Qingtongqi Making Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
The bronze bianzhong (chime-bell) making technique has a long history: it began around the turn of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, flourished in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, and continued through the Qin and Han down to the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. According to the Suizhou Gazetteer: "In the first year of Guangxu of the Qing dynasty (1875), the copper-casting works at Guchengfan and Liulindian in the territory cast bronze bells by indigenous methods; by the thirty-seventh year of the Republic of China (1948), bronze workshops (shops) had grown to 12, with 76 people employed, producing more than a hundred sets of chime bells a year." The bronze bianzhong leads the "eight tones" of ancient musical instruments; it appeared more than two thousand years earlier than the European twelve-tone equal-temperament piano, refuting the assertion that "the Chinese seven-note scale was introduced from Europe."
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The bronze bianzhong making technique is one of the representatives of China's traditional bronze-making techniques, and its main distribution area is Suizhou City, Hubei Province. Suizhou lies in northern Hubei Province and takes its name from the Western Zhou enfeoffed state of Zeng (Sui). It belongs to a low-mountain and hilly zone with a subtropical monsoon climate, and more than 20 kinds of metallic mineral resources have been proven there. It is said that as early as two or three thousand years ago, the copper ore mined and smelted at Tonglushan in Daye had to pass through the ancient state of Zeng (Sui) on its way to Haojing (present-day Xi'an) of the Western Zhou and Luoyi (present-day Luoyang) of the Eastern Zhou. This important copper transport route is called "jindao xixing" (the gold road and tin route) in the literature. Suizhou thus became a transit point for copper materials at that time, creating conditions for the transmission of the bronze bianzhong making technique. The bronze bianzhong making technique is a traditional handicraft that uses copper, tin, lead, and other materials and, through dozens of process steps such as making the model, making the mold, shell forming, casting, finishing, and tuning, produces more than two bronze bells; it is the culmination of craft, ritual system, and music, and involves materials science, metallurgy, physics, mechanics, acoustics, and other disciplines. The non-ferrous metal raw materials used in this technique are red copper, tin, and lead; the model materials are fine yellow clay, pottery clay, beeswax, paraffin, gypsum powder, and quartz sand; and the making tools are carving knives, dewaxing tanks, grinding files, roasting charcoal furnaces, copper-melting furnaces, and modern tuning-measurement equipment. The basic process includes making a bell form "shaped like two joined tiles," melting scientifically proportioned "alloy raw materials" of copper, tin, and lead, casting by the precise "lost-wax method," and tuning by the "one bell, two tones" technique. The finished chime bells are exquisite in form, ingenious in decoration, and precise in temperament. " At present, those practicing this technique in Suizhou are mainly the chime-bell making enterprises founded by four families: Xiang, Wang, Huang, and Zhou. Product sales are mainly domestic, though the products are also exported overseas. As bronze chime bells have taken part in exhibitions and performances at home and abroad many times, they have actively disseminated Chinese ritual and music culture. The bronze bianzhong making technique achieves a perfect combination of the art of metal modeling and the art of musical expression; it is an important component of China's ancient bronze civilization and ritual-music culture, and it has high historical, cultural, and artistic value.
Archival Records of Process Steps
The bronze bianzhong making technique is a traditional handicraft that uses copper, tin, lead, and other materials and, through dozens of process steps such as making the model, making the mold, shell forming, casting, finishing, and tuning, produces more than two bronze bells; it is the culmination of craft, ritual system, and music, and involves materials science, metallurgy, physics, mechanics, acoustics, and other disciplines.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The bronze bianzhong making technique is transmitted in the Suizhou area by families setting up factories; at present those practicing the technique are mainly the chime-bell making enterprises founded by the four families Xiang, Wang, Huang, and Zhou. The Xiang, Wang, and Zhou families have transmitted it for five generations, and the Huang family for four. Suizhou became a settlement for this craft because of the copper transport route: ore from Tonglushan in Daye was transshipped through the ancient state of Zeng-Sui, a route the literature calls jindao xixing.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Among them, the three families Xiang, Wang, and Zhou have transmitted the craft for 5 generations and the Huang family for 4; more than 400 inheritors of the bronze bianzhong making technique have been trained through enterprise-group transmission and family transmission, and 3,000 sets of chime-bell artworks are produced each year.
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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