Xiamen Qixiandiaojiyi
01 · Historical Records
It took shape in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties and gradually matured by the late Qing; its development in the Xiamen area was inseparable from the flourishing of folk religion and the prosperity of the Buddhist and deity statue sculpture trade.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The lacquer thread sculpture technique has been transmitted in Xiamen for more than three hundred years, passing through thirteen generations of the Cai family. This technique is a surviving lineage of ancient Buddhist statue sculpture art, and arose under the inspiration of the line-carving techniques of the Song and Yuan dynasties, in particular powdered-line and clay-line sculpture. The traditional production of lacquer thread sculpture covers four aspects: sculpture, powder base-coating, lacquer thread decoration, and gilding with color filling. As for the creative design of a work, sculpture is the first consideration. But as for the special aesthetic appeal of the art, it is the lacquer thread decoration technique that is the key. Lacquer thread sculpture blends aged brick powder, raw lacquer, cooked tung oil and other materials, pounding them repeatedly into a soft yet resilient dough, commonly known as "lacquer thread clay"; this is hand-rolled into "lacquer threads", which are then coiled, tied, wound and piled on the primed body to build up raised designs. The lacquer thread sculpture technique attends to the aesthetic qualities of line; its forms are rich and varied, and in creation the artist follows his inspiration freely to reach a very high realm — the beauty of line in Chinese industrial arts is here sublimated. Lacquer thread sculpture coils its designs in thread yet presents them in relief, precise to the millimetre in the finest detail, every particular handled with strict care. It can be said that handwork is the soul of lacquer thread sculpture. More than three hundred years ago, the production base of lacquer thread sculpture was Maxiang Town in Tong'an County. The eleventh-generation heir Cai Wenpei moved the workshop to Xiamen; he was the first to use lacquer thread sculpture to depict historical figures, and he took on many students, opening the family's closely guarded technique to the public. Cai Wenpei's son Cai Shuikuang was a master of industrial arts; his artistic vision was broader, and his works "Return Our Rivers and Mountains" and "Wukang Subdues the Demon in the Moon Cave", as classic pieces, are collected by the China National Museum of Arts and Crafts. In 1972 Cai Shuikuang turned lacquer thread sculpture patterns into independent decorative artworks; these quickly became the mainstream product of modern lacquer thread sculpture and brought enormous returns. With the deepening of reform and opening up, the modern market economy has dealt a huge blow to the traditional lacquer thread sculpture technique. Because the technique is complex and not easily mastered, successors are hard to find; among the Cai family, the only person still engaged in lacquer thread sculpture today is the thirteenth-generation heir Cai Caixian, and there is a fear that the line may die out. The relevant authorities should protect and rescue this ancient handicraft so as to prevent the traditional technique from being lost.
Sculpture, ground, line and gilding
Four stages, of which the first is the design in clay and the second — the laying of the lacquer lines — is where the special beauty lies.
Thirteen Cai generations
Kept in one family for three hundred years and thirteen generations, the craft kept the standards of temple statuary rather than trade production.
From Song-Yuan line carving
Descended from Buddhist statuary and from Song and Yuan line carving, the lacquer lines are built from hair-fine powder-and-lacquer rods dried before use.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Xiamen lacquer thread sculpture technique is centered on Xiamen, Fujian, has passed through thirteen generations of the Cai family, and extends to Quanzhou, Putian and other parts of southern Fujian; the technique has been transmitted in Xiamen for more than three hundred years, and is a surviving lineage of ancient Buddhist statue sculpture art, arising under the inspiration of the line-carving techniques of the Song and Yuan dynasties, in particular powdered-line and clay-line sculpture. The Xiamen Weiyi Lacquer Thread Sculpture Art Co., Ltd. is the project's protecting unit.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Maxiang Cai family workshop was originally named "Xizhuxuan"; among today's Cai-surnamed artists, those traceable by name go back to the eighth-generation heir Cai Shanyang, around the Jiaqing era of the Qing dynasty. Cai Shuikuang (record from the official archive of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in 1939, from Xiamen, Fujian. Representative inheritor of the Xiamen lacquer thread sculpture technique, a first-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project; master of Chinese industrial arts. In 1972 Cai Shuikuang created a batch of works for that year's Canton Fair, and in the ten years that followed quietly honed many outstanding works — achievements that became his irreproducible pride. Cai Shuikuang's works have springy lines, every part rigorously handled and fine as a hair, with ingenious composition; they inherit and develop the aesthetic concept of "interwoven colors and engraved painting filling the eye". Representative works include "Wukang Subdues the Demon in the Moon Cave", "Havoc in Heaven" and "Return Our Rivers and Mountains"; of these, "Return Our Rivers and Mountains" and "Wukang Subdues the Demon in the Moon Cave" were requisitioned by the state in 1994 as precious industrial artworks and are held in the collection of the China National Museum of Arts and Crafts. Cai Shuikuang currently has four apprentices.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Cai Shuikuang 01-0171
- Cai Chaorong
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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