Gujianzhu Restoration Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
From the Ming and Qing dynasties onwards, this technique developed further and spread throughout the whole of the Northwest. According to the Yongjing County Gazetteer, in 1954 there were 1,686 carpenters in Baita. According to statistics of the Yongjing County Ancient Architecture Company, between 1978 and 2012 5,112 Buddhist temples and 1,428 temples and monasteries were built, while other unregistered vernacular structures such as pavilions, belvederes, halls and dwellings are even harder to count.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
"The carpenters of Baita, the painters of Wutun" — this is a proverb current in the great Northwest. The Yongjing Baita woodcarving ancient building restoration technique is a traditional cultural expression that fuses traditional craft with regional characteristics and displays the architectural style and historical-cultural depth of the Northwest; it is chiefly distributed in Sanyuan Town, Xianyuan Town, the villages of Xinyuan, Zhuwang and Chenjia in Yanguoxia Town, the villages of Shenwang and Hongzhuangwan in Xihe Town, and Yangta Township, all in Yongjing County. Baita Township in Yongjing has produced craftsmen since ancient times. For a thousand years and more, among the famous monasteries and ancient buildings of Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Xinjiang, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Tibet and Mongolia there have mostly been craftsmen from Baita Township — for example the Kumbum Monastery in Qinghai, the Lamo Monastery in Sichuan, the office of the military governor of Xinjiang, and Wuquan Mountain and the Labrang Monastery in Gansu — and those that have survived the centuries have all become provincial-level or national-level cultural relics. The process steps of the Yongjing Baita woodcarving ancient building restoration technique are complex and fine: first a site survey and assessment is carried out and a detailed restoration plan drawn up; next the structure is reinforced and damaged components are repaired, while the traditional carving and polychrome painting are retained; then the components are assembled and adjusted to ensure that the building is stable and fully functional; and finally acceptance inspection and long-term protection are carried out, so that the ancient building takes on new life and can be handed on. The classical architecture and carpentry of the Baita carpenters are highly distinctive and carry the artistic characteristics of the Northwest, especially the classical buildings that combine Tibetan and Han, and Hui and Han, styles, and such techniques as the "beamless hall", the "sky-fallen umbrella", the "phoenix spreading its wings" and the "single point grounding". The Yongjing Baita ancient building restoration technique has a long history traceable to the Western Han period, and every age has left representative buildings, such as the Bingling cliff-edge plank road and the "First Bridge under Heaven" of the Jin period, and the Bingling Great Buddha Pavilion of the Tang. After the reform and opening up, the Baita carpenters were as vigorous as ever: besides rebuilding the great buildings destroyed as described above, they built anew the Upper and Lower Temples at Dunhuang, the Crescent Moon Pavilion, the Dunhuang Mountain Villa, the Wensu Pavilion for the "Complete Library of the Four Treasuries", the nine-cornered lotus hall on Mount Lianhua, and the Luoshi Temple in Zhangye.
Archival Record of Process Steps
The process steps of the Yongjing Baita woodcarving ancient building restoration technique are complex and fine: first a site survey and assessment is carried out and a detailed restoration plan drawn up; next the structure is reinforced and damaged components are repaired, while the traditional carving and polychrome painting are retained; then the components are assembled and adjusted to ensure that the building is stable and fully functional; and finally acceptance inspection and long-term protection are carried out, so that the ancient building takes on new life and can be handed on.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The carpenters of Baita in Yongjing are divided between the plateau villages of the Sanyuan, Xianyuan and Yanguoxia area and the river-valley zones of Xihe and Yangta; the proverb that Baita produces carpenters and Wutun produces painters describes precisely this division of labour. Their building and repair work fuses the Tibetan-Han and the Hui-Han styles alike, and the beamless hall, the sky-fallen umbrella, the phoenix spreading its wings and single point grounding are the specialities of this line of woodcarving. The Kumbum Monastery in Qinghai and the Labrang Monastery in Gansu both show the handiwork of craftsmen from Baita Township.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The building practice of the Baita carpenters has never been interrupted; their skills are usually handed down through the generations by family kinship, they worship a tablet to Lu Ban, and their transmission is in good condition. The Yongjing Baita ancient building restoration technique has enriched and perfected China's architectural history, displays the wisdom and consummate craft of ancient building construction, has played an important role in protecting, transmitting and developing ancient building techniques, and has important artistic, social and cultural value. Xu Yuanming (recorded in the official archive of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in January 1957, a native of Yongjing County, Gansu Province. Representative inheritor of the ancient building restoration technique, a project of the fifth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage. An ancient building restoration technician. In 1979 he learned the craft under his elder cousin Xu Dehui; in five or six years he mastered ancient building design, timber structure fabrication and restoration, artistic wood and brick carving and polychrome painting, and was rated a craftsman; afterwards he and Xu Dehui formed the Linxia Classical Construction Engineering Team. In 1988 Yongjing County established the Gansu Provincial Yongjing Classical Construction Engineering General Company, and the team was incorporated as its No. 404 Division. During this period they built the gateway to the historic and cultural city — the decorated archway of the east city gate of Dunhuang. In 1999 they built the Tang-style building complex of the Dunhuang Mountain Villa and the Dunhuang Yangguan Museum; the whole complex imitates the Han-dynasty rammed-earth fort style and recreates the historical vicissitudes of Yangguan, the key town on the Silk Road at Dunhuang. From 2004 onwards he undertook new-build and repair projects including the Linxia Ethnic Customs Pedestrian Street, the ancient building complex on Baita Mountain in Lanzhou, and the Jincheng Bonsai Garden.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Xuyuanming 05-2911
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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