Detailed Introduction
One glazed, colored porcelain bowl after another is smashed, snipped into the curve of a dragon's scale or the fold of a robe, and pasted piece by piece onto the temple's roof ridge — this is how the most dazzling skyline of a Taiwanese temple is pieced together from fragments. Jiannian (also called jianhua, "cut flowers") is the most sumptuous decorative art on Taiwanese temple ridges, fusing ceramics, sculpture, and architectural aesthetics to hang whole storytelling scenes high on the rooftop — one of the most recognizable features of Taiwan's religious architecture.
The Craft
Making jiannian is exceedingly involved: the artisan first shapes the basic skeleton of a figure or animal from wire and lime plaster, then takes colored bowl shards, glass, or ceramic fragments and, with special tools, cuts them into the needed shapes — the folds of a robe, the curve of a dragon's scale, the arc of a petal — and pastes them one by one onto the plaster body, finally adding details with paint, such as a figure's facial expression and the gesture of its hands. Throughout, the artisan needs both a sculptor's command of three-dimensional form and a painter's sense of color.
Northern and Southern Styles
Taiwanese jiannian has developed distinct northern and southern styles. The south (especially Tainan and Chiayi) is known for the "heavy and ornate," with full-bodied figures, intense colors, and dense composition — a single temple ridge may hold dozens of figural scenes. Northern jiannian leans toward the "spare and refined," with smaller figures, lighter tones, and more empty space. This mirrors the broader difference between northern and southern temple architecture.
Master Artisans
The most celebrated master in the history of Taiwanese jiannian is Ye Wang (Ye Linzhi, 1826-1887). A legendary artisan of the Chiayi region in the Qing Dynasty, renowned for his mastery of both koji pottery and jiannian, his works are preserved at Ciji Temple in Xuejia, Tainan and are hailed as national treasures. Later masters include Hong Kunfu (heir to the Quanzhou school of Fujian), Lin Zaihua, and Chen Sanhuo — the last designated by the Ministry of Culture as a "Living National Treasure" for jiannian, devoted to passing on the craft.
Notable Works and Temples
To see the art of jiannian, the best places include Ciji Temple in Xuejia, Tainan (works by Ye Wang), Jintang Temple in Jiali, Baoan Temple in Taipei (works by Hong Kunfu), and Chaotian Temple in Beigang. On the ridges of these temples, classic tales — the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the Investiture of the Gods, the Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea — play out in vivid life.
In recent years, traditional bowl shards have grown ever harder to source, and some artisans have turned to fiberglass or plastic substitutes; this cuts costs but loses the texture and luster of the traditional materials. How to preserve the craft while holding on to the use of traditional materials is the most pressing question facing the art of jiannian today.