Xiao Gang

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Xiao Gang, Male, Han, from Rongbaozhai, Beijing, is a fourth-batch national representative bearer of Mubanshuiyinjiyi (Ⅷ-77). The tradition is documented in Rongbaozhai, Beijing. Within the regional tradition and school record of Mubanshuiyinjiyi in Rongbaozhai, Beijing: The woodblock water-printing craft is represented by Rongbaozhai on Liulichang West Street in Xuanwu District, Beijing, and extends to other painting shops around Liulichang. Since the Ming and Qing dynasties Liulichang has thrived in both the trade of calligraphy and painting and the carving and printing of blocks; many carvers and printers have lived there for generations. Rongbaozhai is the protecting unit of the project. Rongbaozhai's woodblock water-printing originated from the woodblock printing of ancient China. In 1896 Rongbaozhai set up a block-cutting and printing workshop, hired master carvers and printers, and produced large quantities of exquisite poetry letter papers and correspondence cards. During the Republican era Rongbaozhai reprinted the "Shizhuzhai Manual of Letter-Paper Designs" (Shizhuzhai jianpu), ensuring the continuation and development of color registration printing and the "embossed without ink" (gonghua) technique. After the founding of the PRC, Rongbaozhai's woodblock water-printing advanced from printing only poetry and letter papers no larger than a foot to reproducing, with vivid likeness and full spirit and form, large-scale artworks such as "Galloping Horses" (Benma tu) with its dashing, uninhibited brushwork, "Court Ladies Adorning Their Hair with Flowers" (Zanhua shinv tu) by Zhou Fang of the Tang dynasty, and "Spring Outing" (Tage tu) by Ma Yuan of the Song dynasty. This marks the pinnacle of carved-block printing and shows that Rongbaozhai's woodblock water-printing technique had truly matured.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Born in May 1959 in Beijing, he is of Han ethnicity. He is a national representative bearer of Woodblock Water Printing Technique, a fourth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. He is a technician of woodblock water printing. In 1978 he joined Rongbaozhai, where he worked on the design of art books and on the editing and outline tracing for woodblock water prints. He took part in the layout design and text editing of the Rongbaozhai Series of Painting Manuals, in the arrangement and hand-colouring of woodblock water prints such as Zanhua Shinü Tu (Ladies Adorning Their Hair with Flowers) by Zhou Fang of the Tang dynasty, Qingming Shanghe Tu (Along the River During the Qingming Festival) by Zhang Zeduan of the Song dynasty, Pingyuan Benma (Galloping Horse on the Plain) by the modern Xu Beihong, and Jiuqiu Tu (Nine Autumns) and the gongbi grass-and-insect paintings by Qi Baishi, and in the copying of Huang Binhong's landscapes and Shu Tong's calligraphy. While seconded to the Palace Museum he mainly copied and reproduced such works as Wudai Renwu (Figures of the Five Dynasties), Wenyuan Tu (The Garden of Letters), Songren Ceye (Album Leaves of the Song Masters), Baitou Congzhu (White-Headed Bird among Bamboo), Chushui Furong (Lotus Rising from the Water) and Jingwu Tu (Still Life) by Lang Shining of the Qing dynasty. He attaches importance to transmitting the craft and is enthusiastic about teaching apprentices; his apprentices include Li Yang, Hou Zechuan and Zhou Tianjian, three in all. Within the documented technical tradition of Mubanshuiyinjiyi in Rongbaozhai, Beijing: Rongbaozhai is located at No. 19 Liulichang West Street, Xuanwu District, Beijing, and its woodblock water-printing technique is truly unrivalled. The "douban" (separate-block) registration method — so-called douban printing — separates the image into plates according to the brushstrokes of the original (their thickness, length, curvature, squareness, roundness, firmness, softness, dryness, and moistness) and the color's depth, density, lightness, warmth, coolness, and the light-and-shade facing of hues; it is traced and carved into several blocks, then printed in layers from dark to light, stroke by stroke in sequence, striving for an exact, faultless likeness of the original, to the point of being indistinguishable from the real thing. This purely manual printing craft has basic process steps of tracing (plate separation), carving (plate making), and printing, along with special techniques of cutting, scraping, dusting, and outlining. Using brush, knife, brush (shuazi), scraper (pazi), Chinese painting pigments, and water as its basic tools, it aims to restore the artistic form, brushwork, and spirit of traditional calligraphy and painting. The earliest carved-block printing in China with a definite reign-year date comes from the Sui dynasty. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Dividing the painting into plates": The painting is divided by stroke, tone and hue into separate plates, then printed from dark to light until the sheet matches the original. "The carvers of Liulichang": Carvers and printers lived and worked for generations in Liulichang, where painting trade and block printing have run side by side since the Ming. "Printed entirely by hand": Each sheet is brushed by hand with a palm-fibre brush, so a set takes days, and damaged areas are repaired with new paper and colour.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2012, Xiao Gang was announced in the fourth batch of national representative bearers for Mubanshuiyinjiyi, with Rongbaozhai, Beijing as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Mubanshuiyinjiyi in Rongbaozhai, Beijing: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2006 (batch 1), with Rongbaozhai, Beijing as its declared area, and Rongbaozhai as its safeguarding unit. Since the project was inscribed in the national inventory, its declared area and safeguarding unit have carried out documentation, transmission and presentation within the national safeguarding framework. Together, the inventory record and the project archive form the public documentary basis for the bearer’s transmission practice.

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. Xiao Gang · National Representative Bearer Archive