Jia Zhiliang
01 · Lineage & Regional School
Jia Zhiliang, Male, Hui, from Shaanxi, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Chuantongmianshi Making Craftsmanship (Ⅷ-160). The tradition is documented in Shaanxi. Within the regional tradition and school record of Chuantongmianshi Making Craftsmanship in Shaanxi: This craft is exquisite and stands as one of the most locally distinctive symbols of Shaanxi's culinary culture. The craft of making Xi'an Jia San soup-filled steamed buns originated in the tenth year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty (1884 CE), when the first-generation inheritors, brothers Jia Yulin and Jia Yubao, founded a mantou shop in the Huimin (Muslim) Quarter of Xi'an, selling baked and steamed wheat-flour foods.
02 · Mastery & Signature Works
The bearer record for Jia Zhiliang is anchored in the documented technical standards of Chuantongmianshi Making Craftsmanship in Shaanxi. Within the documented technical tradition of Chuantongmianshi Making Craftsmanship in Shaanxi: The craft of making Xi'an Jia San soup-filled steamed buns is one of the representative traditional Chinese wheat-flour food-making skills. Centered on Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, it is widely practiced across Shaanxi, Ningxia, and Qinghai, and also spread to places such as Beijing, Tianjin, and Shenyang. Xi'an lies in the heart of the Guanzhong Plain of Shaanxi, with a warm-temperate, semi-humid monsoon climate, distinct four seasons, abundant produce, and a wide variety of ingredients. The Hui compatriots living in the northwest of the old city adopted the rich pastry ingredients of the Guanzhong and northwest regions and gradually blended them with the rich and refined pastry-making techniques of other ethnic groups, giving rise to the craft of Xi'an Jia San soup-filled steamed buns. The soup-filled buns are of excellent quality and fine craftsmanship, emphasizing nutrition and offering a rich, mellow aroma; they are an important vehicle of Hui culinary culture. The craft comprises six stages—broth-boiling, filling-grinding, wrapper-rolling, filling-wrapping, steaming, and sauce-mixing—and twenty-eight process steps. It has developed a distinctive body of skills and knowledge in selecting raw materials, simmering seasonings, the operational sequence, the tools used, the oral craft formulas, and dietary concepts. In selecting materials, the flour for wrappers, beef and mutton, seasonal vegetables, and auxiliary ingredients must all comply with dietary precepts, being carefully chosen for superior grade and fine quality. In preparation, one must strictly follow the family's orally transmitted operating formula: "pepper leads, salt follows, oil is not greasy, the taste is fragrant, the dough is soft, observe three colors, the shape is full, the pleats are sufficient, the base does not drop, vinegar comes to the fore, the dip is flavorful, one spoon of soup." The finished soup-filled buns are renowned far and wide for their paper-thin wrappers, chewy yet tender texture, tender filling holding broth, and richly aromatic dipping sauce. The creation and transmission of the Jia San soup-filled bun craft is a vivid reflection of the historical fusion of the Hui and Han peoples, and a historical crystallization and living testament to the cultural exchange along the Belt and Road. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Archived Records of Process Steps": The craft comprises six stages—broth-boiling, filling-grinding, wrapper-rolling, filling-wrapping, steaming, and sauce-mixing—and twenty-eight process steps, forming a distinctive system of skills and knowledge in selecting raw materials, simmering seasonings, the operational sequence, the tools used, the oral craft formulas, and dietary concepts.
The pepper-forward broth
The defining taste is a bright yellow broth led by Sichuan pepper, the mark of the 'eastern' school of paomo.
Choosing and breaking down the meat
Five steps and nine links cover meat selection, boning, spice bagging, boiling and cake baking, using free-range fat-tailed sheep from northern Shaanxi.
Ten fixed spices and six secret ones
Ten fixed spices led by pepper combine with six secret ones by proportion and texture, each doing its own work in the broth.
Baking and hand-breaking the cake
The diner breaks the cake into soybean-sized crumbs by hand; only the right grain size gives the chef a correctly textured paomo.
03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status
In 2025, Jia Zhiliang was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Chuantongmianshi Making Craftsmanship, with Shaanxi as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Chuantongmianshi Making Craftsmanship in Shaanxi: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2021 (batch 5), with Shaanxi as its declared area, and Xian Jiasanqingzhenguantangbaozi Hall 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
The Laosunjia mutton paomo craft originated in 1898, with the first-generation inheritors being the uncle and nephew Sun Guangxian and Sun Wannian.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wang Qingai | Jishan, Shanxi | 04-1907 | Other regional school |
| Li Huizhong | Hexi, Tianjin | 05-2858 | Other regional school |
| Li Jiangang | Jiading, Shanghai | 05-2859 | Other regional school |
| Jia Zhiliang | Shaanxi | — | This page |
| Rexiti Yimiti | Xinjiang | — | Other regional school |
| Hatamusha Nuer | Xinjiang | — | Other regional school |
| Yu Zhenling | Zhongweishizhongning, Ningxia | — | Other regional school |
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。