Teng Tianyi
01 · Lineage & Regional School
Teng Tianyi, Female, Manchu, from Fengningmanzuzizhi, Hebei, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Cloth Paste Painting (Ⅶ-111). The tradition is documented in Fengningmanzuzizhi, Hebei. Within the regional tradition and school record of Cloth Paste Painting in Fengningmanzuzizhi, Hebei: Buhua painting circulates in Fengning Manchu Autonomous County, Hebei Province; the county lies at the northern foot of the Yanshan Mountains and the southern edge of the Bashang Plateau, and the Manchu-settled towns and villages are the principal places of transmission of this technique, with the Teng family forming the backbone of the continued lineage. At present, Buhua painting has four major categories and more than a hundred varieties, encompassing artworks, gifts, architectural forms, and urban and rural landmarks; its patterns draw on a wide range of materials and embody the aesthetic preferences of the masses and their prayers for a better life. Through development and innovation across successive eras, the “buhua” (floral applique) technique gradually evolved into today's Buhua painting (cloth-paste painting), which the Teng family has handed down from generation to generation up to the present.
02 · Mastery & Signature Works
The bearer record for Teng Tianyi is anchored in the documented technical standards of Cloth Paste Painting in Fengningmanzuzizhi, Hebei. Within the documented technical tradition of Cloth Paste Painting in Fengningmanzuzizhi, Hebei: Buhua painting originates in the traditional Manchu “buhua” (applique) art; on the basis of inheriting the traditional cloth-applique art of the Qing imperial court, it is a traditional Manchu folk technique that gathers the accomplishments of many crafts — painting, pile embroidery, silk figurines, relief, thangka, embroidery, pasting, cloth-patch pictures, paper-cutting, and cloisonne — and it circulates in Fengning Manchu Autonomous County, Hebei Province. To complete a single Buhua painting, it must pass through nine manual process workflows — drafting the design, decomposing it, making the plates, shaping, preparing the materials, cloth-pasting, assembly, decoration, and finishing the painting. The materials are numerous, chiefly true-silk fabrics such as ling (figured silk), luo (gauze), and duan (satin), along with more than a hundred others such as wood, cardboard, sponge, silk flowers, and jewelry. Buhua painting takes “buhua” (applique) as its matrix, changing “patching” into “pasting”, and draws on the essence of many traditional crafts to bring forth the new. Since it took shape, Buhua painting has had a history of several hundred years to the present day. The Jurchen ancestors, in order to decorate garments, shoes, hats, bow cases, and other articles, used cloth of different colors as the face, filled it with cotton or wool, sewed flowers, patterns, and animal heads with needle and thread, added colored-ink outlines, and patched them onto garments, shoes, hats, and other objects; this was called “buhua” (patching flowers). When Nurhachi proclaimed himself khan, the square rank badges worn on the chest and back of officials were called “buzi” (rank patches). After the Qing entered the Central Plains, the “buhua” technique became a craft reserved exclusively for court use. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Archival Record of the Process Steps": To complete a single Buhua painting, it must pass through nine manual process workflows — drafting the design, decomposing it, making the plates, shaping, preparing the materials, cloth-pasting, assembly, decoration, and finishing the painting. The materials are numerous, chiefly true-silk fabrics such as ling (figured silk), luo (gauze), and duan (satin), along with more than a hundred others such as wood, cardboard, sponge, silk flowers, and jewelry.
Archival Record of the Process Steps
To complete a single Buhua painting, it must pass through nine manual process workflows — drafting the design, decomposing it, making the plates, shaping, preparing the materials, cloth-pasting, assembly, decoration, and finishing the painting. The materials are numerous, chiefly true-silk fabrics such as ling (figured silk), luo (gauze), and duan (satin), along with more than a hundred others such as wood, cardboard, sponge, silk flowers, and jewelry.
Core Technique I
Buhua painting originates in the traditional Manchu “buhua” (applique) art;
Core Technique II
on the basis of inheriting the traditional cloth-applique art of the Qing imperial court, it is a traditional Manchu folk technique that gathers the accomplishments of many crafts — painting, pile embroidery, silk figurines, relief, thangka, embroidery, pasting, cloth-patch pictures, paper-cutting, and cloisonne — and it circulates in Fengning Manchu Autonomous County, Hebei Province.
Core Technique III
To complete a single Buhua painting, it must pass through nine manual process workflows — drafting the design, decomposing it, making the plates, shaping, preparing the materials, cloth-pasting, assembly, decoration, and finishing the painting.
03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status
In 2025, Teng Tianyi was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Cloth Paste Painting, with Fengningmanzuzizhi, Hebei as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Cloth Paste Painting in Fengningmanzuzizhi, Hebei: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2014 (batch 4), with Fengningmanzuzizhi, Hebei as its declared area, and Fengning Manchu Autonomous County Intangible Cultural Heritage Safeguarding 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
Through development and innovation across successive eras, the “buhua” (floral applique) technique gradually evolved into today's Buhua painting (cloth-paste painting), which the Teng family has handed down from generation to generation up to the present.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Teng Tianyi | Fengningmanzuzizhi, Hebei | — | 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。