Is the ancient brick carving valuable?

Yangzhou in Qing Dynasty was the hub of salt transportation between the two Huai Dynasties and the place where salt merchants lived together. "There are wealthy businessmen in all directions, and there are hundreds of thousands of overseas Chinese." Salt merchants are rich in financial resources and richer than the royal family. "Clothes and houses are extremely luxurious." They are building large-scale projects in Yangzhou, building gardens, houses, halls and so on. Pursue the spacious style of the house and the ingenious change of the garden, and spend a lot of money to decorate and decorate the gatehouse. During the Qianlong period, "Yangzhou Garden ranked first in the world. Due to the six trips to the south of the Yangtze River, salt merchants are extremely poor in material resources for appreciation. They went straight to Pingshan from the north gate, and dozens of towers on both sides of the strait were connected, without any repetition. " In addition to gardens, palaces and houses, the Buddhist art in Yangzhou was also very prosperous in the Qing Dynasty, with more than 100 temples in Daxing, so the construction industry was very prosperous at that time. Salt merchants objectively promoted the development of Yangzhou brick carving art. Up to now, there are still some ancient streets and rich houses in Yangzhou, and there are also exquisite brick carvings in Yangzhou Museum. Yangzhou brick carving not only has strong local characteristics, but also plays an indispensable role in the history of architectural brick carving in China.

Combine north and south, pay attention to decoration.

The decorative art of Yangzhou architectural brick carving is influenced by both Huizhou style and northern official style. The former was an architect brought by Huizhou merchants, which integrated Huizhou architectural art into Yangzhou architecture. The latter was the southern tour of Emperor Kanggan, who "married" Yangzhou many times, which made Yangzhou architecture take into account the style of the capital. In addition, Yangzhou is located between the north and the south, forming a mixed architectural style of northern official style and southern folk style.

Huizhou merchants are extremely rich, which makes the building full of face. They use various decorative techniques to finely carve gates, gatehouses and door covers. Therefore, the brick-carved gatehouses and door covers in Huizhou architectural decoration are rich in color. Its plane division is dense, the carving is meticulous, the carving is complex and profound, and it is full of layers. There are many kinds of decorative components on each gate, and there are continuous overlapping frames, which are prominently stacked together. When this Huizhou style spread to Yangzhou, Yangzhou transformed the Huizhou architectural techniques with its own culture. Yangzhou is rich, not in the surface of the building, but in turning the prominent door cover into an unaffordable brick door, integrating the technology of the northern official building into its own building, and even integrating the official "big" faction into its own building. Yangzhou brick carving gatehouse is developing towards carving but not hiding. All kinds of decorative components do not show mountains and water, but can't afford to pile up, cling to the wall and reach the roof, which makes enough articles on the plane, giving people a concise aesthetic feeling in an orderly way. In this way, the elaborate decoration of the gatehouse is the same color as the exposed wall of the water mill blue brick, which is invisible to the human eye but intriguing. Its exquisite, spacious and Shu Lang appearance can also be seen in Wen Qi. It presents a tall, orderly, down-to-earth and exquisite "Tiger Meteorology", which is graceful and generous. Therefore, the brick carving of Yangzhou architectural decoration is not a simple decoration.

Yangzhou brick carvings are generally decorated on roofs, gates, gatehouses, brick eaves, brick columns, dry ponds, foreheads, pile heads, hanging, sparrow replacement, hanging teeth, brick gables, corridors, screen walls, flower windows, etc., and are mostly decorative components. Therefore, it is impossible to choose the composition and area freely, or even to concentrate on the layout like Huizhou doorways, or to have a brick carving painting that can be enjoyed independently in a large area. Design must be carried out according to the shape and size of building components, that is, determining the shape of the house, drawing according to the shape and carving skillfully to meet the specific needs of building components. At the same time, people's favorite stories should also be defined on specific brick surfaces. Therefore, Yangzhou brick carvings, from a foot-long mountain flower to a foot-long hanging tooth and piled head, are mostly good at pattern decoration, with occasional figures as the theme, and few thematic and appreciative paintings. Yangzhou brick carvings are mostly one brick and one theme, with rich connotations and profound implications.

The picture must be intentional and the implication must be auspicious.

Yangzhou brick carving has a wide range of themes, including figures, landscapes, flowers and plants, insect paintings, birds and animals, etc. Its decorative techniques are mainly high relief, including relief, round carving, deep and shallow engraving and engraving, especially high relief. The image suddenly appears under the light or on the ground, with full composition, prominent subject, simple scenery, distinct layers and strong sense of space. The geometric pattern is shallow and shallow, and the ridge is strong and sharp; Flower tree figures are shallowly carved on high relief, which is rich in beauty and strength. Round carving and line carving are auxiliary means of high relief, and carving is only used in key parts.

Every brick surface of Yangzhou brick carving "the picture must be intentional and the meaning must be auspicious." Symbols, homophony, numbers and allusions are often used. With the help of form and meaning, homophony, numbers and meanings, or a mixture of several techniques, a brick can become an independent picture to contain people's ideal expectations for Fu Lushou's happiness and wealth, and add interest to decorative buildings. For example, persimmon and ruyi are combined into "all the best". Ancient money and bats together. Happy birthday. Peaches and bats together. Happy birthday. Tianzhu and narcissus are combined into a fairy birthday. Magpie and plum blossom combine into a beaming smile. There are also Phoenix Peony, Two Dragons Playing with Beads, Floating Bats and Two Immortals. "Harmony with Two Immortals" is a masterpiece of painting with one painting and one meaning, and its carving level is very exquisite. It is a rare boutique in Yangzhou figure brick carving. The four corners of the rectangular Committee are carved with auspicious clouds, and two immortals step on the clouds. One person carries the goods, and the other person carries the box. The heads of the two immortals are not complete, but their bodies are plump, their structures are accurate, their clothes are flying, and their flowers and leaves are tumbling, which shows that the brick carvers are accurate in modeling and exquisite in carving. This brick carving is a masterpiece of Yangzhou brick carving, full of vigor, free and easy, and extremely vivid.

In addition to this article, there are a few brick carvings reflecting the legendary plot, which may be used for the forehead of the gatehouse. Their picture forms are relatively simple, but their meanings are harmonious and profound. For example, the brick carving of "Carp yue longmen" consists of two bricks, each of which is 33cm long, 2 1.5cm wide and 17cm thick. This brick carving has an allusion plot, and the one on the left describes the scene that carp is ready to jump into Longmen. In the waves, a big carp jumped out of the water and jumped to the main position, and two small carp also jumped to Longmen with their heads held high. Dragon Palace, with two-story cornices and upturned corners, is magnificent, with wind chimes hanging on the corners and chest nails nailed to the doors. The door opened slightly, and a 3 cm thick inner space could be seen through the gap. Under the brick, there are five groups of highly decorative waves surrounded by carp Longmen, and a magnificent view of the Dragon Palace at sea jumps over the brick. There is a fish jumping out of the dragon gate on a brick on the right. Its image looks like a deer, its eyes are like a cow, and its mouth is like a horse ... Obviously, this is a "dragon" changed from an ordinary carp. Looking back at the Longmen, it looks like a smile, showing the joy and pride of carp rising because of jumping off the Longmen. The implication and expectation of this group of brick carving themes are obvious. Pray with the fish that people can get a chance to jump over the dragon gate and go to a higher level. In ancient times, "Longmen" was used as a metaphor for climbing high and looking far. For example, in the book of South Jingzhou written by Li Bai in Tang Dynasty, he said, "Once you climb the dragon gate, you are worth a hundred times." Yue longmen, a carp, is often regarded as a symbol of winning the imperial examination. This group of brick carvings is used for the decoration of the gatehouse, which has a unique significance. It is particularly worth mentioning that the patterns of honeysuckle are interspersed in the upper, lower, left and right sides of these two bricks, the upper left corner of the front of the left half brick and the upper right corner of the front of the right half brick. If you don't look closely, you think it's also a wavy pattern, because it's very similar to a wavy pattern, but if you look closely, you find it's a gold and silver pattern. The combination of the two patterns has no messy feeling at all. The sculptor added honeysuckle patterns to the theme of "Carp yue longmen", which seems to be two unrelated themes. However, according to the research data, honeysuckle is a kind of twining plant, commonly known as "honeysuckle" and "golden vine". Its flowers are long and drooping, yellow and white, so it is named honeysuckle. Lingdong does not wither, so it is called honeysuckle. Honeysuckle patterns are mostly used as Buddhist decorations, which may mean "longevity". This brick carving not only expresses the wish of the imperial examination promotion with yue longmen, a carp in Longmen, but also expresses the blessing of longevity with honeysuckle patterns, which further embodies the creator's idea of strengthening auspicious meanings. This kind of random drawing with or without fetters and rich associations is also very common in ancient craft patterns, especially Dunhuang patterns.

This group of high relief brick carvings has outstanding style. Whole brick thickness 17cm. Except the ground solid layer of 6cm, the thickness of 1 1cm is high relief and hollow carving. From the carp in front to the carp in the middle, from the nearby waves to the distant waves, from the front to the middle of Longmen, from the foreground to the background, the layers are very rich. In particular, the gate and jar dome of Nalong Palace broke through the relief category. The combination of hollow carving and circular carving is used to express the three-dimensional space. This group of brick carvings is placed on the wall, and the carving layer of 1 1 cm protrudes outside the wall, which is more stereoscopic. The whole set of brick carving integrates round carving, relief carving, hollow carving and depth carving, and is also a masterpiece that makes good use of points, lines and surfaces. It can be described as a masterpiece of the heyday of the Qing Dynasty.

There is also a group of brick carvings of "Ten Deer for a Spring Tour", which are rare treasures. It consists of nine rectangular bricks, each of which is 32.5 cm long, 24.5 cm high, 5 cm thick and 292.5 cm long. The first and ninth bricks are engraved with wishful patterns, and trees, landscapes and two deer are cleverly placed. There are eight deer in the middle of seven bricks. The theme of this brick carving symbolizes auspiciousness, with the sound of "deer" meaning "Lu", "Ten" meaning "Spring" and "Spring" meaning "Vientiane is renewed and full of vitality". The composition of nine bricks adopts the open method, and the bricks are divided in a planned way and organically combined into a complete group painting, which is a rare continuous picture of scattered composition in Yangzhou brick carving. There are six close-range carvings of pine, cypress and elm, with long and round leaves and changeable lines and surfaces, each with its own characteristics; Ten deer with different postures carved in the middle lens went for an outing in the countryside. From left to right, they look back, roll around the tree, tickle, lick their calves, drink water and eat grass. The solid and heavy rocks in the foreground are lined with light and flowing streams, which are in harmony with each other. The whole set of bricks is carved into a 2 cm thick carving layer, which divides the mountains, water, trees, deer and lawn into several parts. The knife method is changeable, concise and rich in levels.

The salt merchants' houses in Yangzhou have a long history, some of which stand tall and some are gradually abandoned. However, the brick carvings scattered among the people are still worth collecting.