Maofangzhijiganzhijiyi
01 · Historical Records
By the Tang dynasty, the use of felt had become widespread; the saddle felts of Yuanzhou (present-day Gu County, Ningxia), Lingzhou (present-day Lingwu County, Ningxia), Ningzhou (present-day Ning County, Gansu), and Fengzhou (present-day Wuyuan County, Inner Mongolia) were all renowned throughout the northwest. As early as the Zhiyuan years of the Yuan dynasty, the craft of felt-fulling had already appeared within the Dongxiang area; it was introduced by the Sarta people, ancestors of the Dongxiang, from Central Asia.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Wool-textile fulling is a special weaving craft. It first soaks wool or camel hair in hot water, then compresses it; by rolling and rubbing it with wooden sticks the fibers are made to bind together, forming a non-woven wool fabric known as 'felt' (zhan). In antiquity felt was also known by other names; as early as the Neolithic period, China already possessed the craft of fulling felt by rolling it with wooden sticks. Histories of the Zhou dynasty record: 'Felt is wool; it is made by rubbing wool into felt.' Jia Sixie's Qimin Yaoshu (Essential Techniques for the Welfare of the People), of the Northern Wei (386-534), states: 'In making felt, thickness and size are not what matter; rather, it should be tightly compacted, thin, and even to be good.' That such guidance appears shows felt-making was already fairly common at the time. According to the New Book of Tang, the Tubo kingdom (located on the present-day Qinghai-Tibet Plateau) was also famous for its red felt and rosy-hued felt, and presented them as tribute to Chang'an. At present, the main felt-producing areas are concentrated in the northwestern minority regions of Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia. By use it is divided into many varieties, including kang felt (bed felt), cushion felt, prayer felt, inner-wall felt (wrapped around the inner walls of a yurt), outer-wall felt (wrapped around the outer walls), colored felt (fulled from dyed wool), embroidered felt (decorated with embroidery), cut-and-carved felt (cut into relief following the outline of the colored pattern on the felt), and stove felt (placed by the stove). Felt is also used to sew satchels, dalian (shoulder pouches), and miscellaneous bags, and is an indispensable necessity in the daily life of northwestern minority peoples. Dongxiang Autonomous County lies in the southwest-center of Gansu Province; felt-fulling is a bed necessity in every Dongxiang household. Historically this craft spread throughout the whole autonomous county, being most prominent in townships such as Longquan and Dongling. Felt-fulling is a traditional Dongxiang craft whose process steps include selecting the wool, loosening it by beating, shaping it, and washing the felt. The kinds of wool felt include spring-wool felt, sha felt (made of goat wool), autumn-wool felt, and cotton-wool felt, of which the autumn-wool and cotton-wool felts are the finest. In addition, wool felt can be made into felt hats, felt shoes, and felt saddle blankets (used under the saddle). Dongxiang wool felt is famed throughout the northwest for being soft, comfortable, even, clean, handsome and generous, and long-lasting, and is beloved by people of all ethnicities and by herdsmen. With social development and the changing times, the felt-making craft has been battered by modern textile technology and is near to being lost; felt-fulling has few successors and urgent protection is needed.
Archival process record
Felt-fulling is a traditional Dongxiang craft whose process steps include selecting the wool, loosening it by beating, shaping it, and washing the felt.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
By size, felt is usually divided into the si-liu felt (four chi wide, six chi long), the wu-qi felt, the single-person felt, and the prayer felt, while by color it is divided into white felt, patterned felt, red felt, and waqing felt (made by mixing black and white wool). For this reason it has become one of the important dowry items for a girl when she marries locally.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Maofangzhijiganzhijiyi · Maofangzhijiganzhijiyi · Maofangzhijiganzhijiyi · Maofangzhijiganzhijiyi.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Mashele (per the official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, Dongxiang ethnicity, born April 1944, a native of Dongxiang Autonomous County, Gansu Province. Representative inheritor of the third batch of the national-level intangible cultural heritage item 'Wool-textile and Fulling Craft (Dongxiang Felt-fulling Craft).' A Dongxiang felt-fulling craftsman. Dongxiang felt-fulling is generally divided into the wu-qi felt, the si-ba felt, the white felt, and the wapan felt. He excels at making white felt (a kind of felt made from pure sheep wool); the white felt he makes is supple yet firm, also good at resisting damp, and long-lasting. To better inherit and protect the Dongxiang felt-fulling craft, in 2003 he established a felt-fulling workshop with his son at the Longquan Township market, devoted to wool-felt processing and the transmission and teaching of the felt-fulling craft.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Mashelei 03-1360
- Abulizi Tuerxun 04-1879
- Shuogerequ 05-2801
- Dongcuo 05-2802
- Basang
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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