Xuyuanming

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Xuyuanming, Male, Han, from Yongjing, Gansu, is a fifth-batch national representative bearer of Gujianzhu Restoration Craftsmanship (Ⅷ-241). The tradition is documented in Yongjing, Gansu. Within the regional tradition and school record of Gujianzhu Restoration Craftsmanship in Yongjing, Gansu: The carpenters of Baita in Yongjing are divided between the plateau villages of the Sanyuan, Xianyuan and Yanguoxia area and the river-valley zones of Xihe and Yangta; the proverb that Baita produces carpenters and Wutun produces painters describes precisely this division of labour. Their building and repair work fuses the Tibetan-Han and the Hui-Han styles alike, and the beamless hall, the sky-fallen umbrella, the phoenix spreading its wings and single point grounding are the specialities of this line of woodcarving. The Kumbum Monastery in Qinghai and the Labrang Monastery in Gansu both show the handiwork of craftsmen from Baita Township. From the Ming and Qing dynasties onwards, this technique developed further and spread throughout the whole of the Northwest. According to the Yongjing County Gazetteer, in 1954 there were 1,686 carpenters in Baita. According to statistics of the Yongjing County Ancient Architecture Company, between 1978 and 2012 5,112 Buddhist temples and 1,428 temples and monasteries were built, while other unregistered vernacular structures such as pavilions, belvederes, halls and dwellings are even harder to count.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

A man of Han ethnicity, he was born in January 1957 in Yongjing County, Gansu Province. He is a national representative bearer of ancient architectural restoration techniques, a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. He is a technician of ancient architectural restoration. In 1979 he learned the craft under his elder cousin Xu Dehui, and over five or six years he mastered ancient architectural design, the making and restoration of timber structures, artistic carving in wood and brick, polychrome painting and other techniques and was rated a craftsman; he then formed the Linxia Classical Architectural Engineering Team with Xu Dehui. In 1988 Yongjing County established the Gansu Yongjing Classical Architectural Engineering General Company, and the team was incorporated as the company's No. 404 Division. In that period he built the eastern gate archway of Dunhuang, the gateway to that famous historical and cultural city. In 1999 he built the Tang-style building complex of the Dunhuang Resort and the Dunhuang Yangguan Museum, whose buildings as a whole imitate the form of Han dynasty earthen bastions, re-creating the historic vicissitudes of Yangguan at Dunhuang, a key town on the Silk Road. From 2004 he undertook new construction and restoration projects including the Linxia Ethnic Customs Pedestrian Street, the ancient building complex on Baita Mountain in Lanzhou, and the Jincheng Bonsai Garden. Within the documented technical tradition of Gujianzhu Restoration Craftsmanship in Yongjing, Gansu: "The carpenters of Baita, the painters of Wutun" — this is a proverb current in the great Northwest. The Yongjing Baita woodcarving ancient building restoration technique is a traditional cultural expression that fuses traditional craft with regional characteristics and displays the architectural style and historical-cultural depth of the Northwest; it is chiefly distributed in Sanyuan Town, Xianyuan Town, the villages of Xinyuan, Zhuwang and Chenjia in Yanguoxia Town, the villages of Shenwang and Hongzhuangwan in Xihe Town, and Yangta Township, all in Yongjing County. Baita Township in Yongjing has produced craftsmen since ancient times. For a thousand years and more, among the famous monasteries and ancient buildings of Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Xinjiang, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Tibet and Mongolia there have mostly been craftsmen from Baita Township — for example the Kumbum Monastery in Qinghai, the Lamo Monastery in Sichuan, the office of the military governor of Xinjiang, and Wuquan Mountain and the Labrang Monastery in Gansu — and those that have survived the centuries have all become provincial-level or national-level cultural relics. The process steps of the Yongjing Baita woodcarving ancient building restoration technique are complex and fine: first a site survey and assessment is carried out and a detailed restoration plan drawn up; next the structure is reinforced and damaged components are repaired, while the traditional carving and polychrome painting are retained; then the components are assembled and adjusted to ensure that the building is stable and fully functional; and finally acceptance inspection and long-term protection are carried out, so that the ancient building takes on new life and can be handed on. The classical architecture and carpentry of the Baita carpenters are highly distinctive and carry the artistic characteristics of the Northwest, especially the classical buildings that combine Tibetan and Han, and Hui and Han, styles, and such techniques as the "beamless hall", the "sky-fallen umbrella", the "phoenix spreading its wings" and the "single point grounding". The Yongjing Baita ancient building restoration technique has a long history traceable to the Western Han period, and every age has left representative buildings, such as the Bingling cliff-edge plank road and the "First Bridge under Heaven" of the Jin period, and the Bingling Great Buddha Pavilion of the Tang. After the reform and opening up, the Baita carpenters were as vigorous as ever: besides rebuilding the great buildings destroyed as described above, they built anew the Upper and Lower Temples at Dunhuang, the Crescent Moon Pavilion, the Dunhuang Mountain Villa, the Wensu Pavilion for the "Complete Library of the Four Treasuries", the nine-cornered lotus hall on Mount Lianhua, and the Luoshi Temple in Zhangye. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Archival Record of Process Steps": The process steps of the Yongjing Baita woodcarving ancient building restoration technique are complex and fine: first a site survey and assessment is carried out and a detailed restoration plan drawn up; next the structure is reinforced and damaged components are repaired, while the traditional carving and polychrome painting are retained; then the components are assembled and adjusted to ensure that the building is stable and fully functional; and finally acceptance inspection and long-term protection are carried out, so that the ancient building takes on new life and can be handed on.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2018, Xuyuanming was announced in the fifth batch of national representative bearers for Gujianzhu Restoration Craftsmanship, with Yongjing, Gansu as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Gujianzhu Restoration Craftsmanship in Yongjing, Gansu: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2014 (batch 4), with Yongjing, Gansu as its declared area, and Gansu Gu DianJianShe Group 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. Xuyuanming · National Representative Bearer Archive