Wood Carving

Ⅶ-58Traditional Fine ArtsJianchuan, YunnanBatch 3 (2011)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

The Qing dynasty scholar Zhang Hong recorded in his "Diannan xinyu": "Throughout the more than seventy counties of Yunnan and the provinces of Sichuan, Guizhou, and Guangxi neighboring Yunnan, those skilled with rule, square, axe, and chisel are, wherever you go, people of Jian[chuan].

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Jianchuan wood carving has a history of more than one thousand years and has a strong local ethnic character. According to historical records, in the Tang dynasty Jianchuan carpenters undertook the making of the wooden carved components of the Wuhua Tower of the Nanzhao kingdom; in the Song dynasty, Jianchuan wood carving artists once went to the capital to present their art, causing a sensation there. " This shows how numerous Jianchuan wood carvers were at the time and how widespread the craft had become. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Jianchuan wood carving developed greatly. The Great Hall of the People and the Cultural Palace for Nationalities in the capital are both decorated with Jianchuan wood carving. Jianchuan wood carving fully displays the Bai people's high artistic level and cultural refinement, blending their original bold and unrestrained style with the delicacy and exquisiteness of Jiangnan wood carving into one, and becoming one of the important schools of wood carving in China. The cultural environment in which Jianchuan wood carving survives is profoundly traditional: there is not only the "Lu Ban Festival for the Founder Master Carpenters" on the eighth day of the eighth lunar month, which is still widely observed, but also the largest number of carpenter stories, carpenter ballads, and narrative poems in the country, which circulate widely and are of great value for research on the history of the Bai people and the development of crafts.

Woodcarving for the Nanzhao Wuhua Tower

Tang records show Jianchuan carpenters made the carved members of the Nanzhao Wuhua Tower; in the Song a Jianchuan carver performed in the capital to great acclaim.

The eighth-of-eighth Luban festival

The carpenter's festival for the patron Luban on the eighth day of the eighth month still flourishes, accompanied by a rich body of carpenters' tales and songs.

Lattice doors and stone-inlaid furniture

The craft now covers six categories and over 260 designs, from stone-inlaid furniture and screens to lattice doors, architectural fitting-out and small souvenirs.

Pierced openwork and mortise-and-tenon joinery

The national inheritor Duan Sixing commands the pierced openwork speciality and keeps the mortise-and-tenon structure intact by hand-finishing at every stage.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The centers of Jianchuan wood carving are places such as Jinhua Town, Shaxi Town, and Diannan Town in Jianchuan County. There are many carpenter families in Bai villages, and the craft has spread to the Dali, Eryuan, and Heqing area. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, woodware factories and wood carving factories were established in the county, forming a production pattern of enterprises leading household workshops, with products sold to Tibet, Sichuan, Guizhou, and other provinces and regions. The Qing dynasty scholar Zhang Hong in "Diannan xinyu" stated that "throughout the more than seventy counties of Yunnan and the provinces of Sichuan, Guizhou, and Guangxi neighboring Yunnan, those skilled with rule, square, axe, and chisel are, wherever you go, people of Jian[chuan]," which shows that Jianchuan carpenters have long traveled elsewhere to work; lattice doors and window flower panels for temples, ancestral halls, and dwellings are their most common forms of work.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Today it has developed into six categories with more than two hundred and sixty designs and varieties, including inlaid-stone wooden furniture, craft hanging screens and table screens, lattice door series, ancient architecture and interior decoration, small tourist craft items, and modern furniture. It is a traditional cultural product combining artistic, ornamental, collection, and practical value. Duan Sixing (recorded in the official archives of the associated inheritor): Male, Bai ethnicity, born in August 1973, a native of Jianchuan County, Yunnan Province. He has mastered the special openwork technique of Jianchuan wood carving, integrating stone carving and various wood carving methods to form his own artistic characteristics, and has considerable influence in the field. His creations strictly adhere to the traditional style; he insists on completing the entire process by hand, and his works fully retain the mortise-and-tenon structural features of Jianchuan wood carving, with an artistic effect of exquisite, piercing openwork. He has successively taken on eight apprentices; he established the Jianchuan County Woodcarving Technique Transmission Institute and has trained more than four hundred students, including more than sixty persons with disabilities. He is a representative inheritor of wood carving (Jianchuan wood carving), a fifth-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project. His works have won national and provincial awards on many occasions, and he has been rated by the People's Government of Yunnan Province as one of the fourth batch of outstanding rural local talents of Yunnan Province.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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