Guangzhou Jade Carving

Guangzhou Jade Carving

Nominating Unit: Liwan District, City of Guangzhou

Guangzhou Jade Carving has a long history. The intact jade ring and partially damaged jade ring excavated in the Neolithic Age relics in Flying Goose Hill within the city proper are almost 4,000 years old. The Jade Bi, seal, and belt hook unearthed in Xicun tomb from the Qin Dynasty has already shown painted inlaid jade craftsmanship. Among the thousand cultural relics unearthed in the King’s Tomb of South China in Xianggang Mountain from the West Han Dynasty, there were delicately carved jade wares of more than 200 pieces. The jade cup and two jade figurines are rare treasures among the Han Dynasty jade wares. Especially, the wire strand jade suit made of thousands of pieces of jade is the only complete one in its kind from West Han Dynasty excavated in China, and its marvelous craftsmanship is unparalleled. The museum also has collections of phoenix-headed white jade hairpin from the Tang Dynasty and jade lion from the Song Dynasty, the craftsmanship of which has already reached the level of excellence. In the Ming and the Qing Dynasties, skilled craftsmen all gathered in Guangzhou, and the jade carving industry enjoyed a booming period and reached its peak in the 30s of the 20th century. The number of jade carving workshops once reached more than 4,000, and the world renowned Longevity Road and Daihe Road became the biggest jewelry and jade ware market. In the 60s, all workshops were merged into Southern Jade Carving Factory, which became the main basis for the transmission of south China’s jade carving craftsmanship and the biggest jade carving factory in south China.

Guangzhou Jade Carving uses jade as raw material, and the main products are jade jewelries and jade ornamental wares. Traditional jewelry uses relief processes, and there are many shallow and deep carving styles. The ornamental stripes are mainly flowers, fruits, birds, dragon, phoenix, Buddha, and Chinese characters such as fortune, luck and longevity. The jewelry can be divided into three broad categories, bracelet, ornamental pieces and flower pieces, covering more than 100 types. Ornamental jade wares normally use pierced carving techniques, including figure, flower, birds and beasts, and vessels. In recent decades, many new techniques have been invented based on traditional craftsmanship. The styles borrowed from the Song Dynasty “Seven Colored Jade” technique, and a “skilled color” technique was invented, which utilized the natural textures and colors of raw jade and avoided cracks to give the jade ware a natural look. The carving techniques combine whole carving, pierced carving and composite carving and reached a higher level of mastery. The lotus and boat style from Wu Gongyan are so thin that they can actually fl oat on water. The Dragon Boat Bestowing Fortune from Li Furong and He Zhenxiang combines the elements of painted dragon boat and architecture into one, and is graded national level treasure. Multi-layered jade ball is carved out of a whole piece of jade. Each layer has the same thickness and is rotatable. There can be as many as 20 layers now. One of its representative works, the 18-layered Hundred Flower Jade Ball was awarded national congress of science award in 1978; the 14-layered Towered Jade Ball was named national treasure in 1984. The Spring of the New Century masterminded by Lan Junji was awarded the “Hundred Flower” gold award on the second national craftsmanship tournament. This piece of work is carved out of a whole piece of Nan jade which weighs 18 tons and has a diameter of 85 cm. The ball contains 8 layers and 4 sub-balls all of which can rotate freely. It is by far the biggest jade ball of its kind in the world.(https://www.daowen.com)

Guangzhou Jade Carving is unique for its elegant southern styles, and is ranked as one of the four main genres of Chinese jade carvings together with those of Beijing, Yangzhou and Shanghai.

Under the impact of market economy and fashion cultures, the jade ware market now focuses more on profit and material rather than the craftsmanship. Also, the high cost in raw material then the high prices for final products added to the predicament of a weak demand, which has resulted in the sharp diminishing of practitioners. Now the Southern Jade Carving Factory has a little over 10 artists left, and the transmission of Guangzhou Jade Carving techniques is in jeopardy of breaking down. Urgent need to protect it is called for.

It was enlisted into the list of the second batch of state-level intangible cultural heritage in 2008.