Wood carvings

Last updated 2026-11-10 — A traditional craft passed down through the Cao family of Dongtai. During the Xianfeng era of the Qing Dynasty, Cao Junpeng produced the most enduring masterpieces. The wooden panels in front of the shrine at Guan Di Temple in Daijiayao, Xinghua County, feature carvings of serene mountains with flowing water, lush flowers and trees, and eighteen arhats no more than an inch tall inside a cave—exquisitely delicate and in diverse poses. The Dongtai Chamber of Commerce once owned a fine piece titled "Salt Field Scenery," carved on a wooden tray about one foot in diameter, depicting the “one well and five ponds” of the salt field: the brine well, fire-heating pond, red brine pond, drainage pond, ash-scraping pond, and ash-removal pond, as well as salt stoves, pot skimmers, and salt warehouses. It also showed salt workers laboring, oxen pulling carts to transport salt, and running roe deer and rabbits in the grass—images so lifelike they brought the salt field scenery vividly to life. The calligraphy on the salt stoves was as fine as mustard seeds, crafted with exquisite delicacy.