Chu Jinxia
01 · Lineage & Regional School
In 1959 she began studying under her father Chu Yanqing, receiving systematic training in and inheritance of the iron painting technique. Within the regional tradition and school record of Wuhu Tiehua Forging Craftsmanship in Wuhu, Anhui: Wuhu has had a flourishing iron industry since ancient times and enjoys the reputation that "when iron reaches Wuhu it turns to steel of itself"; the craft of making Wuhu iron pictures was developed on this foundation. The technique is concentrated in the iron-picture workshops and artists' families of Wuhu City and the surrounding counties, transmitted chiefly within families down the generations; the sites of the old workshops in the Jing Lake and Iron Picture Street area can still be recognized for their layout of forges set beside the water. Apothecary shops of the Beijing Tongrentang type adjoining iron-picture shops also once formed a feature of the local street scene. Iron picture (tiehua) began in the Kangxi reign of the Qing dynasty, developed through the mutual spurring of the Wuhu ironworker Tang Peng and the Wuhu painter Xiao Yuncong, and has a history of more than 340 years to date. According to the "Preface to the Song of the Iron Picture" recorded in the Wuhu County Gazetteer of the Qing dynasty: "Tang Tianchi lived next door to a painter, and every day he watched the painter's ink-splashing technique, until the painter drove him away in anger." Wuhu iron picture derives from Chinese painting, bearing the artistic characteristics of the Xin'an school of painting — lean, forceful, and economical brushwork with a cold, austere, and rugged style — and is produced entirely by hand forging. In 1958, Mao Zedong and Liu Shaoqi successively viewed Wuhu iron pictures at the Anhui Provincial Museum, praising the exquisite artistry of iron picture and calling for it to be further developed. Between 1959 and 1960, the veteran artist Chu Yanqing and several of his disciples produced the large iron pictures Welcoming Guests Pine and Meishan Reservoir, together with the iron calligraphy "Qinyuan Spring — Snow," which were displayed in the Great Hall of the People.
02 · Mastery & Signature Works
Female, Han ethnicity, born in November 1945 in Zongyang County, Anhui Province. A national representative bearer of the Wuhu Tiehua Forging Craftsmanship, a fourth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. She is a Wuhu iron painting forging technician and a Master of Chinese Arts and Crafts. She took part in the creation of the six huge iron paintings for the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, among them Ying Ke Song (Welcoming Guests with Pine), Huangshan Tianxia Qi (Huangshan, Wonder of the World) and Zhonghua Song (Ode to China). She established the Chu Jinxia Iron Painting Studio and teaches actively; several dozen of her disciples have become a vital force in the iron painting trade. Within the documented technical tradition of Wuhu Tiehua Forging Craftsmanship in Wuhu, Anhui: Wuhu has had a flourishing iron industry since ancient times and enjoys the reputation that "when iron reaches Wuhu it turns to steel of itself"; the craft of making Wuhu iron pictures was developed on this foundation. Wuhu iron pictures take the hammer for a brush and forge iron into painting — of devilish workmanship and natural spirit, consummate in skill. Peng, stung by the humiliation, was roused to effort, and forged iron into mountain-and-water screens, with cold sandbars and lonely islets, all full of vivid life. It is made with wrought iron as the raw material; after heating in the red-hot furnace, it is worked by forging, drilling, lifting, pressing, welding, filing, chiseling, and other techniques. Wuhu iron pictures possess both the spirit of Chinese painting and the three-dimensional beauty of sculpture, while also expressing the suppleness and ductility of iron and steel; they are works of art of a uniquely distinctive style. Wuhu iron pictures have successively taken part in the Paris World Exposition in France and the Budapest Plastic Arts Exhibition in Hungary, and have been exhibited in more than twenty countries and regions including Japan, Kuwait, Italy, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and Hong Kong. Through more than three hundred years of transmission and development, Wuhu iron pictures have gone beyond the traditional forms of small-scale scenery, painted lamps, and screens to create such new varieties as three-dimensional iron pictures, bonsai iron pictures, porcelain-plate iron pictures, and gilded iron pictures; they have formed five major series — table screens, murals, calligraphy, decorative furnishings, and gifts — comprising more than two hundred varieties, and stand apart in the art world with their distinctive style and charm. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Hammer for brush": Hammer in hand, the picture is forged in hot iron: the eye's image leads the hammer through heating, striking, drilling and joining. "Iron made in Wuhu": Wuhu's long iron trade, where it was said that iron came into its own steel here, supplied the metal for the art. "Painting and sculpture": A landscape panel is laid out in iron plates and then hammered into depth, distance given by the density of the marks. "Workshops on the water": The old workshops by the lake and Iron-Picture Street still show the layout of furnaces set beside water.
Hammer for brush
Hammer in hand, the picture is forged in hot iron: the eye's image leads the hammer through heating, striking, drilling and joining.
Iron made in Wuhu
Wuhu's long iron trade, where it was said that iron came into its own steel here, supplied the metal for the art.
Painting and sculpture
A landscape panel is laid out in iron plates and then hammered into depth, distance given by the density of the marks.
Workshops on the water
The old workshops by the lake and Iron-Picture Street still show the layout of furnaces set beside water.
03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status
She has made many innovations in the iron painting treatment of figures, flowers and birds, and landscapes. Her original quenching method uses the instantaneous colour differences produced by changing temperatures to give iron paintings the artistic effect of ink in five tones, and won the Gold Award for Cultural Creativity in Chinese Arts and Crafts from the China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industries Fair and other organizers.
04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier
Historical origin
Iron picture (tiehua) began in the Kangxi reign of the Qing dynasty, developed through the mutual spurring of the Wuhu ironworker Tang Peng and the Wuhu painter Xiao Yuncong, and has a history of more than 340 years to date. According to the "Preface to the Song of the Iron Picture" recorded in the Wuhu County Gazetteer of the Qing dynasty: "Tang Tianchi lived next door to a painter, and every day he watched the painter's ink-splashing technique, until the painter drove him away in anger."
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.
| Bearer | Declared area | Roster code | Relation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yang Guanghui | Wuhu, Anhui | 01-0159 | Same declared area |
| Chu Jinxia | Wuhu, Anhui | 04-1841 | This page |
| Zhang Jiakang | Wuhu, Anhui | — | Same declared area |
06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript. Compiled from official national representative bearer archival records and the associated project dossier, organized by topic and translated into English. 阅读中文版。