Zhao Sijin

01 · Lineage & Regional School

From 1950 he learned bamboo weaving from his father Zhao Yuxin and is the third-generation transmitter of the Daoming bamboo-weaving family. Within the regional tradition and school record of Bamboo Weaving in Chongzhou, Sichuan: The area of distribution of Daoming bamboo weaving is centered on Daoming Town, which abounds in cizhu bamboo, and extends to Jixie Township, Wangchang Town, Baitou Town, and Gongyi Township in Chongzhou City. It has been carried down to the present day through family transmission, master-apprentice transmission, and the collective transmission of the bamboo-grove settlements (zhulinpan) of western Sichuan. Daoming bamboo weaving is centered on Daoming Town, Chongzhou City, Sichuan Province. The local history of using bamboo stretches back to the Qin dynasty: farmers used bamboo lashed together with rope to build frames and weave walls for houses, and wove farm implements such as back baskets, dustpans, and carrying baskets.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, of Han ethnicity, born in January 1935 in Chongzhou, Sichuan Province. Influenced by his elders from childhood, he developed a strong interest in bamboo weaving. He has practised bamboo weaving for more than seventy years and has a comprehensive, systematic command of Daoming bamboo-weaving techniques; his superb skills and exquisite products are much loved by enthusiasts of the craft. He lays stress on transmitting the craft, teaching five people including his daughter and daughter-in-law, and taking as disciples Wu Shuying, Xiao Yuchao and three others. Since the 1970s he has trained nearly a thousand people in the many bamboo-weaving courses organized by various units. In recent years he has trained two cohorts of students each year for the Daoming Traditional Bamboo Weaving Research and Practice Base established in Daoming Township by the School of Urban Design of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, bringing Daoming bamboo weaving into the university classroom. Within the documented technical tradition of Bamboo Weaving in Chongzhou, Sichuan: Daoming bamboo weaving is a traditional artistic form that uses natural cizhu bamboo (Neosinocalamus affinis) as its raw material and produces woven bamboo ware through three process steps — forming the base, weaving, and locking the rim. Its area of distribution is centered on Daoming Town, Chongzhou City, Sichuan Province, which abounds in cizhu bamboo, and extends to Jixie Township, Wangchang Town, Baitou Town, Gongyi Township, and other areas of Chongzhou. Daoming bamboo weaving has a long history. According to records, as far back as the Qin dynasty the Daoming area had already begun to plant and use bamboo: farmers used bamboo lashed together with rope to build frames and weave walls for their houses, and wove farm implements such as back baskets, dustpans, and carrying baskets. By the Qing dynasty, Daoming bamboo weaving had gradually developed from coarse-splint ware to fine-splint weaving; its range of products steadily increased, and its level of craftsmanship improved considerably. Daoming bamboo weaving consists mainly of two parts: material preparation and weaving. Material preparation selects two-to-three-year-old cizhu bamboo with long, smooth internodes for felling; the green cortex is then scraped off and the nodes removed; and through splitting the culms, sun-drying, cutting the strips, and drawing out fine threads, bamboo strips and fine threads of various specifications are produced. The weaving part includes shaping the form, weaving the body patterns, decorative color-pattern weaving, and closing and finishing work. It relies mainly on the warp-and-weft weaving method, on top of which various techniques — inserting, threading, cutting, locking, nailing, binding, and wrapping — can be interwoven to produce a wide variety of patterns and designs. The form-shaping weaving mainly presents bamboo-woven forms such as round, square, columnar, and various irregular shapes. The body weaving renders the flat patterns of the main form, such as checks, twills, herringbone weaves, 'pepper-eye' patterns, and 'pineapple' patterns. The decorative weaving realizes the artistic expression of the work through various weaving techniques with thick and thin bamboo strips and the use of colored strips, such as drawn-flower (lahua) patterns, herringbone-flower patterns, and colored patterns pinned among the fine threads. The closing and finishing steps complete the final shaping of a piece through the weaving of the mouth, joints, and assembled parts. Bamboo-woven products are closely bound up with the production and daily life of ordinary people. Finished goods include labor tools, household wares, and craft articles, characterized by tight and sturdy construction, fine weaving, novel forms, and ingenious variety. In all there are three systems — three-dimensional, flat, and porcelain-bodied — spanning 20 major categories and more than 3,000 pattern varieties. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "": "Archival Record of Process Steps": Daoming bamboo weaving is a traditional artistic form that uses natural cizhu bamboo (Neosinocalamus affinis) as its raw material and produces woven bamboo ware through three process steps — forming the base, weaving, and locking the rim. Its area of distribution is centered on Daoming Town, Chongzhou City, Sichuan Province, which abounds in cizhu bamboo, and extends to Jixie Township, Wangchang Town, Baitou Town, Gongyi Township, and other areas of Chongzhou.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

He is a representative bearer of Bamboo Weaving (Daoming Bamboo Weaving), a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project.

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. Zhao Sijin · National Representative Bearer Archive