Bamboo Weaving
01 · Historical Records
In the Tang dynasty Zhang Wu led the county people to weave bamboo baskets filled with stones to dam the Honghua Weir, raising water to irrigate the fields and giving bamboo weaving still greater development. In the Ming dynasty Qingshen bamboo weaving was applied even more widely: Yu Chengxun of Qingshen, after going to the capital and passing the jinshi examination, was appointed compiler in the Hanlin Academy, and the book cases and food boxes he used were all woven from bamboo threads. During the Republican era, Qingshen bamboo weaving continued to be transmitted and developed; a local once wove a rain hat of fine bamboo threads bearing the words “resist to the very end,” to comfort the soldiers resisting Japan.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Qingshen bamboo weaving is an ancient folk craft spread in Qingshen County, Meishan City, Sichuan Province, in which bamboo slats and strips of differing thickness are woven by hand into all kinds of production and daily-life articles; it is extremely widely used locally. Qingshen bamboo weaving has a long history, deep and far-reaching. The early people of Qingshen wove winnowing baskets (ji) from bamboo strips to raise silkworms, initially forming a set of bamboo-weaving techniques. After the Qing dynasty began, Qingshen's exquisite woven palace fans rose in reputation and were listed as tribute items by the Qing court. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Qingshen bamboo weaving developed and innovated further, weaving exquisite artworks such as famous people's calligraphy and painting, figures, landscapes, flowers, birds, insects, and fish; works such as “Chinese Hundred Emperors” and “Along the River During the Qingming Festival,” woven from bamboo threads as thin as cicada wings and as fine as hair, have repeatedly won gold medals in international and domestic competitions.
Hundred Emperors and Along the River
Woven from splints as thin as cicada wings, works such as the Hundred Emperors and Along the River During Qingming won repeated gold awards.
Yu Chengxun's bamboo-thread book chest
The Ming scholar Yu Chengxun, a Hanlin compiler, used book chests and food boxes woven from bamboo threads.
The Honghua weir of the Tang
In the Tang, Zhang Wu led villagers in damming the Honghua weir with stone-filled bamboo baskets, greatly advancing local weaving.
Chen Yunhua's flat weaving
Born in 1948, Chen Yunhua reproduces the calligraphy and painting of Su Dongpo and others in bamboo thread, and has trained over ten thousand technicians.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Qingshen bamboo weaving is spread in the area of Qingshen County, Meishan City, Sichuan Province. Local bamboo resources are mainly ci bamboo; weaving is based on the hand-processing of bamboo slats and strips, and products range from production and daily-life articles such as winnowing baskets, crates, and rain hats to artworks — famous people's calligraphy and painting, figures, landscapes, flowers, birds, insects, and fish — woven from fine bamboo threads. The early people of Qingshen wove winnowing baskets from bamboo strips to raise silkworms, and bamboo weaving long accompanied farming and sericulture; today workshops and training sites remain in the county seat and surrounding townships, and the Qingshen County Cultural Relics Protection Center undertakes the project's protection.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Shengzhou Bamboo Weaving · Bamboo Weaving · Bamboo Weaving · Bamboo Weaving · Bamboo Weaving · Bamboo Weaving · Bamboo Weaving · Bamboo Weaving · Bamboo Weaving · Bamboo Weaving · Bamboo Weaving.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Qingshen bamboo weaving has now fallen into danger of extinction. The reasons are, first, environmental degradation: the bamboo internodes have grown shorter and their toughness has weakened, so raw materials have become a problem; second, people's consumption attitudes have changed greatly, and many bamboo-woven articles have been replaced by industrial products; third, the older artists are advanced in years and young people are unwilling to take up the craft, leaving this folk handicraft short of successors. Under these circumstances it is necessary to quickly formulate a feasible plan to rescue and protect Qingshen bamboo weaving. Chen Yunhua (from the official archive record of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in November 1948, from Qingshen County, Sichuan Province. His bamboo weaving focuses on flat-woven reproductions of famous calligraphy and painting, using bamboo threads as thin as cicada wings and as fine as hair to weave famous works by Su Dongpo, Zheng Banqiao, Xu Beihong, and others into bamboo artworks close to the spirit of the originals. His representative works include “Along the River During the Qingming Festival,” “Invisible Guanyin,” and “The Coolness of Pain and Joy.” He is a representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of the national intangible cultural heritage project “Bamboo Weaving (Qingshen Bamboo Weaving).” From 1984 to the present he has trained more than ten thousand bamboo-weaving technicians inside and outside the province, expanding Qingshen bamboo weaving from family inheritance to social transmission.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Yu Zhanggen 01-0119
- He Fuli 03-1265
- Song Zengli 03-1266
- Mou Bingheng 03-1267
- Liu Jiafeng 04-1794
- Su Chengjun 05-2640
- Chen Qinghe 05-2641
- Tian Xianmin 05-2642
- Wei Lumian 05-2643
- Tan Sujuan 05-2644
- Chen Yunhua 05-2645
- Zhao Sijin 05-2646
- Ding Zhiyun
- Hu Zhengren
- Lvcheng
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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