Shuimigecangfuchuanzhizaojiyi
01 · Historical Records
During the Song and Yuan dynasties, China's ocean-going wooden sailing ships were highly favored by merchants and envoys from many countries. The important reason was that Chinese sailing ships offered a high degree of safety, and this safety came precisely from the watertight bulkheads inside the ships. China's watertight bulkhead shipbuilding technique was introduced to the West by Marco Polo as early as the late 13th century. Ancient Quanzhou was long known for its thriving shipbuilding industry. According to the Xishan Zazhi (Records of the Western Hills) compiled during the Jiaqing reign of the Qing dynasty, sea vessels built in the Quanzhou region during the Tianbao era (742-756) of the Tang dynasty already had "fifteen compartments" - that is, the hull was divided into 15 bulkhead compartments. Excavated artifacts prove that no later than the Song dynasty, sea vessels built in Quanzhou had already adopted a mature watertight bulkhead structure. The shipbuilding technique of Qihou Village, Zhangwan Town, Jiaocheng District, Ningde City, was introduced from southern Fujian during the Hongwu reign of the Ming dynasty and has been passed down from generation to generation ever since. During the Republic of China period (1912-1949), Zhangwan mostly built "sanweitou" (three-masted) wooden sailing ships of 200 to 300 tons. After the reform and opening-up drive began in the 1980s, the widespread adoption of metal-hulled ships caused the Fuchuan shipbuilding industry in Zhangwan to shrink steadily.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The so-called watertight bulkheads are the mutually independent, watertight compartments separated from one another by transverse partition boards inside the ship's hold. The use of watertight bulkheads not only increases the strength of the hull; even if one compartment strikes a reef and takes on water, the other compartments are not endangered, thus guaranteeing the safety of the vessel in navigation. At the same time, the watertight bulkheads serve as support points against the bending of the hull planking, further increasing the sturdiness of the sailing ship. Thereafter this technique was gradually adopted by the shipbuilding industries of countries around the world and exerted an important influence on the development of human seafaring. The sailing ships built here follow tradition in everything from hull design and selection of materials to construction techniques, exterior painting, and the various rituals observed during the building process: 14 bulkhead boards divide the ship into 15 compartments; below each bulkhead board, near the keel, there are two water-passage openings (guoshuiyan); and the seams between adjacent bulkhead boards are caulked tight with tung-oil putty and hemp rope to ensure that the compartments are sealed off from one another. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the Zhangwan shipyard built large numbers of fishing vessels and cargo ships, many of them wooden sailing ships of more than 60 tons built with watertight bulkhead structures. With the development of modern transportation, wooden ships have increasingly lost the conditions in which they can survive, the wooden shipbuilding industry has declined accordingly, and the manufacturing technique has gradually been lost.
Building the three-masted sanweitou junk
In the Republican period the Zhangwan yards built two- to three-hundred-ton three-masted junks, whose hull and rig show the bulkhead structure at full scale.
Handed down through generations at Qi Hou village
The Zhangwan technique at Qi Hou village came from southern Fujian during the Hongwu reign of the Ming and has been handed down ever since, matching the migration routes of the Fujian coast.
Building fishing and cargo junks
After 1949 the Zhangwan yard built many fishing and transport junks, many of them watertight-bulkhead vessels above sixty tons, keeping the structure in daily use for half a century.
Drafting the danzi, jianzuishi and hou shi hull forms
The inheritor Liu Xixiu is expert at drafting the danzi, pointed-mouth, monkey-lion and mangong hull forms, and his drawings preserve hull shapes that would otherwise pass only by word of mouth.
Dividing the hull into fifteen compartments
Fourteen bulkheads make fifteen compartments, each with two flood holes near the keel, and every seam packed with tung-oil putty and hemp cord to keep the compartments isolated.
Bulkheads bracing the hull planking
As support points for the curved hull planking the bulkheads stiffen the junk and isolate a holed compartment from the rest.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The traditional watertight bulkhead wooden sailing ship construction technique still survives today in Shenhu Town, Jinjiang City, Quanzhou, where wooden sailing ships are being designed according to traditional models.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Shuimigecangfuchuanzhizaojiyi · Shuimigecangfuchuanzhizaojiyi.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At present, although Qihou Village still retains small-scale production, inheritors are growing ever scarcer, and the watertight bulkhead Fuchuan shipbuilding technique is already in an endangered state. Under these circumstances, corresponding rescue and protection measures must be drawn up as quickly as possible so as to ensure the effective transmission of this precious folk handicraft, traditional wooden shipbuilding. Liu Xixiu (from the official archives of the associated inheritor): Male, of the Han ethnicity, born in August 1957, from Ningde City, Fujian Province. Representative inheritor of the watertight bulkhead Fuchuan shipbuilding technique, a national-level intangible cultural heritage item in the fifth national-level batch. He is especially skilled at drawing the plans of various hull types, and the drawings he has produced of such hull types as the danzi style, the jianzui (pointed-beak) style, the houshi (monkey-lion) style, and the mengchong style have played an important role in the transmission of the watertight bulkhead shipbuilding technique. He has mastered the manufacturing techniques of many hull types that were on the verge of extinction, and he lays emphasis on taking apprentices and passing on his craft. For many years he has provided materials free of charge to numerous media outlets and supplied material on the watertight bulkhead shipbuilding technique to doctoral students at Minzu University of China; he has participated in various exhibitions and promoted "Fuchuan" culture, playing a certain role in the advancement of the watertight bulkhead shipbuilding technique.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Chen Fangcai 03-1403
- Liu Xixiu 05-2835
- Huang Zongcai 05-2836
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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