Chengdu Qiyi
01 · Historical Records
During the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, Chengdu lacquer art developed continuously and had a considerable influence on other Chinese lacquer-art schools.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Chengdu lacquer art is one of China's earliest lacquer arts and is preserved today in Qingyang District of Chengdu. By the Warring States and Qin-Han periods, Chengdu lacquer art tended toward prosperity; as the Records of the Grand Historian puts it, 'a thousand lacquered wooden vessels' and 'a thousand dou of lacquer.' Yang Xiong's 'Fu on the Shu Capital' also states: 'carved and incised vessels; a hundred craftsmen and a thousand workers.' Chengdu lacquer art has numerous process steps, meticulous execution, and long production times; it is world-renowned for decorative techniques with strong regional character, such as carved inlay with filled color, carved fill with shadow pattern, engraved tin with silken luster, drawn-knife needle engraving, and hidden-flower mottled coating. Chengdu lacquerware uses natural raw lacquer and solid wood as raw materials, without restriction on body forms, with fine workmanship; it is a handmade product combining artistic and practical qualities. It is known for its exquisite splendor, dignified elegance, fine and moist luster, and brilliant patterns; it can hang in halls to display magnificence, yet equally serve as a refined and durable everyday item. Chengdu lacquerware is both an important witness to the customs of successive dynasties and an envoy of cultural exchange, as well as an important carrier of traditional Chinese aesthetic concepts.
Archival Records of Process Steps
Chengdu lacquer art has numerous process steps, meticulous execution, and long production times; it is world-renowned for decorative techniques with strong regional character, such as carved inlay with filled color, carved fill with shadow pattern, engraved tin with silken luster, drawn-knife needle engraving, and hidden-flower mottled coating.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Chengdu lacquer art is preserved in the Qingyang District area of Chengdu, where together with the local bamboo, wood, and ivory carving trades it forms the traditional pattern of the 'Three Treasures of Chengdu'; Chengdu Lacquerware Craft Factory Co., Ltd. is the project's protecting unit. Chengdu has been a collecting and distributing center for silk weaving and lacquerware in the southwest since ancient times; since the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, lacquer craftsmen have handed down their line under street-quarter names, dwelling together along a single lane within the city.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Chengdu lacquerware, also called lu lacquer (luqi), originated in the Shang and Zhou dynasties; the lacquer fragments unearthed at the Jinsha site still show brilliant patterns and bright colors today. The handmade and artistic nature of traditional lacquer art means that Chengdu lacquerware cannot be produced by industrial methods; finished pieces can only be made through manual labor, and the art can only be transmitted by oral instruction and personal example. In recent years, caught between tradition and modernity, Chengdu lacquer art is facing a grave survival crisis: the product market is narrow, makers lack successors, and many traditional techniques have begun to deform or be lost. Necessary protective measures must be taken as soon as possible to save this ancient handicraft that is about to die out. Song Xiping (recorded in the official archive of associated inheritors): Female, of Han ethnicity, born in 1951 in Chengdu, Sichuan. Representative inheritor of Chengdu lacquer art, a national-level intangible cultural heritage item (first batch); Master of Arts and Crafts of Sichuan Province. In 1972, Song Xiping studied under the craft master Chen Chunhe in the lacquerware workshop of the Chengdu Arts and Crafts Research Institute, learning the decorative carving craft of Chengdu lacquerware and the processes of making lacquer bodies, applying lacquer, and polishing, and mastering the full range of a lacquer worker's techniques in lacquerware production. Later, she was successively taught by Professor Qiao Shiguang of the lacquer art program at the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts, Professor Li Dashu of the lacquer art program at the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, and the lacquer artist Hu Kaixin of the Sichuan Arts and Crafts Research Institute, focusing on the various decorative techniques of lacquer craft. Song Xiping excels at carved-flower filled color; her fundamentals in engraved-tin silken luster are solid, she guides the knife like a brush, and her cutting is consummate. After retiring, she raised funds herself to establish a lacquer art studio, continued to create, and recruited apprentices. Her representative works include the carved-lacquer needle-engraved lacquer painting Wenjun Listening to the Qin, the large square box with phoenix pattern in engraved-tin silken luster, and the large archaistic imitation stacked box in engraved-tin filled color; of these, Wenjun Listening to the Qin was collected by the China National Arts and Crafts Museum in 1986. Yin Liping (recorded in the official archive of associated inheritors): Female, of Han ethnicity, born in 1953 in Chengdu, Sichuan. Representative inheritor of Chengdu lacquer art, a national-level intangible cultural heritage item (first batch); Master of Arts and Crafts of Sichuan Province. In 1977, she simultaneously studied lacquer art under the master Yu Shuyun. In the 1980s, Yin Liping successively studied and undertook advanced training in lacquer art design at the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts and the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts; she received the guidance of the veteran elders of lacquer art Shen Fuwen, Li Dashu, and Qiao Shiguang, and systematically studied Chinese painting, printmaking, watercolor, patterns, and decorative design. Yin Liping is especially skilled in decorative crafts; she is fully adept at carved-flower filled color, carved-lacquer shadow pattern, engraved-tin silken luster with blended color, piled-lacquer painted decoration, drawn-knife needle engraving, and sprinkled-painting mottled coating — the techniques that best represent the decorative artistry of Chengdu lacquer art. In addition, she has actively drawn on the strengths of Japanese lacquer art, expanding the decorative expressiveness of fine painted decoration and sprinkled painting in Chengdu lacquer art. Her representative works include the Rotating Fish-Pattern Stacked Box and The Twelve Beauties of Jinling. Yin Liping has passed on all of her skills to her apprentices without reserve, hoping that Chengdu lacquer art will pass on as an unbroken flame.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Song Xiping 01-0172
- Yin Liping 01-0173
- Qingyurong
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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