Legends and allusions of tour guides: the characteristics of Guangdong tooth carving

According to historical records, China's tooth carving technology has a history of more than 3,000 years, while Guangzhou's tooth carving appeared a little later than the Central Plains, and it has a history of more than 2,000 years since the Jin Dynasty.

The cultural relics unearthed from the tomb of Nanyue King in the Western Han Dynasty now have a bundle of five large ivory, some of which are 126 cm long. According to identification, the origin of ivory is Africa, and it may have been shipped through the Maritime Silk Road. In addition, carvings depicting ivory, ivory figurines and residual teeth have been unearthed. It can be seen that these ivory carvings are imported raw materials. If the identification is true, the history of wide tooth carving will be greatly promoted. In the past, Lingnan people, especially Guangzhou Pearl River Delta people, regarded ivory as an auspicious thing. I think it can "ward off evil spirits and eliminate disasters *". The tooth carving introduced here refers to ivory carving. Guangzhou ivory carving flourished in the late Ming Dynasty, and gradually became a specialty of Guangzhou after successive generations of development.

Before liberation, ivory carving in Guangzhou was operated by individual workshops, mainly on Daxin Road. After liberation, Guangzhou Municipal Government organized these small workshops to set up Daxin Ivory Carving Craft Factory, so as to conduct research and development in an organized and planned way, improve and develop Guangzhou's tooth carving art. Since then, the tooth carving technology has made remarkable progress and the production scale has also expanded.

Guangzhou's tooth carvings are rich in oriental ethnic colors and exquisite Lingnan style. Most of them take Lingnan landscapes such as flowers and trees, rocks, dragon boats, pagodas and crab cages as themes, and are good at unique hollowing-out techniques. Among them, it is famous for carving ivory balls and painting boats, especially for its beautifully carved multi-layer ivory balls. Carving artists use a complete piece of ivory material to empty the floor into spheres of various specifications and levels. The smallest ivory balls have only two or three layers, and some have more than 40 layers. Each floor is engraved with various patterns such as dragons, phoenixes and flowers, which can be rotated flexibly. The 20-layer ivory balls carved by Guangzhou tooth carving artists can be traced back to L.

In 9 15 Panama International Expo, won the special craft award. Up to now, Guangzhou ivory tower has 45 floors of carved buildings. Pavilion and flower boat are also works of Guangzhou tooth carving. The square hull is shaped like a dragon, with 2-7 floors of pavilions, as many as 3000 people on board, flags, lights and so on. Vivid and spectacular. In addition, there are whole tooth carvings carved from whole ivory, fishermen casting nets, crab cages, ancient ladies and so on.

Guangzhou ivory micro carving is also famous all over the country. In the early 1930s, Feng Gongxia, a micro-carving artist in Guangzhou, carved the full text of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's will with the word 154 on an ivory rice grain as big as a rice grain. He also carved a 25,000-word producer's party manifesto on a 64-page ivory piece. His son Feng Shaoxia is also a master of micro-carving. He inherited his father's skill and created eighteen lifelike arhats, which were carved on ivory rice. These exquisite micro-carving works represent the level of ivory micro-carving in Guangzhou, which is amazing.

In 1980s, due to the rise of the global wildlife conservation movement, elephants were banned from hunting as protected wild animals. According to international regulations, no country can sell ivory and ivory products, and our government strictly abides by this regulation.

In this case, Guangzhou's tooth carving technology, especially the ivory carving industry, has been severely hit, so we have to choose other materials to replace it and reluctantly continue this traditional craft. The 45-story ivory balls, pavilions and large flower boats have become unprecedented artistic treasures and unique products in the world.