Zhang Shikang

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Zhang Shikang, Male, Han, from Yanshan, Jiangxi, is a fifth-batch national representative bearer of Yanshanliansizhi Making Craftsmanship (Ⅷ-66). The tradition is documented in Yanshan, Jiangxi. Within the regional tradition and school record of Yanshanliansizhi Making Craftsmanship in Yanshan, Jiangxi: The producing areas of Qianshan Liansi paper are distributed on the southern and northern foothills of the Wuyi Mountains, and at its peak there were over two thousand paper vats. The technical keys of the manufacturing process: first, water quality—any water that contacts the material in rinsing, soaking, bleaching, and washing must be free of any pollution and must be local spring water; second, the preparation of the agent, which is made from the shui-luan-chong tree. The place of origin of Liansi paper is Qianshan County; Gao Lian's "Eight Treatises on the Nurturing of Life" (Zunsheng Bajian) of the Ming dynasty listed "Qianshan paper" among the fine products of the Yuan dynasty as "exquisite, luminous, and universally praised." Song Yingxing's "Tiangong Kaiwu" (Exploitation of the Works of Nature) of the Ming dynasty recorded the paper-making situation in Qianshan in several places, explained the Qianshan paper varieties Liansi and Jian paper, and gave them high praise.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, of Han ethnicity, born in May 1971 in Yanshan County, Jiangxi Province. A representative bearer of Yanshan Liansi paper making craftsmanship, a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. He is a technician of Yanshan Liansi paper making and the thirteenth-generation transmitter of the craft. He was born into a traditional papermaking family. At the age of 10 he learned from his elders the techniques for preparing papermaking materials, such as bleaching in ponds. At 15 he began learning such key techniques as sheet-lifting and became familiar with every stage of papermaking. After graduating from junior middle school he worked continuously in handmade papermaking in his home district, and he now serves as a papermaker at the Yanshan County Liansi Paper Training Institute. Through long practice he summed up the sanzifa, or three-character method, of pulp preparation for Liansi paper and created his own mastery of water-method sheet-lifting; he has taken an active part in research on combining traditional papermaking techniques with modern processes and has developed a single-person suspended-screen sheet-lifting technique, integrating modern mechanical processes into the production sequence without impairing the quality of the ancient method. While working at the training institute he has trained fifteen apprentices, and since 2008 he has voluntarily taught more than one hundred practical classes at nearby schools. Within the documented technical tradition of Yanshanliansizhi Making Craftsmanship in Yanshan, Jiangxi: Qianshan County lies in the northeast of Jiangxi Province and now belongs to Shangrao City. Within its territory, peaks and ridges rise and fall, the water system is well developed, vegetation is luxuriant, soil and water are well conserved, and moso bamboo is abundantly produced. "A single sheet is not easily obtained; it takes seventy-two handling steps"—the Liansi paper-making process is extremely exacting. The raw material is the tender culm of moso bamboo, felled and taken when, around the time of the Beginning of Summer, the tender bamboo is about to put forth two pairs of bud-leaves. The paper stock must undergo several months of sun and rain to bleach naturally, and the production cycle lasts as long as a year. Liansi paper is made entirely by hand operation, with no physicochemical indices, governed wholly by experience. Liansi paper is pure white and lustrous, fine, tender, dense, and even, supple and resilient, with a faint laid-line pattern; it resists insects and heat, never changes color, and is known as "paper of a thousand-year life." In old times, precious books, rubbing copies of stone inscriptions, contracts, calligraphy and paintings, and fan paintings were mostly made on it. Calligraphers, painters, and connoisseur-collectors appreciate its unique quality and charm, and many paintings, calligraphy, seal-impression albums, and rubbing copies have been passed down through the ages thanks to it. The Liansi paper-making craft is the crystallization of the wisdom of paper-workers through the ages; its transmission forms its own system, containing rich scientific content yet difficult to fully replace with modern technology, and thus is exceedingly precious. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Cutting the young bamboo": The young bamboo culms are cut around the beginning of summer, just as two pairs of leaves are about to appear. "Bleaching by sun and rain": The bamboo is bleached by several months of sun and rain, which is why the production cycle runs to a year. "Pulp making in the bleaching pond": The pond is the first stage, where bamboo is soaked and beaten into pulp; a preparation made from water-flea tree is added to protect the fibres. "Working with spring water": Every drop that soaks, steams, bleaches or washes the sheet must be uncontaminated local spring water, the first of the two technical keys.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2018, Zhang Shikang was announced in the fifth batch of national representative bearers for Yanshanliansizhi Making Craftsmanship, with Yanshan, Jiangxi as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Yanshanliansizhi Making Craftsmanship in Yanshan, Jiangxi: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2006 (batch 1), with Yanshan, Jiangxi as its declared area, and Yanshan Lian SiZhi Development Co., Ltd. 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. Zhang Shikang · National Representative Bearer Archive