Suzhou Yuyaojinzhuan Making Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
During the Yongle reign of the Ming dynasty, the Chengzu emperor Zhu Di moved the capital to Beijing and launched large-scale construction of the Forbidden City. Imperial-kiln gold bricks are an outstanding rarity in China’s kiln-fired brick industry. From the Ming and Qing dynasties onward they were favoured by successive emperors and became a product reserved exclusively for palace architecture. By the Jiajing reign of the Ming dynasty, gold brick firing had entered its heyday. After the end of the Qing dynasty, production was repeatedly interrupted by incessant warfare, and was not fully resumed until 1984. The imperial kiln has fired gold bricks since 1413, nearly six hundred years ago.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
“Gold brick” is an elegant name for large square tiles. According to the old treatise Jinzhuan Mandi (Paving with Gold Bricks), gold bricks are fine-bodied square tiles fired specially for the imperial palace: their grain is fine and dense, their texture compact, and they ring with a metallic note when struck. Because finished gold bricks were shipped to the capital granaries in Beijing for the exclusive use of the imperial palace, they were also called “capital bricks” (jingzhuan). The imperial kiln for gold bricks is located in Yuyao Village, Lumü Town, Xiangcheng District, Suzhou City. For a thousand years the villagers of this place have made kiln firing their sole occupation. On the recommendation of the Xiangshan Bang craftsmen of Suzhou, the Ming court specially dispatched officials to Lumi (now Lumü) in Suzhou to oversee the manufacture of gold bricks. Because the yellow clay of Lumü Town was well suited to forming bricks, and because the workmanship was refined, the firing method correct and the technique distinctive, the gold bricks produced there were fine and hard — “they sound when struck and show no pores when broken” — and the Yongle emperor accordingly bestowed on the Lumü kilns the title “imperial kiln” (yuyao). The floors of the Hall of Supreme Harmony and the Hall of Central Harmony in the Forbidden City in Beijing, and of the Tiananmen Rostrum, are all laid with imperial-kiln gold bricks. The technique of making imperial-kiln gold bricks is elaborate, with more than twenty process steps, the principal ones being clay selection, clay kneading, blank forming, kiln loading, firing, water-sealing, unloading and polishing. The steps are tightly interlocked: if any one of them fails, all the preceding work is wasted. Floors laid with gold bricks are smooth, wear-resistant, grow brighter with polishing, and are neither slippery nor damp. They both prevent ground moisture from rising and set off palaces with greater grandeur, adorning old mansions with richer splendour. With the acceleration of modernisation and urbanisation, not only has palace-style architecture become a thing of the past, but classical domestic hall building is also dying out, giving way to high-rise buildings. Market demand for gold bricks is very small, so the scale of production has never been able to expand. Firing gold bricks is highly skilled, physically demanding work: the apprenticeship is long, the labour input heavy and the financial return low, so young people have no inclination to enter the trade, and the whole industry lacks successors. At present Suzhou has only the one imperial kiln, with some twenty-odd craftspeople still making gold bricks. Protective measures are therefore urgently needed for this ancient folk handicraft.
Archival Record of Process Steps
The technique of making imperial-kiln gold bricks is elaborate, with more than twenty process steps, the principal ones being clay selection, clay kneading, blank forming, kiln loading, firing, water-sealing, unloading and polishing.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The imperial kiln for gold bricks is located in Yuyao Village, Lumü Town, Xiangcheng District, Suzhou City; for a thousand years the villagers here have made kiln firing their sole occupation. On the recommendation of the Xiangshan Bang craftsmen of Suzhou, the Ming court specially sent officials to Lumü to supervise the firing of gold bricks. Because finished gold bricks had to be shipped to the capital granaries in Beijing for the exclusive use of the imperial palace, they were also called “capital bricks”. The Suzhou Lumü Imperial-Kiln Gold Brick Factory is the protecting unit for the project.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Imperial-kiln gold bricks have considerable practical and ornamental value and are a brilliant jewel of China’s architectural culture. Jin Meiquan (as recorded in the official inheritor archive): Male, Han ethnicity, born in 1949, from Suzhou, Jiangsu. Representative inheritor of the Suzhou imperial-kiln gold brick making technique, a national-level intangible cultural heritage item from the first national batch. Jin Meiquan is the fifth-generation bearer of the gold brick making technique in the Jin family. From childhood he studied gold brick making under his father Jin Zhaowen, and he knows every stage by heart, from clay selection and blank forming to the firing of the bricks. Jin Meiquan has worked in gold brick making for more than forty years. Under his leadership, the Lumü imperial-kiln gold brick technique has continued to follow traditional hand production while steadily maturing. The finished bricks are square and plain, smooth and lustrous, and dark blue-grey in colour, with an average dimensional error of no more than one millimetre. They have been formally certified by the national research centre for ancient architecture as an essential material for the restoration of China’s historic buildings. The Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Palace Museum in Beijing, the Tiananmen Rostrum, the Summer Palace, Beihai Park and the four great Buddhist sacred sites are all floored with imperial-kiln gold bricks.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Jin Meiquan 01-0150
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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