Fan Making Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
This indicates that by at least the Ming dynasty, the Yuezhou fan-making craft—characterized chiefly by multi-rib folding fans—had already reached a fairly superb level of refinement.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Yuezhou fan-making craft is a traditional handicraft transmitted through generations in Yueyang County and its surrounding areas in Yueyang City, Hunan Province; it takes its name from the fact that Yueyang formerly belonged to the 'Yuezhou Prefecture.' Yueyang County lies in the northeast of Hunan Province, on the eastern shore of Dongting Lake, in a middle-and-low latitude area of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, with distinct seasons, moderate heat, and abundant rainfall, providing superior natural conditions for the growth of more than ten species of bamboo such as Phyllostachys pubescens (nanzhu) and Fenghuang bamboo. The nanzhu produced in Yueyang has slender internodes and is an excellent material for making fan ribs. The Yuezhou fan-making craft uses nanzhu for the ribs, ox horn for the rivets, and xuan paper for the leaf; the materials are carefully selected and the craftsmanship rigorous. The craft is divided into two major procedures—rib making and leaf making—and includes seventy-two process steps such as cutting the tube, splitting the slats, pushing-green on the edge ribs, pushing-green on the small ribs, mounting the edge ribs, trimming the edges, polishing, drilling, wall-pressing, band-gripping, through-riveting, and leaf attachment. Among these, rib making and shaping are the most skill-demanding key steps of the Yuezhou fan; they must go through multiple processes such as sawing, splitting, planing, filing, boiling, and sunning. In making them one must have the complete bamboo formed in the mind, with heart and hand in accord, each step tightly linked, and polished with care; the polished fan is as warm and smooth as jade and as even as agate. The Yuezhou fan-making craft has a long history; the 'Gazetteer of Yuezhou Prefecture · Treatise on Food and Goods' of the Longqing reign of the Ming dynasty records: 'There are local products… fans (many ribs yet light).' The Yuezhou fan-making craft is the fruit of the creative summation by working people in long-term making practice; its long history is of fairly important significance to the study of fan culture. The Yuezhou fan-making craft is rigorous and complex, its materials carefully chosen, its leaf materials exquisite, and its varieties novel and numerous; coupled with inscriptions and paintings by famous artists on the fans, it possesses high artistic appreciation value.
Archival Record of Craft Procedures
The craft is divided into two major procedures—rib making and leaf making—and includes seventy-two process steps such as cutting the tube, splitting the slats, pushing-green on the edge ribs, pushing-green on the small ribs, mounting the edge ribs, trimming the edges, polishing, drilling, wall-pressing, band-gripping, through-riveting, and leaf attachment. Among these, rib making and shaping are the most skill-demanding key steps of the Yuezhou fan; they must go through multiple processes such as sawing, splitting, planing, filing, boiling, and sunning. In making them one must have the complete bamboo formed in the mind, with heart and hand in accord, each step tightly linked, and polished with care; the polished fan is as warm and smooth as jade and as even as agate.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Its main distribution areas are Yuetian Town, Maotian Town, Gongtian Town, and Zhangguying Town in Yueyang County. Yuezhou fan products include folding fans, round fans, painting-and-calligraphy fans, plantain (palm-leaf) fans, feather fans, and large hall hanging fans, depicting Yueyang's famous mountains, waters, towers, people, and literary works; among them the folding fan is the largest category, and the finished folding fan has a shuttle-like shape—tight at the mouth, slender at the tail, and bulging in the middle—with pronounced regional characteristics.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Fan Making Craftsmanship · Fan Making Craftsmanship · Fan Making Craftsmanship · Fan Making Craftsmanship · Fan Making Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Historically, the Yuezhou fan-making craft was transmitted mainly through two means—master-apprentice succession and family inheritance; the verifiable transmission lineage now extends to the sixth generation from the end of the Qing dynasty to the present. In recent years, means such as opening training classes and industry training have become important modes of social transmission. The craft currently has two provincial-level representative inheritors, one municipal-level representative inheritor, and two county-level representative inheritors, fifty-eight transmission groups large and small, and more than six hundred practitioners. Yuezhou fans are widely used in the daily life of the people and play a fairly important role in local life-cycle customs such as social intercourse, marriage, and funerals, possessing research value for folk-culture studies.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Xu Yilin 01-0193
- Chen Zifu 03-1339
- Xing Weizhong 04-1864
- Sun Yaqing 05-2777
- Wang Mingde
- Liu Zhengwen
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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