Dough Figurines
01 · Historical Records
Caoxian jiangmiren is a traditional dough-modeling art popular in the Caoxian area of Shandong Province, evolved from offerings used in ancient sacrifices to deities.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Dough figurines, also called “miansu” (dough modeling) or “jiangmiren” (glutinous rice figures), are a traditional plastic art that uses edible wheat flour and glutinous rice flour as its main materials. Popular throughout China, they are deeply loved by the people. Dough figurines mostly take animals and figures from mythology and legend, historical stories, and local opera as their subjects, and the two basic forms are the “qianjushi” (stick-held) type and the “anzhishi” (table-display) type. The former are mostly edible playthings for entertaining children, with simple but lively forms; the latter are refined display artworks, meticulously made and exquisitely modeled, and additives must be mixed into the raw materials to guard against cracking, insects, and mildew. Dough figurine making generally begins by using pinching, rolling, kneading, and pressing gestures to shape the overall form; a bamboo knife is then used deftly to dot, cut, carve, and score such local details as the hands and feet, the head and face, and the expression. Finally, hair ornaments, garments, and related attachments are added, and the work is complete. Dough figurine art relies mainly on the improvisation of itinerant artists who wander the streets. Having mastered skilled modeling techniques and keeping the process conventions of subject, form, and coloring firmly in mind, they can turn a ball of dough into a vivid, radiant artistic image in a moment. According to elderly local artists who make jiangmiren, as early as the Hongwu era of the Ming dynasty, places such as Taoyuan Town and Ancailou Town in Caoxian already had the custom of using “huagong” (floral offerings) to sacrifice to heaven and earth and the God of Fire; these offerings included figures, auspicious animals, and flowers and birds modeled from glutinous rice flour. This folk custom of expressing wishes for blessing through dough-modeled offerings has continued to the present day, but its range of subjects has greatly expanded to include auspicious birds and animals, immortal flowers and ganoderma, opera stories, myths and legends, historical figures, folk customs, and real life. When not used as offerings, Caoxian jiangmiren are mainly “qianjushi” (stick-held) edible playthings made and sold on the spot by itinerant artists to entertain children. Caoxian jiangmiren come in a rich variety of styles, with simple forms, brilliant colors, and expressive modeling, displaying considerable artistry.
Flower offerings
Local elders trace the craft to Ming Hongwu-era flower offerings to Heaven and the Fire God in Taoyuan and Ancaolou townships.
Stick-held edible toys
Outside ritual use the figures are street-side stick-held toys, richly varied in form and colour.
Wang Qinsheng's line
The inheritor Wang Xijin, born in 1935, learned from Wang Qinsheng at fifteen and still taught in his eighties.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Caoxian jiangmiren are transmitted in Taoyuan Town, Ancailou Town, and surrounding villages of Caoxian, Shandong, with itinerant artists making and selling on the spot while traveling from village to village as the main mode of transmission. They belong to the “qianjushi” (stick-held) edible-plaything line of dough modeling. Used both for “huagong” sacrificial offerings and as children’s playthings, they share the same origin as the Shandong Li School of dough modeling but have diverged into a distinct style of their own in southwestern Shandong.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Dough Figurines · Dough Figurines · Dough Figurines · Dough Figurines · Dough Figurines.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Dough figurine art, inherited and developed among the people, embodies the aesthetic sentiments and life ideals of the general public, and provides important material evidence for research on Chinese folk history, customs, and art. As a traditional technique closely tied to sacrificial folk customs, it has important reference value for the study of folk religious culture. At present, under the impact of modern lifestyles, the living space of Caoxian jiangmiren is constantly shrinking, and it faces an extremely serious crisis of transmission, urgently needing rescue and protection. Wang Xijin (recorded in the official files of the associated inheritor): Male, of Han ethnicity, born in February 1935, from Caoxian County, Shandong Province. From the age of fifteen, he studied the techniques of making jiangmiren under his master Wang Qinsheng. After decades in the art, he has developed unique insights into the modeling of all kinds of jiangmiren. The jiangmiren he makes draw on auspicious birds and animals, fresh flowers and ganoderma, opera stories, myths and legends, historical figures, real life, and folk customs; the production technique is meticulous, the forms full and rounded, the images expressive, and the colors bright, giving a strong visual impact. In his eighties he still persists in research, production, and teaching apprentices. Representative inheritor of Mianren (Caoxian Jiangmiren), a fifth-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Lang Zhili 03-1268
- Zhao Yanlin 03-1269
- Li Jincheng 03-1270
- Tang Suguo 04-1795
- Chen Sujing 05-2647
- Wang Xijin 05-2648
- Wang Di
- Chen Yu
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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