Traditional Handicraft of Making Xuan Paper
01 · Historical Records
The varieties of xuan paper produced are numerous, and innovation continued through production; after 1949 new products such as the "zhang er" and "er zhang" sizes were successfully made. Since the Tang dynasty, xuan paper has been loved by the Chinese people; its production reached its zenith in the Qing dynasty, when famous brands such as Wang Liugi and Wang Tonghe appeared and won many awards at home and abroad.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Papermaking is one of the four great inventions of ancient China; xuan paper is the most outstanding representative of traditional handmade paper, ranking first among the Four Treasures of the Study, with a history of over one thousand five hundred years. The place of origin of xuan paper is Jing County, Anhui. Here the climate is mild and rainfall abundant; the special karst mountains suit the growth of the wingceltis (qing tan) tree, while the alluvial plains suit the growing of long-stalk rice—both the wingceltis bark and the rice straw provide fine raw materials for making xuan paper. Within Jing County there are several rivers, especially two tributaries in the upper reaches of the Wuxi stream—one mildly alkaline, suited to processing the raw material, and one mildly acidic, suited to the water for forming the paper. Xuan paper uses wingceltis bark as its main material, blended in proportion with sandy-field rice-straw pulp; the whole production process consists of more than one hundred and forty steps. Xuan paper has a pure white, fine and close texture, clear grain, and is soft, pliable and tough—it can be folded a hundred times without damage, is lustrous yet not slippery, absorbs water and holds ink, is good for both calligraphy and painting, and resists decay and insects, hence its praise as "paper that outlasts a thousand years" and "king of papers." When Guo Moruo visited the Jing County xuan-paper factory he wrote: "Xuan paper is an artistic creation invented by the working people of China; without it, Chinese calligraphy and painting could not express the subtlety of art." The handmade production of xuan paper and its paper qualities embody the strengths of traditional craft, a craft that to this day cannot be replaced by machinery. However, the economic returns from collecting and cultivating the raw materials of xuan paper—wingceltis bark and long-stalk rice—are poor, and a serious crisis has appeared in the raw materials; meanwhile, because of the bad business conduct of certain manufacturers, counterfeit goods have damaged the reputation of xuan paper and the market has fallen into near chaos; the transmission of the xuan-paper craft is a cause for concern.
Documented production process
Xuan paper uses wingceltis bark as its main material, blended in proportion with sandy-field rice-straw pulp; the whole production process consists of more than one hundred and forty steps.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The place of origin of xuan paper is Jing County, Anhui. Here the climate is mild and rainfall abundant; the special karst mountains suit the growth of the wingceltis tree, while the alluvial plains suit the growing of long-stalk rice—both the wingceltis bark and the rice straw provide fine raw materials for making xuan paper. Within Jing County there are several rivers, especially two tributaries in the upper reaches of the Wuxi stream that provide extremely clear stream water for sheet-forming (lao zhi). China Xuan Paper Co., Ltd. is the protecting unit of the item.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Red Star brand xuan paper made by the present xuan-paper group company is a China Well-Known Trademark and an original-region protected brand granted by the technical supervision authorities, selling as far as Japan and other countries. Xing Chunrong (from the official archival record of the associated inheritor): male, Han, born in 1954, a native of Jing County, Anhui. Representative inheritor of the national-level intangible cultural heritage item, the craft of making xuan paper (first batch). The Cao clan of Xiaoling in Jing County is the principal transmitter of the xuan-paper craft. Paper drying (shai zhi) is an essential step in handmaking xuan paper and continues to this day; drying the sheets requires the hands of an embroiderer and the strength of a robust body. He actively advocated and practised the ancient method of making xuan paper; during his time as an operator he personally trained more than twenty paper-drying apprentices, and now, as a technical leader, he actively promotes training for inheritors of the traditional xuan-paper craft. He took part in producing the xuan paper for the return of Hong Kong, the return of Macau and the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of New China; the millennium xuan paper collectively developed was entered into the Guinness World Records in 2000 as the largest handmade paper and was collected by the Palace Museum. The Red Star brand four-foot single, fine-bark sheet that he dried won the National Quality Gold Award three times in a row, in 1979, 1984 and 1989. Cao Guanghua (from the official archival record of the associated inheritor): male, Han, born in September 1954, a native of Jing County, Anhui Province. Representative inheritor of the national-level intangible cultural heritage item, the craft of making xuan paper (fifth batch). Master of Arts and Crafts of Anhui Province. He entered a xuan-paper enterprise in 1970, mastered the entire production process, and persisted in research and development of the traditional xuan-paper craft, restoring to production such long-lost varieties as the bailu paper. In 2006 he registered the "Cao Guanghua" brand of xuan paper. Several of his disciples have become mainstays of the industry. The Red Flag brand xuan paper he led in developing and producing won a gold award at the Asia-Pacific Exposition sponsored by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and others; the Guanghua xuan paper he developed won the Gold Award for Quality Products of China's Four Treasures of the Study industry, conferred by the China Four Treasures of the Study Association.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Xing Chunrong 01-0178
- Cao Guanghua 05-2762
- Wang Xifa
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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