Miao Yinshi Forging Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
The line of transmission in Leishan can be seen through its master-apprentice relationships: a silversmith began learning the craft from his father at thirteen, completed his apprenticeship and began traveling to practice his art at fifteen, and with his apprentices traveled almost all over Guizhou, reaching as far as Guangxi and Hunan. The three settlements of Kongbai, Maliao, and Wugao in Xijiang Town are where artisan households cluster, so the custom of comparing and copying one another's designs is especially strong, and new techniques tend to spread first among these villages.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The silver phoenix crown and silver flower hat are the principal ornaments of the headpiece and the very head of the entire silver-adornment series, long praised as "dragon head and phoenix tail." Their construction is quite complex, employing no fewer than 150 and as many as over 200 small components, and they are extremely valuable. Miao silver ornaments are exquisite and beautiful, with the work of Leishan County in Guizhou Province and Fenghuang County in Hunan Province regarded as representative. In Leishan, the silversmiths are concentrated mainly in Kongbai, Maliao, and Wugao of Xijiang Town. The forging of silver ornaments is a craft unique to the Miao people; every piece is made entirely by hand. The designs and structures of the silver ornaments are the result of the artisans' careful planning. From drafting through carving and manufacturing, there are thirty process steps, including smelting and casting, hammering, soldering, knotting, and washing—all executed at an exceedingly high level of craftsmanship. The craft of making Miao silver ornaments has a long history. It passed successively through stages of evolution—from primitive ornaments to decorations of rock and shell, and from botanical and floral ornaments to gold and silver ornaments. Handed down through the generations, it gave rise to silver ornaments whose patterns and forms became essentially fixed, yet whose varieties and styles continue to be renewed to this day. The resulting chain of ornaments has become one of the symbols of the Miao society's evolution. Miao silver ornaments carry rich and varied cultural meaning; from their varieties and pattern designs to the construction of their motifs and their assembly, they display a very high cultural refinement. In their interactions with the outside world, the Miao people present silver ornaments as gifts to friends, treasuring them as much as the Tibetan khata and the Han people's jewelry. The creative craft of Miao silver ornaments fully embodies the Miao people's intelligent, capable, ingenious, kind, and friendly national character. Silver ornaments are pure white and lovely, flawless and untainted, and hard in substance—precisely a manifestation of the Miao people's spiritual qualities. For a long time Miao silver ornaments circulated only within Miao regions, but since the Reform and Opening-up their prospects for development have looked promising. However, the forging craft is generally transmitted within the family, so the best pupils cannot be chosen to receive it. Most of the original artisans are now aged, and few can truly inherit this exquisite craft of silver forging. The prospects for this distinctive skill are therefore less than optimistic, and it is necessary to strengthen protective efforts.
Documented Process Steps
The designs and structures of the silver ornaments are the result of the artisans' careful planning. From drafting through carving and manufacturing, there are thirty process steps, including smelting and casting, hammering, soldering, knotting, and washing—all executed at an exceedingly high level of craftsmanship.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Silver ornaments are the traditional adornment most favored by the Miao, used mainly to decorate women. They come in many varieties, divided into head ornaments, face ornaments, neck ornaments, shoulder ornaments, chest ornaments, waist ornaments, arm ornaments, foot ornaments, hand ornaments, and so on. Coordinated with one another, they achieve a perfectly integrated decorative effect.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Miao Yinshi Forging Craftsmanship · Yinshi Making Craftsmanship · Yinshi Making Craftsmanship · Yinshi Forging Craftsmanship · Yinshi Forging Craftsmanship · Yinshi Forging Craftsmanship · Yinshi Forging Craftsmanship · Yinshi Forging Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Yang Guangbin (from the official archives of the associated inheritor): Male, Miao, born in 1963, a native of Leishan, Guizhou. Representative inheritor of the Miao silver ornament forging craft, a national-level intangible cultural heritage item of the first batch. Yang Guangbin's skill in forging silver ornaments was inherited from his ancestors; by his generation it had reached the fifth. Yang began learning the silver-ornament craft from his father at thirteen and formally completed his apprenticeship to travel and practice his art at fifteen. With several of his own apprentices he traveled through virtually every region of Guizhou as well as provinces such as Guangxi and Hunan. Over his long career making silver ornaments, Yang humbly learned from the older generation of silversmiths and kept striving forward. He has mastered the more than thirty process steps of the traditional Miao silver-ornament craft—smelting, casting, forging, wire-drawing, soldering, chasing, knotting, and washing. The silver ornaments he makes are extremely varied in pattern; rooted in tradition yet generating much that is new, animal motifs such as butterflies and the Miao dragon are especially favored by the market and sell far and wide at home and abroad. His engraving is fine and delicate—he can forge silver filaments as thin as a hair, earning unanimous praise from experts. He has also trained a new generation of craftspeople, playing a positive role in the transmission of the Miao silver-ornament forging craft.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Yang Guangbin 01-0160
- Long Migu 03-1316
- Ma Maoting 03-1317
- Lin Shiyuan 04-1842
- Leigushari 04-1843
- Wu Shuigen 04-1844
- Lin Lingxiang 05-2748
- Yang Zhenggui 05-2749
- Tai Yinyan 05-2750
- Mubinglin 05-2751
- Cunfabiao 05-2752
- Li Zhengyun
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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