Paper Effigy Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
Tongliang dragon lantern paper framing roughly arose after the Song dynasty and reached its zenith in the Qing dynasty. The Customs chapter of the Guangxu-era Tongliang County Gazetteer of the Qing dynasty records the grandeur of the Tongliang dragon lanterns in detail: "At the Lantern Festival lanterns are displayed; from the eighth and ninth days through the fifteenth, they blaze until dawn, with dragon lanterns, lion lanterns, and other variety plays performed, filling the streets with clamor - a spectacle in which the moon seems to follow people and dust to follow horses." Among the people there is further the saying: "Dazu for Buddhist pilgrimage (stone carvings), Tongliang for lantern viewing (dragon lanterns)." After the 1980s, this project was revived and gradually reached new heights.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Tongliang dragon lantern paper framing is a traditional fine-arts art form circulated among the villages, towns, and subdistricts of Tongliang District, Chongqing, with numerous participants. Because the performance props, landscape lanterns, and craftworks framed in the practice of this project all highlight the theme of dragon culture, with distinctive characteristics and broad influence, it is named "Tongliang Dragon Lantern Paper Framing." Tongliang is located in western Chongqing, with good natural conditions and thriving agriculture. The Wanli-era Chuandong Gazetteer of the Ming dynasty describes the people of Tongliang as "many being outstanding and remarkable, fond of reading poetry and books, with men plowing and women weaving, and especially skilled in the arts." The long-standing agrarian civilization provided fertile soil for the gestation and development of Tongliang dragon lantern paper framing. The products and works of Tongliang dragon lantern paper framing have a strong folk character and vivid folk aesthetic interest, and fall into three main series: performance dragon lanterns, landscape dragon lanterns, and craft dragon lanterns. Performance dragon lanterns chiefly include more than a hundred varieties such as the "Straw Dragon," "Bamboo Clapper Dragon," "Great Wriggling Dragon," "Fire Dragon," "True Dragon," "Carp Leaping over the Dragon Gate," and "Dragon and Phoenix Auspicious Union"; landscape dragon lanterns mainly include festive lantern pendants and small lantern pieces used to create a holiday atmosphere, as well as the various lantern groups of lantern-festival venues; craft dragon lanterns are refined dragon lanterns used indoors as display or decorative table ornaments and hanging pieces. Tongliang dragon lantern paper framing draws on the expressive forms and techniques of traditional caisson-ceiling painting, being gorgeous in form, pattern, motif, and color with abundant folk dynamism. Its main materials are bamboo, cloth, and pigments, together with auxiliary materials such as tissue paper, paste, and sequins used for binding, gluing, and decoration; its tools include the corresponding saws, wood knives, scissors, and color brushes. Its process flow comprises eight steps - composition, modeling, pasting, interior installation, testing, colored painting, final assembly, and inspection - with each step containing several to a dozen process steps, totaling more than a hundred process steps overall, and requiring craftsmen to possess good abilities in weaving, modeling, aesthetics, and painterly expression.
Archival Record of Process Steps
Its process flow comprises eight steps - composition, modeling, pasting, interior installation, testing, colored painting, final assembly, and inspection - with each step containing several to a dozen process steps, totaling more than a hundred process steps overall, and requiring craftsmen to possess good abilities in weaving, modeling, aesthetics, and painterly expression.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, three schools of dragon lantern paper framing were formed: the Zhou school, the Jiang school, and the Fu school. Tongliang dragon lantern paper framing is one of the outstanding representatives of China's traditional lantern craft, a crystallization of the diligence and wisdom of the local working people, embodying the aesthetic aspirations and ideas of craftsmanship of the local people.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Paper Effigy Craftsmanship · Paper Effigy Craftsmanship · Paper Effigy Craftsmanship · Paper Effigy Craftsmanship · Paper Effigy Craftsmanship · Paper Effigy Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The inheritors of Tongliang dragon lantern paper framing are mainly local villagers, and historically transmission relied mainly on the master-apprentice method. In recent years, with the advance of conservation work, and relying on more than twenty dragon lantern paper framing workshops and more than ten dragon lantern paper framing bases, the ranks of this project's inheritors have grown continuously, with nearly 400 people employed in the field. At the same time, dragon lantern paper framing works themed on dragon culture are a representative of the auspicious culture of the Chinese nation, carrying the emotional memory of the nation; they are an important vehicle for displaying traditional Chinese culture and rallying Chinese people, and constitute precious folk-art heritage resources of China, possessing high artistic and socio-cultural value.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Nie Fangjun 03-1284
- Xu Yanfeng 03-1285
- Zhou Tingyi 03-1286
- Shi Rongsheng 03-1287
- Li Wei 03-1288
- Huang Suming 05-2678
- Nie Dayong
- Li Wanzhen
- Zhou Heping
- Liu Yinling
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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