Xiangqian
01 · Historical Records
The origins of Ningbo bone-and-wood inlay are connected with the woodworking and lacquering traditions of eastern Zhejiang: Ningbo has been a seaport and commercial entrepot since the Tang and Song dynasties, with vigorous demand for furniture, dowries, and hall furnishings. When carpenters made chests, cabinets, and screens, they pieced bone and wood slivers together into patterns as embellishment, which at first was only a supplementary means of reinforcement and beautification. After the Ming dynasty, with improvements in sawing tools and the refinement of the division of labor among artisans, inlay gradually developed from local decoration on furniture into full-fledged craft pictures.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Chinese inlay art has a long history and a distinctive style. As early as the Yin-Shang period, decorative patterns of gold inlay and jade setting already appeared in bronze casting. As craftsmanship continually improved, natural colored stones, pebbles, shells, mother-of-pearl, gems, jade, and man-made glass, ceramics, and wood all became materials for inlay. Over the course of its long development, inlay art has accumulated many important technical methods, mainly including direct inlay, the prefabrication method, the reverse-paste reverse-set method, and the obverse-paste obverse-set method. Besides flat inlay, inlay can also be carried out on relief surfaces, a method that can further enhance the three-dimensional effect of the inlaid object. After the Ming and Qing dynasties, the relief inlay method came to be widely used in decorating various crafts; in the mid-to-late Qing dynasty there further appeared a relief inlay method that inlays opera figures and stories on different grounds, to which porcelain inlay and bone-and-wood inlay belong. Inlay crafts have the advantages of sturdiness, resistance to sunlight and damp, and freedom from discoloration; the texture of the materials and the resulting effects of form, color, and luster lend inlay crafts added artistic charm, fully displaying a bold, vigorous, and richly splendid beauty. Bone-and-wood inlay is a traditional decorative art popular in the Ningbo area of Zhejiang Province. It has a long history, having successively passed through stages such as wood inlay and bone-and-wood inlay over its long development, and finally forming a stable craft tradition and stylistic character. In the late Ming and early Qing period, the adoption of the copper-wire saw played an important role in promoting the formation and development of Ningbo bone-and-wood inlay. Ningbo bone-and-wood inlay has three technical forms: high inlay, flat inlay, and mixed high-and-flat inlay. In production, patterns are generally prefabricated from raw materials such as ox bone and wood slivers; grooves are then cut into the wooden body, the inlaid patterns are bonded in with yellow croaker glue, and finally carving, polishing, and lacquering are carried out.
High, flat and mixed inlay
Its three modes: flat inlay level with the wood, raised inlay standing proud, and mixed work using both across one panel.
Grooving the wood and fish-glue bonding
Bone and wood are pre-cut to pattern, grooves cut in the body, the pieces set with fish glue and the whole carved, polished and lacquered.
The black-and-white of bone on wood
Subjects run from history and legend to bamboo and plum, the white bone against dark wood giving strong graphic contrast.
The wire saw for cutting bone
The wire saw of the late Ming let craftsmen cut bone and wood along fine curving outlines, transforming the craft.
Chen Mingwei and the Zilin Fang gallery
The inheritor Chen Mingwei entered the trade at thirteen and founded the Zilin Fang gallery in 2004 to display his inlay and carving.
Liang-Zhu Culture and Wang Yinglin's Three Character Classic
His combination cabinet Liang-Zhu Culture won gold at the sixth international folk crafts fair; the Three Character Classic screen took a special honour prize.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Bone-and-wood inlay is widely applied to furniture and architectural decoration; its products are popular not only within Zhejiang Province but are also sold in large quantities to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the southeast coastal region, enjoying fairly wide distribution. Ningbo bone-and-wood inlay covers rich subjects, mostly depicting historical stories, folk legends, life customs, and auspicious patterns such as plum, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum; its images feature strong black-and-white contrast and abound in decorative appeal and regional character.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Xiangqian · Xiangqian · Xiangqian · Xiangqian · Xiangqian · Xiangqian.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Chen Mingwei (recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in June 1960, native of Ningbo, Zhejiang Province. Senior arts-and-crafts designer; Master of Chinese Arts and Crafts. He entered the arts-and-crafts trade at the age of thirteen, engaging in bone-and-wood inlay and wood carving. Through more than forty years of accumulated practice, his redwood carving and bone-and-wood inlay skills have reached a very high level. The folding calligraphy-copying rack in zitan (padauk) wood that he designed and made was granted a national intellectual property patent certificate. In 2004 he founded the Zilinfang Art Museum, which exhibits a large number of exquisite works for the public to visit. He has repeatedly reproduced Ming-style and Qing-style furniture for major museums. He is a representative inheritor of inlay (bone-and-wood inlay), a national-level intangible cultural heritage item, from the third national-level batch. The bone-and-wood inlay table-screen combination cabinet 'Culture of Liang Zhu' won the gold prize at the Sixth International Folk Handicrafts Exhibition, and the extra-large insert screen 'Wang Yinglin's Three-Character Classic' won the special honorary award at the First China Zhejiang Arts and Crafts Fine Works Expo.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Mouchengjin 03-1298
- Chen Mingwei 03-1299
- Lu Zhigao 04-1815
- Xie Binghua 05-2700
- Xu Shaoxiong
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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