Nut Carving
01 · Historical Records
Judging from the situation depicted in 'The Walnut Boat' (Hezhou Ji) by Wei Xueyi of the late Ming dynasty, pit carving had already reached a very high level in the Ming dynasty. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Suzhou pit carving had already attained a very high artistic standard.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Pit carving (hediao) is a traditional folk craft of carving on walnut shells and various kinds of fruit pits, long popular throughout China, north and south. As early as the Neolithic period, China's carving techniques had already achieved no small success; pit carving is a further development of that craft. Pit carving uses walnut shells, peach pits, olive pits, apricot pits, cherry pits, and other dense fruit pits as its raw material. Making use of the natural form and undulations of the shell or pit, the carver applies such techniques as carving, openwork, engraving, filing, chiseling, and drilling to cut into it figures of every kind — human beings, flowers and birds, beasts and insects, landscapes, boats, pavilions — as well as written texts. Folk pit carving is often worked over the entire surface: the composition is systematic, thoroughgoing, and rigorous; the knife work is brisk and decisive; the images are rendered in the finest detail, vivid yet bearing no trace of artificiality. Though the body is minute, the art is exquisite — the work seems divinely wrought — and the craft has thus won the acclaim of 'ghostly skill and divine technique'. The pit-carving art of Jiangsu, Shandong, Guangdong, and elsewhere has formed its own traditions in the course of long transmission, and the works created in each place have distinct characteristics, having always been treasured by people. Guangfu pit carving is a traditional carving art that uses fruit pits as its material; it is popular mainly in the Suzhou area of Jiangsu Province, with the town of Guangfu and Zhoushan Village of Xiangshan Subdistrict in Suzhou as its place of origin. 'The Walnut Boat' by Wei Xueyi of the late Ming gives a vivid account of every aspect of 'Su Dongpo Visiting the Red Cliff', carved in peach pit by Wang Shuyuan during the Tianqi reign, praising it as material of 'numinous wonder'; in the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty, 'Su Dongpo Visiting the Red Cliff' carved in peach pit by the Suzhou micro-carving artisan Du Shiyuan was hailed by contemporaries as 'guigong' — the work of a ghost. Guangfu pit carving uses mainly the hard, fine-grained Wuhang olive pits of Guangdong as its material; the outer form basically retains the original shape of the pit. Its main types include bead strings, pendants, and display pieces, and its subjects range over immortals and human figures, folk tales, folk customs and daily life, and landscapes and gardens. Guangfu pit carving is exquisite and refined in workmanship, with clear lines, strong three-dimensional effect, and vivid, lifelike images, embodying the Suzhou carving tradition of 'refinement, delicacy, wonder, and ingenuity'. After a long decline, reform and opening up brought a trend of revival to pit carving in Suzhou; a number of outstanding artisans have emerged, but few of them are young, and those with consummate skill are fewer still. Measures urgently need to be strengthened to promote the revitalization and development of Guangfu pit carving.
The Record of the Core Boat
Wei Xuehe's Ming account of Wang Shuyuan's peach-stone boat of the Red Cliff excursion, praised as spirit-like material, became the model for generations of carvers.
Du Shiyuan and the ghost work
A Qing Qianlong peach-stone Red Cliff by Du Shiyuan was called ghost work, and the Suzhou tradition has since been summed up as fine, delicate, astonishing and ingenious.
Bead strings, pendants and table pieces
Three principal forms — bead strings, pendants and table pieces — keeping the nut's original outline, and covering immortals, folk tales, daily life and landscapes.
Song Shuiguan and his mountain-flower award
Song Shuiguan joined the Zhoushan carving workshop in 1967 and, after more than fifty years, took ninth Mountain Flower Prize gold for Riding the Wind and Breaking the Waves.
Zhou Jianming's works
Zhou Jianming apprenticed to Zhu Gengyuan in 1975 and mastered round, relief and openwork carving, with works including Magu Offering Longevity and Eight Immortals Celebrating.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Guangfu pit carving originated in the town of Guangfu and Zhoushan Village of Xiangshan Subdistrict, Suzhou City; it uses mainly the hard, fine-grained Wuhang olive pits produced in Guangdong, and its types include bead strings, pendants, and display pieces. After a long decline, reform and opening up brought a trend of revival to pit carving in Suzhou.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Nut Carving · Nut Carving · Nut Carving.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Song Shuiguan (recorded in the official archives of an associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in October 1946, from Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province. A researcher-level senior craft and fine-arts artist. Steeped in the art from childhood through his surroundings, he came to love pit carving. In 1967 he entered the carving factory of Zhoushan Village and formally took up the art of carving. He has practiced the art for more than fifty years; his carving is fine and exquisite, his forms vivid, and his use of the knife bold and forceful. He excels at traditional subjects such as arhats, immortals, and Maitreya, and has also devoted himself to expanding his range of subjects, producing a large number of fine works such as the arhat heads of Zijin Nunnery, flower baskets, the Eight Immortals Pavilion, and sleeping lions. He is a representative inheritor of pit carving (Guangfu pit carving), a national-level intangible cultural heritage item of the third batch. His work 'Riding the Wind and Breaking the Waves' won the ninth Mountain Flower Award (Shanhua Prize) in Chinese folk literature and art, conferred jointly in 2009 by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the China Folk Literature and Art Association; 'Eighteen Arhats' and 'The Walnut Boat' were entered in the Second Chinese Artworks Collection Exposition and won gold prizes. Zhou Jianming (recorded in the official archives of an associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in June 1956, from Wu County, Jiangsu Province. A researcher-level senior craft and fine-arts artist. In 1975, at the Zhoushan Craft Factory, he studied pit carving under Zhu Gengyuan, while also receiving careful guidance from senior pit-carving masters such as Xu Yinsheng and Zhong Nianfu. He has practiced the art for more than forty years and has mastered its techniques comprehensively — round carving, relief carving, and openwork carving are all at his command — cutting naturally and fluently, with varied methods. His carving subjects are wide-ranging, covering figures, animals, garden scenery, and walnut boats. His works are well composed, with vivid and flexible forms and clear, fluent lines; their delicate expression carries a mellow, refined scholarly air. His representative works include 'Magu Offering Birthday Greetings', 'Eighteen Arhat Heads', 'The Eight Immortals Celebrating Longevity', and 'Suzhou Gardens'. He is a representative inheritor of pit carving (Guangfu pit carving), a national-level intangible cultural heritage item of the fifth batch.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Song Shuiguan 03-1279
- Wang Xude 03-1280
- Huang Xuewen 03-1281
- Han Zhiyao 05-2670
- Zhou Jianming 05-2671
- Cengzhaohong 05-2672
- Liu Bin
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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