Nanjing Gold Foil Forging Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
The gold leaf forging industry of Nanjing originated in the area around Longtan Garden in Qixia District, which formerly belonged partly to Jurong County and partly to Jiangning County. The earliest written record of the gold leaf production technique appears in Tiangong Kaiwu (The Exploitation of the Works of Nature) by Song Yingxing of the Ming dynasty: “In making gold leaf, once the metal has been beaten into thin sheets, it is wrapped in black gold paper and struck with all one’s might using a mallet (the gold-beating mallet has a short handle and weighs about eight jin).” Nanjing gold leaf is an outstanding representative of traditional hand craft. At present the Nanjing Gold Thread and Gold Leaf General Factory in Longtan Subdistrict, and the Jiangning Gold Leaf Group, which moved to Jiangning in the 1980s, are still engaged in the trade.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
According to legend, Ge Xianweng (Ge Hong) of the Eastern Jin was the founding master of gold leaf forging, and among gold-beating households the tale that “the immortals made gold leaf” has always circulated. Ge Hong was a native of Xiayin, north of the county town of Jurong. In former times the gold beaters of Longtan all worshipped Ge Xianweng, burning incense through the four seasons and kneeling before him at New Year and festivals; beside the incense table they would also place a mallet, praying that the god would keep their beating smooth and successful. According to veteran craftspeople, the earliest gold beaters in Nanjing were all from Longtan, drawn from the three great surnames Liu, Ge and Yin: the Lius beat gold leaf, the Ges cut gold leaf, and the Yins made gold thread. Before the founding of the People’s Republic of China, there were gold leaf workshops all around Longtan, at Liuziqiao and Siduanwei and elsewhere: the men beat gold leaf and the women wove brocade thread. Nanjing gold leaf is forged from pure gold through more than ten process steps — pouring the bar, drawing the bar, beating the leaf, making the wick, opening the packet, loading the tool kit, the great beating, issuing the leaf, cutting the gold leaf, inspection and packing — of which the beating is the most arduous: a lump of gold must be beaten into a sheet about 0.1 micron thick. Two people beat face to face, and the blows must number tens of thousands. Folklore has it that the gold leaf beaten from one liang of gold can cover one mu and three tenths of land. Scientific measurement shows that 943 sheets of gold leaf are only one millimetre thick, and that ten thousand sheets weigh just 178.125 grams — from which the refinement of the beating technique can be seen. Today the brilliance of Nanjing gold leaf shines in temples throughout China as well as in the Moscow China Hotel, the Thai royal palace, the Osaka gateway in Japan and the presidential residence in Zaire; and much of the gold leaf used in food, cosmetics, architecture, craft and decoration is the work of Nanjing craftspeople.
Archival Record of Process Steps
Nanjing gold leaf is forged from pure gold through more than ten process steps — pouring the bar, drawing the bar, beating the leaf, making the wick, opening the packet, loading the tool kit, the great beating, issuing the leaf, cutting the gold leaf, inspection and packing — of which the beating is the most arduous: a lump of gold must be beaten into a sheet about 0.1 micron thick.
The goldsmith's calls
Beating, planishing, lifting, ageing and burnishing are each given a name, and the whole is judged by the hands until the leaf is thin enough.
The Liu, Ge and Yin families
Three Dragon Pool surnames divided the work — Liu beat, Ge cut, Yin drew the wire — until markets gradually reunited the trades in one family.
The immortals made the foil
The gilders keep a hammer on the altar and honour Ge Hong the Immortal all year, asking his favour for a good beating.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Nanjing gold leaf forging technique is concentrated in the Jiangning, Dongshan and Hexi areas, above all at Longtan. According to legend, Ge Xianweng (Ge Hong) of the Eastern Jin was the founding master of gold leaf forging, and among gold-beating households the tale that “the immortals made gold leaf” has always circulated; in former times the gold beaters of Longtan all worshipped Ge Xianweng and burned incense through the four seasons. According to veteran craftspeople, the earliest gold beaters in Nanjing were all from Longtan, drawn from the three great surnames Liu, Ge and Yin: the Lius beat gold leaf, the Ges cut gold leaf, and the Yins made gold thread. The Nanjing Gold Thread and Gold Leaf General Factory is the protecting unit for the project.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
However, gold beating is work of high skill and great physical exertion, and few young people are willing to enter the trade, so the gold leaf industry as a whole lacks successors. At the same time, gold leaf derivatives have acquired many substitutes, causing its market to shrink day by day, and the traditional craft is being progressively squeezed out by beating machines. The gold leaf forging technique therefore faces the danger of being lost and needs protection. Wang Bisheng (as recorded in the official inheritor archive): Male, Han ethnicity, born in October 1951, from Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province. Representative inheritor of the Nanjing gold leaf forging technique, a national-level intangible cultural heritage item from the third national batch. Nanjing gold leaf forging technician. Modest in learning, he applied himself to intensive study and was hard-working and enduring. In more than forty years at the gold leaf forging bench he actively pursued technical innovation and improvement. He has actively taken part in intangible cultural heritage exhibitions at home and abroad.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Wang Bisheng 03-1314
- Ge Caijin
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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