Bonan Yaodao Forging Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
The Bao'an people have a long history of forging waist knives; the appearance of the Bao'an waist knife is closely linked to military activities of the Yuan dynasty. In 1227, during Genghis Khan's eastern campaign, part of the officers, soldiers and craftsmen from Central Asia were left behind in the Tongren area of Qinghai. After the Bao'an people migrated to Dahaijia, their living conditions meant that the waist knives they made themselves, while used for self-defense, also took on the character of commodities; the Bao'an thus began exchanging waist knives for herders' cattle and sheep and other daily goods. In 1987 the Bao'an waist knife received the quality-product designation from the State Ethnic Affairs Commission and the Ministry of Light Industry, and in 1991 it again won the gold prize at the Beijing International Exposition.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Bao'an waist knife is a traditional handicraft of the Bao'an people, produced mainly in Dahaijia Town, Liuji Township and surrounding areas of Jishishan Bao'an-Dongxiang-Salar Autonomous County, Gansu Province. For a long time the Bao'an waist knife forging technique has been an important means of sustaining the very survival of the Bao'an people, and the lifeblood of their economy and culture. After settling in Bao'an City, many of them took up handicraft production, and trades such as blacksmithing, gold- and silversmithing, carpentry and shoemaking appeared. The blacksmiths of the time mainly made muskets, bows and arrows and the like; the closely related iron-smelting technology gave them a solid foundation for knife making. From then on the Bao'an waist knife was closely bound up with economic development. The traditional Bao'an waist knife making process comprises as many as 40 to 80 steps, of which the addition of steel during rough shaping and the water quenching after firing are crucial; properly judged treatment ensures that the knife combines hardness and toughness. The Bao'an waist knife making technique has not only consolidated the cultural roots of the Bao'an people but also enriched the content of Chinese metalwork. Premier Zhou Enlai once presented Bao'an waist knives as gifts to foreign guests. Forging waist knives has long been one of the principal economic activities of the Bao'an people. In the wave of reform and opening up, the Bao'an successively established a number of ethnic knife factories, concentrating craftsmen of higher skill, adding new equipment and organizing batch production. At the same time, waist knife products were continually innovated, with varieties such as Shiyangjin, Bojiri, Yawuqi, Shuangluo, Manba, Bianqiao, the Zhusuan knife, the fish knife, the watermelon-head knife and the horse-head knife appearing one after another, and production growing ever more prosperous. However, due to overdevelopment, the quality of waist knives gradually declined and their reputation fell somewhat. The public security authorities' controls on knives have also restricted the marketing and transmission of the Bao'an waist knife technique.
Archival Record of Process Steps
The traditional Bao'an waist knife making process comprises as many as 40 to 80 steps, of which the addition of steel during rough shaping and the water quenching after firing are crucial; properly judged treatment ensures that the knife combines hardness and toughness.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
This group of Semu people lived in proximity to the local Mongolian, Han, Hui, Tibetan and Tu peoples and other ethnic groups, exchanging and blending with them, and gradually formed the Bao'an ethnic group.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Under these circumstances, the traditional technique has gradually developed from purely hand operation toward semi-mechanization, and a transmission crisis has emerged. In this situation, protecting the Bao'an waist knife forging technique has become a matter of urgent priority. Ma Weixiong (record of the associated inheritor's official archive): Male, Bao'an ethnicity, born 1958; native of Jishishan, Gansu. Representative inheritor of the Bao'an waist knife forging technique, a national-level intangible cultural heritage item of the first national-level batch. From childhood he practiced the Bao'an waist knife forging technique under his father Ma Yinusi; by the age of 12 he was already basically familiar with the complete set of process steps, and with his father's continual guidance he had become a highly skilled craftsman by his youth — the third-generation inheritor in the Magahu lineage. The waist knives he forges are novel and distinctive in style, handsome and dignified, with well-added steel, well-timed quenching, a balance of hardness and flexibility, sharp edges and long durability. The main knife forms are the watermelon-head and the Shiyangjin double knife. In 1985 Ma Weixiong won first prize in a knifesmiths' skill competition in the area where the Bao'an people live in concentration; in 2000, at the first Bao'an Arts Festival of Jishishan County, his five-inch Shiyangjin double knives were presented by the county government as gifts to guests. Ye Gubai (record of the associated inheritor's official archive): Representative inheritor of the Bao'an waist knife forging technique, a national-level intangible cultural heritage item of the first national-level batch. His signature specialty is forging the fish knife: finely made, handsome in form, with a sharp edge and great elasticity when opened, and especially ingenious in the design of the spring on the back of the blade. Male, Bao'an ethnicity, born 1930, died 2009; native of Jishishan, Gansu. In his spare time from farming he produced large numbers of fish knives and trained a group of inheritors.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Ma Weixiong 01-0162
- Yegubai 01-0163
- Ma Gazhuma 05-2753
- Yesalihai 05-2754
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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