The white marble cultural palace built by Liu's team features reclining dragons on the dome and patterns of seismography and ancient books, highlighting the cultural significance and strength of the material. [Photo provided to China Daily]
Sculptor molds the fragile beauty of white marble to transform it into masterpieces, Yang Feiyue reports.
Walking along the imperial road behind the Hall of Preserving Harmony in the Forbidden City, one will come across a massive rectangular stone — flanked by steps — on which nine soaring dragons amid mountains and waves are vividly carved.
The stone has been lying around for more than six centuries in the historical site in downtown Beijing and has witnessed the comings and goings of generations of imperial families.
Behind its royal grandeur lies a profound history of stone carving in Dashiwo town, 90 kilometers away in the city's southwestern Fangshan district.
The town abounds in marble resources, including the white marble that has been widely used in royal palaces, gardens and mausoleums for its bright, elegant appearance and smooth texture, as well as for its durability and symbolism of wealth and power.
"A considerable number of historical buildings were built with white marble from here," says Liu Peng, an inheritor who has been practicing the art of white marble carving, a Beijing intangible cultural heritage, in the town, for over two decades.
In August, Liu, who just turned 60, was added to the list of national outstanding individuals in intangible cultural heritage protection by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. It has given him more incentive to carry on his cause of finishing a couple of textbooks on white marble history, culture and craftsmanship.
"The information used to be so fragmented at the beginning, but now everything seems to be falling into place and I've got to put down the details and piece those bits of theories and experiences together for the craft to pass down," Liu says.
Liu demonstrates white marble carving to his students. [Photo provided to China Daily]
The series contains 300,000 words all based on thorough research and practical experiences and is scheduled to be published at the end of this year.
"The national award means the country has also put a premium on our white marble art," he says.
Liu interned in Dashiwo when he was pursuing his master's in mural studies at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in the late 1990s. "The moment I got off the bus, I saw stalls selling white marble sculptures. There were stone lions by the roadside, in the fields, and on the hills," he recalls.
As he was stunned by the prevalent white marble art and its history, he couldn't help but wonder if those beautiful pieces can be sorted out for better display.
This initial thinking happened to align with the ideas of the town's leadership who wanted to make a go of the local culture. Therefore, after Liu graduated in 2000, the local authorities invited him to join the cause. He readily took up the offer and started to help build the Beijing Shiwo Sculpture Art School that aimed to cultivate talent in white marble carving, as well as a stone-carving art park and a white marble cultural palace.
For Liu, the initial choice occurred by default as an opportunity presented itself. Yet, he found himself increasingly pulled into the charm of white marble as he got to interact with local artisans. "Some of them can turn a stone of rough shape weighing several metric tons into a stone lion several meters high in a dozen days. It was just magical," he says, adding that he then spent his spare time visiting them, listening to their account of the local white marble history and learning their skills.
"Many of them used to be apprentices of veteran craftsmen in the trade, and some taught me techniques that were on the edge of disappearance," he says.
Birds and flowers seem to jump out of a white marble plate by artist Liu Peng. [Photo provided to China Daily]
Additionally, the folk wisdom in transporting those heavy boulders all the way to the Forbidden City fascinated him. "For instance, the ancient people poured water on the road in winter, and rolled the stones over the ice surface," Liu says.
As his field research progressed, Liu developed a thorough understanding of the history of white marble mining and carving.
Since white marble in Dashiwo was extensively used for royal construction during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, the mining was directly controlled by the royal family then, and skilled craftsmen and laborers were commissioned from all over the country for related work in the town.
With his art background, Liu quickly grasped major white marble carving techniques. He also managed to recruit 30 students in the first year of school after going to the villages and enterprises in Beijing and taught them himself.
In 2002, Liu got to play a major role in building the white marble cultural palace in the town. The palace is made of nearly 10,000 tons of premium white marble, covering an area of over 1,200 square meters and standing 27.96 meters tall. The carved decorative window screens each take up an area of over 7 sq m, the largest of their kind, according to experts.
Other highlights of the building include reclining dragons on the dome and patterns of seismography and ancient books, highlighting the cultural significance and strength of white marble. To complete this monumental project, Liu devised six specific strategies, including strict material selection, specialized design and processing, fine polishing and waxing after installation.
The success of the palace has prompted Liu to explore further afield, restoring the tradition while making inroads into innovation.
White marble columns bear exquisite patterns of images at a stone carving art park in Dashiwo town, Beijing's Fangshan district. [Photo provided to China Daily]
In addition to continuously digging into bits of history about specific crafting steps, he made a point of tailoring white marble for domestic use.
White marble has a relatively low hardness, a brittle texture, and is prone to breaking, which had kept it from being carved with fine detail.
"Traditionally, white marble has been used for large sculptures and its artistic value is often seen as the bigger, the more valuable," Liu explains.
However, he has come to appreciate the flexible nature of the white marble as his interaction with the stone increased.
He started to experiment with smaller tools like chisels, hammers, and mallets on white marble and explored the best minimal force to its surface to push for an extreme thickness of just 1 millimeter after trial and error.
In 2012, his persistence paid off when he pulled off an intricately carved chair, about the height of an index finger and weighing around 28 grams. Its exquisite craftsmanship attracted many collectors.
"The chair was made from leftover scraps," Liu says.
Although the raw material was not valuable, the finished piece sold for over 20,000 yuan ($2,812).
Later that year, his white marble comprehensive decorative series managed to integrate firing, dyeing, painting, and inlaying to display a variety of subjects, such as flowers and birds, fish, insects and landscapes. The series then won him a national invention patent.
"It was an inspiration from my hometown Ji'an in Jiangxi province, which boasts a profound porcelain culture," he says.
Liu's early moves proved right on track as the authorities shut down mining in Fangshan district to protect the environment and natural resources in 2017.
"White marble is becoming precious now, mostly used for restoration of cultural heritages," Liu says. "But for it to carry on, we must broaden its cultural connotations and extend its application."
A set of intricately carved chairs, each about finger height and weighing around 30 grams, is among Liu's innovations. [Photo provided to China Daily]
He has felt the responsibilities weighing on him of carrying forward the art over the years, as senior craftsmen, who used to be his teachers, are gone, but he is delighted that more people have come to his school to pick up the craft.
Over the past 20 years, the school offered training to more than 1,000 students of all ages, including students from Mongolian and Tibetan ethnic groups, as well as professors from countries such as Mongolia and the United States.
Yan Hui, from Southwest China's Guizhou province, has followed Liu to study and practice white marble carving since 2013.
"I was interested in carving seals before and decided to hone my skills after I saw the school was enrolling students," says the 29-year-old.
Years of learning has exposed him to the charm of the craftsmanship and Liu's meticulous work attitude and sense of perfection in the trade.
"Liu would go over a piece of work through a fine-tooth comb and make improvements over and again until it is perfect," Yan notes.
It has influenced Yan, who says he would work with Liu to help carry forward the art.
Liu says he couldn't understand his own fascination about white marble. "If you asked me 20 years ago if I will commit myself to the art, I honestly couldn't be sure," he says.
However, he has found an ongoing dialogue with the stone in the process.
"The variations in white marble are endless. To understand its properties, you have to contend with its flaws," Liu says.
"In some cases, I was carving a piece for months, and suddenly a flaw appears, threatening to render my previous efforts in vain. The only thing I could do is to fight with it, and each time I do, I understand it a little more."
A candle fashioned out of white marble. [Photo provided to China Daily]
