Research On The Art And The Connotation Of Brick And Stone Carving Of Guanzhong Traditional Vernacular Dwellings

Guanzhong area of Shaanxi Province is the birthplace of the ancient civilizations ofChina’s Yellow River Basin, and it is also one of the cradles of Chinese civilization. Itis known as “Eight hundreds of Qinchuan”. Guanzhong traditional vernaculardewelling architecture tells the history of humanities in Guanzhong area, and it is alsoa textbook of the aesthetics of this area. We can still see some vernacular dwellingswith Ming and Qing Dynasty architectural styles saved in some cities and towns, andXi’an, Hancheng, Weinan and Sanyuan areas are the representatives for thearchitectural heritage of Guanzhong traditional vernacular dwelling.Traditional vernacular dwelling rooted in nature, and gave birth to the folk culture.This paper takes the art and the connotation of brick and store carving of Guanzhongtraditional vernacular dwelling as research object. Both the art of stone carving and theart of brick carving are important and integral components of the structure of buildings.In the past dynasties, the rich and the people with power like to use brick and stonecarving to decorate their houses. A variety of carving art and language can be seen onroofs, doors windowns, chee head, screen walls, flower walls, and even on every brickand stone. These brick and stone carving decorations created an ideal and comfortableliving environment for the residents. To achieve the skill proficiency and the perfectintegration of the carving art with the construction, designers and craftsmen have beenput a lot of efforts to learn from past experience and lesson. The decorative carvings onthese vernacular dwellings tell the people’s living style, the folk culture, formative arts,religious beliefs, aesthetic consciousness, and more of that time. The paper tries to unearth some concepts of skills, traditional values, culture andaesthetics through categorize and summarize the geographical environment and thehuman characteristics of Guanzhong traditional vernacular dwellings and the types ofdecorative arts of brick and stone carving. The paper also tries to understand theGuanzhong traditional vernacular dwelling carving art, folk culture and aesthetics thatembodied in Guanzhong traditional houses in decorative techniques, decorativefeatures and artistic content from an artistic point of view. Currently, we are in achanging time between a new era and the old one, between the science and the art, andbetween tradition and innovation. How can we seek innovation during inheritingtradition, and how can we make a perfect fusion of the art and the modern science arethe questions worth of thinking in this time."Making the past serve the present” doesnot mean simply take the “past” and use it for the “present”. We need to study the artof the ancient vernacular dwelling decoration, to understand the culture, the art and theskills, and to make the art be accepted by modern people. Only in this way, the “past”can serve as valuable references for the construction of the new Guanzhong vernaculardwellings, for the inheritance and protection of the Guanzhong and the nearby areatraditional vernacular dwellings, and for the innovation of the art of the brick and stonecarving on construction.