Pizhi Making Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
The Wanli-era Longyou County Annals of the Ming dynasty recorded Longyou's fame in papermaking with the phrase "much paper is burned, and its paper surpasses other counties," from which the claim of fourteen hundred years arises; this gazetteer comment in turn shows that output was already considerable in those years. The three lines of raw material for Longyou bark paper—mountain ailanthus bark (shan ya pi), wild cotton bark (ye mian pi) and wingceltis bark (qing tan pi)—correspond to different paper types; the division of labour among raw materials preceded the division among finished papers, and this layering is the foundation of the craft.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The bark-paper craft handed down in Longyou, Zhejiang, is praised in the Wanli-era Longyou County Annals of the Ming dynasty as "much paper is burned, and its paper surpasses other counties," and has a history of more than fourteen hundred years. Longyou bark paper uses mountain ailanthus bark, wild cotton bark and wingceltis bark as its main raw materials, and its making has two flows with more than thirty steps. The first is the bark-material flow, mainly comprising cutting branches, steaming the material, peeling the bark, steaming the bark, treading and washing, spreading to dry, making the bark blank, tearing and selecting, boiling, rubbing and washing, pressing, spreading to sun-cure, washing, beating the material, selecting the bark, washing, air-drying, bagging and so on; the second is the finished-product flow, comprising pressing the material, putting the bark material into the trough, raking the trough, adding the sizing, stirring, sheet-forming (lao zhi), pressing the paper, baking the paper, inspecting the paper, cutting the paper and packaging. The making requires more than fifty tools with different functions, such as the mountain-cutting knife (xian shan dao), bark-scraping knife, chopper, steamer, paper mould (zhi lian), mould bed (lian chuang) and trough corner (cao jiao). The making of Longyou bark paper relies entirely on the artisan's naked-eye observation and tactile experience. For example, in the sheet-forming step the depth at which the mould bed enters the vat and the size of the wave raised can only be judged by eye and feel, and these determine the quality of the finished paper. With the bark-paper craft one can also process more than thirty varieties such as huaxian paper, note paper (jian zhi), guose paper and special papers; they are used not only for calligraphy and painting but also for binding and packaging. Folk workshops in the southern mountainous area of Longyou County still preserve the complete handmade craft of mountain ailanthus bark paper and wild cotton bark paper; a few inheritors such as Wan Aizhu still guard this ancient manual craft, but the scale is small and it urgently needs protection.
Documented production process
Longyou bark paper uses mountain ailanthus bark, wild cotton bark and wingceltis bark as its main raw materials, and its making has two flows with more than thirty steps.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
In terms of distribution, the southern mountainous area of Longyou County still preserves complete handmade workshops for mountain ailanthus bark paper and wild cotton bark paper, running in parallel with the county's scaled production; the two paths each sustain their own artisans. Wan Aizhu entered the Longyou Muchen Paper-Socialist collective to learn the craft in 1972 and in 1994 founded her own Zhejiang Longyou Chengang Xuan Paper Co., Ltd., joining the old path of bark-making and the new path of paper-forming in the same pair of hands.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Pizhi Making Craftsmanship · Pizhi Making Craftsmanship · Pizhi Making Craftsmanship · Pizhi Making Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Wan Aizhu (from the official archival record of the associated inheritor): female, Han, born in April 1951, a native of Longyou County, Zhejiang Province. Representative inheritor of the national-level intangible cultural heritage item, the bark-paper craft (Longyou bark-paper craft) (fourth batch). Bark-paper-making technician. In 1972 she entered the Longyou Muchen Paper-Socialist collective (formerly the Longyou Xuan Paper Factory) and learned the Longyou bark-paper craft from folk artisans. In 1994 she founded Zhejiang Longyou Chengang Xuan Paper Co., Ltd. Through diligent study and practice she completely inherited every stage of the Longyou bark-paper craft. The Shou-brand bark papers she makes are varied in type, complete in specification, and distinctively and characteristically crafted. She produces the three traditional bark-paper categories of cooked bark paper, raw bark paper and note paper, deeply esteemed by the calligraphy and painting community. She stresses teaching apprentices; she has not only taken on more than ten apprentices but also conducted large-scale training for inheritors of the Longyou bark-paper craft, with a dozen or so new recruits taken into the factory as apprentices each year, training over four hundred workers who can master the Longyou bark-paper craft.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Luo Shouquan 01-0179
- Liu Shiyang 01-0180
- Wang Xingwu 03-1330
- Wan Aizhu 04-1855
- Zhang Shifeng 05-2764
- Pan Yuhua 05-2765
- Hu Zongliang
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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