Ethnic Instrument Making Craftsmanship

Ⅷ-124Traditional CraftsmanshipHengyangshileiyang, HunanBatch 5 (2021)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

During the late Qing dynasty and the Republican era, the Luo ancestors of Tanxia acquired the art of copper smelting, and the craft of gong making gradually took shape, passing down through six generations to the present day.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The traditional gong-making craft of Tanxia Township is one of China's traditional ethnic-instrument crafts, transmitted from generation to generation in Tanxia Township, Leiyang City, Hengyang, Hunan Province. Leiyang lies in the southeast of Hengyang; the banks of the Chunling River, which flows through Tanxia Township, are rich in copper, tin, and other minerals, providing the foundation and guarantee for the local flourishing of copper smelting and copperware processing. The gong is an instrument made chiefly of red copper, with tin, silver, and other metals added in set proportions; it is widely used in opera, dance, and folk activities. The Tanxia gong is made by traditional handcraft following more than ten process steps—material selection, proportioning, melting, billet forming, forging, edge trimming, shaping, quenching, cold working, polishing, and the final tuning strike—with a rigorous flow that demands precise control of heat and technique, each step interlocking and completed in one continuous effort. The gong requires copper of 99.9% purity, blended in proportion with tin, silver, and other metals (proportioning), heated to 1200°C to melt it (melting), and poured into a mold to make the copper billet (billet forming); the billet is placed in a 900°C furnace until red-hot, then taken out and hammered into sheets (forging), heated and softened, then cut into circles (edge trimming), repeatedly fired red-hot and hammered in a trough to shape (shaping), then heated to the proper point and quenched in water (quenching), taken out and hammered for initial tuning (cold working), then its surface polished with an alloy blade (polishing), and finally, according to the type of gong, struck repeatedly with different techniques on different parts to adjust its thickness and shape until the acoustic quality required of a musical instrument is achieved (the final tuning strike). Among these, proportioning and the final tuning strike are the core skills. Proportioning is the most critical, for the precision of the ratio determines the gong's tonal quality; the final tuning strike is the most technically demanding, relying entirely on insight and experience and requiring long practice to master. As a traditional Chinese instrument, the gong is widely used in religious rites, military campaigns, traditional festivals, and competitive games, and is closely bound up with the productive and daily life of the people. The traditional gong-making craft of Tanxia Township is the crystallization of the local people's wisdom and creativity, a vivid testament to the fusion of heart and hand, skill and art, and technique and principle in traditional craftsmanship, possessing a certain historical, cultural, and artistic value.

Archived Process Record

The Tanxia gong is made by traditional handcraft following more than ten process steps—material selection, proportioning, melting, billet forming, forging, edge trimming, shaping, quenching, cold working, polishing, and the final tuning strike—with a rigorous flow that demands precise control of heat and technique, each step interlocking and completed in one continuous effort.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The sound of the gongs of Leiyang's Tanxia Township rests on the copper-tin veins of the Chunling River, and the riverside households both smelt copper and forge gongs. Gong casting uses chiefly red copper, with tin and silver mixed in by proportion, and the copper must be 99.9% pure to withstand the fire. More than ten process steps interlock: melting to 1,200°C, the billet fired red-hot in a 900°C furnace and hammered into sheets, cut round and hammered repeatedly in a trough to shape, then heated and quenched in water, cold-worked for initial tuning, polished with an alloy blade, and finally the single tuning strike. The Luo family has passed the craft down six generations since acquiring copper-smelting in the late Qing.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The Tanxia gong-making craft relies on the accumulated technical experience and music-theory knowledge of its artisans, transmitted generation to generation through family and master–apprentice oral instruction; at present there is one provincial-level representative inheritor and one municipal-level representative inheritor.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Ethnic Instrument Making Craftsmanship (Hengyangshileiyang, Hunan) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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