Hunan's Best — Masterpieces and Art Treasures (Part 2)
Traditional Crafts, Each with Charm: China Red Porcelain—a rare treasure from a thousand kilns. Liling in Hunan is a major producer of China red porcelain, known as "a rare treasure from a thousand kilns." Its emergence filled a historical gap and represents a crystallization of modern ceramic technology and art, noted for its difficult firing process and complex craftsmanship.
This article has been compiled from historical materials in the "Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network" (33519.com · City Overview section). Some administrative divisions, population, socioeconomic data, and policy information may be outdated and are for reference only; for the latest situation, please refer to official releases by the local government and scenic areas.
Section II
Traditional Crafts, Each with Its Own Charm
A Treasure Rarely Obtained from a Thousand Kilns — Chinese Red Porcelain
Liling City in Hunan is the main production area of Chinese red porcelain, known as "a treasure rarely obtained from a thousand kilns." The advent of Chinese red porcelain filled a historical gap and is the crystallization of today's world ceramic technology and art. It has the following characteristics: 1. Difficult craftsmanship: Red porcelain is difficult to fire, with a complex process. It must be refined through more than a dozen procedures including bisque firing, glaze firing, red firing, and gold firing. The finished product rate is extremely low, hence the sayings "nine out of ten kilns fail" and "a treasure rarely obtained from a thousand kilns." 2. Expensive materials: It requires the addition of rare and precious metals such as tantalum to be fired. Tantalum is a rare metal more expensive than gold; it can be said that gold vase kiln red porcelain is fired with gold. 3. Good quality: Red porcelain is fired from fine white porcelain, bone china, and jade porcelain bodies, with a texture like congealed fat, extremely precious. As a Chinese treasure, red porcelain has extremely high ornamental and collection value.
The Pinnacle of Oriental Ceramic Art — Flat Bean and Double Birds Vase
The Flat Bean and Double Birds Vase is 46.8 centimeters high with an open mouth diameter of 20 centimeters. The porcelain vase has smooth lines, like a phoenix's tail, with a beautiful shape. On the vase are painted black flat beans, and under a cluster of purple flowers a pair of bamboo partridges rest leisurely and contentedly. The picture's lines are concise and rounded, with appropriate shades of color, steady and elegant. It is painted using the unique double-hook water-separation method, possessing the artistic conception of fine brushwork, with appropriate shades and a warm, elegant tone. In 1915, at the Panama Pacific International Exposition, the Flat Bean and Double Birds Vase from Liling, Hunan, with its qualities of "white as jade, bright as a mirror, thin as paper, and sounding like a chime," won the only gold prize, and was praised by foreign media as the pinnacle of oriental ceramic art.
China's Largest Natural Chrysanthemum Stone — "Chrysanthemum Crown of China"
"Chrysanthemum Crown of China" was discovered in Zhangjiajie City, Hunan Province. The stone is 208 centimeters long, 128 centimeters wide, and weighs about 1,000 kilograms. It is the largest natural chrysanthemum stone discovered in China to date. Its color is white flowers on a black background, with a total of 1,060 white chrysanthemums on both sides. Its shape closely resembles a profusion of autumn chrysanthemums, and the jade-like quality is crystal clear with distinct textures and varied forms, making it a magnificent spectacle. The original stone, through the creative person's deliberate intention and shaping according to the stone, finally became the unique "Number One Wonderful Stone Under Heaven." In September 2006, it was recorded in the Great Shanghai Guinness Book of Records. The collector is Hou Deyong.
A Unique Wonder of Dongkou — Dongkou Black Crystal Stone Carving
Black crystal stone is produced in the Dongkou County area. Its stone quality is fine and smooth, and it is also called purple stone, anciently known as Chu stone. It is a specialty of the Xuefeng Mountain area. The stone is fine and smooth, dark and shiny, black and lustrous, and after polishing it is especially crystal clear, so it is also called "black agate." Deep black is most valued, and it is known as "crystal stone" or "crystal jade." Carved products appear solemn and ancient, rich and elegant. Local artisans use it to carve seals, inkstones, and small toys, commonly known as "Dongkou Black Crystal Stone Carving," praised by viewers and collectors as "a unique wonder of Dongkou." Its main craft products, black crystal stone carvings and bamboo and wood carvings, are mostly exported to Europe, America, and Southeast Asia and other countries, and some artworks are collected by the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and the National Museum of Chinese History.
Hunan's Most Exquisite White Paper Carving Art — Xiangxi Chiseled Paper Cutting
On the streets of villages and towns in Jishou, Fenghuang, Luxi, Pushi and other places in Xiangxi, you can see patterns carved from white paper for sale. This exquisite white paper pattern is called "zaohua" (chiseled flower) in Xiangxi. It is mainly used as an embroidery draft, for decorative embroidery on clothing, shoes, hats, and trousers, and is similar to hand paper-cutting. First, a pattern is sketched with a pencil, white clay, or a clothing-pattern brush, then placed on folded paper, and holes are punched with paper twists to secure all layers together. It is then placed on a wax board and carved with a small sharp-tipped steel tool. Twenty to thirty layers of the same pattern can be carved at one time. This is the biggest difference from paper-cutting: no scissors are used; everything depends on a small steel knife, carving and chiseling away, hence the name zaohua. Rural women, especially women of ethnic minorities, buy a piece, paste it onto cloth, and match it with silk threads of various colors, "applying colors according to the type," so they can embroider colorful, vivid, and delightful patterns.
Hunan's Ultimate Folk Stone Carving Craft — Qiyang Stone Carving
Qiyang stone carving is a traditional folk art of Qiyang, Hunan, with a long history. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Qiyang produced a succession of skilled craftsmen, and the craft reached its peak. Table screens, furniture inlays, and stele inscriptions made of Qiyang stone flourished for a time. According to historical records and field verification, the tombstone of Mao Zedong's grandfather in Shaoshanchong was made of Qiyang stone. Qiyang stone is an Ordovician sedimentary rock whose mineral composition includes sericite, quartz, plagioclase, chlorite, iron oxide, and others. By color it can be divided into two major categories, "green stone" and "purple stone," in addition to yellow-brown, milky white, and black. "Green stone," also called "flower slab stone," has a crystalline texture with cloud-like and wave-like patterns; the best-colored pieces show images of landscapes, sun, moon, and figures, and it was an excellent material for inlaying furniture in ancient times. "Purple stone" is red-purple throughout, very much like purple Duan stone, but without the Duan stone's stone eyes, fire marks, or fish-brain frost. Its color is even, pure, and beautiful. If a layer of blue-green stone veining is sandwiched in the middle, it is called "purple robe with jade belt"; carved into an inkstone, it is a priceless top-grade inkstone.
A Gem of Folk Arts and Crafts — Longhui Huayao Cross-Stitch
Huayao cross-stitch is exquisitely beautiful, a treasure of traditional Chinese culture and a masterpiece of folk arts and crafts. Huayao cross-stitch is a unique handicraft passed down among Yao women in Longhui County, Hunan Province. The Yao people of Longhui are called "Huayao" because the women decorate their tube skirts with brilliantly colored cross-stitch. Huayao cross-stitch draws on a wide range of subjects, is rich in content, and has diverse forms, with as many as a thousand varieties. Its craftsmanship is even more distinctive, completely different from machine embroidery and Xiang embroidery. It relies entirely on the skillful hands and practiced technique of the cross-stitch woman, who works freehand along the warp and weft threads of homespun cloth according to the composition in her mind and her understanding of beauty.
A Folk Practical Arts and Crafts Unique to Hunan — Xiangtan Egg-Flower Paper Cutting
Egg-flower paper cutting is a folk paper cutting pasted onto chicken eggs, popular in Xiangtan City and the ancient Wuxi River basin. When there is a happy occasion, a gift for a pregnant woman, or a baby's "third-day celebration," the maternal grandmother, relatives, and friends must send eggs. The number of eggs may be one or two hundred, without fixed limit, and each egg must be pasted with a red paper-cut pattern about one cun in size. The contents may be flowers, birds, insects, fish, or figures, rich and varied, lively and vivid, and mostly carry auspicious meanings, such as dragon and phoenix, plum blossom, peony, lotus, goldfish, lion, butterfly, and golden rooster. It is a folk practical arts and crafts unique to Hunan.
Hunan's Largest Religious Mural — The Murals of Zhuling Palace on Mount Heng
The murals of Zhuling Palace on Mount Heng have a total length of 22 meters, a height of 19 meters, and an area of more than 200 square meters. They take local deities of Mount Heng as their main content and the regional customs of Mount Heng as their background. Majestic and grand in scale, they are the largest religious murals in Hunan Province. The paintings center on Emperor Zhuling, with all the Daoist immortals of Mount Heng included, and are divided into two parts: "The Manifestation of Emperor Zhuling" and "The Birthday of Emperor Zhuling." The Daoist figures have distinct personalities and display great power, while the auspicious objects in the scenery are rich in content, yet no two are alike. Their bold conception, novel composition, and fine execution have received high praise from many experts.
Hunan's Only Watermark Woodblock New Year Picture — Tantou New Year Picture
Tantou New Year Picture is the only handmade woodblock watermark New Year picture in Hunan Province. From the late Ming and early Qing dynasties to the early Republic of China, Tantou New Year pictures gradually formed their own unique artistic style: brilliant, lustrous colors; an ancient, exaggerated, full, and individualized modeling method; pure local materials; and distinctive craftsmanship, giving the works an artistic effect like relief sculpture. From the selection of papermaking materials, paper manufacture, and base coating, to plate carving, seven printings, and seven hand-paintings, the production of one New Year picture requires more than twenty processes. From handmade papermaking to the finished New Year picture, all production takes place in one place, which is extremely rare among New Year picture makers nationwide. Tantou New Year pictures are divided into three major categories: deity images, auspicious meanings, and opera stories. Whether door gods, stories, or blessings and auspicious content, all are fully expressed on the small New Year picture.
A New Type of Painting Originated in China — Organic Sheet Carved Painting
Organic sheet carved painting is a new type of painting originated by Li Guoqing, a young Tujia artist from Zhangjiajie, after years of exploration and practice. In 1996 it obtained four national patents. This painting uses organic sheets as the basic material and takes landscape scenery and Tujia customs as its subjects. Through processes such as heat shaping, carving, and pasting, it is made into pictures with a strong sense of three-dimensionality and realism. Its works are rich in color, unique in style, do not peel or fade, are exquisite and elegant, light and easy to carry, and are excellent artistic works for home decoration or as gifts for relatives and friends.
A Model of Arts and Crafts with a Unique Style — Huxiang Sand-Concept Painting
Huxiang sand-concept painting is a new type of painting art made by pasting and painting with natural colored sandstone formed over hundreds of millions of years and plants. It breaks through traditional painting materials while being rooted in the fertile soil of folk art. It is made entirely by hand, using materials from nature to express nature and using objects to represent objects. It combines the realism and freehand spirit of painting, the splashed ink and rendering of Chinese painting, and the gravity and solidity of oil painting. It integrates a deep understanding of Huxiang landscapes and human customs, and through creative activity with the special material of sandstone, conveys the beauty of Huxiang folk craft. With superb skill and a unique artistic style, it is one of the models of Hunan's native natural-style arts and crafts.
A Craft Made by Pasting the Natural Colors of Bird Feathers — Shaoyang Feather Painting
Shaoyang feather painting is a local traditional arts and crafts product, originally produced in Shaoyang. It is an artistic decoration created by cutting, piecing together, layering, inlaying, heat-press molding, and combined pasting of the feathers of various birds. Its main varieties include flower-and-bird and landscape hanging screens, table screens, mirror-matched feather paintings, clock-face feather paintings, and small animals such as butterflies and dragonflies. Its characteristic is that, based on painting, it uses the natural colors of bird feathers for processing and pasting, and with the mood of the surface image and the forms and postures of small animals, it cannot be replaced by other art forms. Flat-pasted feather paintings are mainly freehand in style. Many are based on drafts by masters such as Xu Beihong and Qi Baishi, with well-modulated tones, deeply capturing the charm of ink painting. Feather landscapes use the colors of feathers to layer distant, middle, and near views, displaying the natural scenery, majestic momentum, and perspective depth of mountains, waters, and trees, concise and elegant, captivating. Small animals, with their brilliant and vivid colors and lifelike forms, embody lively and varied charm and possess a unique appeal. They are exported to more than 20 countries, including Japan, Singapore, Europe, and America.
Hunan's Longest Embroidery Picture — The Thousand Cranes Scroll
The Xiang embroidery long scroll "Thousand Cranes Scroll" was created and supervised by Liu Jianxin, a master of Hunan embroidery arts and crafts, in order to promote China's folk Xiang embroidery art and welcome the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She led embroiderers for more than four years (January 2003-June 2007) to create and embroider it. The "Thousand Cranes Scroll" is 2008 centimeters long, making it the longest embroidery scroll in Chinese embroidery history and the one with the largest number of red-crowned cranes, a milestone in the history of Xiang embroidery. In composition, the scroll mainly follows the order of the four seasons, spring, summer, autumn, and winter, with more than 1,000 red-crowned cranes of different forms gathered on the embroidery surface, accompanied by peach, lotus, chrysanthemum, plum, and natural scenic wonders. The work is grand, elegant, and fresh, conveying the meaning of the whole nation's hope for the Olympics, national takeoff, and national auspiciousness.
Hunan's Largest Xiang Embroidery Work — Chairman Mao and the Fifty-Six Ethnic Groups
A huge Xiang embroidery work completed in 2004 by the Hunan Provincial Xiang Embroidery Research Institute Chairman Mao and the Fifty-Six Ethnic Groups), now displayed in the Hunan Hall of the Great Hall of the People. This work is7meters, high3meters, setting the largest size record in the history of Xiang embroidery and even Chinese embroidery. This Xiang embroidery was created by arts and crafts master Song Dingguo and others80many skilled hands, over a period of216completed in days. Looking at the entire embroidery, the embroidered figures are natural and delicate, the colors are brilliant and colorful, the stitches are flexible and varied, and the momentum is grand and profound. Chairman Mao has a ruddy complexion and a calm expression, and people of all ethnic groups are smiling and full of spirit.
Hunan's Largest Double-Sided Figure Different-Design Xiang Embroidery — The Imperial Concubine Emerging from the Bath
The Xiang embroidery "The Imperial Concubine Emerging from the Bath," embroidered over five years by more than 20 embroiderers under the leadership of a craft master, is 2.8 meters high and 1.2 meters wide. Yang Guifei in the work is about 1.62 meters tall, the same size as a real person, making it China's largest double-sided figure different-design Xiang embroidery. The figures on the two sides of the embroidery are completely different in modeling. One side shows Yang Guifei's smooth, warm nude body, using the traditional mixed-needle embroidery method, delicate and fine, so that her creamy jade-like skin seems within reach; the other side shows Yang Guifei lightly draped in gauze, with the gauze embroidered using wandering-needle stitching, its luster flowing and its texture ethereal, her skin faintly visible. The background is completely filled with cross-stitch, letting one feel the misty vapor by the pool. The characteristic of this work is its combination of Chinese and Western elements. Details of the figure's face, such as her hair and floral ornaments, are expressed in the form of Chinese fine-line painting, very meticulous; her bodily posture, including the treatment of the background, color, and light, is Westernized. The artistic effect expressed through such a Chinese-Western combination is very rarely seen in the industry.
Hunan's Largest Double-Sided Completely Different-Design Xiang Embroidery — Spring Snow in Wulingyuan
The large double-sided completely different-design embroidery "Spring Snow in Wulingyuan," designed and guided by Chinese arts and crafts master Li Yan, is 420 centimeters long and 120 centimeters high. One side is a winter scene, the other a spring scene. The spring scene on the embroidery shows cloud seas and misty peaks with magnificent momentum, making it the largest double-sided completely different-design embroidery work in China to date. Its needle methods use misty stitch, wandering stitch, cross stitch, and other different stitches to express different textures, using more than 200 colors in total. The winter snow on the embroidery presents the beautiful scene of clear skies after snow and jade-like trees and branches, with lifelike oil painting and photographic effects. Double-sided completely different-design embroidery is the essence of Xiang embroidery. The Xiang embroidery "Gazing at the Moon," selected as a national treasure of arts and crafts in 1986, is a double-sided completely different-design embroidery.
Hunan's Largest Double-Sided Embroidery — The Yimgong Scroll
In June 2004, "The Yingong Scroll," embroidered under the guidance of master Jiang Zaihong, was exhibited as Chinese modern art at the Lyon Art Museum in France. It was praised as an astonishing work and was collected by the French collector Mr. JEAN MARC DECROP. The embroidery is 400 x 1250 centimeters, with the entire embroidery surface covering 50 square meters, making it the world's largest double-sided embroidery. The work is uniquely creative and novel in artistic conception, expressing a combination of Eastern and Western cultures. In abstract form, the picture expresses abstract objects such as human bones, forming a dense and sparse, ceaselessly moving cosmic state, symbolizing the harmonious trend of all things recombining. Yingong, as a concept peculiar to ancient times, refers to good deeds done in the human world that can be credited in the underworld. This work was completed by more than 100 embroiderers spending nearly two months, nearly 10,000 workdays, working day and night overtime. This work is the largest giant double-sided embroidery in embroidery history, expressing the spiritual embroidery of traditional handicraft and the flamboyance of modern art, achieving the work's unique beauty and expressing the unique charm of Xiang embroidery art.
Hunan's Largest Sports-Themed Xiang Embroidery Work — Century Olympics
"Century Olympics" Xiang embroidery was prepared in 2006 and officially began embroidery in March 2007. Thirty senior Xiang embroidery technicians carefully embroidered it using various needle methods and silk threads of various colors; for the more than one hundred kinds of colored silk threads alone, a full 25 kilograms were used. "Century Olympics" uses white silk satin as its base material and depicts and embroiders the 29 host cities of past Olympic Games, the national flags of the host countries, the hosting dates, Olympic mascots, and more. This Xiang embroidery work, acclaimed as the world's longest and largest sports-themed Xiang embroidery, achieves a grand integration of China's long-standing Xiang embroidery culture with the Olympic spirit of "faster, higher, stronger." The embroidery took more than a year, with the embroidered core 20.08 meters long and 0.56 meters wide, symbolizing the 56 ethnic groups of China celebrating the 29th Olympic Games held in Beijing, China, in 2008.
The World's Longest Poetry, Calligraphy, and Painting Carving Art Wall — China Changde Poetry Wall
The China Changde Poetry Wall is a large cultural project with distinctive artistic features, adopted in 1991 by the Changde Municipal Party Committee and Municipal People's Government based on a proposal from the Municipal CPPCC, using the Yuanjiang flood-control embankment in the urban area as its carrier, and built over 10 years. It is six li long in total and divided into six major sections: "A Hundred Generations of Vicissitudes," "Inscriptions and Chants by Famous Worthies," "The Fine Scenery of Wuling," "Elegance of Orchids and Angelicas," "New Voices of China," and "Gems from the Five Continents." It selects and carves 1,267 poems related to Changde since the pre-Qin period as well as famous Chinese and foreign poems. The poems are expressed in calligraphy, written by 948 calligraphers from across the country, including Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, with regular, running, clerical, seal, and cursive scripts gathered on one wall. On September 5, 2000, the Shanghai Guinness headquarters officially named it "the world's longest poetry, calligraphy, and painting carving art wall," placing it in the annals of world cultural projects. Contemporary poetry, calligraphy, and painting circles praise it as "the three excellences of poetry, calligraphy, and painting," "an art scroll unfolding through the ages," "the first of its kind in a famous state," and "a unique wonder of China." The famous Taiwanese poet Yu Guangzhong called it "the Great Wall of the poetry nation" and "half of a literary history." The national copyright authorities recognize it as having great value for development and utilization.
The Largest Antique Art Market in Central and South China — Hunan Antique City
Hunan's largest antique city — Hunan Antique City was approved and established by the Hunan Provincial Department of Culture. It is an important measure for Hunan to develop its cultural industry, build a strong cultural province, and create a cultural brand. Hunan Antique City is located at the Hunan Provincial Cultural Relics General Store, with a total area of 3,000 square meters and 50 shops. It is positioned on a high-end boutique business route, mainly dealing in antique porcelain, jade, miscellaneous items, and calligraphy and paintings. With its high-end positioning, entirely new operating philosophy, and new management model, Hunan Antique City is a first-class antique trading center among peers in Central and South China, with high taste, a new style, excellent service, and good performance. As the highest-grade antique trading market in Central and South China, Hunan Antique City not only provides a platform for trading, exchange, and discussion for the broad community of collectors, but also fills a gap in Hunan's high-end cultural relics market. Here, Hunan's first National Cultural Relics and Artworks Fair was held. This was the largest, highest-standard, and largest-scale event in terms of the number of cultural relics and artworks exhibited ever held in Hunan, gathering more than 60 powerful state-owned cultural relics stores from provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions across the country, with more than 2,000 participants and a transaction volume of 30 million yuan. It produced important repercussions both inside and outside the province, and even in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and established a good reputation.
A Traditional Product Famous at Home and Abroad — Liuyang Grass Cloth
Liuyang is also called the hometown of grass cloth. Liuyang grass cloth (also called ramie cloth) is a traditional product famous at home and abroad. It is a pure hemp fiber product made by hand-weaving with ramie as the raw material. Its weaving is exquisite, and it has the characteristics of being light, thin, fine, and soft, cool and breathable, easy to wash and quick to dry, becoming whiter the more it is washed, and durable. It is an ideal fabric for making summer clothing and mosquito nets. As early as the Ming dynasty, Liuyang grass cloth was renowned throughout the world, and merchants competed to buy it. In the Ming dynasty it was listed as tribute to the imperial court. In 1901 (the 27th year of the Guangxu reign), Liuyang grass cloth began to cross the oceans and was sold to Japan, Korea, Nanyang, and other places. At that time, the quality of Liuyang grass cloth ranked first in the country, and it won an excellence award at the 1910 Nanyang Industrial Exposition.