Suzhou-style Brick Carving

Suzhou-style Brick Carving

　　1. Suzhou-style Brick Carving — The Finishing Touch in Suzhou’s Ancient Architecture

　　Suzhou-style brick carving is one of the typical representatives of brick carving art in southern China. It was relatively simple and unadorned during the Ming Dynasty, but saw significant development and refinement during the Qing Dynasty, especially after the Kangxi and Qianlong eras, forming its own delicate and elegant decorative style, earning it the title "Exquisite Beauty of the South." It is worth mentioning that the inscribed plaques on Suzhou’s brick-carved gateways are often calligraphed by renowned figures, where exquisite handwriting and elegant brick carvings complement each other, adding a strong scholarly aura to Suzhou’s brick carvings. Suzhou once had over two hundred brick-carved gateways from the Ming and Qing dynasties, but unfortunately, most were lost to the ravages of time. With modern people’s renewed aesthetic appreciation for ancient art, gateway brick carvings have regained popularity, and many contemporary buildings and residences now also favor adorning their gateways with brick carvings.

　　2. The Ascetic Devoted to the Art of Brick Carving

　　Liu Yiming describes his path as that of an ascetic, a “road of a hundred flavors.” Although brick carving is a craft passed down in his family, over the more than 20 years since Liu Yiming started working, he has mostly been involved in stone carving, wood carving, jade carving, as well as graphic design, carving techniques, and research on ancient architecture, with not much focus on brick carving itself.

　　It wasn’t until a few years ago, when a Taiwanese client asked him to design a residential garden, that he was faced with the challenge of creating brick carvings for the gateway and waterside pavilion—tasks no local artisans could complete. Left with no choice, Liu Yiming took up the chisel himself, and the results greatly satisfied the Taiwanese client. At that moment, he realized that as a graduate specializing in brick carving from an art institute, he bore the responsibility of rescuing and restoring the brick carvings of ancient architectural gateways.

　　In early 2000, he registered and established the Jiulong Brick Carving Art Research Institute. From the very first day, Liu Yiming embarked on a journey of exploration. In the first half of 2000, he traveled across most of China, observing brick carvings in classical architecture, particularly in ancient villages in Anhui and the Jiangsu-Zhejiang region, where he gathered relevant materials on-site. Over the years, he has collected images of brick carvings from gateways around the country, totaling thousands of examples, greatly enriching his creative vision and scope. To better understand these “antiques,” he befriended local guides, elderly teachers, monks, and Taoist priests. He also replicated representative ancient brick carvings from different regions to study further at home. Through repeated observation and research, he came to understand the profound integration of tradition, custom, and contemporary culture within the art of brick carving.

　　3. A Folk Treasure Shining Brightly

　　 Liu Yiming says that compared to ancient brick carving artisans who dedicated themselves tirelessly over years, his workshop incorporates more modern technology. The brick blank is key to brick carving. To create smooth and fine brick blanks, he even established a small brick blank factory, conducting hundreds of experiments, constantly adjusting the shrinkage rate and clay mixture formulas, thereby obtaining hundreds of scientific data points, and deciphering the mysteries of over ten processes including clay selection, slurry settling, aging, firing, and polishing. Although some procedures use modern machinery, Liu Yiming still adheres to traditional craftsmanship. He says that a large part of brick carving is still done by hand, and the finer details are the hardest to carve—like human facial features. The artisans of the past were very clever, using quicklime mixed with glutinous rice soup to increase the flexibility of grey bricks for easier carving. This is how Suzhou artisans could achieve such fine engravings. In recent years, Liu Yiming has immersed himself in the world of brick carving, creating thousands of brick carving works with other artisans. These include over a hundred and seventy styles across more than ten categories such as classical figures, opera scenes, flowers and birds, landscapes, animals, and auspicious motifs. Major works include “The Eight Immortals,” “Ten Deer,” “The Oath of the Peach Garden,” “Prosperity in a Noble House,” and “Romance of the West Chamber.” At the 4th China Arts and Crafts Exposition, his works “Guan Yu Reading the Spring and Autumn Annals at Night,” “Farming and Studying,” and “Flower and Bird Screen” won silver and bronze awards.

　　As the reputation of Liu Yiming’s Suzhou-style brick carving grew, clients came from near and far. He received orders for over ten projects, including the restoration of ancient architecture and the creation of new brick-carved gateways for sites such as the Weng Tonghe Memorial Hall in Changshu, Xingfu Temple, Shanghai’s Yu Garden, and the Shanghai Guyue Hotel.

　　The “Suzhou Jiulong Brick Carving Art Research Institute” also hired several professors and experts, and its brick carving products were registered under the trademark “Shijingyuan.” Liu Yiming said he wants to use his own hands to let the lifeblood of traditional craftsmanship flow through his works, bringing the splendor of memory back to life.

　　4. Giant Brick Carvings Showcase Their Splendor at the World Heritage Conference

　　Liu Yiming’s masterpieces created as gifts for the World Heritage Conference held in Suzhou include “Prosperous Suzhou,” the giant brick carving screen wall “Splendid Suzhou,” and the giant brick carving “World Heritage Memorial Wall.”

　　“Prosperous Suzhou” is a timeless masterpiece painted by Xu Yang, a court painter of the Qing Dynasty, depicting the scenery of Suzhou during the Qianlong era. To present a gift for the World Heritage Conference in Suzhou, Liu Yiming led thirty craftsmen from the institute in meticulously carving a brick version of “Prosperous Suzhou,” which is now housed in the Ancient Architecture Museum of the Suzhou Urban Planning Exhibition Hall.

　　“Splendid Suzhou,” also known as the “New Prosperous Suzhou,” takes the form of a screen wall. Using the scattered perspective technique of traditional Chinese painting, it blends the concrete with the abstract and integrates the artistic language of brick carving with a modern, flat, symbolic decorative style. Across a massive 55-square-meter canvas, it captures the modern face of Suzhou from Jinji Lake in the east to Taihu Lake in the west. Ancient villages around Taihu, the Shangfangshan Shihu scenic area, the old city district, the Tiger Hill Pagoda, the high-tech and industrial zones of Suzhou—all are vividly portrayed. Liu Yiming led more than twenty brick carving craftsmen from the Jiulong Brick Carving Art Research Institute in a three-month non-stop effort to complete the carving ahead of schedule, using a total of 291 golden bricks.

　　The brick carving section of the “World Heritage Memorial Wall” consists of 32 rectangular golden bricks, each 71 cm long and 55 cm wide. Each brick features an independent carving that forms a complete picture, using the scattered perspective technique of Chinese painting and high relief carving. These depict 29 of China’s World Cultural Heritage sites—including the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, and Suzhou’s Canglang Pavilion—as well as two major musical arts: Kunqu Opera and Guqin. Heritage experts from around the world who attended the conference were left in awe by Liu Yiming’s brick carvings. The World Heritage Memorial Wall will serve as an eternal medium to record and pass on a history worthy of everlasting remembrance, constantly reminding people to cherish history, protect heritage, and inherit culture.