Zou Wu
01 · Lineage & Regional School
Zou Wu, Male, Han, from Nanchang, Jiangxi, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Porcelain Panel Painting (Ⅶ-89). The tradition is documented in Nanchang, Jiangxi. Within the regional tradition and school record of Porcelain Panel Painting in Nanchang, Jiangxi: Porcelain-plate painting is centred on Nanchang, with Jingdezhen and Jiujiang as two other important production bases: Jingdezhen undertook the firing of the white porcelain bodies, while Jiujiang, situated at the strategic point of the Yangtze and Poyang Lake water routes, served as a sales port. The porcelain shops of Nanchang were mostly concentrated in the street frontages of Zhongshan Road and Shengli Road; the painters took work piece by piece, first sketching an ink draft on the porcelain plate, then applying colour layer by layer with famille-rose pigments, and finally firing it in the kiln at low temperature once or twice; once out of the kiln it was mounted in a frame. The works fall into three categories: portraits, opera-costume likenesses and landscapes. Portraits are based on photographs of the actual person; opera-costume likenesses mostly imitate the stage appearance of famous actors; landscapes take local subjects such as Mount Lu and the Tengwang Pavilion. Once framed, they were hung in reception halls as birthday and congratulatory gifts. In the early years of the Republic of China, Liang Duishi of Nanchang opened the Lizexuan porcelain shop in the bustling section of Zhongshan Road, engaging artists to paint portraits and famille-rose porcelain to customers' requirements, and thus pioneered the painting of portraits on porcelain. The origins of Nanchang porcelain-plate painting can be traced back to the qianjiang cai (light crimson-brow colour) wares and portrait painting on porcelain of the late Qing and early Republican period. Although photography had by then been introduced, enlarging photographs was expensive and they were inconvenient to preserve for long; painting likenesses on porcelain, which does not fade, accordingly became a commemorative method eagerly sought by officials, gentry and townspeople alike. After Liang Duishi opened his porcelain shop on Zhongshan Road, a group of painters made their living there and worked in the same room, forming a porcelain-painting community peculiar to Nanchang.
02 · Mastery & Signature Works
The bearer record for Zou Wu is anchored in the documented technical standards of Porcelain Panel Painting in Nanchang, Jiangxi. Within the documented technical tradition of Porcelain Panel Painting in Nanchang, Jiangxi: Porcelain-plate painting is a porcelain-painting art popular in Jiangxi Province, with portraiture as its principal subject; it is concentrated mainly in Nanchang, Jingdezhen and Jiujiang. It is based on traditional Chinese painting, ceramic colour painting and Western photography, and achieves a skilful combination of pictorial art and the porcelain-painting craft. Thereafter porcelain shops such as the Zhonghua Porcelain Shop and the Xiaolu Porcelain Portrait Studio appeared one after another in Nanchang, while a group of outstanding portrait painters on porcelain — Liang Xieting, Wu Yueshan, Yang Houxing, Huang Liuzi and others — came to the fore, and Nanchang thereby became a major centre of porcelain-plate painting. Porcelain-plate painting fuses Chinese and Western techniques into one: its brushwork is meticulous, its characterisations vividly true to life, and it bears distinct national characteristics, so it is deeply loved by the broad masses of the people. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Lize Xuan and the portrait porcelain studios": Liang Duishi's Lize Xuan studio opened on Zhongshan Road in the early Republic, pioneering portrait painting on porcelain in Nanchang. "Low-temperature firing of porcelain portraits": After painting, the slab is fired once or twice at low temperature — too hot dulls the colours, too cool lets them flake. "Glaze that will not take ink": Glaze repels ink, the paint sits on the surface and cannot be reworked, so the painter must pre-judge how the colours will fire. "Liang Xieting, Wu Yueshan, Yang Houxing and Huang Liuzi": The group of portrait painters who made Nanchang the centre of the porcelain-panel art after the Lize Xuan era.
Lize Xuan and the portrait porcelain studios
Liang Duishi's Lize Xuan studio opened on Zhongshan Road in the early Republic, pioneering portrait painting on porcelain in Nanchang.
Low-temperature firing of porcelain portraits
After painting, the slab is fired once or twice at low temperature — too hot dulls the colours, too cool lets them flake.
Glaze that will not take ink
Glaze repels ink, the paint sits on the surface and cannot be reworked, so the painter must pre-judge how the colours will fire.
Liang Xieting, Wu Yueshan, Yang Houxing and Huang Liuzi
The group of portrait painters who made Nanchang the centre of the porcelain-panel art after the Lize Xuan era.
03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status
In 2025, Zou Wu was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Porcelain Panel Painting, with Nanchang, Jiangxi as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Porcelain Panel Painting in Nanchang, Jiangxi: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2008 (batch 2), with Nanchang, Jiangxi as its declared area, and Nanchang Hua Academy (Nanchang Art Museum, Nanchang Cibanhua Research 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
Historical origin
In the early years of the Republic of China, Liang Duishi of Nanchang opened the Lizexuan porcelain shop in the bustling section of Zhongshan Road, engaging artists to paint portraits and famille-rose porcelain to customers' requirements, and thus pioneered the painting of portraits on porcelain. The origins of Nanchang porcelain-plate painting can be traced back to the qianjiang cai (light crimson-brow colour) wares and portrait painting on porcelain of the late Qing and early Republican period. Although photography had by then been introduced, enlarging photographs was expensive and they were inconvenient to preserve for long; painting likenesses on porcelain, which does not fade, accordingly became a commemorative method eagerly sought by officials, gentry and townspeople alike. After Liang Duishi opened his porcelain shop on Zhongshan Road, a group of painters made their living there and worked in the same room, forming a porcelain-painting community peculiar to Nanchang.
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.
| Bearer | Declared area | Roster code | Relation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zou Wu | Nanchang, Jiangxi | — | This page |
06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript. Compiled from official national representative bearer archival records and the associated project dossier, organized by topic and translated into English. 阅读中文版。