Zhutiejiyi
01 · Historical Records
The 2001 edition of the Dahou Village Gazetteer records: "During the Southern Song, the Hu family of Longshan (in Yongkang) was engaged in the cast-iron industry. " The Yongkang County Gazetteer states: "As early as the Qing dynasty, cast-iron craftsmen set up workshops and yards inside and outside the county, built their own casting furnaces, and engaged in sand casting of cooking pots, steelyard weights, iron kettles, and the like."
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The cast-iron technique refers to the traditional handicraft of melting an iron alloy composed of pig iron, carbon, and silicon at high temperature and casting it into various implements. Yongkang City lies in central Zhejiang Province in the subtropical monsoon zone; it has abundant vegetation and convenient transport and has produced many skilled craftsmen in the hardware trades, and it is known as the "land of a hundred crafts" and as a famous capital of hardware. Traditional Yongkang cast iron consists mainly of casting iron cauldrons (pots), iron kettles, and other implements for daily life and production. The basic process of the Yongkang cast-iron technique has five steps: the first is making the mold, commonly called "zuosu," with types including sand molds, clay molds, and metal molds; the second is starting the furnace, also called "opening the furnace," that is, melting the metal; the third is casting, that is, pouring the molten metal liquid into the mold; the fourth is knocking out the sand or drawing the pattern, that is, removing the casting from the mold after the molten metal has cooled; and the fifth is cleaning and finishing, including procedures such as removing adhering sand and burrs from the surface of the casting and cutting off the gate and riser. Yongkang cast-iron products are sturdy and practical, handsome in appearance, widely used, and varied in kind: there are products aimed at mass consumption, such as iron cauldrons, iron kettles, and other implements for production and daily life as well as some mechanical parts, and there are also products suited to the needs of the collectibles market and individually customized products, such as tea sets and stationery. The Yongkang cast-iron technique has a long history. The related products have entered major shopping malls and well-known teahouses throughout the country and are exported to more than a dozen countries overseas, extending the international influence of the Yongkang cast-iron technique. The Yongkang cast-iron technique is of fine workmanship and is an important component of Yongkang's hardware culture, providing an important reference for the study of the development of China's metal-casting techniques. The cast-iron goods made by this technique are in great demand and have broad market prospects; they are closely related to people's production and daily life and have contributed to promoting the sustainable development of the local society and economy.
Archival Records of Process Steps
The basic process of the Yongkang cast-iron technique has five steps: the first is making the mold, commonly called "zuosu," with types including sand molds, clay molds, and metal molds; the second is starting the furnace, also called "opening the furnace," that is, melting the metal; the third is casting, that is, pouring the molten metal liquid into the mold; the fourth is knocking out the sand or drawing the pattern, that is, removing the casting from the mold after the molten metal has cooled; and the fifth is cleaning and finishing, including removing adhering sand and burrs from the surface of the casting and cutting off the gate and riser.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Yongkang cast-iron technique is distributed mainly throughout Yongkang City, Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, and is especially concentrated in places such as Zhiying Town, Gushan Town, Longshan Town, Tangxian Town, and Dongcheng Subdistrict.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
" With the development and progress of society, the production and transmission model of the Yongkang cast-iron technique has, on the basis of the past workshop-style production and master-to-apprentice transmission, achieved better transmission and development; at present there are more than 100 enterprises casting iron kettles and iron pots, and numerous inheritors and technicians specializing in the making of cast-iron products are devoted to the transmission and protection of this project.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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