Jinlingkejingyinshuajiyi
01 · Historical Records
Nanjing was anciently called Jinling; it is an ancient capital of six dynasties, with a long history and deep cultural accumulation, and its Buddhist sutra-carving enterprise reaches far back into the past.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
In the fifth year of the Tongzhi reign of the Qing dynasty (1866), far-sighted figures such as Yang Renshan, a founding figure of the modern revival of Buddhist culture in China, founded the Jinling Sutra-Carving Studio, which has inherited the ancient Chinese craft of woodblock printing of Buddhist scriptures and images and has enjoyed a high reputation at home and abroad for over a century. The Jinling sutra carving preserves the traditional Chinese craft of woodblock water-printing; it consists of three stages: first, block carving, including the steps of writing the sample, mounting the sample, and engraving; second, printing, including the steps of placing the block, brushing on ink, laying the paper, pressing and rubbing, and lifting the paper; third, binding, including the steps of separating the pages, folding the leaves, gathering and aligning, binding and pressing, counting the copies, aligning the columns, threading the paper twists, attaching the front and back covers, collating the book, cutting the book, punching binding holes, and affixing the title slip. The Jinling sutra carvings select their texts with rigorous precision, contain pure and correct content, are collated with strict care, have an open and airy layout, use large and pleasing characters, are carved and printed with refinement, and employ excellent paper and ink; they are customarily known as 'Jinling editions.' The carving and printing techniques of Jinling sutra carving are transmitted orally from master to disciple and have now reached the seventh generation. However, hand-printed thread-bound scriptures cost more and are priced higher than flat-bound machine-printed scriptures, and their buyers are relatively fixed; these circumstances have limited and affected the production and circulation of the carved scriptures.
Archival Record of Craft Procedures
The Jinling sutra carving preserves the traditional Chinese craft of woodblock water-printing; it consists of three stages: first, block carving, including the steps of writing the sample, mounting the sample, and engraving; second, printing, including the steps of placing the block, brushing on ink, laying the paper, pressing and rubbing, and lifting the paper; third, binding, including the steps of separating the pages, folding the leaves, gathering and aligning, binding and pressing, counting the copies, aligning the columns, threading the paper twists, attaching the front and back covers, collating the book, cutting the book, punching binding holes, and affixing the title slip.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Jinling sutra-carving printing craft is centered on Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province—the present site of the Jinling Sutra-Carving Studio. In the fifth year of the Tongzhi reign of the Qing dynasty (1866), far-sighted figures such as Yang Renshan, a founding figure of the modern revival of Buddhist culture in China, founded the Jinling Sutra-Carving Studio, which has inherited the ancient Chinese craft of woodblock printing of Buddhist scriptures and images and has enjoyed a high reputation at home and abroad for over a century. The Jinling sutra carving preserves the traditional Chinese craft of woodblock water-printing, which consists of three stages: block carving, printing, and binding.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Jinling Sutra-Carving Studio is located at 35 Huaihai Road, Baixia District, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province. Covering a total area of 3,923 square meters, it collects 125,318 Buddhist scripture blocks and 18 large Buddha-image blocks. It is a renowned Buddhist cultural institution in China and also a Buddhist scripture publishing institution that integrates the collection of ancient scriptures and blocks, the carving and printing of scriptures, their distribution, and Buddhist studies. At present, the studio hand-prints more than three hundred kinds of Buddhist canonical texts, about one-fifth of the total number of scripture blocks, including important scriptures and treatises such as the 'Avatamsaka Sutra' (Huayan jing, 80 volumes) and the 'Complete Collected Translations and Writings of Dharma Master Xuanzang' (1,347 volumes). At present the Jinling Sutra-Carving Studio has only two engravers; the transmission problem is acute, and the sutra-carving craft could be lost at any time, so measures must be taken to discover, rescue, and protect it. Ma Mengqing (per the official archive of the associated inheritor): Male, Hui ethnicity, born September 1963, from Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province. A representative inheritor of the fourth national-level batch of the Jinling sutra-carving printing craft, a national intangible cultural heritage project. Having practiced the craft for forty years, he has become a technical backbone of carving and restoration at the Jinling Sutra-Carving Studio, having carved and restored tens of thousands of scripture and image blocks. His carved works are numerous; representative pieces such as the 'Xiyuan lu,' the 'Shangshan Qixia,' and the 'Illustration of Dharma Master Xuanzang Translating Scriptures' display refined knife work, delicate lines, exquisite craftsmanship, and archaic solemnity, revealing the rich connotations of block-carving art and Buddhist culture. The damaged blocks he has restored seem reborn; the repaired areas merge seamlessly with the original, restoring the old while keeping it old.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Ma Mengqing 04-1863
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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