What do these three sculptures mean?

Three sculptures refer to wood carving, stone carving and brick carving.

Huizhou Three Carvings is a kind of local traditional carving art, which refers to three local traditional carving techniques with Huizhou style, namely wood carving, stone carving and brick carving, in the area of one mansion and six counties in ancient Huizhou (now yi county, Shexian, Qimen, Xiuning, Taiping, Jixi and Wuyuan, Jiangxi). The three sculptures have a long history, exquisite skills, handed down from generation to generation, and complete technological process, enjoying a high reputation at home and abroad. Their exquisite carving skills and immortal artistic value fully reflect the outstanding talents and artistic creativity of the ancient working people in China.

The themes of Huizhou Three Sculptures are deeply influenced by Confucian culture, mostly plot characters and stories, such as myths and allusions, drama stories, folklore and life customs. Animal patterns are mostly rolling and dancing, such as lions, unicorns, horses and deer. There are many patterns and types of flowers and birds, mostly in the form of single flowers and branches and leaves intertwined. Bo Gu diagram is also a common pattern; However, the theme of brick carving in Beijing is mainly natural flowers and plants, or combined with auspicious patterns, and sometimes there are some Bo Gu, but the patterns of character stories are very rare. Brick carvings in Hezhou are restricted by Islamic rules. They are all plants and geometric patterns, and there are no animals or figures.

Huizhou Three Sculptures are the perfect combination of China folk interest and literati interest. They embody the influence of Neo-Confucianism, emphasize the function of social education, and attach importance to the natural integration of emotional experience and moral ethics in aesthetics. The three sculptures fully reflect the characteristics of traditional folk art language and the subjective will of folk artists. This highly decorative, naive and naive artistic modeling in Huizhou Three Sculptures combines the excellent traditions of Central Plains culture and art since Qin and Han Dynasties, and at the same time absorbs the rich nutrition of Huizhou regional culture, forming a unique appearance of exquisiteness, freshness and elegance, which has become a wonderful flower in the cultural history of China.