Wang Yecai

01 · Lineage & Regional School

A pig-iron smelting and casting craftsman, he is the eighteenth-generation transmitter of the craft. Within the regional tradition and school record of Shengtieyezhujiyi in Yongjing, Gansu: The Yongjing pig iron founding technique is a rare cultural vehicle in the fields of folk custom, religion and the visual arts. Using the sand of the Yellow River as its mould and blending ancient wisdom with modern aesthetic sensibility, it casts ironware of archaic beauty piece by piece — bearing witness not only to daily life and belief, but also serving as an important vehicle for local cultural transmission and cultural identity. The roots of Yongjing pig iron founding lie in a bridge over the Yellow River and in a single family. According to the Wang family genealogy, the ancestral home of the Wangs of Gucheng, Taiji Town, Yongjing, was originally Hongdong County, Pingyang Prefecture, Shanxi. At the end of the Yuan and the beginning of the Ming dynasty, military requirements led the founding ancestors of the Wang line, Wang Xuan and Wang Xun, to be transferred by imperial order from Shanxi to Lanzhou, where they were stationed to build the Zhenyuan pontoon bridge over the Yellow River. What does a pontoon bridge need? Iron. And to cast iron, someone had to settle by the river bringing the essential skills of sand moulding and iron smelting. After the bridge was completed, the Wangs were granted a monopoly patent on the founding trade in Gansu. Wang Xuan and Wang Xun later moved to Gucheng in Taiji Town. By the late Ming, the Wangs’ iron founding had grown to several workshops. The Yongjing pig iron founding technique has been passed down for more than six hundred years to the present day, still primarily through family transmission. This lineage also explains the orientation of the town’s craft. Over its six hundred years and more, the Yongjing pig iron founding technique has cast mainly ritual vessels — bells, qing stone chimes, cloud-shaped gongs, treasure ding cauldrons and pagoda-form censers — heavy but not ostentatious, favouring refinement over sheer size, which matched exactly the scale of vessels needed by a bridge, a temple and a barracks in this town on the bank of the Yellow River.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Wang Yecai, a man of Han ethnicity, was born in May 1952 in Yongjing County, Gansu Province. He is a national representative bearer of pig-iron smelting and casting craftsmanship, a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. Fond of casting since childhood, he devoted himself after finishing primary school to studying casting techniques and mastered the true essence of his ancestors' craft. Since establishing his factory in 1985 he has boldly innovated the Wang family casting craft of the old city, improving the traditional hand-working methods and integrating traditional painting with modern relief so that his products are more finely made, with vivid imagery in which movement and stillness are blended. His products are varied in type and distinctive in style. They include bronze and iron Buddha statues, large bells, precious tripods, qing chimes, yunban cloud plaques, pagoda-shaped censers, round and square dragon-pillar tripods, steles, plaques, ancient palace lions and African lions. Within the documented technical tradition of Shengtieyezhujiyi in Yongjing, Gansu: The pig iron founding technique, distributed in Yongjing County, Gansu Province, is a traditional craft that uses Yellow River sand as its moulding material and pig iron, copper, aluminium and the like as its casting materials, producing domestic utensils, farm tools, ritual vessels, figure statues and other goods through traditional processes on a one-object-one-mould basis. The technique is distributed mainly in Taiji Town, Yongjing County, Gansu Province, radiating out to the surrounding area. The representative products of Yongjing pig iron founding are classical ritual vessels, of simple and archaic style, exquisite form and consummate workmanship. The Yongjing pig iron founding technique comprises seven main process steps: design, mould making, mould closing, iron smelting, pouring, polishing and painted decoration. First, a design is made according to the characteristics of the object and the customer’s requirements. Next, using Yellow River sand as the raw material, inner and outer moulds are made through steps such as sand screening and sand mixing. The moulds are then closed in preparation for pouring. Before casting, the iron is smelted and the molten iron is poured into the mould. Once the piece has cooled it is removed from the mould and polished. Finally it is decorated with painted colours, completing the casting process. The defining feature of the technique is the one-object-one-mould principle, and its procedures are complex. Mould making is especially fine work: inner and outer moulds must be made separately, and the quality and moisture content of each layer of sand are subject to strict requirements. The technique is a living specimen of traditional hand sand casting. According to the Wang family genealogy, the Wangs of Gucheng, Taiji Town, Yongjing, were originally natives of Hongdong County, Pingyang Prefecture, Shanxi. At the end of the Yuan and the beginning of the Ming dynasty, because of military needs, the founding ancestors of the Wang line, Wang Xuan and Wang Xun, were transferred by imperial order from Shanxi to Lanzhou to build the Zhenyuan pontoon bridge over the Yellow River. After the bridge was completed, the Wangs held a monopoly patent on the founding trade in Gansu. Wang Xuan and Wang Xun later moved to Gucheng in Taiji Town. By the late Ming dynasty, the Wangs’ iron founding had grown to several workshops. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "": "Archival Record of Process Steps": The pig iron founding technique, distributed in Yongjing County, Gansu Province, is a traditional craft that uses Yellow River sand as its moulding material and pig iron, copper, aluminium and the like as its casting materials, producing domestic utensils, farm tools, ritual vessels, figure statues and other goods through traditional processes on a one-object-one-mould basis.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2018, Wang Yecai was announced in the fifth batch of national representative bearers for Shengtieyezhujiyi, with Yongjing, Gansu as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Shengtieyezhujiyi in Yongjing, Gansu: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2014 (batch 4), with Yongjing, Gansu as its declared area, and Yongjing County Cultural 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. Wang Yecai · National Representative Bearer Archive