Brick carving, as a materialization of Chinese traditional cultural concepts and national psychology, is crafted by folk artists with magical skills. It combines artistic techniques such as metaphor, pun, metonymy, empathy, and association to organically integrate symbols and objects with symbolic meanings from different times and spaces within a small space. This process perfectly reflects and displays in each piece the richly conceptualized traditional Chinese ideas of creation, values, morality, aesthetics, and customs, some symbolizing prosperity, others serving to ward off disasters, and many expressing the simple longing and positive pursuit of a happy and prosperous life. It provides us with extensive and rich raw materials and imaginative space for interpreting the history of human social development and appreciating the profound essence of traditional culture.
The themes chosen for the brick carvings are rich and brilliant, with a wide variety. They encompass all tangible and intangible elements of human material and spiritual life, as well as the natural world, and can almost all serve as content for brick carving creation. Furthermore, they have further developed and extended the connotations of these elements, brimming with the ever-flowing essence of life. The themes primarily include six types: flora and fauna, auspicious animals, landscapes and architecture, patterns and symbols, and literary verses. It should be noted that each of these types is not existent in isolation but, while highlighting the thematic characteristics, they are also accompanied by various other types that serve as complementary elements, forming the entire brick carving work brimming with auspicious meanings.
Decorative patterns themed with auspicious meanings, many of which are connected to ancient totemic consciousness, can be said to be the soul of brick carving. They organically combine various individual elements of animals, plants, characters, and architecture to form numerous conventional patterns with Chinese traditional characteristics that are rich in symbolism. Examples include Qilin offering good fortune, Qilin pine seeds, phoenix playing with peonies, magpies on plum blossoms, five blessings to longevity, phoenixes and tigers harmonizing, evergreen throughout the four seasons, surplus every year, successive success in studies, official heritage, pomegranate opening a hundred children, wealthy white heads, three friends enduring the cold, pine and crane extending longevity, all six directions in spring, peace and safety throughout the year, lions with embroidered spheres, five generations under one roof, two dragons playing with a pearl, dragon and phoenix presenting good fortune, three suns bringing prosperity, horsebacked officials, everything becoming new, everything as one wishes, ascending three levels, mandarin ducks harmonizing, enfeoffing officials with seals, wealth in abundance, happiness, prosperity, longevity, and joy, longevity and happiness enduring, gold and jade filling the hall, successive success in studies, five children competing for the title, one rank of integrity, spring swallows cutting willow branches, waking to dance at the sound of the cock, auspicious Qilin, cypress and chrysanthemum flourishing, Liu Hai attracting the golden toad, rhinoceros looking at the moon, and so on. From conception to expression, the techniques are diverse and complex, with both symbolism and metaphor representing certain wishes and having a certain social consciousness and emotional tone.
