Ma Mengqing

01 · Lineage & Regional School

He is the sixth-generation transmitter of the Jinling scripture printing technique. In 1981 he entered the Jinling Scripture Printing House to learn woodblock engraving and the restoration of old blocks under Zhou Baolun and Wang Jinlu, fifth-generation transmitters of the technique. Within the regional tradition and school record of Jinlingkejingyinshuajiyi in Nanjing, Jiangsu: The Jinling sutra-carving printing craft is centered on Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province—the present site of the Jinling Sutra-Carving Studio. In the fifth year of the Tongzhi reign of the Qing dynasty (1866), far-sighted figures such as Yang Renshan, a founding figure of the modern revival of Buddhist culture in China, founded the Jinling Sutra-Carving Studio, which has inherited the ancient Chinese craft of woodblock printing of Buddhist scriptures and images and has enjoyed a high reputation at home and abroad for over a century. The Jinling sutra carving preserves the traditional Chinese craft of woodblock water-printing, which consists of three stages: block carving, printing, and binding. Nanjing was anciently called Jinling; it is an ancient capital of six dynasties, with a long history and deep cultural accumulation, and its Buddhist sutra-carving enterprise reaches far back into the past.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Born in September 1963 in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, he is of Hui ethnicity. He is a national representative bearer of Jinling Scripture Printing Technique, a fourth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. After forty years in the craft he has become a core technical member of the Jinling Scripture Printing House for engraving and restoration, having carved and restored tens of thousands of scripture and image blocks. The number of his carved works is enormous; representative pieces such as Xiyuan Lu (Record of the Western Source), Shangshan Qixia (Supreme Goodness at Qixia) and Xuanzang Fashi Yijing Tu (The Monk Xuanzang Translating Scriptures) are executed with concise knife-work, fine lines, superb craftsmanship and a solemn, archaic dignity, displaying the rich content of block-printing art and Buddhist culture. Within the documented technical tradition of Jinlingkejingyinshuajiyi in Nanjing, Jiangsu: In the fifth year of the Tongzhi reign of the Qing dynasty (1866), far-sighted figures such as Yang Renshan, a founding figure of the modern revival of Buddhist culture in China, founded the Jinling Sutra-Carving Studio, which has inherited the ancient Chinese craft of woodblock printing of Buddhist scriptures and images and has enjoyed a high reputation at home and abroad for over a century. The Jinling sutra carving preserves the traditional Chinese craft of woodblock water-printing; it consists of three stages: first, block carving, including the steps of writing the sample, mounting the sample, and engraving; second, printing, including the steps of placing the block, brushing on ink, laying the paper, pressing and rubbing, and lifting the paper; third, binding, including the steps of separating the pages, folding the leaves, gathering and aligning, binding and pressing, counting the copies, aligning the columns, threading the paper twists, attaching the front and back covers, collating the book, cutting the book, punching binding holes, and affixing the title slip. The Jinling sutra carvings select their texts with rigorous precision, contain pure and correct content, are collated with strict care, have an open and airy layout, use large and pleasing characters, are carved and printed with refinement, and employ excellent paper and ink; they are customarily known as 'Jinling editions.' The carving and printing techniques of Jinling sutra carving are transmitted orally from master to disciple and have now reached the seventh generation. However, hand-printed thread-bound scriptures cost more and are priced higher than flat-bound machine-printed scriptures, and their buyers are relatively fixed; these circumstances have limited and affected the production and circulation of the carved scriptures. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Archival Record of Craft Procedures": The Jinling sutra carving preserves the traditional Chinese craft of woodblock water-printing; it consists of three stages: first, block carving, including the steps of writing the sample, mounting the sample, and engraving; second, printing, including the steps of placing the block, brushing on ink, laying the paper, pressing and rubbing, and lifting the paper; third, binding, including the steps of separating the pages, folding the leaves, gathering and aligning, binding and pressing, counting the copies, aligning the columns, threading the paper twists, attaching the front and back covers, collating the book, cutting the book, punching binding holes, and affixing the title slip.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

The damaged blocks restored by him are brought back to life, with the repaired areas blending into the original blocks so that the restored work looks as it did when new.

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. Ma Mengqing · National Representative Bearer Archive