Copperware Making Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
From then on it continued to develop until the Yuan dynasty, when there were as many as 760 smelting households refining copper in Datong. By the Ming and Qing dynasties, copperware had penetrated every aspect of life; Datong's Yuan Lane was called 'Coppersmith Street,' where along a hundred-meter-long street dozens of coppersmith shops were opened, gathering over a hundred skilled craftsmen. At the end of the 1990s, the development of Datong's copperware craft stalled, technicians left, and the Datong copperware-making craft gradually declined.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Datong copperware-making craft is a traditional handicraft of Datong City, Shanxi Province, and one of the important representatives of China's traditional copperware-making craft. Datong is an important copperware-making and trading center in northern China; historically the Datong copperware-making craft was mainly concentrated in Datong's Coppersmith Street, where many coppersmiths gathered, forming a distinctive copperware-making industrial cluster. Today this craft has spread to the surrounding areas of Datong City and to Fengzhen City in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The materials of Datong copperware are high-quality coppers such as red copper, brass, bronze, sounding copper, and white copper; the daily-use articles made from them are quite exquisite. Its process is elaborate: first selecting the material, then repeatedly hammering the copper block with a mallet—hammering, then heating, then hammering again—until it takes shape, then polishing it with a lathe, and finally welding and assembling it into form. After the product is shaped, designers then present the carefully designed patterns through processes such as inlay, openwork, and relief, making them vivid and lifelike, fully displaying the superb craftsmanship of Datong artisans. The Datong copperware-making craft is especially famous for making copper hotpot; its finished product uses purple copper throughout, with tin plated on the inner wall and a high-tin lining, which apart from anticorrosion also preserves the original flavor of the soup, combining practicality and ornamental value. The characteristic of the Datong copperware-making craft lies in its splendid copperware decorative patterns, including various patterns related to figure stories, myths and legends, flowers, birds, fish, insects, white clouds and bright moons, and cultural relics landscapes, with a strong and distinctive artistic style. The Datong copperware-making craft has a long history. During the Northern Wei period, when Datong served as the capital, the copperware-making craft ushered in a flourishing period. The Datong copperware-making craft is a wonderful flower among China's traditional handicrafts; to this day the folk saying circulates: 'worship the Buddha on Mount Wutai, buy copper in the city of Datong.' It is not only a treasure of Chinese traditional craft but also an important component of Datong's urban culture. With continuous innovation and transmission, the Datong copperware-making craft is expected to be revitalized in the new era.
Documented Process Records
Its process is elaborate: first selecting the material, then repeatedly hammering the copper block with a mallet—hammering, then heating, then hammering again—until it takes shape, then polishing it with a lathe, and finally welding and assembling it into form.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Datong copperware craft has been concentrated since the Ming and Qing on one or two streets in the city; Yuan Lane was once called Coppersmith Street, where along a hundred-meter-long street dozens of shops were opened, gathering over a hundred craftsmen. In its early years this craft used sounding copper for percussion instruments and white copper for miscellaneous objects. Li Anmin entered the trade at eighteen, learning casting, lathe work, and copper craft from Ma Shoucai and Zhang Wende; later this craft spread with traveling merchants to the area of Fengzhen City in Inner Mongolia.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Copperware Making Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
In recent years, relevant departments have intensified protection and research efforts to promote the transmission and development of this heritage item. At present, this item is mainly transmitted through family and master-apprentice modes. Li Anmin (from the official archives of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in March 1941, from Datong City, Shanxi Province. Representative inheritor of the copperware-making craft (Datong copperware-making craft), a fifth-batch national-level intangible cultural heritage project. Senior industrial arts craftsman. He entered the copperware-making industry at 18, studying electrical work, casting, lathe work, fitter work, and copper craft under the artisans Ma Shoucai and Zhang Wende. In 1978 he was transferred to the Datong Metal Arts Factory; in 1996 he founded the Datong Tianyichang Crafts Factory, during which time he researched, developed, and innovated products on the basis of traditional copperware making, achieving a perfect combination of artistry and practicality. There are now eight major series, more than 200 varieties, and over 350 patterns, of which the 'Nine Dragons Leaping at the Moon' relief craft hotpot is truly unrivaled. Over the years he has devoted himself to training reserve personnel, bringing up more than ten senior technical talents in total, and established the Datong Copperware Heritage Institute and the Datong Copperware Exhibition Center.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Li Anmin 05-2899
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。