《中国传统工艺全集》-匠心之作（英文）

1、Complete Collection of Traditional Chinese Arts and Crafts （Zhongguo chuantong gongyi quanji 中国传统 工艺全集）:A Work of IngenuityAbstract: In 1996, the Institute for the History of Natural Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences began work on the Complete Collection of Traditional Chinese Arts and Cra

2、fts （Zhongguo chuantong gongyi quanji 中国传统工艺全集）.In 2016, Elephant Press published this twenty-volume magnum opus under the chief editorship of Lu Yongxiang 路甬祥.This rich and informative book series systematically details traditional arts and crafts in over ten main categories that demonstrate Chines

3、e scholars mastery of fields such as lacquerware, ceramics, metal crafts, machinery, spinning and weaving, dyeing, brewing, processing of traditional Chinese materia medica, papermaking and printing, sculpting, and armor restoration. The authors are well versed in traditional Chinese arts and crafts

4、 and have the pertinent academic credentials, elevating research on the subject to a new level and breadth. However, the Complete Collection has not yet covered all significant arts and crafts, and the cultural implications have still to be explored.Keywords: Complete Collection of Traditional Chine

5、se Arts and Crafts, China摘 要：1996年，中国科学院自然科学史研究所启动中国传统工艺全集的编撰工 作。2016年，路甬祥主编的中国传统工艺全集20卷由大象出版社出版。这套丛书 内容丰富翔实，系统阐述了十余大类的传统工艺，涉及漆器、陶瓷、金属工艺、机械、* This book review was translated from Chinese into English by Lu Xin 吕昕 and was copyedited by Elizabeth Hughes.纺织、印染、酿造、中药炮制、造纸、印刷、雕塑、甲胄等领域，反映了中国学者对传 统工艺的认知水平。

6、作者们深谙技艺及相关学术问题，将中国传统工艺研究推向了新的 层次和广度。但是，中国传统工艺全集并未涵盖全部重要工艺，对工艺的人文内涵 的探讨还有待深化。关键词：中国传统工艺全集，中国China is universally acknowledged for its rich history in traditional arts and crafts, which flourished in the past and have been passed down through the generations to the present. Traditional Chinese arts an

7、d crafts fall into fifteen main categories: (1) tool and equipment making, (2) processing agricultural, livestock, and mineral products, (3) construction, (4) sculpting, (5) weaving, dyeing, embroidering, and clothing making, (6) ceramics firing, (7) metal mining, smelting, and processing, (8) knitt

8、ing and binding, (9) lacquering, (10) furniture making, (11) papermaking, (12) printing, (13) paper cutting, paper carving, woodblock printing, and painting, (14) processing of traditional Chinese materia medica, and (15) special arts and crafts. Under these main categories are sub-categories and ki

9、nds, all of which constitute the three-tier classification system. The all-embracing characteristic of traditional Chinese arts and crafts developed due to the prevalence of production and participation across the country. The close relationship and far-reaching impact these practices had on the soc

10、ial aspects of peoples lives, and on the economy and culture in China, should not be disregarded. Hence, the conservation and inheritance of traditional arts and crafts is integral to China/s modernization.As far back as 1987, Hua Jueming 华觉明，Tan Derui 谭德睿,and Zhu Dazhen 祝大 震 proposed the “Implement

11、ation plan to conserve and develop traditional Chinese arts and crafts” (Zhongguo chuantong gongyi baohu kaifa shishi fangan 中国传统工艺 保护开发实施方案).In 1995, they considered compiling a book series to systematically document research results, thereby providing a scientific foundation for the conservation o

12、f traditional arts and crafts. In 1996, under the aegis of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the Institute for the History of Natural Sciences commenced work on the Complete Collection of Traditional Chinese Arts and Crafts (Zhongguo chuantong gongyi quanji 中国传统工艺全集，hereafter the Complete Collectio

13、n). The Complete Collection was edited by Lu Yongxiang 路甬祥，former president of CAS, and the particular studies and compilations were chaired by Prof. Hua Jueming. In 2016, the twenty-volume Complete Collection was published by Elephant Press (Figure 1). It comprises the following volumes: Lacquer Ar

14、t (Qi yi 漆艺)；Pottery and Porcelain (Taoci 陶瓷)；Pottery and Porcelain (Continued) (Taoci xu陶瓷续);Metalworking (Jinshu gongyi 金属工艺); The Gold and Silver Fine Metalworking Craft and Cloisonne (Jinyin xijin gongyi he jingtailan 金银细金工艺和景泰蓝)；Wrought Copper and Silver Craft (Duantong he yinshi gongyi 锻铜 和银饰工

15、艺，two volumes); Silk Weaving and Dyeing (Sichou zhiran 丝绸织染)；BrewingTechnology （Niangzao 酉良造）;The Processing of Traditional Chinese Materia Medica （Zhongyao paozhi 中药炮制）;Processing of Agricultural, Livestock, and Mineral Products （Nong chu kuang chanpin jiagong 农畜矿产品加工）；The Investigations of Traditi

16、onal Chinese Machines （Chuantong jixie diaocha yanjiu 传统机械调查研究）；Papermaking and Printing （Zaozhi yu yinshua 造纸与印刷）;Papermaking （Continued） and Penmaking （Zaozhi xu zhibi 造纸续制笔）;Ink Making and Ink-Slab Making （Zhimo zhiyan 制墨制砚）; Copying and Discrimination of Cultural Relics （Wenwu xiufu he bianwei 文

17、物修复和辨伪）; Armor Restoration （Jiazhou fuyuan 甲胄复原）；Sculpture （Diaosu 雕塑）；Folk Handicrafts （Minjian shougongyi 民间手工艺）;and Eminent Craftsmen in Past Ages （Lidai gongyi mingjia 历代工艺名家）.1 The series encompasses over a dozen main categories of traditional arts and crafts and includes more than 620 handicra

18、fts, an aggregate of around 14 million characters, 14,000 figures and photos.Figure 1: The Complete Collection.文物修夏和辨伪一传统机械调查研究手工艺甲胃复原药炮制锻铜与钗njEEi历代工艺名家 造 M -This book review will hereby share the novel results in the book series exemplified by the volumes presented below.The Lacquer Art volume was

19、edited by Qiao Shiguang 乔十光，a researcher and painter of lacquer art. In 1961, Qiao graduated from the Central Academy of Craft Art （now the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University） where he stayed on to teach. On several occasions he visited such places as Fuzhou to acquire the skills from lac

20、quer artisans. Later, he investigated traditional lacquer arts on a nationwide scale and was himself a pioneer in lacquer painting. Many chapters, such as “Natural Raw Lacquer” （Tianran shengqi 天然生漆），“Supplementary Materials for Lacquer Art” （Qiyi fuzhu cailiao 漆艺辅助材料），“Lacquer Decoration Techniques

21、” （Xiushi jifa 髹饰技法），and “Production Areas of Modern Lacquerware” （Xiandai qiyi chandi 现代漆器产地），are1 In 2006, the first seven volumes were granted the Outstanding Publication Award from the General Administration of Press and Publication.derived from the authors field investigations and technical pra

22、ctices, which are of exceptional value. Qiaos chapter “Lacquer Decoration Techniques surpasses the barriers of classifications of arts and crafts established in Records of Lacquering (Xiushi lu 髹饰录)and enumerates the techniques and process steps of various lacquer art products, such as lacquering, i

23、nlaying (Figure 2), incising and filling, grinding and painting, variable coating, raising sculpture, and chasing. In the foreword, he makes several rare and commendable claims: that the infusion of the human spirit and emotion into lacquer art integrates practicality and aesthetics, technique and a

24、rt, and objects and Tao; that past court arts “valued extravagance-based beauty, which is antithetical to beauty and even inadvisable; and that not only should the beauty of lacquering be highlighted, but great importance should be attached to the Tao of lacquer art. In the conclusion, Qiao underlin

25、es that lacquer art should take root in modern life, be diverse, inclusive, and comprehensive, and be integrated with the craftsmanship of bamboo and wood crafts, metalworking, and modern technological design, thereby achieving historic breakthroughs. The aforementioned arguments are profoundly inst

26、ructive. This volume is the first lacquer art treatise in modern China to comprehensively embrace crafts, arts, history, and theories, thus raising the research on lacquer art to a new level.Figure 2: Eggshell inlay lacquer painting Scenery in the South of the Yangtze River (Jiangnan xiaojing 江南小景，b

27、y Qiao Shiguang) (in Lacquer Art, figure 9-24).Pottery and Porcelain and Pottery and Porcelain (Continued) were compiled under the chief editorship of the established ceramics expert Yang Yongshan 杨永善 and the associate editorship of Chen Jinhai 陈进海 and Qiu Gengyu 邱耿钰，respectively. Yang, after gradua

28、tion from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, stayed on to teach there and dedicated many years to learning from senior artisans and studying many renowned kilns. He received awards for editing textbooks as well as for designing and producing ceramics. As a result of Yangs long-term research and thoro

29、ugh grasp of ceramics art, these two books elucidate in detail the materials, arts and crafts, function, utility, as well as the style and aesthetics of the objects. It enhances the readers/ understanding of historical ceramics art, transmits preeminent traditions of arts and crafts, and develops ce

30、ramic design, raw material utilization, and craftsmanship. On the one hand, volume one explicates the invention of pottery, the transition from pottery to porcelain and technical characteristics, the achievements and traditions of porcelain making techniques at Jingdezhen, the unique purple sand tec

31、hnique and its cultural connotations at Yixing, the clay city, the scattered folk kilns contributions to peoples lives, and the craftsman spirit and wisdom displayed therein. On the other hand, the second volume places a high premium on exploring raw material preparation, operation procedures, techn

32、ical features, and implementation ideas at Longquan Kiln, Cizhou Kiln, Ding Kiln, Yaozhou Kiln, Jun Kiln, Dehua Kiln, Jianshui Kiln, and Liling Kiln. The vast content of these two books represents a new height in theoretical research and is of immense practical value.In Silk Weaving and Dyeing, Qian

33、 Xiaoping 钱小萍 serves as editor-in-chief. She is an expert in silk, but her field of expertise cannot be confined to just one area, as she is a scholar, engineer, inventor, and preserver of intangible cultural heritage. She has long immersed herself in such practical front-line silk works as weaving,

34、 printing, dyeing, designing, and production. Through the theoretical and practical experiences of Qian and her collaborators, this volume addresses three previously overlooked aspects of silk. The first lies in the technicality and systematic coverage. The monograph discusses raw silk refining, wea

35、ving and dyeing processes, fabric structures and patterns, the construction of tools and machinery, and covers the entire processes of mulberry planting, silkworm raising, silk making, warping, weaving, printing, and dyeing. It also involves omnifarious arts, such as embroidering, kesi (a weaving te

36、chnique using continuous warps and discontinuous wefts), drawnwork, and carpet weaving, each of which is broken down to multiple varieties and dozens of processes and is minutely illustrated. This treatise, with fully elaborated texts accompanied by images, is unprecedented in the field of silk. Sec

37、ondly, the volume fills the void of preceding documents and writings. The author, for instance, unravels the weave structures of a trebling plain weave brocade and Song brocade patterns, and details the drawloom with explicit and understandable texts and illustrations. The cross-stitch work for form

38、ing decorative patterns (tiaohua jieben 挑花结本)，which remained unknown and unexplained in The Exploitation of the Works of Nature (Tiangong kaiwu 天工品物)，is thoroughly demystified in terms of its concepts, principles, and production in a dedicated chapter in Silk Weaving and Dyeing. The third aspect con

39、cerns the weaving processes and operability, manifesting one of the major characteristics of this volume. Examples can be found in detailed explanations of the weave structures, patterns, and steps of loom weaving for a variety of treasures, such as zhuanghua satin 妆花缎(a kind of colorful jacquard si

40、lk fabric), Song brocade with ruyi patterns 四合如意锦, Zhangzhou velvet 漳绒，and velvet 天鹅绒，which can be replicated through these procedures, thus making historic contributions to the conservation and inheritance of silk weaving and dyeing.The Papermaking and Printing volume was edited by Prof. Zhang Bing

41、lun 张秉伦 who specializes in textual criticism of literature and archaeological science, assisted by his students Fan Jialu 樊嘉禄 and Fang Xiaoyang 方晓阳.The authors, through literature research of the Book of the Later Han (Houhan shu 彳爰溪害)and Book of Han (Han shu MW) and artifact tests, argue that paper

42、making was already available in ages prior to Cai Lun 蔡偏(ca. 62-121) and that Fufeng paper and Juyan paper underwent processes of fiber cutting and beating. Therefore, it can be inferred that papermaking prior to Cai Lun already involved the degumming technique, as well as cutting and ramming retted

43、 hemp for fiber brooming. Furthermore, paper was already produced by the fixed-screen pulp-pouring method during this period. Zhang has undertaken indepth research of processed paper with regard to its emergence, development, patterns, and papermaking techniques, and together with Duoyingxuan (a cal

44、ligraphy supplies factory) in Hefei, has restored the techniques for producing gold-painted powder-wax paper 描金粉蜡笺 and gold-flecked paper 洒金笺.The volume divides the traditional printing process into twelve main categories, including engraving, movable-type printing, color registration, watercolor bl

45、ock printing, and blanked stamping. It looks closely at their emergence, distribution, and current status. After the passing of Zhang, Fan and Fang continued to edit Papermaking (Continued) and Penmaking and Ink Making and Ink-Slab Making.Wrought Copper and Silver Craft was edited by Prof. Tang Xuxi

46、ang 唐绪祥, an expert in metal crafts and jewelry and himself also an artist. Since the 1980s, the author has been exhaustively surveying artisans who work with wrought copper and silver craft around China. Wherever he visited, Tang worked, dined, and stayed with the artisans, conscientiously documenti

47、ng their heritage, design ideas, raw materials and tools, technical processes, styles, forms, as well as decorative patterns and techniques. He recorded around sixty artisan clans and over one thousand practitioners. The two books, compiled with these abundant materials, amount to more than 600 page

48、s and over 3000 images presenting figures, production sites, tools, and works (Figure 3). Apart from expounding in detail the crafts of wrought copper and silver crafts, the author examines the characteristics and development of metal culture in various regions, as well as the exchange and integrati

49、on of foreign metal processes. For all these reasons, this volume rivals Georgius Agricolas De re metallica and R. P. Hommels China at Work in terms of literary and academic significance.The Armor Restoration volume was edited by Bai Rongjin 白荣金 and Zhong Shaoyi 钟少异.Bai, as a senior engineer at the

50、Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and all-round expert in cultural relic restoration, devotes himself to the restoration of unearthed armor. Iron armor from Liu Shengs tomb in Mancheng consists of 2859 armor plates joined by hemp cords, with leather lining and brocade edge

51、s. The armor, which was warped, heavily rusted, and partly fused together at the time of excavation, has been meticulously restored to its original state by Bai (Figure 4). The section on armor history is authored by Zhong, an expert on the history of weapons. In addition, the restoration section, c

52、entered on nearly thirty suits of historical armor restored by Bai, elaborates on the preservation, dirt and rust removal, material, shape, and arrangement of plates, the structure and composition of armor, the materials and methods used for linking and attaching plates, and such decorations as acce

53、ssories, colored patterns, and foiling. There are two technical systems for armor: an ancient European kind in which the iron plates are assembled by rivets, and the Chinese kind in which leather and iron plates are connected by cords; there is also rattan armor, paper armor, and padded armor. Armor

54、 Restoration is the first monograph on Chinese-style armor and is subsequently of great academic value. According to Prof. Hua Jueming, executive deputy editor of the book series, this volume will undergo revision and be renamed Armor Making (Jiazhou zhizuo 甲 胄制作).The author will restore and remake

55、thirty individual pieces and sets of armor that originate in periods ranging from the Shang and Zhou dynasties to the present, and thus supplement the history of armor from the Sui and Tang dynasties until now.Over 340 researchers and artisans, at times drawing from modern science and technology, un

56、dertook close on-site object examination, literature research, and comprehensive studies, which eventually yielded the minutely detailed Complete Collection. This book series demonstrates Chinese scholars comprehension of traditional arts and crafts and gives an impetus to the crossing and integrati

57、on of such varied disciplines as the history of technology, archaeological science, arts and crafts, folklore, and cultural anthropology. It provides the scientific basis for governmental efforts in conservation and the revitalization of traditional arts and crafts. It will furthermore play a crucia

58、l role in preserving traditional Chinese culture and upholding cultural diversity. In this sense, the Complete Collection can be seen as a supplement toand continuation of The Artificers Record (Kaogong ji 考工记)and The Exploitation of the Works of Nature (Zhang 2018).Figure 3: Miao female attire in G

59、uizhou (in Wrought Copper and Silver Craft, vol. 2).Figure 4: The restoration of iron armor unearthed from the Han Tomb in Mancheng (in Armor Restoration).Nonetheless, there are certain limitations and deficits in this book series. First and foremost, the Complete Collection, as stated by chief edit

60、or Lu Yongxiang in the general preface, is only nominally complete in several realms. These include agronomy, construction, tool and equipment making, furniture making, weaving with cotton, wool, and hemp, embroidering, printing and dyeing, clothing making, paper cutting and paper carving, special a