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Shoushan Stone Carvings
Shoushan () stone carving is an art originating in Fujian Province () in East China. The stones used in carving are also known as agalmatolite and are mined in the Shoushan village in northern Fujian. Use of the stone for carving can be traced back as far as the Southern dynasties and have long been used to produce handicrafts and later on in the Ming dynasty, seals. See also * Shou (character) ''Shòu'' () is the Chinese word/character for "longevity". Use Three of the most important goals in life in Chinese traditional thought are the propitious blessings of happiness (''fú'' ), professional success or prosperity (''lù'' ), a ..., meaning longevity External links A Mineralogical and Petrographical Study of Shoushan Stone (Agalmatolite) {{Fujian topics Chinese sculpture Fujian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stone Carving
Stone carving is an activity where pieces of rough natural stone are shaped by the controlled removal of stone. Owing to the permanence of the material, stone work has survived which was created during our prehistory or past time. Work carried out by paleolithic societies to create stone tools is more often referred to as knapping. Stone carving that is done to produce lettering is more often referred to as lettering. The process of removing stone from the earth is called mining or quarrying. Stone carving is one of the processes which may be used by an artist when creating a sculpture. The term also refers to the activity of masons in dressing stone blocks for use in architecture, building or civil engineering. It is also a phrase used by archaeologists, historians, and anthropologists to describe the activity involved in making some types of petroglyphs. History The earliest known works of representational art are stone carvings. Often marks carved into rock or petrog ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fujian
Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou, while its largest city by population is Quanzhou, both located near the coast of the Taiwan Strait in the east of the province. While its population is predominantly of Chinese ethnicity, it is one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse provinces in China. The dialects of the language group Min Chinese were most commonly spoken within the province, including the Fuzhou dialect of northeastern Fujian and various Hokkien dialects of southeastern Fujian. Hakka Chinese is also spoken, by the Hakka people in Fujian. Min dialects, Hakka and Mandarin Chinese are mutually unintelligible. Due to emigration, a sizable amount of the ethnic Chinese populations of Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
East China
East China () is a geographical and a loosely defined cultural region that covers the eastern coastal area of China. A concept abolished in 1978, for economical purposes the region was defined from 1949 to 1961 by the Chinese Central Government to include the provinces of (in alphabetical order) Anhui, Fujian, Jiangsu, Shandong and Zhejiang, as well as the municipality of Shanghai. In 1961, the province of Jiangxi was added to the region (previously it was considered part of South Central China). Since the Chinese government claims Taiwan and the few outlying islands of Fujian (Kinmen and Matsu) governed by the Republic of China (Taiwanese government) as its territory, the claimed "Taiwan Province, People's Republic of China" was once classified in this region. Administrative divisions Cities with urban area over one million in population Provincial capitals in bold. See also * Yangtze River Delta The Yangtze Delta or Yangtze River Delta (YRD, or simply ) is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agalmatolite
Pagodite or agalmatolite is a variety of pyrophyllite used by Chinese artisans for carvings in pagodas and similar objects. Usually soft and sometimes soapy, it can be a greyish green or greyish yellow colour.Excerpts available at . It is sometimes also referred to (loosely) as . Excerpts available at |
Northern And Southern Dynasties
The Northern and Southern dynasties () was a period of political division in the history of China that lasted from 420 to 589, following the tumultuous era of the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Eastern Jin dynasty. It is sometimes considered as the latter part of a longer period known as the Six Dynasties (220–589). Albeit an age of civil war and political chaos, it was also a time of flourishing arts and culture, advancement in technology, and the spread of Mahayana Buddhism and Daoism. The period saw large-scale migration of the Han people to the lands south of the Yangtze. The period came to an end with the unification of all of China proper by Emperor Wen of the Sui dynasty. During this period, the process of sinicization accelerated among the non-Han ethnicities in the north and among the indigenous peoples in the south. This process was also accompanied by the increasing popularity of Buddhism ( introduced into China in the 1st century) in both northern and southern Chin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ming Dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han Chinese, Han people, the majority ethnic group in China. Although the primary capital of Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng (who established the short-lived Shun dynasty), numerous rump state, rump regimes ruled by remnants of the House of Zhu, Ming imperial family—collectively called the Southern Ming—survived until 1662. The Ming dynasty's founder, the Hongwu Emperor (r. 1368–1398), attempted to create a society of self-sufficient rural communities ordered in a rigid, immobile system that would guarantee and support a permanent class of soldiers for his dynasty: the empire's standing army exceeded one million troops and the naval history of China, navy's dockyards in Nanjin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shou (character)
''Shòu'' () is the Chinese word/character for "longevity". Use Three of the most important goals in life in Chinese traditional thought are the propitious blessings of happiness (''fú'' ), professional success or prosperity (''lù'' ), and longevity (''shòu'' ). These are visually represented by the three "star gods" of the same names ( ''Fú, Lù, Shòu''), commonly depicted as three male figurines (each wearing a distinctive garment and holding an object that enables them to be differentiated), or the Chinese ideographs/characters themselves, or various homophones or objects with relevant attributes. '' Shòu'' is instantly recognizable. "He holds in his hand a large peach, and attached to his long staff are a gourd and a scroll. The stag and the bat both indicate ''fu'' happiness. The peach, gourd, and scroll are symbols of longevity." His most striking characteristic is, however, his large and high forehead, which earned him the title "Longevity Star Old-pate". The C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Sculpture
Chinese art is visual art that originated in or is practiced in China, Greater China or by Chinese artists. Art created by Chinese residing outside of China can also be considered a part of Chinese art when it is based in or draws on Chinese culture, heritage, and history. Early "Stone Age art" dates back to 10,000 BC, mostly consisting of simple pottery and sculptures. After that period, Chinese art, like Chinese history, was typically classified by the succession of ruling dynasties of Chinese emperors, most of which lasted several hundred years. The Palace Museum in Beijing and the National Palace Museum in Taipei contains extensive collections of Chinese art. Chinese art is marked by an unusual degree of continuity within, and consciousness of, tradition, lacking an equivalent to the Western collapse and gradual recovery of Western classical styles of art. Decorative arts are extremely important in Chinese art, and much of the finest work was produced in large workshops ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
