Sangpizhi Making Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
According to the Qianshan County Gazetteer, mulberry bark paper was already produced in Qianshan County, Anhui, as early as the Han dynasty, giving it a history of more than 1,700 years. Because this paper originated in the Han dynasty, it is also called "Hanpi paper" (Han bark paper). During the major renovation of the Forbidden City in 2004-2005, handmade mulberry bark paper from Qianshan and Yuexi counties was widely used in the project as a specially selected material.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Mulberry bark paper comes in three sizes - dahan (large), zhonghan (medium), and xiaohan (small) - and is produced entirely by hand. The full production process consists of material selection, steaming and boiling, bark sorting, pulp making, forming the sheets on a screen, and baking. The finished paper is soft and flexible, strong in tensile strength, and resistant to tearing, fading, and moths; it is non-toxic and highly absorbent. It is used mainly for calligraphy and painting, mounting, restoration of classical texts, packaging, and umbrella making.
Archival Record of Process Steps
Mulberry bark paper comes in three sizes - dahan (large), zhonghan (medium), and xiaohan (small) - all produced by hand; the entire production process consists of material selection, steaming and boiling, bark sorting, pulp making, forming the sheets on a screen, and baking.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The mulberry bark paper making craft is centered on Yuexi County, Anhui Province, and together with the papermaking villages of the Qianshan area belongs to the traditional handmade paper producing region of the mountainous southwest of Anhui. Yuexi lies in the heart of the Dabie Mountains; mulberry trees are mostly planted on slopes, and stripping the bark by hand is time-consuming, so output is modest while the texture is resilient. The Yuexi County Cultural Center is the project's protecting institution.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Uyghur Sangpizhi Making Craftsmanship · Sangpizhi Making Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The mulberry bark paper currently produced in Guanzhuang Town, Qianshan County, and Maojianshan Township, Yuexi County, is of excellent quality; tested by the China Paper Research Institute, it has basically reached the craft level of the Qianlong period of the Qing dynasty. Mulberry bark paper making is an ancient handicraft with high craft, historical, and cultural value. Handed down through generations, meticulously improved and carefully protected, it is still being continuously transmitted and refined today. Qianshan and Yuexi counties have formulated protection plans and intend to take further concrete measures to protect and transmit this ancient handicraft well. Wang Bolin (from the official archive of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in October 1965, from Yuexi County, Anhui Province. Representative inheritor of the mulberry bark paper making craft, a third-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project. Mulberry bark paper making technician. Born into a papermaking family, he is the seventh-generation transmitter of the mulberry bark paper making craft. Carrying on the traditional technique, he makes paper by hand using purely natural materials and auxiliary ingredients, and is a well-known local master of mulberry bark paper making. The paper he produces is soft and moist, strong in tensile strength, and resistant to tearing and fading; it is moth-proof, non-toxic, and highly absorbent. It is used mainly for restoring classical texts and high-grade packaging, and is the specially required paper for restoring ancient paintings at the Palace Museum in Beijing and rare and fine books at the National Library of China. Besides being sold in cities such as Tianjin, Shanghai, and Wuhan, the paper is exported to Japan, Singapore, and other countries.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Tuohuti Tuerdi 01-0182
- Wangbolin 03-1333
- Liu Tongyan 04-1857
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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