Duan Lizhen

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Duan Lizhen, Female, Han, from Alashanzuoqi, Inner Mongolia, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Ditan Weaving Craftsmanship (Ⅷ-110). The tradition is documented in Alashanzuoqi, Inner Mongolia. Within the regional tradition and school record of Ditan Weaving Craftsmanship in Alashanzuoqi, Inner Mongolia: The emergence of this antique-style carpet is closely tied to the Mongolian lifestyle and their psychological preference for the color blue; it reveals the regional ecological culture and aesthetic sensibility of western Inner Mongolia and serves as a microcosm of Mongolian cultural history. During the Tang dynasty, both imperial courts and the residences of the wealthy laid out carpets. In the Yuan dynasty, influenced by the Mongolian way of life, the imperial court established workshops for sheared floral carpets, among others. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, carpet weaving in Gansu, Xinjiang, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Beijing, and other places developed rapidly. The carpet-manufacturing industry of Alxa has a long history, roughly beginning in the early years of the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty, and it has been over 270 years to this day. By the 1940s, the Dingyuan Camp in Alxa Left Banner had more than twenty carpet workshops, and the carpets they wove were renowned throughout Inner Mongolia and across the country.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

The bearer record for Duan Lizhen is anchored in the documented technical standards of Ditan Weaving Craftsmanship in Alashanzuoqi, Inner Mongolia. Within the documented technical tradition of Ditan Weaving Craftsmanship in Alashanzuoqi, Inner Mongolia: The handcraft of hand-knotted wool pile carpet weaving is a Chinese manual craft rich in ethnic character; it coils wool yarn into knots that are looped onto a carpet base woven from interlacing cotton warp and weft threads, forming a raised pile surface. Carpet weaving with wool yarn in China began roughly in the Neolithic period. The two-ply wool pile carpets unearthed from the Lop Nur area of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and from a Han-dynasty tomb in Minfeng County show that carpet weaving had already reached a high level by the Eastern Han period. The craft of carpet weaving comprises stages such as design, weaving, surface leveling, clipping (cutting flat patterns into three-dimensional relief with scissors), washing, and finishing. Some of the wool yarn used for weaving is still dyed with ancient plant-based dyes. Chinese carpets are not only daily necessities for ethnic-minority communities but are also exported abroad in large quantities. Carpet patterns draw on the characteristics of ancient bronzes, embroidery, brocade, porcelain, and other decorative arts, while carpets of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Ningxia, and Tibet each display their own distinct artistic features. The carpet-weaving craft of Alxa Left Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, inherits the traditions of Arabian carpets and Beijing-style palace carpets, stands unique in the weaving industry, and is celebrated for its fine, distinctive workmanship and simple, elegant patterns. Alxa Left Banner lies north of the desert; its dry soil yields local wool that is coarse and white with excellent physical properties, giving the carpets a sturdy, elastic, strong-tensile, and lustrous character. The carpet-weaving craft of Alxa Left Banner is complex; from design to completion it passes through process stages including conception and design, weaving, leveling, clipping, washing, and antiquing. Its representative product, the "Three Blues" (three shades of blue) antique-style carpet, uses the blue of the vast sky and the yellow of the rich earth as its main tones, employing the knotting craft passed down among the folk for thousands of years to meticulously weave imitations of court patterns. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Designing the carpet": Size, drawing, colour scheme and yarn count come first; antique folk and court patterns supply the motifs. "Knotting the pile": Wool loops knotted onto a cotton ground form the pile; the coarse white local fleece gives stiffness, strength and sheen. "Levelling the pile": Levelling evens the pile and clipping raises the pattern in relief; the two steps set the depth of shading. "Washing and finishing": After dyeing with old-style plant colours the carpet is washed, dried, trimmed and finished to a clean sheen.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2025, Duan Lizhen was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Ditan Weaving Craftsmanship, with Alashanzuoqi, Inner Mongolia as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Ditan Weaving Craftsmanship in Alashanzuoqi, Inner Mongolia: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2008 (batch 2), with Alashanzuoqi, Inner Mongolia as its declared area, and Alashanzuo Banner Cultural 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

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. Duanlizhen (Alashanzuoqi, Inner Mongolia) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Duanlizhen · China ICH Official Archive