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.
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. Weifang pit carving is a traditional carving art popular in the Weifang area of Shandong Province; it uses peach pits as its main material, and its history of development can be traced back to the final years of the Qing dynasty. Weifang pit carving has been transmitted in the line of Du Weinan of the Du family of pit carvers and his son Du Langui; the local ancient custom of venerating peach wood has powerfully promoted the inheritance and development of this folk art. Du-school pit carving is rigorous in composition and fine in knife work, with vivid, true-to-life images, presenting a spacious grandeur that gathers all things between heaven and earth into a square inch; it has a distinct stylistic character and broad social influence. Weifang pit carving has many varieties, including pendants, fan drops, prayer beads, earrings, bracelets, buttons, and seals. In creation the carver mostly works according to the material, making full use of the natural form and grain of the peach pit to construct images; the craft is ingenious, the subjects are rich, and the images are lifelike, giving it very high artistic value. In addition, Weifang pit carving is bound up with local customs and folkways, possessing fairly profound cultural content and broad social significance; it has become an important reference object for research in folklore and in the local history and culture of Shandong.
The Du father and son
Weifang's nut carving descends from Du Weinan and his son Du Langui, whose strict layout, fine cutting and lifelike forms hold a cosmos in a nutshell.
Its product forms
Its products range from pendants and fan drops to prayer beads, earrings, bracelets, buttons and seals, each exploiting the natural shape and grain of the peach stone.
Carving to the material
The carver follows the stone's natural ridges and grain, turning folds and hollows into drapery, hulls and foliage.
Wang Xude and the deer-and-crane jar
Wang Xude has carved for over fifty years, hollowing peaches into vessels and then ornamenting them, with works such as The West Chamber and the Deer-and-Crane Jar.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Weifang pit carving is popular in the Weifang area of Shandong Province; it uses peach pits as its main material and has been transmitted in the line of Du Weinan of the Du family of pit carvers and his son Du Langui. The local ancient custom of venerating peach wood has powerfully promoted the inheritance and development of this folk art, and its works, bound up with local customs and folkways, have reference value for research in folklore and in the local history and culture of Shandong.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Nut Carving · Nut Carving · Nut Carving.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Pit carving is a difficult craft: without arduous effort it cannot be truly mastered, and results are not quickly achieved, so few people can persist in studying it. At present Weifang pit carving therefore lacks successors and is on the verge of being lost; protection and transmission are urgently needed. Wang Xude (recorded in the official archives of an associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in October 1943, from Weifang City, Shandong Province. He has engaged in pit carving for more than fifty years; while carrying on the tradition, he has created many works of novel form, greatly enriching the varieties of pit carving. He carves peach pits into vessel shapes and then cuts designs into them, or uses peach pits to carve snuff bottles, finger rings, and screens of every description. His works include 'The Romance of the West Chamber', 'Dream of the Red Chamber', 'The Altar of the Eight Immortals', and 'The Jar of Deer and Cranes in Spring'. He has repeatedly engaged in artistic exchange with folk artists in China and abroad, attaches importance to technical guidance for young pit-carving enthusiasts, and passes on his experience and methods of pit-carving production. He is a representative inheritor of pit carving (Weifang pit carving), a national-level intangible cultural heritage item of the third 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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