Traditional Chinese lacquerware

Author: Pan Jialai
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-12-01
Features: From theblock stone, human civilization has been advancing step by step through the continuous labor of human hands, presenting the diverse and colorful scene we see today. In the three centuries since industrialization, we have entrusted too much work to machines. However, machine-made products are often too rigid and uniform. When surrounded by these mass-produced goods, we suddenly realize that life has become lacking in spirit, beauty, and classical charm. As a result, more and more people are beginning to search for the utensils made and used by their ancestors with their hands. Porcelain fragments, jade pendants, silver hairpins, wooden objects; a carved block, a zisha teapot; even a brick or a tile—they have all been meticulously crafted by ancestors with their hands, retaining their warmth and engraved with our nation's totems. Occasionally stumbling upon them, they are cherished like treasures, and great joy and solace are gained in the process of searching and handling them. Traditional handicrafts are an important part of China's excellent cultural heritage. Chinese jade, silk, lacquerware, porcelain, and Ming and Qing furniture are among the finest handicrafts in the world, achieving extremely high levels in terms of craftsmanship and aesthetic artistry. However, in the long-term Confucian culture that emphasized principles over tools, the making of objects was always regarded as a minor and unrefined skill, rarely recorded in official histories or chronicles. The few records that exist are often brief or, in some cases, completely omitted. The most detailed historical sources available for reference are only a few works such as the Rites of Zhou·Winter Officials and the Treatise on the Mysterious Arts of Nature. Compiling this series of Traditional Chinese Handicraft Culture is to take readers back to the countryside, visit handicraft workshops, meet artisans and collectors, and listen to the behind-the-scenes stories. Lacquerware is gradually becoming distant from modern life. Traditional lacquerware techniques, when viewed through modern standards, are inefficient, and their commercial value also needs to be reassessed. It has retreated to the corners of daily life, now in a state of danger. Protecting traditional lacquerware is urgent.