Ketong
01 · Historical Records
It has a long history, beginning in the Chongzhen reign of the Ming dynasty, and has been transmitted for more than three hundred years to the present.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Guixi chiseled copper carving is a traditional metal engraving craft practiced within Guixi County, Yingtan City, Jiangxi Province. Using the chisel as a 'brush' and the purple copper plate as 'paper,' it integrates forging, design, drawing, and chiseling. Guixi chiseled copper carving combines painting and carving. Using flat chisels, incising chisels, arc chisels, single-line chisels, curved chisels, shaping chisels, bead-point (fish-roe pattern) chisels, stipple chisels, punch chisels, and other chisels, and employing flat carving, relief, openwork carving, engraving, and pierced carving, the artisan relies on the dexterous movement of the fingers and the back-and-forth motion of the wrist to strike light, heavy, fast, and slow marks on the copper plate, producing patterns of varied character with fine, delicate lines. Guixi chiseled copper carving is the art of welding heat, chisel, and copper, standing between flat painting and three-dimensional sculpture. Its patterns rise and fall in relief, full and vigorous, plain yet weighty, vividly lifelike, and visually striking, with strong artistic tension. Its ornament is layered in tiers, revealing an antique elegance; the principal motifs are Tang-style scrolling vines, baoxiang flowers, and entwined lotuses, while the subjects are mostly figures from ancient historical stories, animals symbolizing auspiciousness, flowers, birds, fish, insects, and landscapes, all carrying auspicious meaning. Because Mount Longhu within its territory is the birthplace of Taoism, the chiseled copper ritual implements used in Taoist fasting and offering ceremonies and other Taoist elements have deeply influenced the craft. The Guixi chiseled copper carving process is elaborate, divided into more than ten steps: design drafting; material selection and pattern transfer (including material selection, pattern transfer, and cutting); chisel work (including flat-chisel line engraving, annealing, raising relief forms, making and applying the glue, fine chiseling and refinement, and removing the glue and annealing); and forming and decoration (including shaping, polishing and grinding, forming, and coloring). Guixi chiseled copper carving is plain yet weighty, naturally elegant, rich in popular aesthetic appeal, and highly visually impactful and artistically moving. It is close to the life of the common people; its chiseled images and texts are full of the characteristics of their times, artistically expressing the folk customs and aesthetic tastes of each era and embodying the people's wishes for a better life.
Archival Record of Process Steps
The Guixi chiseled copper carving process is elaborate, divided into more than ten steps: design drafting; material selection and pattern transfer (including material selection, pattern transfer, and cutting); chisel work (including flat-chisel line engraving, annealing, raising relief forms, making and applying the glue, fine chiseling and refinement, and removing the glue and annealing); and forming and decoration (including shaping, polishing and grinding, forming, and coloring).
The chasing tools
Flat, cutting, arc, one-stroke, curved, shaping, fish-roe, seed and punch chases are used in relief, openwork and engraving, driven by the fingers and turned by the wrist.
Tang vine, lotus and interlaced motifs
Its layered motifs of vine, rosette and lotus carry historic figures and auspicious animals, standing out in high, firm and archaic relief.
Fire, tool and copper
Chasing is fire, tool and copper together, standing between painting and sculpture, with solder fixing the work before the tool builds light and shade.
Ten generations and open enrolment
Passed master to pupil for ten generations, it now also takes outside students, and its dense Daoist and Buddhist imagery makes it a source on Chinese religious culture.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Guixi chiseled copper carving is a traditional metal engraving craft practiced within Guixi County, Yingtan City, Jiangxi Province, using the chisel as a 'brush' and the purple copper plate as 'paper.' Chiseled copper trades have existed in Guixi since the Chongzhen reign of the Ming dynasty; by the late Qing and early Republican period, chisel workshops stood facing one another inside and outside the city, and the copper vessels they made mostly served ancestral halls and shrines, wedding dowries, and studio curios. In recent years, enterprises such as Jiangxi Zhongding Metal Craft Co., Ltd. have combined traditional chiseling with mechanical processing, allowing the craft to continue in Buddhist worship and custom furniture.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Ketong · Ketong.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Guixi chiseled copper carving is transmitted from master to apprentice and has now been passed down through ten generations. With the development of the times, enrolling students from the wider society has become one of the important means of transmission. Its works contain rich Taoist and Buddhist elements and are an important vehicle for the study of Chinese religious culture.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Du Ping 05-2719
- Huang Junjun
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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