Bamboo Carving
01 · Historical Records
As early as the Ming dynasty, the famous Wuxi-born bamboo carver Zhang Xihuang founded the liuqing (leave-the-green) light-carving landscape technique, playing an exemplary role for later generations in the history of Chinese bamboo carving. In the Qing dynasty, bamboo-carving craft circulated continuously in the Wuxi area, producing many important works. In 1915, the Wuxi-born bamboo carver and epigrapher Zhang Ruizhi opened the 'Shuangqixuan Art Studio' on Fuxing Road in central Wuxi, with the plaque inscribed by Wu Zhihui.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Wuxi bamboo carving has a long history, diverse techniques, and a refined, simple, and archaic style of distinctive character. Through long development, Wuxi bamboo carving progressed from intaglio light carving to liuqing light carving, thin-ground raised characters, raised characters on rough ground, and other techniques, and is famed along the Shanghai-Nanjing corridor for its artistic qualities of refinement, archaic elegance, and beauty. Early Wuxi bamboo carving focused primarily on finely carved, reduced reproductions of metal-and-stone inscriptions, followed by the engraving of the paintings and calligraphy of famous masters. Through the depth, sharpness, smoothness, and coarseness of their knife work, Wuxi bamboo carvers express the spirit and brush conception of painting and calligraphy to the fullest. The works have a lofty, archaic air and a fresh, elegant quality, displaying a strong literati temperament. After 1949, the techniques of Wuxi bamboo carving developed from the earlier light carving toward relief, openwork, and round carving, gradually forming a unique approach that fuses liuqing light carving with relief, openwork, and round carving in a single furnace, distinguishing itself in the Jiangnan bamboo-carving world, where liuqing light carving predominates. The bamboo carvers of Wuxi's Shuangqixuan were all skilled at calligraphy and painting and versed in poetry and prose, and in practice created a large number of exquisite masterpieces handed down to later generations. The high-difficulty techniques of round carving, relief, and openwork are very hard to learn, causing this traditional craft to lack successors.
The Shuangqi Xuan workshop
Opened on Fuxing Road in 1915 by the seal carver Zhang Ruizhi with a plaque by Wu Zhihui; Qiao Jinhong is its third-generation heir.
Zhang Xihuang and liuqing landscape carving
The Ming carver Zhang Xihuang created the liuqing (retained-skin) shallow landscape manner, an enduring model in Chinese bamboo carving.
Liuqing fused with relief and round carving
After 1949 Wuxi carving moved from shallow incision into relief, openwork and round carving, fusing them with liuqing in a manner unique in Jiangnan.
Wind-blown Lotus and the television features
Qiao Jinhong excels in liuqing and intaglio shallow carving in the Jiading manner; his Wind-blown Lotus is held by the Chinese National Academy of Arts.
Miniature reproduction of epigraphy
Wuxi carvers exploit the depth and bite of the blade to render brushwork, working in intaglio, liuqing, low relief and rough-ground relief.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Wuxi bamboo carving takes the Shuangqixuan Art Studio on Fuxing Road in the city as its center of transmission; opened in 1915 by the bamboo carver and epigrapher Zhang Ruizhi, with the plaque inscribed by Wu Zhihui, it was passed down through three generations — Zhang Ruizhi, Zhang Renzhi, and Qiao Jinhong. The studio's bamboo carvers were all skilled at calligraphy and painting and versed in poetry and prose, combining liuqing light carving and thin-ground raised characters with relief, openwork, and round carving, and forming a Jiangnan liuqing lineage distinct from those of Jiading and Changzhou.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Bamboo Carving · Bamboo Carving · Bamboo Carving · Bamboo Carving · Bamboo Carving · Bamboo Carving · Bamboo Carving.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At present, practitioners of Wuxi bamboo carving are dwindling; there are only 4 principal artisans, and their survival and development are extremely difficult. If it is not protected and supported, Wuxi bamboo carving, with its long history and consummate craft, is bound to decline toward extinction. Qiao Jinhong (record from the official file of an associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in May 1947, from Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province. Research-fellow-level senior arts-and-crafts designer; master of arts and crafts of Jiangsu Province; third-generation inheritor of the Wuxi Shuangqixuan bamboo-carving family. He is proficient in all methods of bamboo carving, especially excelling in traditional techniques such as liuqing light carving and intaglio light carving, and is adept at relief and openwork methods. Continuing the legacy of the 'Jiading school' of the Ming and Qing dynasties, his works are refined, elegant, and archaic, full of poetic and painterly charm. His work Wind and Lotus (Feng He) is held in the collection of the Library of the Chinese National Academy of Arts. China Central Television has filmed documentaries on Wuxi Shuangqixuan bamboo carving, including Craftsmanship · Liuqing Bamboo Carving, Keeping Craftsmanship · Liuqing Bamboo Carving, and I Have a Family Heirloom · Liuqing Bamboo Carving. After retiring in 2001, he restored and established the Wuxi Shuangqixuan Bamboo-Carving Art Museum, and actively teaches and promotes bamboo-carving techniques among the public. Representative inheritor of bamboo carving (Wuxi liuqing bamboo carving), a third-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project. His students Qiao Yu and Xu Yan are representative inheritors of intangible cultural heritage of Jiangsu Province.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Cengjiantan 01-0107
- Qiao Jinhong 03-1248
- Xu Bingfang 03-1249
- Luo Qisong 03-1250
- Zhang Zongfan 04-1790
- Wang Wei 05-2619
- Hong Jianhua 05-2620
- He Huayi 05-2621
- Baijianren
- Gu Qiwang
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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