Architectural Painting
01 · Historical Records
Xiangyuan kang-surround painting is a folk painting art popular in Xiangyuan County and neighboring counties of Shanxi Province; it appeared in the Xiangyuan area no later than the Yuan dynasty.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Architectural painting is a fairly broad term. One of its meanings, the same as what is commonly understood, refers to using colors, paints, and lacquers to depict images in a flat plane on the walls of buildings; another meaning refers to using materials such as earth, stone, wood, cloth, paper, and pottery to decorate buildings and their interior furnishings. For geographical and folk-custom reasons, the architectural painting of China's various regions and ethnic groups differs markedly in overall style and treatment of detail; from materials and techniques to colors and subject matter, it displays strong local characteristics, fully demonstrating the ingenuity of the working people in adapting to local conditions. Unlike kang-surround painting in other regions, Xiangyuan kang-surround painting integrates poetry, calligraphy, painting, and seal carving into one, forming a complete-set combined form of folk art. Xiangyuan kang-surround painting was originally a practical decorative art created by local people to prevent the kang-surround wall surface from peeling and soiling clothes and bedding; it mostly imitates the expressive techniques of murals, and its painting style has a pronounced flavor of architectural painting. High-grade kang-surround painting is further divided into the single-story and story-upon-story (lou shang lou) types; it is used mainly for wedding celebrations, is finely made, and is executed with meticulous workmanship. Medium-grade kang-surround painting is also quite refined and is generally suited to use by middle-aged and elderly people. Low-grade kang-surround painting has simple and dignified patterns and is quite commonly used in daily life. Xiangyuan kang-surround painting has a great variety of types, with the stylistic character of bright, lively colors and prominent themes. Its content is rich, covering figures, landscapes, flowers and birds, auspicious beasts, calligraphy, and patterns; expressively it mostly employs symbolic and metaphorical means, using festive and auspicious patterns to convey wishes for warding off evil, ushering in fortune, peace, and happiness.
Central panel, back rest, strips and base
A whole surround divides into central panel, back rest, vertical strips and base band, the central panel further split into borders, lace, panels and core.
Single-storey and storey-upon-storey
Top-grade surrounds come as single-storey or storey-upon-storey for weddings, medium ones suit the middle-aged and elderly, and plain ones are the most common.
Poetry, calligraphy, painting and seals
Uniquely, Xiangyuan surrounds combine poetry, calligraphy, painting and seal impressions into one composite folk-art form.
A practical origin against wear
Present in Xiangyuan by the Yuan at latest, it began as a practical shield against flaking wall plaster and imitates mural technique.
Hao Yanming's training and teaching
The fifth-batch inheritor Hao Yanming, born in 1947, learned the craft from the painters Cui Yingui and Su Genyuan from age sixteen and teaches freely today.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
As a whole it is divided into four major parts: the central kang-surround, the backrest, the hanging scrolls (tiaoping), and the floor surround; the central kang-surround is in turn subdivided into smaller elements such as the border strips, the floral borders, the pool panels, and the inner fields. Locally in Xiangyuan, kang-surround painting is divided into upper, middle, and lower grades.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Architectural Painting · Architectural Painting · Architectural Painting · Architectural Painting · Architectural Painting.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Xiangyuan kang-surround painting is a comprehensive product of the practical needs and spiritual pursuits of local people; it vividly reflects folk aesthetic consciousness and values, and possesses research value in sociology, folklore studies, and related fields. Hao Yanming (from the official archive records of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in April 1947, from Xiangyuan County, Shanxi Province. His works draw on the techniques of murals, New Year paintings, and architectural painting, and are distinctive in content, materials, and composition; their subject matter is festive and auspicious, their coloring gorgeous and bright, and their images exaggerated and romantic, making them much loved by local people. He actively participates in folk art exhibitions and performances at all levels, enthusiastically takes part in public-welfare activities, insists on taking on apprentices free of charge, has run free lectures for many years, and promotes intangible cultural heritage education in schools. He is a representative inheritor of Architectural Painting (Kang-Surround Painting), an intangible cultural heritage item of the fifth national-level batch. From childhood he loved folk decorative painting; from the age of sixteen he learned the craft of making kang-surrounds under the painter Cui Yingui and Cui's disciple Su Genyuan, and through diligent, hard practice he soon won recognition from the local people.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Li Yunyi 03-1302
- Li Shengbin 03-1303
- Hao Yanming 05-2705
- Chen Jinde
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。