Guanshigujianzhu Building Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
The Forbidden City in Beijing is the largest and most complete palace complex surviving in China. Its initial construction was completed in the eighteenth year of the Yongle reign of the Ming dynasty (1420); thereafter it was continuously repaired and rebuilt, bringing together the finest achievements of palace architecture across the ages and becoming a paragon of ancient Chinese palatial building. In the early 1950s, the Palace Museum engaged master craftsmen from beyond its walls and re-established a team of traditional-building conservators to undertake the maintenance of the palace's historic structures.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Over the course of constructing and conserving the Forbidden City's buildings, a complete system of palatial traditional-building craftsmanship took shape, governed by strict formal standards. It comprises the craft skills of many trades—tiling, carpentry, earthwork, stonemasonry, painting, colored-picture painting, inlay, and paperhanging. In construction, only superior materials are selected, the workmanship is rigorous, and the finish is refined; the methods and construction procedures for every part of the palace follow fixed, strictly prescribed forms. It is precisely this assurance of craft technique that has allowed Chinese palace architecture, with the Forbidden City as its exemplar, to preserve its magnificent, exquisite, and resplendent character over the course of several centuries. As a model of traditional-building craftsmanship, the official-style traditional-building technique has played an important leading role in the development of historic-architecture technology in China, especially in the northern regions. From the day the palace was founded, a relatively stable workforce has been maintained to carry out the repair and construction of the buildings within it.
Documented Process Records
It comprises the craft skills of many trades—tiling, carpentry, earthwork, stonemasonry, painting, colored-picture painting, inlay, and paperhanging. In construction, only superior materials are selected, the workmanship is rigorous, and the finish is refined; the methods and construction procedures for every part of the palace follow fixed, strictly prescribed forms.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The schools within official-style traditional-building craftsmanship are almost entirely distinguished by trade. The Beijing line is most exacting in the rules for tiling and colored-picture painting, while its carpentry is known for its command of major timberwork and the dougong bracket sets—Li Yongge began his training with the making and installation of dougong. The earthwork-stonework and painting lines, for their part, transmit their mastery in concealed procedures such as the ground-layer (dizhang) and oil-skin finishing. Compared with the southern craftsmen's practice of adapting form to circumstance, the official style specifies dimensions for every part and a fixed sequence for construction.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
For many years this building team has served the Forbidden City; as its membership has gradually turned over, the traditional official-style building craft has been transmitted without interruption through the master–apprentice method of oral teaching and personal demonstration. Li Yongge (per the official archived record of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in November 1955, a native of Huanghua City, Hebei Province. Representative inheritor of the fourth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage: Official-Style Traditional Building Craftsmanship (Beijing Forbidden City). Research curator. He inherited his master's major-timberwork techniques, especially the making and installation of various forms of dougong, and is richly experienced. He has led or taken part in dozens of projects for the repair, full dismantling-and-reconstruction, renovation, and restoration of historic palace buildings. He led the drafting of the "Operating Procedures for Traditional Woodwork Techniques in Historic Architecture" and the "Quotas for Historic Architecture" (woodwork section). Devoted to transmitting the craft, he has taken on apprentices including Shen Pengfu and Wang Liying. Liu Zengyu (per the official archived record of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in July 1955, a native of Beijing. Representative inheritor of the fourth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage: Official-Style Traditional Building Craftsmanship (Beijing Forbidden City). He has been engaged in the construction and management of traditional architectural painting for over forty years, mastering the traditional oil-decoration craft of Chinese historic architecture, and possesses distinctive techniques especially for key procedures such as the ground-layer (dizhang) and oil-skin. At the same time, he took part in the research project "Three-Dimensional Database of China's Official-Style Traditional Building Craftsmanship," which faithfully and completely records the official-style architectural painting craft. He has persisted in training apprentices, nurturing oil-decoration specialists such as Hao Yuming and Dai Haizheng. He undertook the management of oil-decoration construction work in multiple projects including the maintenance of lower-structure oil-finishing and the protection, repair, and restoration of colored-picture paintings in the Forbidden City's historic buildings.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Li Yongge 04-1911
- Liu Zengyu 04-1912
- Li Zenglin 05-2866
- Wu Shengmao 05-2867
- Li Jianguo 05-2868
- Bai Fuchun 05-2869
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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