Show the Charm of Bronze Wares Reappears through Craftsmanship of Intangible Cultural Heritage
"Jijin Moying", the full-surface bronze rubbing exhibition of intangible cultural heritage along the Belt and Road, hit Hangzhou Henglu Art Museum these days. Jointly organized by the Department of Culture of Henan Province, Department of Culture of Zhejiang Province, and Henan Association of Artwork, the exhibition caused quite a stir in the local area. Three thousand years ago, the bronze culture in Qin and Chu dynasties is demonstrated through full-surface bronze rubbing craftsmanship, also dubbed "the Chinese photography". 102 full-surface bronze rubbing artworks, mirroring the bronze ware culture of Qin and Chu dynasties in the budding stage of the Silk Road, amazed the West Lake, and charmed the visitors visually with Chinese culture.
Full-surface bronze rubbing, also called "bronze ware rubbing", "graphics rubbing" or "three-dimensional rubbing", reproduces the replication of bronze wares onto paper, by laying a sheet of Xuan paper on top of a bronze and rubbing the paper with Chinese ink, supplemented by sketching and paper cutting. The craftsmanship appeared in Jiaqing reign and Daoguang reign in the Qing Dynasty, and declined in the late Qing Dynasty. In recent decades, little knows about the craftsmanship, which has been confronted with the danger of loss.
The exhibition is divided into four areas that are "Qin - Genesis", "Central Plains - Bronze ware", "Chu - the Spring and Autumn Period" and "Chu - the Warring States Period". It is a feast of full-surface bronze rubbing rarely seen in China, and also a grand meeting of cultural exchanges between Henan Province and Zhejiang Province. It has been seven years since the planning started, and at the very beginning, the exhibition was themed " the charm of Qin and Chu bronze wares reappears through full-surface bronze rubbing craftsmanship". Given the academic rigor, the curator party chose the bronze wares with definite published descriptions as the subject, which can accurately reflect the bronze ware culture of Qin and Chu dynasties, and systematically present the life of vassals and aristocracies. In the past few years, the curator party selected targets step by step from hundreds of bronze wares. 93% of them have definite published descriptions, exhibited chronologically so as to facilitate understanding of China's extensive and profound culture for visitors.
Culture comes first in the Belt and Road Initiative. With the historic opportunity that China calls for promoting fine traditional Chinese culture, strengthening the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage, and realizing the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, the stone culture, rubbing techniques, and full-surface bronze rubbing craftsmanship come alive again.