Ditan Weaving Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
During the Tang dynasty, both imperial courts and the residences of the wealthy laid out carpets. In the Yuan dynasty, influenced by the Mongolian way of life, the imperial court established workshops for sheared floral carpets, among others. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, carpet weaving in Gansu, Xinjiang, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Beijing, and other places developed rapidly. Carpet-weaving techniques were introduced to China from the Western Regions during the Western Han dynasty, and by the Tang dynasty the craft in the Central Plains had largely matured. Since the 20th century, Beijing palace carpets have developed further. In 1900, Beijing palace carpets won a gold medal at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, France. By 1920, there were already 354 Beijing palace carpet workshops, making it one of China's principal carpet-producing regions. In 1956, the publicly-private Beijing No. 1 Carpet Factory was established; it later merged with the Third Carpet Cooperative, renamed "Xicheng Carpet Factory," and in 1965 was renamed "Beijing No. 5 Carpet Factory." From the late 1970s to the early 1990s, exports of Beijing palace carpets were at their peak, earning wide international renown.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The handcraft of hand-knotted wool pile carpet weaving is a Chinese manual craft rich in ethnic character; it coils wool yarn into knots that are looped onto a carpet base woven from interlacing cotton warp and weft threads, forming a raised pile surface. Carpet weaving with wool yarn in China began roughly in the Neolithic period. The two-ply wool pile carpets unearthed from the Lop Nur area of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and from a Han-dynasty tomb in Minfeng County show that carpet weaving had already reached a high level by the Eastern Han period. The craft of carpet weaving comprises stages such as design, weaving, surface leveling, clipping (cutting flat patterns into three-dimensional relief with scissors), washing, and finishing. Some of the wool yarn used for weaving is still dyed with ancient plant-based dyes. Chinese carpets are not only daily necessities for ethnic-minority communities but are also exported abroad in large quantities. Carpet patterns draw on the characteristics of ancient bronzes, embroidery, brocade, porcelain, and other decorative arts, while carpets of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Ningxia, and Tibet each display their own distinct artistic features. Beijing hand-made carpets were formerly called "guanfang tan" (official-workshop carpets) and also "gong tan" (palace carpets). In the Yuan dynasty the carpet industry flourished, and large-scale weaving workshops emerged. In the Ming dynasty, government-run carpet institutions began weaving high-quality official-workshop carpets. After the Qing dynasty, the patterns of Beijing official-workshop carpets gradually developed an artistic style blending the colors and motifs of multiple ethnic groups. The craft of Beijing hand-made carpet weaving mainly comprises three aspects: first, the specialized equipment used in weaving, namely the loom beam; second, the dedicated tools and measuring instruments for weaving; and third, the traditional division of the craft into two technical types—draw-twist carpet weaving and pull-twist carpet weaving. The production process of Beijing palace carpets mainly consists of three stages—preliminary preparation, carpet forming, and beautification and finishing—characterized by: first, refined pattern design and flawless conception; second, careful material selection and accurate yarn matching; and third, meticulous processing pursued to perfection. Beijing hand-made carpets fully embody traditional Chinese culture and the art of the Beijing court; the trade calls them "Jingshi carpets" (Beijing-style carpets), and building on this foundation they spread to the folk, giving them both imperial grandeur and folk flavor.
Documented Process Steps
The production process of Beijing palace carpets mainly consists of three process steps—preliminary preparation, carpet forming, and beautification and finishing—characterized by: first, refined pattern design and flawless conception; second, careful material selection and accurate yarn matching; and third, meticulous processing pursued to perfection.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The line of transmission of Beijing palace carpets rests with several old factories and several generations of artisans: the publicly-private Beijing No. 1 Carpet Factory established in 1956, which later merged with the Third Carpet Cooperative and was renamed Xicheng Carpet Factory, and in 1965 became Beijing No. 5 Carpet Factory. Within the factory, the craft branches into the draw-twist and pull-twist schools. Kang Yusheng apprenticed under Chen Ziquan at the Jushuncheng Carpet Factory in 1947, and summarized the five-character operating method of "level, smooth, accurate, neat, base" and eight techniques of pressing, squeezing, padding, nailing, scraping, wedging, reversing, and moistening; in 2005 he rescued the gold-thread coil carpet craft, and Wang Guoying became its fifth-generation inheritor.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Ditan Weaving Craftsmanship · Ditan Weaving Craftsmanship · Ditan Weaving Craftsmanship · Ditan Weaving Craftsmanship · Ditan Weaving Craftsmanship · Ditan Weaving Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Beijing palace carpet weaving craft has always been passed down orally from master to apprentice. Currently, impacted by the modern carpet industry, weaving enterprises are struggling, successors are few, and the craft faces the danger of being lost; active rescue and protection are needed. Kang Yusheng (per the official archives of the associated inheritor): male, Han ethnicity, born February 1933, a native of Beijing. Representative inheritor of the third national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage item "Carpet Weaving Craft (Beijing Palace Carpet Weaving Craft)." A carpet-weaving technician. In 1947 he apprenticed under Chen Ziquan at the Jushuncheng Carpet Factory, learning pattern painting and color coordination. He has thoroughly mastered the complete craft and innovatively summarized the full operating method of "level, smooth, accurate, neat, base" and eight technical techniques of pressing, squeezing, padding, nailing, scraping, wedging, reversing, and moistening, which were incorporated into the industry's teaching and quality-assessment standards. He excels at using carpet specifications and the directional structure of the double warp and weft to vary the knotting and clustered-pile arrangements and change pattern forms. His artistic style is fluent, beautiful, flexible, and exquisite—like a painting up close and rhythmic from afar. In 2005 he participated in rescuing and excavating the gold-thread coil carpet weaving craft. His representative works include "National Beauty and Heavenly Fragrance" and "Immortal Longevity," among others. He took on apprentices including Wang Guoying, Miao Guifu, and Gao Chunrong. Wang Guoying (per the official archives of the associated inheritor): female, Han ethnicity, born July 1967, a native of Beijing. Representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage item "Carpet Weaving Craft (Beijing Palace Carpet Weaving Craft)." She has thoroughly mastered the techniques of palace carpet design, weaving, and carving/clipping, engages in craft research and production, has successively undertaken several major national projects, participated in rescuing and excavating the nearly lost "gold-thread coil carpet" weaving craft, and conducted research, summarization, and consolidation. Her representative works include "Immortal Longevity," "This Land So Rich in Beauty," "The Tale of Liu Yi," "Ashima," "Nine Dragons," "Heavenly Dragon Instructing His Son," and others. Her works won the gold award of the Baihua Cup Excellent Chinese Arts and Crafts award issued by the China Arts and Crafts Association, among others. She actively takes on apprentices to pass on the craft and promotes and demonstrates the palace carpet weaving technique. She is the fifth-generation inheritor of Beijing palace carpet weaving.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Kang Yusheng 03-1367
- Liu Fuguo 03-1368
- Maitusong Tudi 03-1369
- Wang Guoying 05-2806
- Liu Jingbo 05-2807
- Li Yukun
- Lu Xingqiong
- Duan Lizhen
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。