Zhou Tiehuai

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Zhou Tiehuai, Male, Han, from Chengcheng, Shaanxi, is a fifth-batch national representative bearer of Chengchengyaotou Ceramic Firing Craftsmanship (Ⅷ-12). The tradition is documented in Chengcheng, Shaanxi. Within the regional tradition and school record of Chengchengyaotou Ceramic Firing Craftsmanship in Chengcheng, Shaanxi: Local farmers make use of the slack seasons in agriculture: in summer and autumn they make bodies and paint decoration, and in winter they fire kilns and sell, passing the craft down from generation to generation. The flowers and animals decorating the various vessels share the same origins as the local paper-cutting and dough-flower forms; the subjects are mostly lotus, peony and chrysanthemum, or the characters 'fortune' (fu), 'emolument' (lu), 'longevity' (shou) and 'happiness' (xi). According to Ming-dynasty county gazetteers, in Chengcheng 'porcelain sand began in the Tang dynasty,' reaching its height in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

He is a Han Chinese man, born in October 1951, a native of Chengcheng County, Shaanxi Province. National representative bearer of Chengchengyaotou Ceramic Firing Craftsmanship, a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. A ceramic firing technician. From childhood he learned ceramic firing at the kiln under his father's guidance, and in the 1980s he began firing ceramics independently at his family's own kiln. He persists in production by traditional hand techniques; his main products include lion jars, rat jars, single-handled pots and jiugeda liquor vessels. The patterns he paints on his ceramics absorb the formal characteristics of folk paper-cutting and dough figurines; rugged and archaic, with ingenuity revealed within coarseness, they mostly depict auspicious motifs such as lotus, peony and chrysanthemum, or the characters fu (blessing), lu (prosperity), shou (longevity) and xi (joy). A film crew from the CCTV programme Encyclopedia Explorer made the feature documentary A Thousand Years of Kiln Fire at his workshop, and it was broadcast nationwide. He has taken part many times in traditional-craft demonstrations of intangible cultural heritage organised by governments at various levels. Within the documented technical tradition of Chengchengyaotou Ceramic Firing Craftsmanship in Chengcheng, Shaanxi: Yaotou Town in Chengcheng County, in the east of the Guanzhong region of Shaanxi, produces coarse porcelain. The area is rich in coal resources, and fireclay deposits are distributed in the stone cliffs of gullies, with white and purple raw materials occurring together, making it convenient for firing ceramics and sand ware. Yaotou porcelain is produced entirely by indigenous hand methods, with raw materials taken from local fireclay; the processing includes four steps: slip-making, body-making, glazing and calcining. For the slip, dry clay ore is first crushed, soaked in a water pool for several days, then stirred into slurry and settled in separate pools. Coarse clay is made into large vessels such as jars and basins, while fine clay is used for fine porcelain such as bowls and saucers. The products of the porcelain industry are closely connected with people's production and daily life; their forms show refinement within roughness and ingenuity within plainness, giving a simple and natural beauty, entirely different from the delicate and exquisite style of southern ceramics. The tiger-shaped porcelain pillows are exquisitely lustrous, glaring like tigers yet childishly lovable; they serve as both pillows and ornaments, and carry the meaning of warding off evil and bolstering courage. The 'lazy wife' seats for children bear the flavor of primitive painted pottery: the child sits inside while the mother is free to attend to housework. The black rat jars and lion jars have unusual images, with rats and lions in various postures on their lids as knobs, full of delightful charm. The glaze colors of Yaotou coarse porcelain are mostly white, yellow and black, with blue and brownish red as well. In recent decades, people's lifestyles and consumption concepts have changed greatly, and the main products of Yaotou ceramics — jars, basins and pots — have gradually lost their uses. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Archival Records of Process Steps": Yaotou porcelain is produced entirely by indigenous hand methods, with raw materials taken from local fireclay; the processing includes four steps: slip-making, body-making, glazing and calcining.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2018, Zhou Tiehuai was announced in the fifth batch of national representative bearers for Chengchengyaotou Ceramic Firing Craftsmanship, with Chengcheng, Shaanxi as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Chengchengyaotou Ceramic Firing Craftsmanship in Chengcheng, Shaanxi: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2006 (batch 1), with Chengcheng, Shaanxi as its declared area, and Chengcheng County Cultural Center (Chengcheng County Intangible Cultural Heritage Safeguarding Center) 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. Zhou Tiehuai · National Representative Bearer Archive