Zhiqijiyi
01 · Historical Records
According to the Gazetteer of Lichuan City, lacquer trees have been planted in Lichuan since the Shunzhi reign of the Qing dynasty, and by the Guangxu reign its products were already being sold to neighbouring countries.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Ba lacquer-making craft is a traditional lacquer-making technique formed in the course of producing raw-lacquer materials, with Lichuan Ba lacquer as its main raw material. It is transmitted mainly in Lichuan City, Enshi City and Xianfeng County of Hubei Province and radiates into the surrounding areas. Lichuan City lies in the mountainous region of south-western Hubei and belongs to the Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture. It stands on the north-eastern extension of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, at the meeting point of the Wushan range and the northward spurs of the Wuling Mountains, and has a subtropical monsoon climate. Its soils and natural conditions are highly distinctive and well suited to the growth and propagation of lacquer trees; this exceptional natural environment supplied abundant, high-quality raw material for the formation of the Ba lacquer-making craft. The Ba lacquer-making craft takes its name from Maoba Town in Lichuan City, Hubei Province, where the lacquer is produced. Its steps include tapping, filtering out impurities, dehydration and oxidation, adding additives, and polymerisation and cross-linking. Tapping means extracting the raw lacquer from the trunk or branches of the lacquer tree; filtering out impurities means passing the raw lacquer through an 80-mesh filter cloth; dehydration and oxidation means placing the filtered lacquer in a conical earthenware vat fitted with an anchor-type stirring paddle and stirring until the liquid turns black; adding additives means introducing a prepared red-root additive and stirring until the lacquer becomes a thick paste that can be drawn into threads three cun long; and polymerisation and cross-linking means adding a prepared drying vegetable oil to the vat and stirring at about 500 revolutions per minute for around 30 minutes. The tools for tapping raw lacquer are mainly the lacquer knife, the scraper, the lacquer bucket and the mussel shell; the tools for processing it include filter cloth, a filter cart, a decanting pan, a copper pot, an ox-tail brush and a horn spatula. Through this series of steps Ba lacquer can be processed into more than 20 kinds of traditional raw-lacquer materials, which are widely used in furniture, architecture, ritual observances and arts and crafts, among many other fields. The Ba lacquer-making craft has a long history of transmission. As the scale of production expanded, the division of labour gradually became more refined, and lacquer making separated out from the lacquerers' trade to become a specialised traditional skill of its own. The Ba lacquer-making craft has played a positive role in advancing industries related to Ba lacquer, widening employment channels for local people, increasing incomes and promoting local economic and social development. It is a crystallisation of the wisdom of the working people of China and an important part of the local traditional culture. Its processes involve physics, chemistry, biology and many other disciplines and provide an important reference for the development of new materials and new technologies; it has relatively high historical, cultural, economic and scientific value.
Documented process steps
The Ba lacquer-making craft takes its name from Maoba Town in Lichuan City, Hubei Province, where the lacquer is produced. Its steps include tapping, filtering out impurities, dehydration and oxidation, adding additives, and polymerisation and cross-linking. Through this series of steps Ba lacquer can be processed into more than 20 kinds of traditional raw-lacquer materials, which are widely used in furniture, architecture, ritual observances, arts and crafts and many other fields.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Ba lacquer-making craft takes its name from Maoba Town in Lichuan City, and spreads along the line of the Qingjiang River to Enshi City and Xianfeng County, forming a continuous belt with the lacquer-producing areas around Chongqing and Guizhou. After the lacquer is collected, each household competes over the degree of refinement: the liquid is passed once through an 80-mesh filter cloth, stirred black in a conical earthenware vat with an anchor-type paddle, drawn out to threads three cun long with the red-root additive, and finally stirred at 500 revolutions per minute for 30 minutes so that the drying oil polymerises and cross-links.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The craft has been transmitted down to the present mainly through learning from a master and through oral instruction and personal example. Transmission is currently in good shape. There are 11 lacquer-making enterprises of scale, all of which have production workshops, engineering and technical laboratories and teaching rooms. The ranks of inheritors continue to grow. Inheritors actively carry out transmission activities, constantly enhancing their capacity for transmission and innovation by holding professional training courses, taking part in key research and development projects and conducting academic exchanges with universities.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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