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. Guangzhou olive-pit carving (landiao) is a traditional carving art popular in the Zengcheng area of Guangdong Province; its history can be traced back to the Ming and Qing dynasties. Representative figures include Chen Zuzhang, a Guangzhou-born court artisan of the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty, and Zhan Gusheng, a folk artisan of Xintang in the Xianfeng reign.
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. Guangzhou olive-pit carving uses the black olive (wulan) pit as its basic material; Zengcheng has produced black olives abundantly since ancient times, which laid the material foundation for the formation and development of olive-pit carving. Carrying forward the spirit of Lingnan culture, Guangzhou olive-pit carving is fine and subtle in workmanship, small and exquisite in form, graceful in modeling, and smooth and lively in line. It falls into such categories as seated ornaments, hanging ornaments, bead strings, and pit boats, while its technical forms include relief carving, round carving, and openwork carving. The pit boat on the theme of 'Su Dongpo Visiting the Red Cliff' is a traditional form of Guangzhou olive-pit carving; renowned masters of every generation have left works of this kind to the present. Since the mid-twentieth century, Guangzhou olive-pit carving has developed further: its designs and varieties have increased to more than fifty, and new types have appeared such as multi-tiered flower barges, openwork crab cages, fishing boats casting nets, and chess sets. Because black olive trees have been felled on a large scale, carving material is in short supply; coupled with low output value, large-scale production of olive-pit carving no longer exists today. Under these circumstances the development of Guangzhou olive-pit carving has stalled and its prospects are cause for concern; measures are urgently needed to strengthen protection.
Chen Zuzhang and Zhan Gusheng
Its two anchors are the Qianlong court craftsman Chen Zuzhang, who brought palace refinement south, and Zhan Gusheng of Xintang, who set the art among the villages.
Four product classes
Its products fall into table pieces, pendants, bead strings and model boats, worked in relief, round carving and openwork; the boat of the Red Cliff excursion is its classic subject.
New forms of the twentieth century
Since the mid-twentieth century its varieties have passed fifty, adding tiered pleasure barges, openwork crab baskets, casting boats and even chess sets.
Huang Xuewen and the Xintang workshop
Huang Xuewen learned from his father at nine and in 1973 founded the Xintang carving factory, fusing relief, openwork and lettering into a single elegant hand.
Zeng Zhaohong's inlaid olive carving
Zeng Zhaohong has carved olive stones since 1989 and has grafted ivory inlay onto them, extending the medium beyond the single nut.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Guangzhou olive-pit carving is centered on the Zengcheng area of Guangdong Province. Zengcheng has produced black olives abundantly since ancient times, which laid the material foundation for the formation and development of olive-pit carving; since the mid-twentieth century its varieties have increased to more than fifty. Because black olive trees have been felled on a large scale and material is in short supply, large-scale production of olive-pit carving no longer exists today.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Nut Carving · Nut Carving · Nut Carving.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Huang Xuewen (recorded in the official archives of an associated inheritor): From the age of nine he learned carving from his father Huang Heqing; he painstakingly studied the carving and letter-cutting of bone, horn, ivory, bamboo, and pit materials alike, and built up long experience in design and production. In 1973 he was assigned to found the Zengcheng Second Light Industry Xintang Art Carving Factory, organizing workers to produce olive-pit carvings for export; after retiring he continued to make olive-pit carvings. He is skilled at fusing relief carving, through-carving (tongdiao), hollow openwork, and letter-cutting into a single technique; his olive-pit carvings are graceful in form, fine and subtle in workmanship, and lively and fluent in line, displaying superb skill. Male, Han ethnicity, born in November 1930, died in January 2012, from Zengcheng County, Guangdong Province. He is a representative inheritor of pit carving (Guangzhou olive-pit carving), a national-level intangible cultural heritage item of the third batch. Zeng Zhaohong (recorded in the official archives of an associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in June 1955, from Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province. In 1989 he established his own studio and has persisted in olive-pit carving ever since. He has practiced the art for more than forty years, mastering the traditional techniques of olive-pit carving, including relief carving, round carving, and openwork carving; he has also applied ivory inlay technique to olive-pit carving, creating an original olive-pit inlay method, so that the expressive forms of olive-pit carving are no longer confined to a single pit and his subjects have become more varied. He is a representative inheritor of pit carving (Guangzhou olive-pit carving), a national-level intangible cultural heritage item of the fifth batch. Over the years he has not only actively taken part in all kinds of exhibition and dissemination activities but also run olive-pit carving training classes and carried out initiatives to bring intangible cultural heritage into schools, passing on his consummate carving skill and creative experience to apprentices and students and cultivating people's interest in olive-pit carving.
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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