Dongyang woodcarving, as one of the folk carving arts in China, originated in Dongyang, Zhejiang, the hometown of China woodcarving. It has a history of thousands of years and is called a national treasure. On May 20th, 2006, with the approval of the State Council, it was officially listed in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage.
Exquisite and complete Dongyang woodcarvings are preserved in the Forbidden City in Beijing, Suzhou, Hangzhou and Anhui.
Traditional Dongyang woodcarving is mainly decorative carving, mainly plane relief, including thin relief, shallow relief, deep relief, high relief, multi-layer carving, open-air double-sided carving, open-air carving, ground carving, colored wood mosaic carving and round wood relief. It is characterized by rich layers without losing plane decoration. At the same time, because of its elegant color and no dark paint, it completely retains the natural texture of the original wood, so it is called white wood carving.
Dongyang woodcarving is strictly selected, generally using basswood, white peach wood, camphor wood, ginkgo wood and so on. In addition, you can choose pine, poplar, cypress, mahogany, Fraxinus mandshurica, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, spruce, yew and Taiwan Province pine.
Dongyang woodcarving gradually matured and became famous in Ming Dynasty. At that time, it was mainly used to make arhats, Buddha statues and decorations for palaces, temples, gardens, houses and other buildings. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Dongyang woodcarving, which is famous all over the country, was widely used to build palaces. At that time, many craftsmen were selected to carve palace lanterns, dragon beds, dragon chairs and cases. Later, furniture products that can be used for folk carving of flower beds, boxes and cabinets were gradually developed; After the Revolution of 1911, Dongyang woodcarving gradually showed its commercialization, and craftsmen sold the woodcarving products made by merchants to Hong Kong, America, Nanyang and other places, gradually forming the heyday of Dongyang woodcarving. War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the revolutionary civil war once withered, resulting in unsalable products and craftsmen unable to survive; However, after the founding of New China, the party and the state gradually organized woodcarving artists to set up cooperatives, so that the craft could be completely preserved and not lost.