Shengtieyezhujiyi
01 · Historical Records
In the 1980s, a standing iron statue of the Buddha 3 meters high was unearthed at Fuzhen in Botou City, and was identified by appraisal as having been cast in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907–979). China is the world's earliest country to smelt and cast pig iron, beginning in 400 BC, and dry-mold casting is of important historical and scientific value.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The casting industry in Botou City, Hebei Province, has a history of more than a thousand years, and the city is known nationwide as a "hometown of casting." Over more than a thousand years, Botou's casting techniques have grown ever more refined, developing from the ancient dry-mold casting of the earliest period to hard-mold and metal-mold casting, and later to the erection of cupolas more than ten meters high for smelting and casting pig iron. To date, all cast objects unearthed in Botou that are more than a thousand years old were made by the traditional dry-mold casting process; this casting technique includes a series of procedures such as making the inner mold, making the outer mold, reducing the cores, and closing the mold for pouring. Making the inner mold means fashioning the exterior form of the product to be cast from loess or clay. When making the outer mold, a thin layer of wax is first applied to the surface of the inner mold, and a layer of hemp-fiber mortar mixed with chopped hemp is then spread over the outside, its thickness depending on the size of the casting. Once the outer mold has dried to a certain degree, a parting surface is determined, the mold is cut along the parting surface with a sharp knife, marks are engraved, and the outer layer of hemp-fiber mortar is separated from the inner mold. Reducing the cores means, in accordance with the thickness of the casting, shaving away the surface layer of the inner mold with sharp tools such as knives, shovels, hooks, and scoops. Closing the mold means restoring the outer mold to its position around the inner mold according to the engraved marks, so that a cavity is formed between them; the parting surface is then sealed and the pouring gate made. On the basis of dry-mold casting, a hard-mold casting technique using semi-permanent molds was developed, its advantages being that one mold can yield many castings, many molds can be cast at the same time, and work can proceed continuously. The key to this casting technique is the making of the hard mold, known in the trade as a "paste mold" (jiangmozi).
Core, mould, chaplets and closing
The process runs core, outer mould, chaplets, closing and pouring; the chaplets of charcoal and sand hold the mould apart so the metal does not weld to it.
A thousand-year-old casting record
Every thousand-year-old casting excavated at Botou was made by this sand-mould method, and is mostly ploughshares, pots and vessels of the central plain.
Furnaces beside moulds
From dry sand moulds to hard and metal moulds and then to fifteen-metre cupola furnaces, Botou has kept the old method for large castings.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The casting industry in Botou City, Hebei Province, has a history of more than a thousand years, and the city is known nationwide as a "hometown of casting"; over more than a thousand years Botou's casting techniques have grown ever more refined, developing from the ancient dry-mold casting of the earliest period to hard-mold and metal-mold casting, and later to the erection of cupolas more than ten meters high for smelting and casting pig iron. To date, all cast objects unearthed in Botou that are more than a thousand years old were made by the traditional dry-mold casting process. The Botou City Cultural Center serves as the project's protecting unit.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Yangchengshengtieyezhujiyi · Shengtieyezhujiyi.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At present, only one or two enterprises in Botou still use the dry-mold casting technique in production; the traditional pig-iron smelting and casting craft faces the danger of dying out, and is in urgent need of protection.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Jizhuazhu 01-0155
- Wang Yecai 05-2745
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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