What carving techniques are used in Dazu Grottoes?

Throughout the art of Dazu Grottoes, except for a few round carvings, most of the carving techniques are high relief, shallow relief, general carving and line carving. Knife technique varies with body turning and texture, and the expression of expression varies with different carving objects, either implicit, exaggerated or vivid. Sculptures in the Song Dynasty, in particular, not only follow the solemn and wonderful pastel version, but also incorporate a lot of secular, folk and life-oriented aesthetic interests, and pursue the artistic effect of combining change and unity in the symmetrical layout centered on the deity. Dazu stone carving was carved by several generations of family masons, and the wheel was carved by Xu An, a craftsman from Yingchuan, Henan Province, through a hidden hole. The craftsmen of Dazu in the north paid their families and made statues in Dazu for generations. In particular, the Wen family, a craftsman adjacent to Dazu County, continued from the Northern Song Dynasty to the Southern Song Dynasty and made outstanding contributions to the sculpture of Dazu Grottoes in the Song Dynasty. The existing dozens of statues not only clearly record the age and theme of the statues, but also more completely record the names, apprentices and relatives of craftsmen, which provides valuable information for studying the development history of Chinese folk art. Dazu Grottoes not only wrote a glorious chapter for the history of traditional sculpture art in China, but also showed the aesthetic orientation of different times for the evolution of religious art in China, providing the most beneficial reference for today's sculpture art creation.