A Legacy Passed Down

Brick carving once enjoyed a glorious era, when people said, "No house is complete without carving, and carved work is prized above all." It also went through a period of decline, when artisans could barely support themselves, before being listed as a national intangible cultural heritage.

Through the story of the small Wei family and five generations who pass down and protect the art of brick carving, this novel reveals the history behind the craft.

As the fourth-generation inheritor of Wei Family Brick Carving, Wei Shichuan is driven by his obsession with having a son and fathers five daughters in a row. Yet, adhering strictly to the Wei family rule that the craft must be passed down to men, never women, and within the family, never outside it, he would rather take the art to his grave than pass it on to his daughters. An accident leaves Wei Shichuan with no choice but to pass the nearly lost craft of Wei Family Brick Carving to his youngest daughter. To his surprise, under her stewardship, the family craft not only finds a new path but achieves one miracle of inheritance after another. Women join this traditionally male-dominated craft, and it shifts from being led by men to being led by women. It moves from closed family transmission to opening its doors to the public. What began as an artisan's individual heroism and a family's responsibility grows into a commitment to rural revitalization. The loves and hates of ordinary people reflect the changes of a great era, and so a miracle of brick carving's survival is written. Along the way, Wei Shichuan and his daughter's differing old and new ideas collide, while the new business model for brick carving both clashes with and carries on the old-fashioned workshop system.