Bamboo Carving
01 · Historical Records
Bamboo carving in the Xinghua area of Fujian had formed its own school as early as the Song and Ming periods. At that time the carving art centered on low relief and incised line work, and its products included brush pots, incense burners, birdcages and flower baskets. In the mid-Qianlong period of the Qing dynasty, Liu Caicheng — a thirty-sixth-generation descendant of the Liu family after its migration to Fujian and an admirer of folk art — founded a bamboo and wood carving workshop that worked alike in deep relief, low relief, openwork and liuqing; artisans rose together in Fuding, Fuzhou and Xinghua, and bamboo-carved wares won the favor of officials and cultured scholars.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Putian liuqing bamboo carving is a form of bamboo-carving art that exploits the different color layers of the paper-thin bamboo skin, integrating the carving of painting, calligraphy, poetry, seals and three-dimensional form into one; it is transmitted mainly in Putian City, Fujian Province. In Putian liuqing carving the bamboo skin is yellow and the inner flesh red; with the passing of years the surfaces come to resemble freshly ripened cherries or polished amber, and are much prized by the public. Refined in style and exquisite in technique, such works have long been collected and enjoyed by scholars and men of letters, and the art enjoys a high reputation in China's arts-and-crafts circles. Fujian is largely hilly, and bamboo grows everywhere. Bamboo carving in Xinghua, Fujian — the old Xinghua region included Putian and Xianyou, the southern part of Fuqing, the northern part of Hui'an, and parts of Yongchun, Dehua and Yongtai — had formed its own school as early as the Song and Ming periods. The carving art of that time centered on low relief and incised line work, with products including brush pots, incense burners, birdcages and flower baskets. In the mid-Qianlong period of the Qing dynasty, Liu Caicheng, a descendant of the Liu family in its thirty-sixth generation after its migration to Fujian, founded a bamboo and wood carving workshop out of his admiration for folk art, practicing deep relief, low relief, openwork, liuqing and other bamboo techniques. At that time quite a few bamboo-carving artisans appeared in Fuding, Fuzhou and Xinghua, and bamboo-carved wares won the favor of officials and cultured scholars. The distinctive feature of Putian liuqing bamboo carving lies in the combination of painting, calligraphy and carving. Using such techniques as tracing, incising, hollowing and scraping, and taking advantage of the natural color contrast between bamboo skin and inner flesh, the artist builds on the brushwork of Chinese painting to work skillfully within the thin layer of green skin, expressing brush texture, artistic mood and the flavor of the knife. Its core content is to blend and extend the concepts of Chinese culture within bamboo carving, applying the wet-dry and light-dark gradations of brushwork to the knife techniques; on a green bamboo layer as thin as a cicada's wing, the artist gives free expression to spirit and feeling, so that the finished works have a marked three-dimensional quality, uniting form and spirit, carrying the depth of painterly brushwork, and reflecting the creator's artistic pursuit.
Tracing, carving, hollowing and scraping
Putian liuqing carving employs tracing, cutting, hollowing and scraping to render brushwork on a skin of bamboo no thicker than paper.
The colour difference of skin and flesh
Because the skin is yellow and the flesh red, the pieces deepen over the years like ripening cherries or polished amber.
Liu Caicheng and seven Liu generations
In the mid-Qianlong reign Liu Caicheng opened a bamboo and wood carving workshop; seven generations of his family have carried the craft on.
The Xinghua school of the Song and Ming
The old Xinghua region, covering Putian, Xianyou and neighbouring counties, had its own bamboo-carving school by the Song and Ming.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The transmission of Putian liuqing carving skills has characteristics that are regional, family-based and technical in nature.
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
Through the relay transmission and development of seven generations of the Liu family, the item remains in a good state of continuity. Putian liuqing bamboo carving is based on the brushwork of Chinese painting and has high artistic and appreciative value. In addition, the item carries socio-cultural and economic value — harmonizing community life and transmitting culture — and plays an active role in promoting local economic and social development.
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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