Linqinggongzhuan Firing Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
During the Yongle reign of the Ming dynasty, the Yongle Emperor (Zhu Di) moved the capital to Beijing and, over more than a decade, undertook large-scale construction to build the imperial palaces and gardens. For this purpose, official kilns were specifically established in Linqing to fire bricks for construction. Production at the Linqing official kilns continued through the Qing dynasty, spanning a total of over five hundred years. According to records, the Linqing brick kilns were supervised in their production by the Office of Works (Yingshan Fensi) of the Ministry of Works from the Ming dynasty onward. In the eighteenth year of the Shunzhi reign of the Qing dynasty (1661), supervision was transferred to the Governor of Shandong, and the undertaking was managed by the prefect (zhizhou) of Linqing Prefecture. The Linqing brick kilns of the Ming and Qing dynasties numbered several hundred, distributed along the banks of the canal over a stretch of thirty to forty kilometers, with tens of thousands of kiln workers. After the mid-Ming period, the products of the Linqing official kilns became the principal material for building the imperial palaces and were called "Linqing tribute bricks." Because the repair of cultural relics and historic sites and the construction of imitation classical buildings required large quantities of tribute bricks, in 1996 the descendants of the tribute-brick kiln households of Taotun in the east and west of Linqing city revived the traditional craft and resumed tribute-brick production. The tribute bricks they fire are basically consistent with those of the Ming and Qing dynasties in specification and quality. They have now passed the appraisal of the Shandong Provincial Construction Engineering Supervision Center and have successively been used in the repair of the Penglai Pavilion, Jinan's Daming Lake, and the Du Fu Thatched Cottage in Chengdu.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
In the fiftieth year of the Qianlong reign (1785), the brick kilns were placed exclusively under the administration of Linqing Prefecture. The reason the brick kilns were located in Linqing was twofold: first, Linqing lay close to the canal, making transport convenient so that finished bricks could be shipped to the capital aboard grain-transport vessels; second, the local soil of Linqing was exceptional. Because of the repeated alluvial deposits of the Yellow River, in many places digging down just over a meter reveals reddish, white, and yellow interlayered earth known as "lotus soil." This earth is free of impurities and has an ideal sandy-cohesive texture; once fired into bricks it is described as "ringing when struck, poreless when broken, hard and solid, neither alkaline nor erosive." The firing craft of Linqing tribute bricks is highly complex and refined. The finished products—including tribute bricks, auxiliary bricks, arch bricks, axe-edge bricks, line bricks, flat bricks, roof-board bricks, square bricks, ridge-ornament bricks, and carved bricks—generally weigh around 25 kilograms each, with the heaviest reaching thirty to forty kilograms. The longevity bricks used in the imperial mausoleum structures such as the Ming Thirteen Tombs, the Eastern Qing Tombs, and the Western Qing Tombs were also fired at Linqing. In addition, Linqing tribute bricks have also been successively discovered in the Zhonghua Gate wall of Nanjing, the Confucius Temple in Qufu of Shandong, the Jingmen at Zhangqiu Town of Dezhou, and the Achia area. These tribute bricks remain neither alkaline nor erosive to this day, and ring when struck.
The lotus-soil clay
Beneath a metre of river silt lies a banded red, white and yellow clay without impurities, which rings true and shows no grain when broken.
Carried to Beijing by canal
The kilns sat on the canal so that the bricks could be carried to Beijing on the grain boats, and from 1785 they were a state works.
State bricks for city walls
Set by statute in size, joint and mortar, the official brick inspector at the kiln rejected most of what came out of each firing.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The craft of firing Linqing tribute bricks centers on Linqing City, Shandong Province. In the fiftieth year of the Qianlong reign (1785), the brick kilns were placed exclusively under the administration of Linqing Prefecture. The reason the kilns were located in Linqing was twofold: first, Linqing lay close to the canal, making transport convenient so that finished bricks could be shipped to the capital aboard grain-transport vessels; second, the local soil was exceptional—because of the repeated alluvial deposits of the Yellow River, digging down just over a meter reveals reddish, white, and yellow interlayered earth known as "lotus soil." Linqing is today one of the production sites of Ming and Qing official-kiln tribute bricks.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Today, Linqing tribute bricks can be seen everywhere on the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, the Temple of Earth, the Temple of the Sun, the Temple of the Moon, the Bell and Drum Towers, the Temple of Confucius, the Imperial College, the various city gate towers, and the princely mansion buildings in Beijing. At present, Linqing tribute bricks are still in the early stage of revival and still need protection and support to ensure the inheritance and development of the traditional production craft.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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