Zhuzhi Making Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
The Wanli-era Wenzhou Prefecture Gazetteer records that in the Northern Song dynasty, Wenzhou's juan paper was presented as tribute at 500 sheets per year. Jiang Huai of the Ming dynasty records in the Qihai Suotan (Idle Talk of the Coral Sea): "Wenzhou makes juan paper, white, compact, and smooth, broadly resembling Korean paper." Ping paper production developed rapidly; by the 1930s, ping paper was sold as far as Shanghai, Fujian, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. The craft continued to develop and has been transmitted mainly through families up to the present.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Ping paper is a paper for daily use manufactured with bamboo as the raw material, centered on Zeya in Ouhai District, Wenzhou City, in southern Zhejiang. The Zeya ping paper making craft is the folk craft of this region that produces ping paper through traditional handicraft. This craft is mainly distributed across 18 villages of Zeya Town, Ouhai District, Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province, among which Tangzhai Village, Xi'an Village, and Hengyang Village are representative. Papermaking in Zeya has gone through a thousand years from ancient times to the present, with the papermaking technology continuously developing. Zeya ping paper is made from Wenzhou water bamboo and other clustered bamboos as raw materials through 17 process steps: cutting bamboo, preparing the material, pickling and brushing, boiling the material (aoshuo), washing and brushing, pounding and brushing, treading and brushing, rinsing and brushing, preparing the vat (pincao), forming the sheets, pressing the sheets, separating the sheets, drying the sheets, arranging the sheets, taking the sheets apart, bundling the paper, and stamping. Some of these processes and steps correspond to those recorded in the Tiangong Kaiwu (Exploitation of the Works of Nature), and manual operation runs through the entire ping paper production process. The Zeya ping paper making craft has numerous process steps, laborious work, and modest returns, but it is closely related to people's daily life. The ping paper marketing system is complete, and from product production to the point of sale it is quite fully developed; it has been transmitted to the present. The people of Zeya act according to local conditions and use local materials, making scientific use of the water resources of the hills and of tools for pounding and brushing the material. The clustered bamboo used as papermaking raw material grows on the slopes on both sides of streams, and annual felling pays attention to healthy ecological cycling, giving the craft the character of sustainable development. Zeya has long been known as the "Paper Mountain." The Zeya ping paper making craft preserves and transmits relatively completely the papermaking technique, one of China's "Four Great Inventions." After the coastal evacuation and maritime ban of the early Qing dynasty, the population of Zeya gradually increased. The Zeya ping paper making craft is set among mountains and waters, integrated with the natural landscape; the entire production process coexists harmoniously with the ecology. The villages that transmit the ping paper making craft are scattered through the mountain forests, and the papermaking raw materials and power are both green and renewable. Overall, this craft combines scientific and artistic qualities, reflecting the awe and respect of the Chinese nation for the ecological environment.
Archival Record of Process Steps
Zeya ping paper is made from Wenzhou water bamboo and other clustered bamboos as raw materials through 17 process steps: cutting bamboo, preparing the material, pickling and brushing, boiling the material (aoshuo), washing and brushing, pounding and brushing, treading and brushing, rinsing and brushing, preparing the vat (pincao), forming the sheets, pressing the sheets, separating the sheets, drying the sheets, arranging the sheets, taking the sheets apart, bundling the paper, and stamping. Some of these processes and steps correspond to those recorded in the Tiangong Kaiwu (Exploitation of the Works of Nature), and manual operation runs through the entire ping paper production process.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The distinguishing features of this craft lie in its rich regional cultural character and the sustainability of its resources.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Zhuzhi Making Craftsmanship · Zhuzhi Making Craftsmanship · Zhuzhi Making Craftsmanship · Zhuzhi Making Craftsmanship · Zhuzhi Making Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Lin Zhiwen (from the official archive of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in February 1957, from Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province. Representative inheritor of the bamboo paper making craft (Zeya ping paper making craft), a fifth-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project. Zeya ping paper making technician. From the age of 7 he learned to make Zeya ping paper from his parents; at 13 he mastered the key ping paper technique of sheet forming, and fully grasped the 17 process steps and 109 operational stages of the craft, from material preparation and pulp beating to finished paper. Under the impact of modern processing industries, the ping paper market has shrunk drastically, and the ping paper making craft lacks successors. To preserve information and materials about the craft, he wrote out the ping paper production process in text, photographed it in pictures, and compiled these into a book. Based on his investigations and research into Zeya ping paper production and Paper Mountain culture, he also published "Zeya Papermaking." He has participated in academic symposiums such as the International Symposium on Comparative Studies of East Asian Popular Literature and Folk Culture and the China Bamboo Paper Protection and Development Symposium.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Yang Zhanyao 01-0183
- Zhuang Fuquan 01-0184
- Li Faer 04-1858
- Lin Zhiwen 05-2766
- Liu Yanggen 05-2767
- Li Zhijun 05-2768
- Chen Xiujun
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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