Huishan clay figures can be divided into two categories in production, one is the molded clay figures. The artists created a sample, commonly known as "pinching the boy". Models are then made for mass production. The shape of the molded clay figurines is simple and plump, and the expression techniques are simple and sophisticated.

"Da Ah Fu", "A Ball of Harmony", and "Three Fat Men" are representative works of this kind of work. Mold clay has been the mainstream product of Huishan for hundreds of years.

The other type is the hand-kneading clay figurines. In addition to the face is made of molding, the body, hands and feet, and clothes are all handmade, because most of them are based on opera, so it is also called "hand-pinched opera". It has a vivid and lively shape, and the clothes are smooth and decorative.

His representative works include Kunqu Opera "Picking Cheap Tailoring" and "Teaching Song", Peking Opera "The Drunken Concubine" and "Farewell My Concubine". The hand-kneading clay figure is developed during the Xianfeng Emperor, most experts believe that it was introduced from Suzhou, more than 100 years after the hard work, innovation and development of the artists of the past generations, and finally replaced the Suzhou Tiger Hill clay figure and became unique in the country, becoming a wonderful flower in the Huishan clay figure.

Wuxi Huishan mud people have a history of hundreds of years, is the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty folk artists according to the local customs and habits brought by the market demand, using the local Huishan mud after the color painting.

Its clay figurines embody the characteristics of simple and rough artistic modeling, and the modeling techniques come from the natural creation of folk artists. Folk artists live in the folk and walk in the streets and alleys of towns, so they attach great importance to the geographical environment and natural conditions of the place, and the folk artists are very aware of the aesthetic preferences of the local people.

Consciously combine the natural environment with production labor and craft creation, reflecting the harmonious relationship between folk art creation and nature. Folk art is rooted in the folk soil and depends on the natural environment to exist, and its creations are created based on this way of existence.

It is much richer than the original sculpture in terms of folk cultural connotation, technique and form, and the main forms of expression are as follows: 1. Harmony: pay attention to the relationship between people and things, use and beauty, literature and quality, shape and spirit, heart and hand, material and art and other factors, and advocate "harmony", "harmony" and "appropriateness", which makes Huishan clay art present a high degree of harmony.

It is embodied in the harmony and unity of appearance, material form and connotation and spiritual implication in the work, harmony and unity of practicality and aesthetics, harmony and unity of perceptual characteristics and rational norms, and harmony and unity of material technology and image modeling.

Second, symbolism: Wuxi Huishan Niren attaches great importance to the edifying role of creation, emphasizing the connection between the sensory pleasure of objects and the emotional satisfaction of aesthetics, and also requires this connection to conform to moral norms.

Therefore, Wuxi Huishan clay people also reflect the multi-meaning of Chinese folk art, often with the help of its highly imagery form, color and ornamentation to symbolize or metaphor life ideals and moral concepts, more emphasis on social consciousness or personality ideals, Huishan clay people symbolic connotation more focus on the producer's own artistic accomplishment and life experience.

Third, flexibility: Wuxi Huishan clay people although they are made of local materials, using cheap clay sculptures and painted forms, but in the works advocate the unity of heart and matter, emphasizing "handy" and "lifelike", and strive to fully reflect the creator's thoughts and emotions and human spirituality in the clay sculptures.

Fourth, natural interest: Wuxi Huishan clay people pay attention to the natural quality of clay materials, emphasize the natural quality of clay sculptures, and be good at making full use of or expressing the natural taste of materials. of meaning and affection.

Fifth, craftsmanship: Wuxi Huishan clay people attach importance to people's subjective initiative and creativity, its pinching, painting into one, eliminate the artificial traces of carving, more natural naturalness.

6. Abstraction: Imagination is the most important and valuable artistic resource in folk art, and it is a new thing created by folk artists based on their own life experiences.

Of course, with the help of special language, Huishan clay figurines are folk clay figurines between language and form. It is impossible for a folk artist to have a rich imagination with the size of his imagination and his ability to express language.

The creative characteristics of Huishan clay people and the inheritance of traditional culture The raw materials for the production of Huishan clay people are Huishan black mud, also known as magnetic mud, which is delicate and tough, dry but not cracked, bent but not bent, and has strong plasticity.

The production process is exquisite, in order to prevent dry cracking, the wet mud processing is put into the silk cotton to strengthen its fastness. Huishan clay figurines generally pay attention to bold exaggeration and the part that can best express the theme, so the modeling characteristics are to summarize the whole and be full of decorative meaning, emphasizing the high combination of artistry and practicality of the clay figurines.

In the process of creation, Huishan clay people are not only limited by the production process, but also adapt to the clay materials, and also provide high technical requirements for their shape, composition and color. The material properties of the clay figurines determine the perceptual characteristics of the artistic shape and the simplicity of its modeling, so as to adapt to the material properties of the clay.

Self-enjoyment was the original purpose of the entertaining and playful works in Huishan Clay Figures, because at that time, the clay sculpture producers were also consumers, and even though most of them gradually turned into commodities, they did not change their original intention.

Such a stylistic form intuitively grasps its modeling function and produces a strong aesthetic feeling. "Ah Fu" series can be said to be the most iconic and disseminated theme in Huishan Niren, "Ah Fu" is based on a popular local folklore, "Ah Fu" is sent by the heavenly gods to the world to subdue the demons and monsters for the people, the monster in his arms has been tamed, and now expresses the good wishes of the people to pray for happiness and go to illness and disaster.

Wuxi is the production area of China's folk art Huishan clay people. Huishan clay people are famous for their expressive freehand, highlighting the inheritance and accumulation of Wuxi's regional history and culture, and the Wuxi Huishan clay figures with their expressive writing opinions echo with the realistic and delicate Tianjin clay figurines Zhang Nanbei, representing the highest level of folk clay sculpture art in China.

The ancients said: "Both carved and crafted, return to simplicity." "Appreciating the Wuxi Huishan clay people can make us get rid of our troubles and return to the basics, as if returning to the feeling of the beginning of the yuan. Through the analysis of the style characteristics of Huishan clay figures, we can see the rich and long history of Chinese folk plastic art, see its own unique style, and see its own creative principles and strategies.

Huishan clay people can survive for hundreds of years, thanks to the roots of the folk soil, and with its strong life atmosphere won the love of the people, Huishan clay people in the long-term development process, to a large extent represents the fine tradition of China's folk sculpture art, on behalf of the creative characteristics of oriental art imagery.

Wuxi Huishan Niren, a special product of Huishan Ancient Town, Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, and a product of China's National Geographical Indication. Located on the banks of China's Grand Canal, Wuxi Huishan Niren is said to have a history of 400 years. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the essayist Zhang Dai recorded the situation of clay figures being sold in the shop in the volume of "Tao'an Dream Memories".

During Qianlong's southern tour of the Qing Dynasty, Wang Chunlin, a famous artist in Huishan, made several plates of clay children and offered them, which was praised by Emperor Qianlong (see "Qing Barnyard Banknotes"). It can be seen that before the middle of the Qing Dynasty, Huishan Niren had a very high level of skill and was famous for a while.

It is said that during the heyday of Huishan mud figures, there were more than 40 large and small workshops. There are more than 30 famous artists such as Wang Chunlin, Zhou Asheng, Ding Ajin, Chen Xingfang, Wang Xikang, etc. After the autumn every year, there are six or seven hundred cargo ships and thousands of people from northern Jiangsu to Huishan to purchase clay figurines, and some high-grade clay figurines are shipped to distant places as gifts with merchants from all over the country who come to Wuxi to operate silk and rice noodles.

As a result, Huishan Niren is exported to the vast rural towns and villages of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong and other provinces, and a considerable part of them flow into Shanghai, Hangzhou, Hankou and other big cities. On July 2, 2004, the former General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China approved the implementation of product protection for "Wuxi Huishan Niren".

Wuxi Huishan clay figurines are part of Chinese folk art, and it is the artistic crystallization of the beauty of the people of Wuxi, a famous historical city in the south of the Yangtze River.

Huishan clay man is one of the three famous specialties of Wuxi. Local artists take the black mud at the foot of the northeast slope of the mountain, which is about one meter below the ground, and its mud is delicate and soft.

There are also many legends about the origin of Huishan Niren, although it is full of fantastic imagination and fiction that cannot withstand scrutiny, but it also gives Huishan Niren cultural connotation.

Wuxi Huishan mud man is one of the three major specialties of Wuxi, and it used to be famous all over the world. Today let's step into this ancient and delicate art.

In Mr. Jin Yong's "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", there is such a sentence: "Guo Jing once heard Huang Rong say in Guiyunzhuang that Wuxi clay figures are well-known in the world, although they are playthings, they are exquisitely made, and the local language is called "Da Ah Fu." ”

The humble and cute Da Fu can also be regarded as a symbol of Wuxi.

Huishan clay people are one of the traditional arts and crafts of the Han nationality. It is made of black mud at the foot of the northeast slope of Huishan Mountain in Wuxi, which is soft and delicate and has strong plasticity. Huishan has the reputation of being an excellent place in the south of the Yangtze River. In Huishan, visitors can see the well-made Huishan clay people almost everywhere.

There are also many legends about the origin of Huishan Niren, although it is full of fantastic imagination and fiction that cannot withstand scrutiny, but it also adds a lot of color to the cultural connotation of Huishan Niren.

In China, almost every profession has the custom of honoring the patriarch, believing that the idol to be worshiped is the founder of their profession, and he can bless the production and operation of future generations of artists. There is also this custom in the Huishan clay figurine industry. The patriarch enshrined in the public office is Sun Bin in the Warring States period BC.

However, the most famous of the Wuxi Huishan mud figures is Da Afu. There is such a legend at the foot of Huishan

The story says that in the distant past, Huishan was covered with dense forests with numerous beasts of prey. Among them was a monster named Nian, who often ran down the mountain and injured villagers and livestock. Just when the villagers were worried and at a loss, a "sand child" with infinite strength and wisdom came.

He is chubby and has a smiling round face that is known as "Blessing". He fed on the beast, and with a meaningful smile, he subdued the monster "Nian" and made it bow to his ears. Since then, the people have lived and worked in peace and contentment.

In order to commemorate him, people offer sand children made of mud every New Year. The sand boy is still holding the monster "Nian" that has been tamed. So everyone spent a Spring Festival in a peaceful atmosphere, and they could spend the New Year safely.

As a result, this sand boy who is both blessed and can bless people's happiness is called "Da Fu"

It is said that since the Song Dynasty, there have been clay figures in Huishan. After the Qing Dynasty, the production and sales of clay figurines reached their heyday. The Huishan clay figurines are made from the soil at the foot of Huishan Mountain. This kind of soil is not only delicate and tough, but also plastic, and thousands of but not cracked, bent and continuous. As early as the seventh year of Zhaoning in the Northern Song Dynasty, Su Shi passed through Wuxi, that is, there was a poem of "the soil under Huiquan Mountain is like glutinous".

However, now with the improvement of the process, Huishan Niren uses gypsum.

According to the type, Huishan clay figures are divided into figures, utensils, etc. According to the degree of fineness of production, it is divided into coarse goods and fine goods.

There are two varieties of Huishan clay people, one is "coarse goods", also known as "playing goods", it is a kind of simple modeling, with a rough commodity, usually printed with a mold, hand-painted, the performance is mostly festive and auspicious themes, such as Da Afu, old birthday star, etc., mainly for the general public.

The other type is "fine goods", also called hand-pinched opera, the works are mostly taken from the scenes in Peking Opera and Kunqu Opera, which are hand-made and carefully kneaded and painted handicrafts, which are deeply loved by literati and ticket holders because of their vivid characters and exquisite shapes.

On weekends, the ancient town of Huishan is filled with tourists from all over the world, many of them like me, come to Huishan, and it is the name of Mu Niren. This time, I specially visited the Huishan Clay Figure exhibition at the Wuxi Museum.

In the past few days, I specially visited Mr. Chi Zhijian, the inheritor of Wuxi Huishan Ni Ren, to learn more about the production and contemporary inheritance of Huishan Ni Ren. In the course of the interview, the teacher talked about the particularity of Huishan clay people as traditional arts and crafts compared with other local handicrafts.

It is called "Huishan Clay Man", not called "Wuxi Clay Man", it is from the foot of Huishan Mountain, carefully kneaded and sculpted by people, no need to burn casting, it is naturally air-dried, showing its most primitive simplicity and fine beauty.

Mr. Chi said that every craftsman is constantly improving through practice. From jerky to skilled, there are failures in between. The production of a work also requires continuous experimentation, and it will also go through countless reversals and meticulous revisions.

The teacher also said that the farmer who first made the clay figurines had no skills and experience, but just kneaded the dug clay into the shape of a child in his mind, and eventually it evolved into the classic image of "Daifuku".

The farmer may not be called an artist, he just put his love of life into the clay sculptures. There are no two identical leaves in the world, let alone two identical clay sculptures.

Although there are excellent inheritors like Mr. Chi, Huishan Niren still lacks the vitality of innovation. I think the reason for this phenomenon is driven by commercial interests and the indifference of many people to the culture of Huishan Niren.

Shanghai is a city that embraces all rivers and rivers. From the beginning of its opening, people from all over the country shuttled here, and many people took root in this hot land, among which Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions are the most so. I am the descendant of this group of immigrants from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, a post-80s generation in Shanghai whose ancestral home is Wuxi.

When I was a child, my parents were busy with work, so they entrusted me to my grandmother to raise me. In my childhood memories, except for the warm sunlight through the ebony window lattice, the lazy yellow cat, and the soft whispers of Wu Nong in the alley, it is the pair of clay dolls that are placed on the chest of drawers all year round.

The pair of clay dolls are the images of two sturdy children, a man and a woman, the boy with peach hair and the girl with diamond-shaped hair, I saw them sitting cross-legged, holding docile and tame beasts in their arms, smiling sweetly at the people, with a childish and cute face. They have a name - Huishan Da Afu.

When I was a child, I was very naughty, and I always liked to climb on the cupboard to catch this pair of big Ah Fu, so my grandmother told me the story of Big Ah Fu. Ignorant, I learned that these two clay dolls are very powerful characters, don't look at them fat and smiling, they are the gods who eliminate violence and peace, and drive away beasts in the mountains.

So when I was young, I was suddenly full of awe of the "Great Ah Fu", and I didn't dare to touch them. Seeing that I was obedient, my grandmother smiled and stuffed me with a piece of cake. When I saw the delicious food, I immediately smiled, and then she looked at me chubby and said lovingly, "Look! Live like a big Ah Fu! ”

Da Fu can't move casually, but I can play with the other clay figurines to my heart's content. In my memory, I had a bunch of clay dolls with cute tumblers; There are delicate spring cattle, and there are also the kind of seven-grade sesame officials whose necks are made of springs and can shake their heads with a tap of their hands......

Among them, I particularly like a clay piggy bank in the shape of a lucky pig. Regardless of summer or winter, 365 days a day, I would hold this piggy bank and shake it, listening intently to the melodious sound of coins hitting each other.

Once the adults teased me, and they asked me what I was going to do with this piggy bank in the future. When I said that I wanted to use the money in this piggy bank to buy my grandmother a big house to live in, the adults fell silent, and a crystal teardrop slid down my grandmother's wrinkled cheeks. Take a look at the latest chapters of "Dream Claw Book House in the Great Era" and read it for free for the first time.