Inside-painted Art
01 · Historical Records
Between about 1890 and 1945, the production of inner-painted snuff bottles reached its peak, and Zhou Leyuan, Ding Erzhong, Ma Shaoxuan, and Ye Zhongsan emerged as the so-called 'four great masters of inner painting'; these folk artists created the earliest Beijing inner-painted snuff bottles. In 1954, Ye Xi (Xiaofeng) and Ye Qi, descendants of Ye Zhongsan, were invited to the Beijing Arts and Crafts Research Institute, where they began training Ye Shuying; in 1958 they took on Wang Xisan (Wang Ruicheng) as a disciple, and later took on more disciples, including Liu Shouben. Around 1970, the Ye brothers passed away one after another. Their disciple Wang Xisan founded the 'Ji school of inner painting' in Hengshui City, Hebei Province, while Liu Shouben became the leading figure of modern 'Jing school inner painting'.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The inner-painted snuff bottle is a distinctive national handicraft that appeared after snuff was introduced to China. Its production techniques are mainly transmitted in Beijing, Hebei, Shandong, and Shantou, giving rise to schools such as the 'Jing', 'Ji', 'Lu', and 'Yue' schools. After snuff bottles flowed into Beijing, they were used by imperial relatives and nobles, princes and high officials, and Banner men of standing. In addition to the imperial workshops (zaobanchu) of the court, snuff bottles were also produced in large numbers among the people. Beijing inner-painted snuff bottles now have four generations of inheritors. Beijing inner-painted snuff bottles are a historical witness to the development of China's tobacco industry during the Ming and Qing dynasties. As a special craft category, they encompass not only traditional folk crafts such as carving, inlaying, and filigree, but also gather together various Chinese and Western painting techniques, becoming an epitome of the development of handicraft skills of that era.
The four great inside-painting masters
Between about 1890 and 1945 the craft peaked with the four celebrated masters Zhou Leyuan, Ding Erzhong, Ma Shaoxuan and Ye Zhongsan, the folk artists who created the first Beijing inside-painted snuff bottles.
The Ye family and the Beijing and Hebei branches
In 1954 Ye Zhongsan's descendants Ye Xi and Ye Qi joined the Beijing arts and crafts institute, training Ye Shuying and from 1958 Wang Xisan, later Liu Shouben; after the brothers died around 1970 Wang founded the Hebei school in Hengshui and Liu led the modern Beijing school.
Liu Shouben's figure subjects
Liu Shouben fully inherited the Ye manner and blended the schools with modern technique, working mainly on traditional figures with animals and flowers besides; works include Three Calls at the Thatched Cottage and A Hundred Children, and he has taken over thirty pupils since 1972.
Bottle blanks of glass, crystal and agate
In 1696 the Kangxi emperor set up the first glassworks to make snuff bottles for princes, ministers and foreign envoys, and under Qianlong the materials widened from glass and porcelain to ivory, amber, coral, agate, crystal and bamboo root; carving, inlay and filigree are also involved.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Beijing inner-painted snuff bottles took Xicheng District of Beijing and the area outside Chongwenmen as their centers of the craft; in the late Qing and early Republican period, inner-painting artists concentrated in snuff-bottle workshops and shops in places such as Liulichang and Huashi. The Jing school of inner painting takes the 'four great masters of inner painting' — Ma Shaoxuan, Zhou Leyuan, Ding Erzhong, and Ye Zhongsan — as its founders. Its subject matter mostly draws on historical figures and literary and historical allusions, and it emphasizes the overall harmony of poetry, calligraphy, and painting as well as the relationships between figures. The bodies of Beijing inner-painted snuff bottles are mostly made of paste glass, crystal, and agate; painters reach into the mouth of the bottle with a hooked brush to paint, and the movement of the brush relies entirely on feel.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Hengshui Inside-painted Art · Inside-painted Art · Inside-painted Art.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The painted content of Beijing inner-painted snuff bottles mostly expresses China's history and culture, and is of great value for appreciation and research. At present, because inner painting yields little profit and requires a long period of study, most practitioners have changed trades one after another, and there is a phenomenon of older people being unwilling to continue and younger people being unwilling to learn. Beijing inner-painted snuff bottles have fallen into an endangered state, and rescue and protection work is extremely urgent. Liu Shouben (official archive record of the associated inheritor): Master of Chinese Arts and Crafts. He inherited the Ye school style in full and, drawing on the strengths of various schools and modern painting techniques, formed his own personal style; he is a representative of modern Jing-school inner-painting art. His creation emphasizes material quality and form, with rigorous composition, delicate brushwork, lively pictorial conception, and archaic, fresh, and elegant coloring; he emphasizes the overall harmony of poetry, calligraphy, and painting in the picture and the relationships between figures. His works focus mainly on traditional figures, and also include animals and flowers-and-birds. His representative works include Three Visits to the Thatched Cottage, Hundred Children, Lingering Charm of the Old Capital, and Zhong Kui Marrying Off His Sister, among others. Since 1972, he has taken on more than thirty disciples. Male, Han ethnicity, born in January 1942, from Tianjin; representative inheritor of Inner Painting (Beijing inner-painted snuff bottle), a project of the third national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Wang Xisan 01-0065
- Liu Shouben 03-1222
- Yang Zhigang
- Zhang Guangqing
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。