中国文化系列丛书：中国文化·工艺（英） 下载 mobi 免费 pdf 百度网盘 epub 2025 在线 电子书

“一方水土养一方人”。历史上的中国，是一个以农业和手工业为支撑的农业国家，农耕社会的自然环境衍生了延续至今的传统生活方式。种类繁多的传统手工艺扎根于民间，与民生民俗息息相关，以实用、朴素、温情的品格展现了中国从过往到现代的国计民生和区别于其他文明起源地的文化特征。无论是服务于上层的宫廷工艺、充满文人趣味的士大夫工艺，还是带有浓郁乡土气息的民间手工技艺，发明创造的初衷源于特定自然环境中中国人的生活所需，蕴涵着生产与生活的造物智慧，是中华文明的重要载体。

Contents

Preface

Craft Culture

The Transformation of Chinese Contemporary Arts and Crafts

The Development of Chinese Contemporary Arts and Crafts

Chinese Contemporary Handcrafts - Part of the Country’s Intangible Cultural Heritage

Sages’ Creations: Traditional Chinese Crafts and Their Tales

Utensils

Ceramics

Bronze Vessels

Lacquer Ware

Costume

Fabrics

Embroidery

Printing and Dyeing

Display

Furniture

Enameled Glassware Inlaid With Gold and Silver

Bamboo-Carving, Wood-Carving, Ivory- and Horn-Carving

Decoration

Jade Ware

New Year Pictures

Paper-cut

Folk Arts

Folk Toys

Kites

Puppets

Shadow Play

Commerce

Shop Signs and Huangzi

Packaging

Existing Traditional Craftsmanship

Folk Tools

Fiber Arts

Bamboo Crafts

Appendix

郭秋惠，1979年生，毕业于清华大学美术学院艺术史论系。文学博士，清华大学美术学院艺术史论系教师、中国工艺美术学会理论委员会会员。主要从事中国工艺与设计的历史与理论研究。发表论文及访谈30余篇，出版的著作有：《中国传统工艺》（合著）、《追逐太阳的光影?邓伟》（合编）、《中国现代艺术与设计学术思想丛书?吴劳文集》、《传统与学术：清华大学美术学院院史访谈录》（合编）、《光华路：中央工艺美术学院影存1956—1999》（合编）等。

王丽丹，1978年生，毕业于清华大学美术学院艺术史论系。文学博士，中原工学院艺术设计学院教师、中国工艺美术学会理论委员会会员。主要从事中外设计历史与理论研究。发表论文及访谈20余篇，出版的著作有：《中国现代艺术与设计学术思想丛书?邱陵文集》、《传统与学术：清华大学美术学院院史访谈录》（主要撰稿人）、《清华大学美术学院简史》（主要撰稿人）、《艺术鉴赏》（合编）等。

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Enameled Glassware Inlaid With Gold and Silver

Gold and silver ware

Gold and silver ware are utensils and ornaments made using the precious metals as their basic materials. China’s gold and silver ware is well known for its exquisite craftsmanship. It comes in many different varieties and is perceived as a symbol of wealth owing to its value, its rare raw materials, its bright luster and luxurious texture and finish.

In terms of its physical properties, gold is resistant to corrosion, oxidation and high temperatures. It does not rust and can be extruded and worked easily. It is very precious.

The main processes involved in making gold ware include smelting, mold casting, hammering, welding, “busting beads,” engraving, spinning, weaving, filigree making and embedding. Some of these techniques developed from the technology used to make bronze items, others are unique to the manufacture of gold ware. For example, bursting beads involves dropping molten gold into warm water. This produces perfect gold beads, which can then be bonded or linked toegther.

Silver has inferior physical properties than gold, and is more plentiful, it is therefore much less precious. Chinese silver ware appeared later than gold ware, and all its crafts are derived from those used to male gold items.

From the very start, gold and silver ware has been seen as having artistic and aesthetic value. The earliest existing Chinese gold article was made in the Shang Dynasty, over 3,000 years ago. Early gold and silver articles were mostly ornaments. They were characterized by their simplicity, and were small and exquisite in shape. They were unusually carved with distinctive local designs. Gold articles from the time of the Shang Dynasty were mainly gold and silver foils, gold leaves and plaques. These were mainly used for decorating furniture. In northern and northwestern areas, however, early gold articles were mainly worn as jewelry. One particularly attractive early gold item is a unique gold mask and scepter that was unearthed from the Sanxingdui Early Sichuan Cultural Site, in Guanghan, Sichuan. The growth of bronze crafts in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties laid a solid technical foundation for the development of gold and silver ware. Meantime, the development of jade carving and lacquer ware also promoted the development of gold and silver crafts in China. These crafts experienced peaks during the Spring and Autumn Period, the Warring States Era, the Qin and Han Dynasties, the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

In the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Era, gold and silver craftsmanship developed remarkably. Gold and silver ware was produced in a wide variety of styles and to a high quality and was widely distributed. It had a vivid style and sophistication.

Silvering and gold plating was the most typical craft of time. This dated from the middle of Spring and Autumn Period, flourished in the Warring States Era, and gradually declined after the Western Han Dynasty. This decoration technique involved the following steps: first, a recessed pattern was either cast or carved on the surface of a piece of bronze ware. Then, gold and silver wires and plaques were firmly secured to the item. Finally the whole piece was ground and polished with stone. This highlighted the pattern and in******ion.

Gold and silver ware of the time included practical utensils (such as gold pots, gold spoons, gold cups and silver plates), animal plaques, spikes, ornaments, adornments (gold crowns, gold belt hooks, gold necklaces and gold earrings) and other solid gold articles. The silver plate for the King of Chu (collected in the Palace Museum) is one of the earliest pieces of Chinese silver ware ever discovered.

In the Han Dynasty, gold and silver articles were used by people in the upper echelons of society. These items were exquisitely modeled and many of them featured finely crafted filigree decorations. Filigree techniques included weaving, piling and binding.

By the time of the Han Dynasty fine gold craftsmanship had reached a mature stage of development and had finally broken away from the traditional techniques of bronze craft. The techniques of wrapping, embedding, plating and polishing were still used to decorate copper and iron items with gold and silver. However, gold foils or grains were also used to decorate lacquer ware and silk fabrics.

During the Six Dynasties, as contact with foreign countries increased and Buddhism began to spread across China, gold and silver began to be used to make Buddhist articles. Some gold and silver articles at that time had designs that reflected the characteristics of China’s northern nomadic people or of the Persian Sassanian Empire.

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编辑推荐

天有时，地有气，材有美，工有巧。中国传统工艺在世界各民族的物质文化史上有着独特的美名。几千年来，人们的手工技艺应和着日出而作、日落而息的生活节律而发展：它所有的品类在其*初的状态都与使用有关，实用、朴素、温情，具有与农业文明相适应的智慧；即使在它的高端——宫廷工艺和文人工艺中，仍然保持着这种实用的痕迹和质朴的传统。这一切，都与中国独特的地理位置以及所形成的漫长的、绵延不绝的农耕文化有关系。它给我们留下了丰富的文化遗产，包含了许多人工造物与生活的智慧。

书摘插图

前言

Preface

By Hang Jian

Traditional Chinese arts and crafts are recognized around the world for their sophistication and beauty and for the artisanal and artistic skill they embody. Following Zhang Qian’s diplomatic mission to the West (?-114 BC) during the Han Dynasty, and as a result of the gradual opening up of the Silk Road, China’s traditional arts and crafts have been exported to Central Asia, Western Asia, the Middle East, Europe and other regions across the world. Chinese craftsmen in bygone ages often relied on their craftsmanship for their livelihoods when civil war or foreign invasion broke out, and they inadvertently served as cultural ambassadors. In addition, arts and crafts have often had a close relationship with China’s traditional philosophy. Around the first century A.D., ancient Chinese philosophers used to describe or interpret their thoughts about issues such as national governance and people’s lives by using crafts and craftsmanship as metaphors.

The development of China’s arts and crafts was heavily influenced by the country’s unique geographical location and its long and continuous farming culture.

Mainland China has a long coastline, but its civilization originated inland (in Central China) where the Xia, Shang and Western Zhou dynasties, the three earliest regimes in China, were established one after another. For the early Chinese ethnic groups who inhabited the country’s plains and mountainous areas, farming was the most significant way to make a living. It was the life and artistic style of this early agricultural society that defined the characteristics of traditional Chinese handicrafts and which shaped the development of craftsmanship in the country. Originally, all types of craft objects were made for practical purpose, so they were simple and user-friendly. Even craft objects that were used by royalty and scholars had a practical style and simple features. Early Chinese craft objects had a natural decorative style, which took landscapes, animals and plants as the subjects of their patterns and ornamentations. These decorations presented a cheerful and optimistic spirit.

China’s traditional moral philosophy had a maxim that stated: “Excessive attention to trivialities saps the will.” It also denounced “exquisite but useless skills and products” and the overdevelopment of unpractical skills. Such thoughts unconsciously influenced China’s craftsmen, so that the country’s crafts had a strong focus on functionalism. Over a period of thousands of years this drove the development of manual skills and helped maximise the use of resources by the country’s agricultural society. This also made the country’s crafts somewhat conservative. When the development of technology reached a certain level, this limited and delayed social and scientific progress.

Generally, however, China’s traditional arts and crafts are laudable. Today, they provide a rich cultural heritage to the people of China and the world, one that encapsulates the creative wisdom of the country’s people. This wisdom or philosophy has six main aspects.

First, it encapsulates the importance of “valuing humans and exploiting goods,” in other words, valuing individual lives and controlling artificial objects. It also emphasizes the need for all technologies to be based around the needs of people (what we today call “people oriented”). This need for technology to be people-oriented may seem self-evident (as technology is used by people). However, Europe went through a tortuous process to get a true understanding of this simple issue. For example, after the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain, the mass production of goods reduced costs and created cheaper products. This made many people praise machine-based production and cheer the achievements of the industrial revolution. However, soon after, it was realized that mass-produced products were rough and uniform. People were therefore dissatisfied with such products and considered that they lacked personality. In addition, the industrial manufacturing process was broken down into individual tasks and the people who manned the factory assembly lines became little more than parts of a machine. This dehumanized the manufacturing process and made it much less enjoyable than traditional artisanal labor where it was possible to touch natural materials and to think while working. The industrial process also distanced people from the more natural pace of agricultural life. Consequently, in the nineteenth century, there were utopian socialists such as William Morris (1834-1896) who championed more craft-based design in Europe.

In contrast, traditional Chinese crafts products were manufactured from the very beginning in a way that was based on human needs. The crafts industry took shape before machine-based production began, however, it grew especially fast in the late Ming Dynasty when capitalism began to become established in China. At that time, in Shengze Town, Songjiang (now in Wujiang, Jiangsu), the weaving industry was highly developed. Quite a few families in the town had between five and ten looms. They employed workers to operate these looms, and there was a clear division of labor between processes. Although this production approach was close to mass production in nature, it didn’t significantly improve outputs, generate surplus value or create the revolutionary change that happened to the weaving industry in industrial Britain. This was because employers in the Chinese weaving industry during the Ming Dynasty were still inextricably linked to the countryside. They therefore re-invested their earnings from the weaving industry into agricultural production or into family matters such as house building, land purchases, marriages and having children. This not only reflected the country’s agricultural heritage but also reflected the fact that Chinese traditional society valued the nature of human life and therefore didn’t want to push the development of machine-based production to an extreme. This approach to technology is summed up in thoughts such as “value your own self and use things” and “people oriented.”

Second, the wisdom of traditional Chinese arts and crafts encapsulates the concept of “attaining practical use and benefiting people.” In other words, it emphasizes the importance of “practical use” and people’s livelihoods. During the reign of Emperor Qianlong (1736-1795), western missionaries and foreign ambassadors came to China and brought with them many gifts. Most of these were playthings such as mechanical striking clocks. It can be seen from this example that many of the products manufactured in the West were not entirely practical in nature or made for the benefit of all people. In contrast, products produced in ancient China always emphasized the importance of function. Guan Zhong (725-645 BC), who was a philosopher during the Spring and Autumn period, once said: “excellent craftsmen in ancient times didn’t use their wisdom to manufacture playthings. Therefore, law-abiding people never produce useless things.” Here he is explaining that clever craftsmen in ancient times took the idea of not making useless playthings as a code of behavior and didn’t go against it. During the Warring State period, Mo Zi (about 468-376 BC) proposed the idea that a person should do what benefits him and shouldn’t do what offers him no benefit. Though this idea seems simple today, it was of great significance in the feudal society of the time. As a result, “exquisite but useless skills and products” didn’t enter mainstream Chinese society and the production of primarily functional objects continued for over 1,000 years. This, in turn, meant that “human care” remained at the heart of China’s traditional crafts.

Third, the wisdom of traditional Chinese arts and crafts encapsulates the concept of “considering different conditions and appropriately using the advantages.” This idea relates to the relationship between craft processes and the specific raw materials and technologies they use. Examples of such relationships include: the use of different types and textures of wood to make different types of furniture, the use of natural textures of stone to manufacture inkstones, and the use of different colors of jade to produce functional carvings that fully reflect the character of their raw materials. As such examples show, different materials are used by different crafts (and technologies). At the macro level, traditional Chinese crafts attached great importance to materials and technical conditions and designed products based on specific functional requirements. For example, Li Yu (1610-1680), a famous writer during the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, mentioned in his book Some Notes on Leisure Time that it was important for the designs of landscape architects to be sound, appropriate and suitable. This approach meant that Chinese people didn’t produce any articles that went against the needs of the country’s prevailing agricultural society. It also meant that Chinese arts and crafts from different periods in the country’s history were basically harmonious with the lifestyles of the times in which they were made. One prominent example of this is given by the design of traditional craft lamps during the Han Dynasty. The Changxin Palace Lamp is a representative example of this type of lamp. It uses water to filter smoke and dust and uses a flue to discharge smoke. It also employs a rotational structure to adjust light and, overall, shows an extraordinary ingenuity of design.

Fourth, the wisdom of traditional Chinese arts and crafts encapsulates the concept of “learning from nature.” It also emphasizes the idea that creative inspiration comes from nature and promotes the idea that people should maintain a harmonious relationship with nature. In the past “creation” was used as a common term to describe how painting could help people learn from nature. Actually, “learning from nature” is an idea that runs through almost every aspect of traditional Chinese crafts. It relates to the idea that people should learn from and get inspired by nature. It also relates to the idea that artificial objects should be harmonious with nature. An example of this approach is provided by a saw that was invented by the skilled craftsman Lu Ban (about 507-444 BC). According to legend, Lu Ban was inspired by a toothed plant leaf he saw. Another example comes from the Three Kingdoms period when Zhuge Liang (181-234) combined machinery and natural shapes and invented the “wooden ox” trolley to transport provisions and fodder. In ancient times many other craft and technological products were inspired by nature. These even included some astrological instruments (e.g. the Houfeng Seismograph invented by Zhang Heng (78-139) during the Eastern Han Dynasty, the design of which was based on shapes drawn from nature). An explicit statement of the idea that designs should be inspired by nature can be found in Records of Painters and Lacquers (a lacquering technology treatise written in the Ming Dynasty). This clearly states that man should learn from nature, that lacquer ware should be shaped in the form of human body and that ornamentation should be based on the concept of Yin and Yang. Many luxury articles from the period of Emperor Qianlong were items of chinaware that imitated nature. More examples of naturally inspired design can be found in folk articles, such as fish dishes, sachets, moulages and door locks (the design of which also includes unique symbolic folk cultural elements).

Fifth, the wisdom of traditional Chinese arts and crafts encapsulates the concept of “using advanced technology while reflecting moral values.” This means that technology should be combined with ideological factors and that specific manufacturing activities and technical operations should be developed together with metaphysical theory. This view came into being after the pre-Qin period. It was greatly influenced by Taoist thoughts and by Confucianism, which put forward related ideas such as “writings are for conveying truth.” It should be noted that in China’s history there has sometimes been an imbalance between ideas and action, with ideas often being given precedence, however, for the day-to-day life of most normal Chinese people spirituality hasn’t normally overwhelmed practicality.

Sixth, the wisdom of traditional Chinese arts and crafts encapsulates the concept of “balancing outward grace and solid worth,” in other words, matching “appearance” with “essence”. This idea emphasizes the unity of content and form and of function and decoration. This approach is displayed in the design of many traditional Chinese craft items.

The decorative arts have played an important part in the overall development of human culture. The Chinese emphasis on the unity of content and form, and of function and decoration, has helped Chinese crafts-people to avoid formalism or the tendency to merely stress function. This is the exact goal of the Confucian idea of “balancing outward grace and solid worth.” This is an approach which requires a person to orientate their values so that they attach equal importance to form and content (in terms of their lifestyle, rules of conduct and relationship to artificial things).

All the traditional craft wisdom presented above is based on the thoughts of the nobility and scholars of the past. However, China’s folk arts and crafts are even more diverse and brilliant. They have their own independent system which is often based on folk formulas, legends and stories. Throughout ancient Chinese history, the development of traditional arts and crafts has been healthy and sound. Though there were some over-elaborated interests at some points, from the angle of the whole history, it was compatible with productivity at that time, showing aesthetic characters of moderation and practical use.

“Arts and crafts” are very important to the Chinese. They embody the unique culture of the country’s different regions, encapsulate aspects of the unique lifestyles of the Chinese people and reflect the relationships that exist between people, the land and production activities. They are passed on between generations and so embody elements of history and life. It is for this reason that “arts and crafts” are thought to be everlasting and why they are an inseparable part of the lives of Chinese people.