Lu Jianqing

01 · Lineage & Regional School

In 1979 he entered the Shanghai Hui-She Cao Sugong Ink Factory, where he studied under Cheng Jiachen, a thirteenth-generation ink-making technician of Cao Sugong. Within the regional tradition and school record of Huizhou Ink Making Craftsmanship in Huangpu, Shanghai: The Cao Sugong ink-stick craft centers on present-day Huangpu District, Shanghai; its source is the Cao Sugong Ink Studio founded by Cao Sugong in Yansi Town, She County, Anhui, in the sixth year of the Kangxi reign of the Qing dynasty (1667). During the Tongzhi reign (1864), the Cao Sugong Ink Studio moved from Suzhou to Shanghai; the metropolitan environment of Shanghai and the influence of Shanghai-style culture caused the Cao Sugong ink-stick craft to begin innovating, developing into an ink-making craft with Shanghai-style characteristics. The Shanghai Zhou Huchen Cao Sugong Brush-and-Ink Co., Ltd. is the project's protecting unit. In 1958, the Shanghai ink-making establishments Hukaiwen, Zhandayou, Cha Ermiaotang, and others were merged into the Cao Sugong house, and Cao Sugong became the representative of contemporary "Shanghai-style Huimo (Anhui ink)."

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Born in March 1952 in Shanghai, he is of Han ethnicity. He is a national representative bearer of Huimo Making Craftsmanship, specifically the Cao Sugong Ink Stick Making Craftsmanship, a fourth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. He is a technician of Cao Sugong ink stick making. With thirty years in the trade, he has long worked on the front line in ink stick production and management, and he has inherited the legacy methods of Yumi and Yishui ink making. He is skilled in making high-grade soot ink sticks and custom-commissioned edition ink (dingban mo); his craftsmanship is superb, the ink surfaces have clear grain, the ink is hard as jade and shows a purple sheen, and his works have won numerous awards. His representative works include the high-grade soot calligraphy-and-painting ink set Yuzhong Lanshan (Arashiyama in the Rain), the high-grade soot calligraphy-and-painting ink Tiezhai Weng, the archaistic ink set Shiba Luohan Zan (Eulogies to the Eighteen Arhats), and the custom edition ink Portrait of Mr. Tailu. Within the documented technical tradition of Huizhou Ink Making Craftsmanship in Huangpu, Shanghai: In the sixth year of the Kangxi reign of the Qing dynasty (1667), Cao Sugong founded the Cao Sugong Ink Studio in Yansi Town, She County, Anhui. Its ink-making craft comprises soot-refining, material-mixing, ink-forming, mold-carving, turning and airing, and gilding, and has been transmitted for thirteen generations over more than three hundred years to this day. During the Tongzhi reign (1864), the Cao Sugong Ink Studio moved from Suzhou to Shanghai. The metropolitan environment of Shanghai and the influence of Shanghai-style (Haipai) culture caused the Cao Sugong ink-stick craft to begin innovating, developing into an ink-making craft with Shanghai-style characteristics. Starting with the ninth-generation descendant Cao Duanyou, the studio made custom-plate ink for celebrated Shanghai calligraphers and painters, and the artists in turn participated in designing the drafts. Because the carving of the ink molds became a second artistic creation, the artistic style of the ink surface kept pace with Shanghai-style calligraphy and painting, and Shanghai-style Huimo emerged in response, complementing each other. The Cao Sugong ink-stick craft is precious intangible cultural heritage, but due to the dwindling of old artisans and lack of successors, the erosion of production tools (especially the Ming and Qing old ink molds) and insufficient raw-material supply, and the shrinking consumer base for ink sticks, it has gradually declined. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Six stages of ink making": Smoke, mix, cast, carve, turn and gild — the six stages that have passed through thirteen generations since 1667. "A Shanghai manner of ink": Moved to Shanghai in 1864, the house took on the city's cosmopolitan taste, with new moulds designed by local painters. "Thirteen generations of ink": Thirteen generations of makers have kept the ink hard as jade and slow-burning, the recipe and glue timing passed by word of mouth.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2009 he was awarded the title Master of Ink-Making Art by the China National Light Industry Council and the China Four Treasures of the Study Association.

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. Lu Jianqing · National Representative Bearer Archive