Wood Carving
01 · Historical Records
The resource base of Fengjie wood carving comes from the Three Gorges. Fengjie stands at the head of the Three Gorges; every flood season, buried wood (yinhenmu) drifts down from upstream and is stranded in the backwaters within the county. For several centuries the people of Fengjie have gathered and dried this buried wood while making furniture from it and carving it, and over time a distinctive craft combining the selection of material with the shaping of form has taken shape. After the policy of reform and opening up, as demand for buried-wood furniture and craft objects revived, the technique developed once again.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Fengjie stands at the head of the Three Gorges; every flood season buried wood drifts down from upstream and is stranded in the backwaters of Fengjie County. Owing to this unique resource, Fengjie has for several centuries preserved the traditional technique of gathering "black wood" (wumu), making wumu furniture and carving wumu. After reform and opening up, with economic development and rising living standards, people's demand for buried-wood furniture and craft objects gradually revived, and the technique was able to develop again. The process of Fengjie wood carving falls into two main stages: the first is the selection and cutting of the material; the second comprises two distinct workflows — fine furniture making and three-dimensional openwork carving. The first stage, selecting and cutting the material, comprises four links: choosing the timber, rough blocking out, drying and baking, and cutting the stock. The fine-furniture-making workflow of the second stage includes three steps. First, fine-making the components: according to the dimensions and styles of traditional furniture, the components are meticulously made, with low relief, deep relief or openwork carving of traditional patterns completed. Second, assembling the components. Third, sanding and lacquering. The furniture it makes all uses raw lacquer native to Fengjie, applied at least three times by traditional technique. The three-dimensional openwork carving workflow of the second stage also includes three steps. First is shaping and conception: working from the naturally formed buried wood, the artisan uses creative thinking to find the point of connection between natural form and artistic form. Second is fine carving and polishing: beyond the traditional carving techniques, buried-wood carvings pursue the complete fusion of nature-given form and human carving, in hopes of achieving an effect of seamless naturalness. Finally comes lacquering: according to the needs of the artistic conception, after the carving has been polished, it is lacquered with raw lacquer native to Fengjie. Fengjie wood carving encompasses both furniture making that serves production and daily life and three-dimensional openwork carving that serves aesthetic appreciation, giving full expression to the aspiration of making life artistic and art part of life. Compared with traditional wood carving, Fengjie wood carving, through its distinctive techniques of hollowing, voiding and suspension, has solved technical problems such as the extreme hardness of the material; in particular, by combining the natural foundation with creative shaping, it achieves the artistic effect of turning decay into the miraculous. Fengjie wood carving embodies the people of Fengjie's understanding and use of natural resources and achieves an organic fusion of natural resources with traditional technique; its works fully reflect the locality's deep historical accumulation and cultural context, and it has considerable historical and cultural value. As a non-renewable precious and rare timber, buried wood gains high artistic and appreciative value through the processing and elevation of carving technique.
Archival Record of Process Steps
The process of Fengjie wood carving falls into two main stages: the first is the selection and cutting of the material; the second comprises two distinct workflows — fine furniture making and three-dimensional openwork carving.
Selecting timber, blocking, drying and cutting
The first phase: waterborne hardwood is sorted, decayed and worm-eaten parts removed, roughed out, kiln- or sun-dried, then cut to pattern.
Fine furniture work
The second phase joins hand-cut components carrying low relief, deep relief or openwork, assembles them, then sands and lacquers — the local lacquer being applied at least three times.
Free-standing openwork carving
The carver finds where a naturally formed blank meets an imagined shape, refines it so that nature and hand merge, and finishes it in local lacquer for an apparently unworked effect.
Piercing, voiding and suspension
By piercing, hollowing and suspending, the technique overcomes the hardness of river hardwood and turns decayed driftwood into wonder.
Six generations of the Liu family
Every carpenter in the county still practises it, and the Liu family of Zhuyi township stands out for a clearly documented line, now six generations deep.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Its development as an industry has effectively boosted local employment and has positive significance for promoting local economic and social development.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The carpenters of Fengjie County engaged in traditional craftsmanship have all maintained the transmission of this technique; among them the Liu family of Zhuyi town in the county, with its clear lineage of transmission and high level of skill, may be taken as representative, and the craft has been passed down through six generations to date.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Yan Jingxin 03-1277
- Long Congfa 03-1278
- Tu Jie 04-1803
- Fang Wentao 04-1804
- She Guoping 04-1805
- Cengdeheng 04-1806
- Li Yanjun 05-2665
- Liu Jieming 05-2666
- Xiong Yinghua 05-2667
- Xu Rilong 05-2668
- Duan Sixing 05-2669
- Baimazhandui
- Zhang Hongping
- Zheng Chunhui
- Zheng Yinpin
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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