Tin Carving Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
Since the Song dynasty, the use of tin vessels has been very common: a range of everyday implements such as tin tea caddies and tin tangpozi bed-warming flasks became widely popular among the people, and tinwork accordingly became a much sought-after trade. Laiwu tin carving is a traditional tinwork art popular in the Laiwu region of Shandong Province; it reached its peak during the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty, with no fewer than a thousand practitioners. Early tin products were mostly everyday utensils, but they were later designated as tribute items to the imperial court, and gradually some tin-carving artworks of high ornamental value developed. The Wang-family tin carving founded by Wang Shihang is an outstanding representative of Laiwu tin art; to date it has seen eight generations of successors.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Tin carving, also called tin art or tinware, is a traditional tinwork art widely popular among the Chinese people. The traditional tinworking craft has a long and storied history: tin ingots unearthed at the Yin Ruins in Henan, a tin-plated bronze helmet with a tiger-face design, and tin daggers, together with a tin vessel of as much as 99.15 percent tin content excavated from a mid-Spring-and-Autumn-period tomb at Wanjiapu, Chuxiong, Yunnan, show that as early as the Shang and Zhou periods China's tinworking craft was already quite mature. Tin has the advantages of being non-toxic, rustproof, moisture-resistant, and resistant to acids and alkalis; it is soft in texture with a low melting point and is easy to work, and for this reason tin art has always maintained a close connection with people's daily lives. Traditional tinwork centers on making everyday articles, though it also produces some articles for offering and worship. The tinworking craft forms its own self-contained system, mainly comprising process steps and techniques such as smelting, casting sheets, shaping, cutting stock, scraping and polishing, welding, burnishing, decoration, and carving; in production, the form of each vessel is constructed according to its practical function. Finished tinware has rich and varied forms, exquisite decoration, and consummate craftsmanship, fully embodying the ingenuity of its designers and makers. Over the course of long development, successive generations of successors have striven to innovate, improving tools, refining processing techniques, and developing new varieties and styles, so that Laiwu tin art has continually improved. Laiwu tin carving employs a great variety of techniques, mainly including such means as relief carving, round carving, line carving, intaglio carving, and inlay, as well as processing methods such as forging, chasing, modeling, carving, and welding; it can produce many kinds of tinware, including ritual vessels, drinking vessels, tea sets, scholar's-desk utensils, and art ornaments. Laiwu tin carving has delicate forms, refined carving and ornament, and meticulous craftsmanship; it preserves the fine traditions of tinware craft while displaying distinctive regional characteristics. Yongkang tin art, commonly known as dala (tin-beating), is a traditional tinwork art handed down in Yongkang City, Zhejiang Province. Yongkang tin art has a long history and has been passed down through the generations. As late as the Republican period, tinware making remained an important local handicraft trade, with more than a thousand practitioners and over a hundred product types. Yongkang tin-art products are mostly daily-use articles such as wine pots, soup jars, powder boxes, and fruit boxes, as well as complete sets of dressing cases used in weddings; they also include sacrificial offering vessels and Buddhist ritual implements such as shaped incense burners, candle holders, figures of the Eight Immortals, ceremonial weapons, and stage props, as well as tin bonsai on all manner of auspicious themes. The production of Yongkang tin-art articles generally requires such process steps as forming, filing flat, grinding, piercing, welding, and planishing; for refined products, molds must first be carved and cast.
Archival Records of Process Steps
The tinworking craft forms its own self-contained system, mainly comprising process steps and techniques such as smelting, casting sheets, shaping, cutting stock, scraping and polishing, welding, burnishing, decoration, and carving; in production, the form of each vessel is constructed according to its practical function.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The finished products are finely made, lustrous in texture, and of classical elegance, with an obvious regional style; they are highly practical and ornamental alike.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Tin Carving Craftsmanship · Tin Carving Craftsmanship · Tin Carving Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Ying Yegen (from the official archive records of the associated inheritor): By the age of fourteen he could already forge most everyday articles. He engaged in tin-carving production for more than seventy years and comprehensively mastered the tin-carving process and techniques of shaping, cutting stock, smelting, casting sheets, welding, piercing, carving, and grinding and polishing; the tinware he produced has a steady, substantial form and is both durable and elegantly attractive, with strong ornamental value. Male, Han ethnicity, born in December 1930, died in July 2014, from Yongkang City, Zhejiang Province. Representative inheritor of Tin Carving, an intangible cultural heritage item of the third national-level batch. His works have won awards on many occasions; Dragon and Phoenix Ushering in Auspiciousness and Crane Candlesticks are in the collection of the National Museum of China. In 2008 he received the honorary title of Outstanding Folk Artist of Jinhua City. In 2009 he was named one of the first batch of Outstanding Folk Art Talents of Zhejiang Province by the Publicity Department of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee. Shen Yiyuan (from the official archive records of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in October 1964, from Yongkang City, Zhejiang Province. In 2002 he founded Zhejiang Rongshengda Tinware Co., Ltd. From 2002 to 2008, in cooperation with Zhejiang University, he researched and developed freshness-keeping containers, which passed the acceptance review of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Science and Technology. In 2009 he began preparing to establish the Yongkang Tin Carving Museum. In 2010 he was engaged by Yongkang Vocational and Technical School as a lecturer, teaching more than thirty-six class hours a year in its tin-carving class. He established the Shen Yiyuan Intangible Heritage Apprenticeship Workshop to transmit the traditional techniques of tin carving to the general public. Representative inheritor of Tin Carving, an intangible cultural heritage item of the fifth national-level batch. His tin-carving works such as Long-Necked Vase and Bamboo-Charm Flower Insert have been entered in expos and won gold awards.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Ying Yegen 03-1282
- Sheng Yiyuan 05-2674
- Liu Jianqiang 05-2675
- Shi Yan
- Wang Shengliang
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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