Yinshi Forging Craftsmanship

01 · Historical Records

The Heqing County Gazetteer records that among the garrison troops some were skilled at smelting and at working silver and copper implements; the villagers learned from them and passed the skills down through the generations. This record is usually taken as the source of the Heqing silverware technique. The dense silver and copper veins of western Yunnan provided the technique with nearby raw materials; since the Ming and Qing dynasties, Heqing silverware has spread within and beyond the province along trade routes and with the demand from monasteries for ritual objects.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The Heqing silverware forging technique is a traditional Chinese metal forging craft that uses pure silver as its main material and comprises many processing steps; it is mainly transmitted in Xinhua Village, Heqing County, Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province. The technique has a long history and is an outstanding representative of silverware making in Yunnan Province. The various articles produced by the Heqing silverware forging technique are represented by tea sets, drinking vessels, cookware, knives, jewelry and religious ritual objects; covering nearly a hundred kinds of daily and cultural articles used by more than thirty ethnic groups including the Bai, Tibetan, Miao, Yi, Dai and Jingpo, they are rich in form and varied in kind — pots, Nine-Dragon cups, Heyang Eight-Scenes drinking sets, bracelets, rings, necklaces, earrings, silver-clad wooden bowls, highland barley wine pots, pure-water pots, large, medium and small ceremonial bugles, suona horns, hundred-family locks, breast ornaments, chest chains, cap chains, door rings, Tibetan knives, Buddha boxes and temple finials. Local artisans use pure silver as the main material, combining openwork carving with drawn-silver-wire plaiting techniques, and forge the articles according to the required form and specification. This technique retains the character of a relatively traditional folk handicraft; its main process steps include smelting, flattening, wire drawing, mold making, mold pouring and chasing. What makes the Heqing silverware forging technique special is that it gathers together gilding, gold inlay, mounting, filigree, blue firing, enameling and drawn-wire plaiting, pressing and carving all manner of patterns onto the silver within a tiny compass. Among these, the chasing technique is the most exacting: every craftsman has his own methods and skills, seeking precisely the right degree of force and a striking in which hand and heart move as one, imprinting the various patterns onto the silver. Yunnan has been known since ancient times as the kingdom of metals; the silver and copper resources of western Yunnan are very rich, with Heqing in Dali a typical representative, and they gave birth to the Heqing silverware forging technique. The Heqing County Gazetteer records: “Among the garrison troops some were skilled at smelting and at working copper and silver implements. The villagers learned from them in turn, becoming able at all these crafts, and passed them down through the generations. In Xinhua, Luoweiyi, Banqiao and other villages, several thousand households are engaged in processing ethnic silver handicrafts, with tens of thousands of family members employed; the products are famous throughout the country, sold far overseas and warmly praised by all.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

As for the pattern of transmission, in Heqing the villages of Xinhua, Luoweiyi and Banqiao are the places where processing households are densely concentrated, with tens of thousands of family members employed; workshops and households are one. Craftsmen enter the trade by two routes: one is to follow a master at the furnace and begin from smelting; the other is the itinerant zouyifang route of mobile craftsmanship — Mu Binglin entered the trade by the latter route and later became a renowned master.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Miao Yinshi Forging Craftsmanship · Miao Yinshi Forging Craftsmanship · Yinshi Making Craftsmanship · Yinshi Making Craftsmanship · Yinshi Forging Craftsmanship · Yinshi Forging Craftsmanship · Yinshi Forging Craftsmanship · Yinshi Forging Craftsmanship.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

This technique has been continually transmitted and developed and now has a history of more than 500 years. The silverware making technique is a traditional handicraft created by the Heqing people through long production practice; it embodies the creative talent and superb skill of its craftsmen and artisans, and is not only an important basis for studying the economy, culture and history of the Dali region but also a treasure of traditional Chinese culture; protecting and carrying forward this technique is of extraordinary significance. Mu Binglin (record of the associated inheritor's official archive): Male, Bai ethnicity, born December 1970; native of Heqing County, Yunnan Province. Representative inheritor of the silver ornament forging technique (Heqing silverware forging technique), a national-level intangible cultural heritage item of the fifth national-level batch. Senior arts and crafts designer. For more than thirty years he has remained modest and eager to learn, receiving instruction from a number of veteran artists including Cun Shukang, Hong Jinguo, Duan Yanming and Luorong A'ni; with considerable aptitude, he rose from a small furnace smith working the zouyifang circuit to a renowned master of silverware making, being especially skilled in chasing and gilding. His works have won national-level prizes many times; among them, a silver-gilt butter-tea pot, a red-copper gilt ritual barley box and a pure-silver gilt protective ritual set — sixteen pieces in three sets — were collected by the Yunnan Provincial Museum. Cun Fabiao (record of the associated inheritor's official archive): Male, Bai ethnicity, born June 1962; native of Heqing County, Yunnan Province. Representative inheritor of the silver ornament forging technique (Heqing silverware forging technique), a national-level intangible cultural heritage item of the fifth national-level batch. Master of Chinese Arts and Crafts, Heqing silverware forging technician, and fourth-generation inheritor of the Heqing silverware forging technique. He was born into a silversmith family in Xinhua Village, Heqing County. In 1978 he studied gold and silverware making under his father, Cun Yuelou. In 1987 he went to Lhasa to work in the processing and production of metal craft articles. Over four decades in the craft, the series of silverware products he has developed and made — including the Nine-Dragon Pot, Nine-Dragon Hotpot, Nine-Dragon Pipe and Six-Syllable Mantra Bracelet — have been warmly received in all quarters and have all been granted national patents; his hand workshop has been designated a teaching and practice base by the Central Academy of Fine Arts and other institutions of higher learning. His works have been collected by the National Museum of China, the China National Arts and Crafts Museum, the Yunnan Nationalities Museum and the Potala Palace in Tibet, among other institutions.

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

1. Yinshi Forging Craftsmanship (Heqing, Yunnan) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Mubinglin · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Cunfabiao · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗