes climbing step by step, also have auspicious meanings. In addition to various hand-made dough figurines, pastry molds printed with "flower cakes" or desserts are also a beautiful folk art.Since the Song and Liao Dynasties, there have been many cake molds in various parts of our country, such as the "Dragon and Phoenix cake mold" and "Yuanyang cake mold" left over from the Qing Dynasty for weddings, the "Peach mold" for birthday celebrations, and the "Ruyi cake mold" for Chinese New Year. "New Year Cake Mold", "Wudu Cake Mold" for the Dragon Boat Festival, and "Moon Cake Mold" for the Mid-Autumn Festival are all very distinctive folk works of art. "Hua Bobo" and "Hua Dian Xin" are delicious, beautiful, and bring auspicious blessings, so they are very popular among people.Slowly, small vendors who mixed sugar in the noodles and molded them into various villains and ponies appeared in the fruit market or peddled along the street.In the future, some people with relatively high kneading skills will use colored glutinous rice noodles to knead small noodle figurines. This kind of small noodle figurines specially for appreciation will become folk handicrafts like clay sculptures. Most of the glutinous rice noodles used by kneaders are mixed with rich powder, carbolic acid, honey, glycerin, etc., otherwise they are easy to rot.Before using it, it needs to be toned and processed into a colorful surface.The tools used by kneaders are generally very simple, mainly small picks, combs, rollers and scissors.Dough sculptors use these simple tools to knead various characters and scenery neatly and neatly through rubbing strips, picking flowers, displaying pieces, embellishing, pressing beads, rubbing strips and other modeling skills. Absolutely. Most of the dough sculpture artists live in poverty.They carry burdens all the year round, make a living by making a living by making small gadgets to amuse the children, so their names are rarely handed down.It is said that the earliest dough sculpture artist in my country was an old man surnamed Zhang in Tianjin during the Guangxu period. He copied opera scripts for others in his early years, and later changed to dough sculpture. He was skilled and died of exhaustion in his later years. Famous artists of modern dough figurines are Pan Shuhua and Tang Zibo.Pan Shuhua once passed Tianjin's kneading method to Wuxi Huishan.Tang Zibo is good at observing the stone carvings and clay sculptures of the past dynasties, and absorbing nutrition from them.His noodle kneading technique is good at seeing the big in the small, and he can shape the Eighteen Arhats in the small walnut shell.The characters in the opera are also extremely skillful.