On The Woodcarving "Children In Lantern Festival" And The Reason Huizhou Woodcarving Thrived In Ming And Qing Dynasty

As one of the folk arts, the woodcarving of Huizhou sought the artistic conception of ornamentation, and also created a Huizhou culture atmosphere. The woodcarving was one of the three carvings of Huizhou (woodcarving, tile carving and stone carving),which bore the weight of history and stood for the arts of vernacular dwelling. The woodcarving of Huizhou was beyond all comparison in skills of carving, moral and shape.The subjects of Huizhou woodcarving were multiplex in Ming and Qing dynasty, such as people, views, fowls, beasts, fishes, insects, flowers, trees and so on. Among them, the works of people had different styles and beautiful carvings, and the carvings "children In lantern festival" on the beams and architraves of Qing dynasty was an outstanding representative. It not only showed the characteristic of Confucian culture, but also full of folk-custom.At the same time,this subject is controversial,which is foucs on the right view between "tiao jia guan"and "children In lantern festival".This artical mainly discusses the meaning of folk culture of this woodcarving,so as to investigate the deeper meaning of this kind of subjects,but not the wrong or right point of this woodcarving."Children In lantern festival"had more than 100 boys on it, and were no repeating----sounding the gong, playing the drum, squibbing firecrackers, trumping, stilt-walking and so on. The woodcarving showed the joyful scene of Lantern Festival through the carving of characters and plentiful types. This article analyzes the woodcarving's details, compositions, skills and so on, explores the meaning of folk cultures, the conclusion of forms of expression, contents, artistic characteristics and folk civilizations, and finally researches into the reasons why Huizhou woodcarving flourished.It was not strange that the woodcarving of Huizhou thrived,and was influenced by traditional culture, Confucianism, social economy, geographical environment, Huizhou merchants and interrelated arts. Ming and Qing dynasty was an important period of economies, societies, civilizations and arts growth of Huizhou. During this period, as the growth of Huizhou merchants, commercial activities and wealth, the Huizhou merchants spent some of the money on architecture, arts, literature and education, and thrived the entire civilizations of Huizhou. As an symbol of folk culture and a kind of folk arts, the woodcarving showed many folk subjects and lucky thoughts, and was loved by Huizhou merchants and many other people in different groups. As history developed, this culture significance became more and more obvious. The woodcarving showed the consummate skills of workers, and also enriched the forms of Huizhou architecture.