Yuan Jiaqi

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Yuan Jiaqi, Male, Han, from Hubei, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Stone Carving (Ⅶ-56). The tradition is documented in Hubei. Within the regional tradition and school record of Stone Carving in Hubei: It is now distributed mainly in Wuhan, Shiyan, Xiangyang and Jingzhou in Hubei. Turquoise resembles a pine cone, varies endlessly and comes in many colors, and is streaked with a web of iron lines; when designing, the artist must therefore make full use of the natural form of the rough stone — its high points, broad areas and thickness — carefully weighing each piece, mastering its structure, grain and color in order to work out the form, and cutting away flaws and cracks. The turquoise mining belt in northwestern Hubei was worked from very early times, and the documented history of turquoise carving can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period more than three thousand years ago; through successive dynasties the stone was used as ornament jade and tribute jade. In modern times the craft has been developed in concentrated fashion in arts and crafts enterprises in Wuhan, Shiyan and other places, and the Hubei Research Institute of Arts and Crafts has served as the principal center of creation and transmission.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

The bearer record for Yuan Jiaqi is anchored in the documented technical standards of Stone Carving in Hubei. Within the documented technical tradition of Stone Carving in Hubei: Turquoise carving is a traditional carving art that uses turquoise, a specialty of northwestern Hubei, as its raw material, applying distinctive stone-reading design and demanding traditional techniques to finely carve a wide range of artistic forms and exquisite objects. Its documented history can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period more than 3,000 years ago. Turquoise carving carries a strong Jingchu cultural style; both its design and its processing are quite distinctive, and the difficulty is considerable. Its craft process includes the creative maxim of "one reading of the stone outweighs nine labors," shaping the design to suit the material's natural qualities. Through the painstaking efforts of several generations of artisans, the difficult problems in the carving design and fabrication of turquoise have been gradually resolved, and the craft has been continually innovated, refined and raised to higher levels in the course of its development. Turquoise carving employs a great variety of techniques, with three-dimensional carving as the mainstay, combined with high relief, low relief, openwork carving, incised and raised line work and others; "clever carving" that exploits the stone's natural colors has become one of its signature techniques. Its works cover many categories, including figures, flowers, flower-and-bird subjects, animals, mountain rockeries and vessels. Its carving tools are quite distinctive: commonly used are blade discs (tuo pian) of different diameters, various jujube-pit and rod-shaped tools for deep modelling and the finest details, needle points and hook blades for openwork, and specially prepared Sichuan wax, which together enable the carver to deal effectively with variations in the hardness of the jade material during carving. Historically, turquoise carving was transmitted mainly through the master-apprentice system. Turquoise carving is a traditional handicraft unique to China; it carries forward several thousand years of Chinese civilization and possesses important historical and cultural value. As the craft has been continually innovated, refined, matured and improved in the course of its development, the related mining, production, processing, trade and art collecting have grown ever more prosperous, contributing to the sustainable social and economic development of the local area. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Archival Record of Process Steps": Its craft process includes the creative step of "one reading of the stone outweighs nine labors," shaping the design to suit the material's natural qualities.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2025, Yuan Jiaqi was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Stone Carving, with Hubei as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Stone Carving in Hubei: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2021 (batch 5), with Hubei as its declared area, and Hubei Arts and Crafts Research Institute 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. Yuanjiaqi (Hubei) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Yuanjiaqi · China ICH Official Archive