Song Zengli

01 · Lineage & Regional School

In 1937, pressed by the need to make a living, his parents sent him to be apprenticed in bamboo weaving. After completing his apprenticeship in 1942 he farmed at home, and in the slack agricultural seasons he went from village to village doing bamboo weaving for households. Owing to traditional taboos, his master's name is unknown; his fellow apprentices included Hu Liangyu, Wang Songxi and others. Within the regional tradition and school record of Bamboo Weaving in Ruichang, Jiangxi: Ruichang bamboo weaving techniques have a long history: in the locality’s Shang and Zhou dynasty ancient copper-mining smelting sites, bamboo baskets used to transport ore were once excavated intact. In the Ruichang area, bamboo weaving is needed everywhere at all times; the technique is closely bound up with people’s lives. Ruichang bamboo weaving is found in the area of Ruichang City, Jiangxi Province. The locality has more than sixty thousand mu of mountain bamboo, with nearly ten varieties—including mao bamboo, jin bamboo, and water bamboo—available for selection as materials. Weaving is practiced mainly in family workshops and craft factories; the Ruichang Nanyi Bamboo Weaving Craft Factory, jointly established in 1981, has long undertaken export supply tasks, and its newly created modern bamboo-woven horticultural products are exported to Western Europe, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

His bamboo woven articles are delicate, finely made and durable; the first piece he made in 1937, a carrying basket, still survives and has been collected. Within the documented technical tradition of Bamboo Weaving in Ruichang, Jiangxi: Ruichang lies in the north-northwest of Jiangxi Province, on the south bank of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. It has more than sixty thousand mu of mountain bamboo, including nearly ten varieties such as mao bamboo, jin bamboo, and water bamboo. Ruichang bamboo weaving has complex process steps and high, demanding weaving requirements; moreover, with its numerous varieties, the related weaving work is very difficult to replace with modern machine production. The main products of Ruichang bamboo weaving include beds, tables, chairs, stools, cabinets, winnowing baskets, rice sieves, dou (bamboo carrying baskets), and cool mats; in recent years more than one hundred new varieties have been developed, including flowerpots, flower baskets, chickens, ducks, turtles, fruit boxes, birds and animals, and gift boxes. These bamboo-woven products are fine and exquisite, beautiful and practical—all of them rare craft treasures. On the other hand, Ruichang bamboo weaving techniques are complex and somewhat difficult to master, so young people are mostly unwilling to learn and inherit them, while the older craftsmen are growing old and many can no longer continue working. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Archival Record of Working Procedures": Ruichang bamboo weaving has complex process steps and high, demanding weaving requirements; moreover, with its numerous varieties, the related weaving work is very difficult to replace with modern machine production. "Bamboo baskets from the bronze-mine site": Complete bamboo baskets for carrying ore were unearthed at the local Shang-Zhou bronze-mining site, and bamboo wares still serve daily life there. "Song Zengli and Tian Xianmin": Song Zengli's first basket of 1937 still survives; his pupil Tian Xianmin, born in 1951, now trains more than a hundred apprentices.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

Male, Han ethnicity, born in October 1926, died in December 2010, a native of Ruichang City, Jiangxi Province. A national representative bearer of Bamboo Weaving (Ruichang Bamboo Weaving), a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. He was devoted to transmitting Ruichang bamboo weaving and during his lifetime trained a group of bamboo weaving bearers, including Tian Xianmin and Chen Rujin.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Song Zengli · National Representative Bearer Archive