Zhou Jianming

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Zhou Jianming, Male, Han, from Suzhou, Jiangsu, is a fifth-batch national representative bearer of Nut Carving (Ⅶ-59). The tradition is documented in Suzhou, Jiangsu. Within the regional tradition and school record of Nut Carving in Suzhou, Jiangsu: Guangfu pit carving originated in the town of Guangfu and Zhoushan Village of Xiangshan Subdistrict, Suzhou City; it uses mainly the hard, fine-grained Wuhang olive pits produced in Guangdong, and its types include bead strings, pendants, and display pieces. After a long decline, reform and opening up brought a trend of revival to pit carving in Suzhou. Judging from the situation depicted in 'The Walnut Boat' (Hezhou Ji) by Wei Xueyi of the late Ming dynasty, pit carving had already reached a very high level in the Ming dynasty. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Suzhou pit carving had already attained a very high artistic standard.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Han ethnicity, born in June 1956 in Wu County, Jiangsu Province. He is a senior arts and crafts master at research-fellow level. In 1975 he studied pit carving at the Zhoushan Crafts Factory under Zhu Gengyuan, and at the same time received careful guidance from senior pit carvers such as Xu Yinsheng and Zhong Nianfu. Over more than forty years in the craft he has acquired a comprehensive command of technique, using full-round, relief and openwork carving with ease, his knifework natural and fluent and his methods varied. His subjects are wide-ranging, covering figures, animals, garden landscapes and carved boats. His compositions are well balanced, his forms lively and flexible, and his lines clear and flowing, so that a mellow, refined scholarly flavour shows through the delicate execution. Representative works include Magu Xianshou (Magu Offers Birthday Wishes), Shiba Luohan Tou (Heads of the Eighteen Arhats), Baxian Qingshou (The Eight Immortals Celebrate Longevity) and Suzhou Yuanlin (Suzhou Gardens). Within the documented technical tradition of Nut Carving in Suzhou, Jiangsu: Pit carving (hediao) is a traditional folk craft of carving on walnut shells and various kinds of fruit pits, long popular throughout China, north and south. As early as the Neolithic period, China's carving techniques had already achieved no small success; pit carving is a further development of that craft. Pit carving uses walnut shells, peach pits, olive pits, apricot pits, cherry pits, and other dense fruit pits as its raw material. Making use of the natural form and undulations of the shell or pit, the carver applies such techniques as carving, openwork, engraving, filing, chiseling, and drilling to cut into it figures of every kind — human beings, flowers and birds, beasts and insects, landscapes, boats, pavilions — as well as written texts. Folk pit carving is often worked over the entire surface: the composition is systematic, thoroughgoing, and rigorous; the knife work is brisk and decisive; the images are rendered in the finest detail, vivid yet bearing no trace of artificiality. Though the body is minute, the art is exquisite — the work seems divinely wrought — and the craft has thus won the acclaim of 'ghostly skill and divine technique'. The pit-carving art of Jiangsu, Shandong, Guangdong, and elsewhere has formed its own traditions in the course of long transmission, and the works created in each place have distinct characteristics, having always been treasured by people. Guangfu pit carving is a traditional carving art that uses fruit pits as its material; it is popular mainly in the Suzhou area of Jiangsu Province, with the town of Guangfu and Zhoushan Village of Xiangshan Subdistrict in Suzhou as its place of origin. 'The Walnut Boat' by Wei Xueyi of the late Ming gives a vivid account of every aspect of 'Su Dongpo Visiting the Red Cliff', carved in peach pit by Wang Shuyuan during the Tianqi reign, praising it as material of 'numinous wonder'; in the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty, 'Su Dongpo Visiting the Red Cliff' carved in peach pit by the Suzhou micro-carving artisan Du Shiyuan was hailed by contemporaries as 'guigong' — the work of a ghost. Guangfu pit carving uses mainly the hard, fine-grained Wuhang olive pits of Guangdong as its material; the outer form basically retains the original shape of the pit. Its main types include bead strings, pendants, and display pieces, and its subjects range over immortals and human figures, folk tales, folk customs and daily life, and landscapes and gardens. Guangfu pit carving is exquisite and refined in workmanship, with clear lines, strong three-dimensional effect, and vivid, lifelike images, embodying the Suzhou carving tradition of 'refinement, delicacy, wonder, and ingenuity'. After a long decline, reform and opening up brought a trend of revival to pit carving in Suzhou; a number of outstanding artisans have emerged, but few of them are young, and those with consummate skill are fewer still. Measures urgently need to be strengthened to promote the revitalization and development of Guangfu pit carving. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The Record of the Core Boat": Wei Xuehe's Ming account of Wang Shuyuan's peach-stone boat of the Red Cliff excursion, praised as spirit-like material, became the model for generations of carvers. "Du Shiyuan and the ghost work": A Qing Qianlong peach-stone Red Cliff by Du Shiyuan was called ghost work, and the Suzhou tradition has since been summed up as fine, delicate, astonishing and ingenious. "Bead strings, pendants and table pieces": Three principal forms — bead strings, pendants and table pieces — keeping the nut's original outline, and covering immortals, folk tales, daily life and landscapes. "Song Shuiguan and his mountain-flower award": Song Shuiguan joined the Zhoushan carving workshop in 1967 and, after more than fifty years, took ninth Mountain Flower Prize gold for Riding the Wind and Breaking the Waves.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Pit Carving (Guangfu Pit Carving), 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. Zhou Jianming · National Representative Bearer Archive