Longchang Bluestone: From Mineral to Myth

隆昌青石雕刻。

◎成都树德中学宁夏校区高三（10）班胡晨怡

People like to run a hand over the carving’s surface not simply to touch cold rock, but to feel a persistent pulse—this is something that artisans believed in through their lifetime. And now,we visit this city not only to admire its endurance, but to hear the voices still murmuring from the stone.

Come with me to the quiet heart of Neijiang, where conversations unfold between hands and stone—dialogues centuries old. This is the art of Longchang Bluestone Carving, an item of Sichuan provincial intangible cultural heritage,rooted in the archway culture of the Song Dynasties, and it flourished during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The local gray-green slate is not merely quarried here; it is remembered.

The craftsmen read these stones better than anyone. Under their hands, the stone stirs from its long silence. And two techniques are specially employed here: Shen Diao, or deep relief, where figures of heroes, dragons, and phoenixes emerge from the stone with depth that they seem almost detached; and Tou Diao, openwork carving, which pierces entirely through the stone to create intricate patterns, even allowing light to dance through the solid rock. Through deep relief and openwork carving, they do not so much carve as they listen, liberating forms sleeping in the stone’s memory: dragons coiled in mist, paragons of loyalty, the quiet geometry of clouds. It is a kind of alchemy, turning mineral into myth and weight into whispering culture.

译文隆昌青石雕刻：一块石头的传奇之路

当人们用手抚过石雕的表面，不仅仅为了触摸冰冷的岩石，更为感受一种持续搏动的脉搏——这是匠人们毕生坚信的信念。如今我们造访这座城市，不仅是为了赞美它的坚韧，更是为了聆听石雕中至今未息的低语。

来到内江的静谧之处，在这里，手与石展开一场跨越数百年的对话——四川省第五批省级非物质文化遗产代表性项目隆昌青石雕刻技艺，形成于南宋年间，明末清初进入鼎盛。当地灰绿色的板岩不仅在此开采，更被此地铭记。

匠人比任何人都更懂这些石头。在他们手中，石头从长久的沉默中苏醒。他们运用两种技法：一曰深雕，让英雄、游龙、栖凤从石中浮现，轮廓深邃几欲脱离石体；一曰透雕，穿透整块顽石镂出万千纹样，甚至容许天光在坚石内部翩跹流转。匠人们与其说在雕刻，不如说在聆听，他们通过深雕与透雕，唤醒那些沉睡于石材记忆中的形态：游雾蟠龙、忠义圣贤、云纹舒卷。这仿佛一场点石成金的庄严仪式，匠人们化顽石为数百年传说，凝厚重为文明低吟。

（指导教师：成都树德中学宁夏校区严添禧）