Laizhou Jade Carving [Shandong Laizhou Specialty]

What is Laizhou jade carving? Authentic Shandong Laizhou specialty: Laizhou jade carving

Content summary:Do you want to know what Laizhou jade carving is? This article is a detailed introduction to the special product of Laizhou, Shandong Province - Laizhou Jade Carving. It was compiled and edited by the editorial team of China Specialty Network after reviewing and collecting relevant information on Laizhou Jade Carving. The full text takes about 12 minutes to read, mainly including the basic introduction of Laizhou Jade Carving and the product characteristics of Laizhou Jade Carving? How did the history of Laizhou jade carving come about? The production method of Laizhou jade carving, etc

Basic Introduction to Laizhou Jade Carving

Laizhou Jade Carving is a folk carving art of the Han ethnic group in Laizhou, Shandong Province. Laizhou City is rich in stone materials such as talc and green frozen stone that can be used for carving. Among them, the green frozen stone is as transparent as jade, hence the name Laizhou jade, and its carvings are commonly known as Laizhou jade carvings

How did the history of Laizhou jade carving come about

In the long river of history, there are many elite jade carving artists in Laizhou who have outstanding skills, and there are often exquisite works that come out. This can be seen from the figures and animal shapes in the stone carving group of the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong; From the exquisite craftsmanship of the pair of lifelike stone lions in front of the Bagua Temple on the eastern foot of Fenzi Mountain, it can be inferred that Laizhou jade carving once reached a considerable artistic height. Because talc carving and stone carving belong to the same category and are not far apart. However, due to historical limitations, this folk art has never been produced on a large scale. Except for a few folk artists who specialize in carving small utensils and selling them to wealthy people for display and play, most people take advantage of the off-season to carve small toys such as talcum monkeys with knives, and sell them at extremely low market prices to supplement their families. By the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, there were only two carving workshops left in Laizhou City, each with one or two craftsmen, and the annual consumption of raw materials was only over 5000 kilograms

The production method of Laizhou jade carving

Carving materials

Youyou Mountain in Laizhou City is rich in magnesite and talc. The distribution of mineral deposits of magnesite and talc often coexists in opposite directions. Magnesium ore is mainly found in Fenzishan, and the entire mountain range and several hundred meters below it are almost entirely composed of mineral layers. The origin of talc is the best in the Qing Mountains of the Eastern Song Dynasty and Western Song Dynasty. Its texture is soft, smooth, and delicate, with a green color as cold as ice and crystal clear as jade, commonly known as Laizhou jade. In addition to the representative variety of green frozen stone, the stone materials of Laizhou jade also include black and charcoal like black jadeite, leopard spotted stone with patterns resembling leopard spots, flowing cloud stone, bamboo leaf bluestone, and Milky Way cloth star and other talc varieties. On the sunny slope of Heishan, there is a small flat valley that sheltered from wind and stored gas. In the valley lies a historical figure, Mao Ji, a great scholar of the Ming Dynasty. A specialty of the Heishan area is a type of talc with a color like chicken liver. The stone is particularly fine and smooth, making it an excellent material for engraving various types of seals. Perhaps after Mao Ji was exiled back to his hometown by the court, he made special contributions to the reform of the carving techniques of Laizhou jade in his later years. Therefore, the local people renamed the chicken liver colored talc, a specialty of Mao Ji's tomb, as Mao Gongshi

There are many varieties of talc in Youyou Mountain, whether large or fine, with both softness and hardness, suitable for carving various colors, shapes of characters, animals, and vessels. Therefore, the carving industry has flourished in dozens of villages in five or six towns around Youyou Mountain