Li Yukun

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Li Yukun, Male, Han, from Nantongshirugao, Jiangsu, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Ditan Weaving Craftsmanship (Ⅷ-110). The tradition is documented in Nantongshirugao, Jiangsu. Within the regional tradition and school record of Ditan Weaving Craftsmanship in Nantongshirugao, Jiangsu: Rugao silk carpets are divided by painting tradition into two main streams: fine-brush figure-landscape and flower-bird pattern. The former emphasizes the graded shading of color separation and shading transitions, the latter the leaping sense of tonal variation and color leaping. Within the workshop, tasks are assigned according to the complexity of the draft: simple patterns go to experienced hands, while large dense-pattern pieces are completed by a master with apprentices, so that within the same craft a natural division into fine and coarse levels of work emerges. The roots of Rugao silk carpets lie in the Jiangnan silk-weaving industry; both raw materials and techniques came with the water transport. In the mid-to-late Qing dynasty, silk carpets made after famous paintings became fashionable in Shanghai, Suzhou, and surrounding areas, then spread along the river to the Tongzhou area and took root in Rugao. During the Republican period, dedicated silk-carpet workshops already existed within Rugao city, and the division of labor between painting drafts and craft diagrams had already taken shape at that time.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

The bearer record for Li Yukun is anchored in the documented technical standards of Ditan Weaving Craftsmanship in Nantongshirugao, Jiangsu. Within the documented technical tradition of Ditan Weaving Craftsmanship in Nantongshirugao, Jiangsu: The Rugao silk carpet weaving technique uses high-quality wild tussar silk as raw material and is woven with a unique hand-knotting method, known within the trade as the "hand-knotted silk carpet craft." The technique is distributed in Rugao City, Nantong City, Jiangsu Province, which sits at the lower reaches of the Yangtze estuary, bordered by the Yangtze to the south and facing the Yellow Sea to the east, across the river from Zhangjiagang, with convenient transport. Rugao is rich in culture and abounds in skilled craftsmen; its traditional handicrafts are numerous and unbroken, providing abundant nourishment for the transmission and development of the Rugao silk carpet weaving technique. The Rugao silk carpet weaving technique comprises eleven process steps: draft design, drawing the craft diagram, sampling and color matching of the silk carpet, dyeing, splicing the silk, carpet weaving, pile leveling, and finishing; among these the carpet-weaving step is the most complex, including mounting the warp, making the twist, laying the foundation, drawing the pattern, knot-weaving the carpet (including passing the weft and tamping with the rake), making the hanging knots, and cutting the warp to take it off the loom. The Rugao silk carpet weaving technique has two core elements. First is the use of the "programmatic craft diagram," through which the designers, according to the characteristics of the original painting and a unique language of solid and dashed lines, express the elements of the craft. Second is that the carpet-weaving artisans, through individual hand knots, compose various lines and planes, achieving the different effects of the painting's color separation, graded shading, tonal variation, and color leaping. Owing to its unique and superb technique, the finished silk carpets have accurate forms and rich expressiveness, with restrained and substantial colors, and can fully bring out the artistic character of works by painters of various schools, winning wide acclaim in art circles. In Rugao, the hand-knotted silk carpet weaving technique was already popular in the late Ming and early Qing. The item is transmitted generation to generation through the master-apprentice relationship. The inheritors are mainly of two kinds: one consists of technicians who chiefly create and design silk carpet painting drafts and make craft diagrams, and also supervise the carpet-weaving flow and main process steps to ensure the artistic effect and quality of the silk carpets; the other consists of weavers who have thoroughly mastered the complete set of carpet-weaving process steps and can comprehensively and flexibly command its unique craft. The Rugao silk carpet weaving technique possesses a deep deposit of regional culture; it is a vivid expression of the local people's cultural creativity, a product of the combination of traditional craft and modern art, and possesses historical, cultural, and artistic value that cannot be ignored. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "": "Archival Record of Process Steps": The Rugao silk carpet weaving technique comprises eleven process steps: draft design, drawing the craft diagram, sampling and color matching of the silk carpet, dyeing, splicing the silk, carpet weaving, pile leveling, and finishing; among these the carpet-weaving step is the most complex, including mounting the warp, making the twist, laying the foundation, drawing the pattern, knot-weaving the carpet (including passing the weft and tamping with the rake), making the hanging knots, and cutting the warp to take it off the loom. "Drawing the weaving diagram": Translating the painting into a weaveable diagram, where tonal depth is rendered as the density of solid and broken lines. "Sample matching and dyeing": A small sample is made first so that the colour separations, gradations and jumps required by the painting are matched before full production.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2025, Li Yukun was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Ditan Weaving Craftsmanship, with Nantongshirugao, Jiangsu as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Ditan Weaving Craftsmanship in Nantongshirugao, Jiangsu: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2021 (batch 5), with Nantongshirugao, Jiangsu as its declared area, and Rugao Boyisitan 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. Liyukun (Nantongshirugao, Jiangsu) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Liyukun · China ICH Official Archive