Tianjin Brick Carving

Tianjin Brick Carving

　　One of Tianjin’s folk arts. It flourished during the Ming and Qing dynasties. In the Daoguang era of the Qing Dynasty, brick carving artist Ma Shunqing pioneered the “layering and pasting technique,” giving brick carvings a sense of depth with distant, middle, and close-up perspectives. This innovation marked a unique development in the art world. After 1949, Liu Fengming, the inheritor of Ma’s brick carving artistry, created exquisite brick carving artworks such as “Gallop on the Grassland,” “Nine Lions Picture,” and “Dragon and Phoenix Picture.” He was known as “Liu the Brick Carver.” His piece “Romance of the Three Kingdoms,” assembled from seven bricks with a total length of over three meters, features numerous vividly portrayed characters set against a background of dense forests, castles, and rivers—creating an extraordinary visual impact and regarded as a masterpiece of Tianjin’s brick carving art.