Architectural Painting
01 · Historical Records
Zhongwei lies at the head of the Front Bend of the Yellow River in northwest China and is the core area of the “Jiangnan beyond the Great Wall” (a fertile frontier oasis region). It links Shaanxi and Shanxi to the east, reaches Gansu and Xinjiang to the west, Inner Mongolia to the north, and Sichuan and Yunnan to the south; it was a frontier stronghold on the Silk Road, and in the Qing dynasty it became a passage for the westward migration of population from the Shanxi-Shaanxi region. In the Yuan dynasty, Buddhism began to flourish in Zhongwei, and the technique of architectural polychrome painting arose along with it. In the Ming dynasty, within Zhongwei city there arose the flourishing spectacle of “nine monasteries, eighteen temples, plus two convents and one ancestral hall”, each temple decorated with painted ornament, and the architectural painting technique entered its heyday.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Zhongwei architectural painting is a traditional fine-art form circulating mainly in Zhongwei City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region; it is also distributed in cities and counties throughout Ningxia and in regions such as Gansu and Inner Mongolia. Zhongwei architectural painting exists mainly in dependence on ancient buildings such as monasteries and temples. Zhongwei architectural painting is rich in content and numerous in categories, divided into three major types — xuanzi polychrome painting, hexi polychrome painting, and Su-style polychrome painting. Its principal process steps are sealing and priming with base oil, patching with plaster for a ground coat, wrapping beams and brackets with cloth, drawing the layouts, lifen (relief-paste) painting, and graded color washing. In painting technique, emphasis is placed on highlighting Zhongwei's traditional “ruyi xuanzi” approach; motifs such as “oil-cake rings”, “dog-tail cloud curls”, “cat-hoof hollows”, “lotus petals”, “ruyi heads”, “drilled-flower kuilong dragons”, and “pine-knot ornaments” all belong to the distinctive regional crafts of Ningxia. Zhongwei architectural painting has a long history and distinctive characteristics; upholding the principle of combining tradition with science, it is inclusive in materials, process steps, and techniques while constantly bringing forth the new, embodying the artisan spirit of ceaseless refinement.
Archival Record of the Process Steps
Zhongwei architectural painting is rich in content and numerous in categories, divided into three major types — xuanzi polychrome painting, hexi polychrome painting, and Su-style polychrome painting. Its principal process steps are sealing and priming with base oil, patching with plaster for a ground coat, wrapping beams and brackets with cloth, drawing the layouts, lifen (relief-paste) painting, and graded color washing.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Its unique geographic position and human environment have given its architectural painting a distinctly regional style in form, subject matter, and technique. Besides inheriting tradition, Zhongwei architectural painting draws heavily on regional traditional customs. In accordance with the different structures of building complexes, the exteriors of buildings are colored in the “ruyi xuanzi polychrome painting” manner, the corridors adopt the artistic layout of “Su-style mixed colors”, and the door lattices are fitted with “five-color” lifen painted panels, expressing the rich charm and connotation of classical poetry, calligraphy, and painting. In the selection of subjects, it skillfully chooses different painting themes according to the structural parts of the building and the nature of the cultural setting, focusing mostly on local folk legends, historical anecdotes, and tales of historical figures.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Architectural Painting · Architectural Painting · Architectural Painting · Architectural Painting · Architectural Painting.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Among the works surviving in Ningxia, the one that best represents the level of architectural polychrome painting is the Zhongwei High Temple and Bao'an Temple, a nationally protected key cultural relic site. Over the long years, Zhongwei architectural painting has been handed down from generation to generation through social, master-apprentice, and family transmission; at present, a clearly documented lineage can be traced back to the Xianfeng era of the Qing dynasty, spanning six generations. Successive generations of inheritors learned from one another's strengths in technique and drew on one another's styles, gradually forming the unique style of Zhongwei architectural painting: it possesses both the freedom and liveliness of folk painting and the regularity and rigor of official-style painting. Its painted content and related techniques are of important value for understanding the traditional virtues and cultural substance of the Chinese nation, for studying and transmitting architectural culture, traditional customs, and religious beliefs, and for the protection of ancient buildings.
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)
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