Yangzhou Jade Carving 扬州玉雕

时间：2006年
Time: 2006
类别：民间美术
Category: Folk Art
地区：江苏
Region: Jiangsu Province
编号：Ⅶ-28
Ref. No.: Ⅶ-28
申报地区或单位：江苏省扬州市
Nominating unit[s]: Yangzhou city, Jiangsu Province
扬州是我国玉器的主要产区，琢玉工艺源远流长。在江淮东部龙虬新石器时代遗址出土了玉璜、玉管等物，扬州汉代墓葬亦出土不少玉器，品类繁多，造型优美，且已采用透雕、阴线刻和浅浮雕手法。唐代的扬州玉器工艺又达到新高峰，宋代扬州玉雕出现了镂雕和练条技艺，为后来特色技艺的形成打下了基础。清代乾隆年间扬州玉雕进入全盛时期，两淮盐政在扬州建隆寺设玉局，大量承办宫廷玉器，并按岁例向朝廷进贡。1840年后，扬州琢玉行业逐年衰弱，扬州玉工流向上海和香港等地，留在本地的多从事平面玉件的雕琢，也有人转行。20世纪50年代，扬州玉器厂成立，扬州玉雕技艺重新得到传承。
Yangzhou is one of the major areas in China for jade production, and has a long history of jade carving. Jades like Yu Huang (a jade pendant) and jade pipe excavated from the Longqiu Neolithic Ruins in east Jianghuai and Han Dynasty tombs in Yangzhou are diverse in category and elegant in shape, having employed techniques such as openwork carving, intaglio line carving and low-relief carving. Yangzhou jade carving techniques reached its peak in the Tang Dynasty, and hollow-out carving and chain carving techniques came into being in the Song Dynasty, laying a foundation for the development of other special techniques. It reached another new height during the reign of Emperor Qianlong, when the Salt Administration of the South and North Huai areas set up a Jade Bureau at Jianlong Temple, Yangzhou in charge of the production of jades, as tributes, which were supplied for the imperial court on a yearly basis. The jade carving industry gradually declined after 1840, and many artisans moved to Shanghai, Hong Kong and other areas. For those who didn’t move to other places, most were engaged in the carving of plane jade pieces, and some changed their profession. In 1950s, Yangzhou Jade Factory was established, with the Yangzhou jade carving techniques surviving and being handed down again.
玉石质地坚硬缜密，硬度为摩氏4至8度，手工雕琢技术较为复杂，其工艺特点是琢磨，即“琢玉”与“碾玉”。扬州玉雕使用的玉料有新疆的白玉、青玉、碧玉，辽宁的岫玉、玛瑙、黄玉，江苏的水晶，湖北的绿苗、松耳石，广东的南方玉及巴西的玉石、缅甸的翡翠、阿富汗的青金、加拿大的碧玉和日本的珊瑚等；其制作工艺在几千年的传承中保持着扬州传统的地方文化特色，将阴线刻、深浅浮雕、立体圆雕和镂空雕等多种技法融为一体，形成浑厚、圆润、儒雅、灵秀、精巧的特点，具有秀丽典雅、玲珑剔透的艺术风格。历代扬州玉雕分别保留了不同时期的艺术特征，如西汉的《白玉蝉》以和阗玉雕成，采用“汉八雕”的手法，线条凝练挺拔，推磨极见功夫；清代的《大禹治水》多种手法并用，属于稀世珍品，它以新疆青白玉为材料，高224厘米，前后雕琢6年，用工15万个，耗费白银一万五千余两。
Jade is well textured and hard, with the hardness of 4 to 8 Mohs' hardness scale. Consequently, hand carving for jade is rather sophisticated, consisting of carving and polishing processes. Raw materials for Yangzhou jade carving include white jade, gray jade and jasper from Xinjiang, Xiuyan jade, agate and topaz from Liaoning Province, crystal from Jiangsu Province, malachite and turquoise from Hubei Province, Xinyi jade from Guangdong Province, as well as jade from Brazil, jadeite from Burma, lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, jasper from Canada and coral from Japan. The workmanship has still retained characteristics of Yangzhou traditional culture despite evolving over centuries and integrated such techniques as intaglio carving, low-relief carving, high-relief carving, tridimensional circular carving and hollow-out carving, through which jades look simple, vigorous, smooth, moisten, elegant, graceful and delicate in a dainty, exquisite artistic style. Yangzhou jade carving is a crystallization of artistic features of all different dynasties. For instance, the White Jade Cicada was made from Hetian Jade in the Western Han Dynasty, employing the Hanbadiao technique (a unique carving craft developed in the Han Dynasty), and featuring refined and forceful straight lines which suggest high skills in carving and polishing; Daye Controlling the Floods, a rarity made of gray jade from Xinjiang in the Qing Dynasty, using several techniques, with a height of 224 cm and 150,000 man-hours spent during a period of 6 years for its completion, , and costing over 15,000 taels of silver.
当今的扬州琢玉艺师，全面继承了传统的扬州玉雕优秀技艺，锐意创新，在实践中遵循“量料取材，因材施艺”的琢磨工艺规律，结合时代的要求，不断提高“相玉”能力及雕琢技艺，创作了大批构图新颖、造型优美、做工精致的产品。他们的“山子雕”和“练子活”技艺独具一格，显示出扬州玉雕工艺技法的精湛。现在主要的扬州玉雕传承人有黄永顺、顾永骏、焦一鸣、刘筱华、李小威、江春源、夏林宝、汪德海等。
Nowadays, jade artisans in Yangzhou have commanded these traditional carving skills. Complying with the rules for jade carving “selecting materials according to gauges of them while applying carving techniques according to materials” in their practice, they have created a lot of jades with new composition, fine style and exquisite workmanship, with improving skills in jade identifying and carving. Their Shanzidiao and Lianzihuo techniques are quite unique, demonstrating the exquisite craftsmanship of Yangzhou jade carving. Major heirs of Yangzhou jade carving include Huang Yongshun, Gu Yongjun, Jiao Yiming, Liu Xiaohua, Li Xiaowei, Jiang Chunyuan, Xia Linbao, Wang Dehai, etc.
目前，扬州从事玉器生产的企业普遍面临成本高（玉石价格年年上涨）、费用高、赋税高等困难，生存极为不易。同时玉雕为手工操作，生产周期长，艺人需要付出艰辛的脑力劳动和体力劳动，却得不到相应的报酬。这两方面的原因直接导致现有技术人员大量流失，青年人不愿学习和从事这项手艺，扬州玉雕技艺后继乏人，亟待保护、抢救。
Jades producers in Yangzhou are now confronted with such challenges as high cost (the cost of jade keeps on rising every year), high expenses and tax, which make them very hard to sustain their business. Meanwhile, since jade carving is a hand-workmanship demanding a long production period, artisans are usually underpaid compared with great intellectual and manual efforts they have to make. These two major reasons directly contribute to the shrinking population of existing artisans and the reluctance of younger generations to learn the trade. As a result, the trade lacks worthy successors, and in this sense, it is necessary to take actions against the extinction of this craft.