Engraved Block Printing Technique
01 · Historical Records
The Sibao carved-block printing craft of Liancheng County, Fujian Province, originated in the Song dynasty, developed in the Ming, and reached its zenith in the Qing; it is mainly transmitted in Wuge Village and Mawu Village, Sibao Township, Liancheng County, Fujian Province. Sibao was one of the four great carved-block printing bases of China during the Ming and Qing dynasties. In the eighth year of the Wanli reign of the Ming (1580), Wuge Village first opened a book shop (shufang).
02 · Core Techniques & Process
During the Kangxi reign of the Qing, Sibao carved-block printing gradually flourished, and by the Qianlong–Jiaqing and Daoguang periods a prosperous situation emerged, creating a brilliant achievement in the history of China's carved-block printing. The Sibao carved-block printing craft is purely hand-operated and exquisitely made. Its block making can be roughly divided into five stages: blank-block making, blank-block writing, block carving, printing, and binding. Blank-block making includes material selection, plank sawing, soaking, drying, and planing; blank-block writing includes writing the sample and transferring it to the block; block carving includes cutting the block, hollowing, ruling lines, and retouching; printing includes fixing the block, inking, laying paper, pressing, and drying; binding includes folding leaves, collating signatures, cutting paper with a curved knife, punching holes with an awl, and threading. The tools used in carved-block printing mainly include the carving knife, curved chisel, flat chisel, oblique chisel, iron hammer, plane, saw, palm brush, small ink trough, and paper. Printing is one of the four great inventions of ancient China, and the Sibao carved-block printing craft is an important representative of China's carved-block printing, embodying several excellent traditional techniques such as ink making, carving, and rubbing. It provided convenient means for cultural transmission; it is a true record and witness of the leading position of ancient Chinese civilization in the world, and possesses extremely special historical and cultural value.
Five stages of the Four Fort process
Five stages — blank making, writing on the blank, carving, printing and binding — each broken down into its own operations.
The wholly hand-made plate
The whole process is done by hand, each pear- or camphor-wood plate taking days or sometimes months to cut.
Its Qing heyday
From Kangxi through Qianlong, Jiaqing and Daoguang the Four Fort workshops printed genealogies, gazetteers, medical texts and primers.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
During the Kangxi reign of the Qing, Sibao carved-block printing gradually flourished, and by the Qianlong–Jiaqing and Daoguang periods a prosperous situation emerged, creating a brilliant achievement in the history of China's carved-block printing. Sibao lies in the south of Liancheng County, Fujian Province; since the Southern Song it has been a homeland of paper-making and book carving in western Fujian. Many book shops were set up in the villages, and Sibao's printing blocks and manuscripts were once exported in large quantities to Jiangnan and Nanyang (Southeast Asia). During the Kangxi reign of the Qing, Sibao carved-block printing gradually flourished, and by the Qianlong–Jiaqing and Daoguang periods a prosperous situation emerged, creating a brilliant achievement in the history of China's carved-block printing. Sibao lies in the south of Liancheng County, Fujian Province; since the Southern Song it has been a homeland of paper-making and book carving in western Fujian. Many book shops were set up in the villages, and Sibao's printing blocks and manuscripts were once exported in large quantities to Jiangnan and Nanyang. The paper used for Sibao's book carving was mostly local bamboo paper and native paper, and many villages also made their own paper to supply the carving shops; in spare time from printing, carvers often used leftover block material to carve small items such as paperweights and ink boxes for their own use, so the small woodcarvings of Sibao also carry a block-carving flavor. When blocks were stored, palm brushes were used to apply wax against insects, and during the plum-rain season they had to be turned out and sunned, so book shops often kept their block storerooms upstairs. During the Kangxi reign of the Qing, Sibao carved-block printing gradually flourished, and by the Qianlong–Jiaqing and Daoguang periods a prosperous situation emerged, creating a brilliant achievement in the history of China's carved-block printing. Sibao lies in the south of Liancheng County, Fujian Province; since the Southern Song it has been a homeland of paper-making and book carving in western Fujian. Many book shops were set up in the villages, and Sibao's printing blocks and manuscripts were once exported in large quantities to Jiangnan and Nanyang. The paper used for Sibao's book carving was mostly local bamboo paper and native paper, and many villages also made their own paper to supply the carving shops; in spare time from printing, carvers often used leftover block material to carve small items such as paperweights and ink boxes for their own use, so the small woodcarvings of Sibao also carry a block-carving flavor. When blocks were stored, palm brushes were used to apply wax against insects, and during the plum-rain season they had to be turned out and sunned, so book shops often kept their block storerooms upstairs. The books carved there were mostly genealogies, local gazetteers, medical texts, and elementary readers; a single gazetteer often required dozens of blocks carved consecutively, needing many workers collaborating for dozens of days to complete, so the village carvers were largely specialized: those who wrote the samples, those who transferred them to blocks, those who carved characters, and those who printed were each separate, and a book's completion required many hands joined together.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Engraved Block Printing Technique · Engraved Block Printing Technique · Engraved Block Printing Technique.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
This folk printing craft is mainly transmitted within families and, handed down to the present, has passed through fifteen generations.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Chen Yishi 01-0191
- Huang Xiaojian 05-2774
- Xiawuta 05-2775
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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