Brick Carving for Juyi Hall of Mount Liang
3 min readBrick Carving for Juyi Hall of Mount Liang was made in Guangxu Period of the Qing Dynasty, which was ever embedded into the front wall of Chen Family Memorial Temple in Guangzhou. It describes climax scene, i.e., “getting together for uprise” as mentioned in drama of Water Margin. It is a masterpiece of folk brick carving art of the Qing Dynasty. With Juyi Hall as composition center, it is carved with many heroes of Mount Liang, with grand scene, imposing manner and clear spatial layer. Figures are all carefully carved with different patterns, orderly arrangement and vivid styles. Thanks to surrounding brilliant decoration, the scene atmosphere is expressed strongly.
Juyi Hall
Juyi Hall has clear layers and strong feeling of vertical depth. From refined stone lion, stele on Juyi Hall to inner part of Juyi Hall, everything is carved in delicate manner so that people feel personally on the scene. Arrangement for figures is ever-changing in symmetry. In front row, figures take facial expression of wonderful foresight. On both sides, female heroines take valiant and heroic bearing. Behind them, generals take heroic bearing . Pheasant tail feathers on their headpieces seem to sway along with the wind so that the composition has the dynamics.
Brick carving
Brick carving is a kind of sculpture art, which refers to carving on fired and molded bricks. It covers single-layer relief, multiple-layer carving, piled brick carving and so on. It mainly shows strong men, gods and evils, patterns of flower and birds and fifi gures of folk opera. The complex brick carving generally takes the following steps: making composition at fifi rst, carving little bricks one by one, and then combining and embedding into wall surface. Brick carving is generally used for building decoration so as to reflfl ect luxury of houses and avoid visual monotony.
Water Margin and Drama of Water Margin
Water Margin and Drama of Water Margin are themed with peasant uprise led by Song Jiang in the Northern Song Dynasty, which all portray Li Kui, Wu Song, Lin Chong, Lu Zhishen and other vivid images. Water Margin is a saga novel, which is authored by Shi Nai’an in the Ming Dynasty. But in the Yuan Dynasty, “Drama of Water Margin” emerged when the novel wasn’t created. In the Ming Dynasty, Drama of Water Margin further developed and contained more contents. In Peking Opera of the Qing Dynasty, more and more dramas sang ode to heroes of Mount Liang, such as Wild Boar Forest, Three Attacks for Zhujiazhuang and Lin Chong Flees at Night.
Chen Family Memorial Temple in Guangzhou
Chen Family Memorial Temple in Guangzhou is located in Zhongshan Seven Road in Guangzhou, Guangdong. Built in the 16th-20th year of Guangxu Period of the Qing Dynasty (1890-1894), it covers 13,200 square meters and consists of 19 buildings. Wood carving, stone carving, brick carving, pottery sculpture, grey sculpture and other traditional building decoration and iron casting process are seen throughout hall, corridor, compound , gate , window, railing , house ridge, brick wall, crossbeam, shrine and other places. Largestscale brick carving is shown in parapets on east wall and west wall on both sides of front gate.
