Jiading bamboo carving technology is spread in the Jiading area of Shanghai, Jiading is located in the northwest of Shanghai, north of the Liu River, rich in bamboo. The jiading bamboo carving technique was created by Zhu He during the Zhengde and Jiajing years (1506-1566) of the Ming Dynasty, and was mainly passed down in Jiading County (district).
Zhu He integrated the art of calligraphy and painting into bamboo carving, and created a "profound technique" characterized by transparent carving and deep carving, making bamboo carving an independent ornamental art. His son Zhu Miao and grandson Zhu Zhizheng both inherited the bamboo carving skills of their predecessors and introduced new ones. Zhu Yi's sword technique is more abundant than Zhu He's, and Zhu Zhizheng's achievements have further surpassed his father's ancestors, the sword technique is exquisite, the style is simple and elegant, and the simplicity is simple and thick. Three generations of grandchildren laid the basic character of Jiading's bamboo carving art, and were known as "Three Zhus" in history. After the "Three Zhus", Li Liufang, Lou Jian and other "Jiading Fourth Gentlemen" in addition to calligraphy and painting, also inherited Zhu's "profound method" to carve bamboo for recreation. During the Kangxi Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, Wu Zhichuang's thin Yang wen carving method, beautiful and vigorous, with changeable levels, was called "ghostly craftsmanship" by people at the time. In addition, the three brothers of Feng Xilu, Feng Xijue and Feng Xizhang, who are good at round carving, are good at making characters, and their works are vivid and vivid, pushing Jiading bamboo carving into its heyday. During the Qianlong period, there were many schools of bamboo carving in Jiading, with Zhou Hao as the leader. Zhou Hao collected the dacheng of Jiading bamboo carvings, using a knife like a pen, and his works were vivid and mixed, which was called "the best product" by the world. Along with Zhou Hao, there were also Zhou Kasa and Shi Tianzhang, then known as the "Three Artists of Jiading". Jiading bamboo carvings were sent to the court as tributes as early as the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, and the Kangxi and Yongzheng Emperors not only collected, but also summoned artists Feng Xilu, Feng Xizhang, Shi Tianzhang, etc. to the inner court for worship; the Qianlong Emperor wrote his poems on the pen holder and let the Jiading bamboo carving artists burn them. In the late Qing Dynasty, Jiading bamboo carvings were concentrated in Jiading City, with many workshops and many shops, shi Dajing's "Wenxiu Zhai", Han Yu's "Yunxia Room", Ye Duanfu's "Cuiqing Zhai", Zhang Xuehai's "Wen Yu Zhai", Zhu Houfu's "Youyang Li", Fan Yatang's "Wen Yuan Zhai", Shen Zhuqian's "Ruizhi Zhai" and "Pan Song Yun Zhai", "Xie Yinxuan", etc. all had a certain influence, but at this time the entire bamboo carving industry had begun to stagnate and gradually declined. After 1949, Jiading bamboo carvings had professional guild organizations and research institutes. Jiading bamboo carving has traditionally been passed down mainly in the form of family and master-apprentice teaching, and many schools such as zhu's relief carving school, Feng's round carving school, Wu's Bodiyang wen school, Zhou's Nanzong painting school and many other schools have been passed down. At present, the main inheritors of this skill are Fan Xunyuan, Zhang Yingyao, Fan Qichang, Ding Liliang, Wang Wei, Wang Leping, Zhang Weizhong, Jiang Yuming, Su Yurong, Zhuang Long, Zhou Hao, Zhang Weizhong, Jiang Yuming, etc.
Jiading bamboo carving artists use knives to write instead of writing, integrating books, paintings, poems, literature and printing into one, giving bamboo a new life, so that bamboo carving works have won the atmosphere of books and the taste of gold and stone, elegant and customary, and have become the elegant play of literati and doctors of all generations. The shape of Jiading bamboo carvings is mostly suitable for the tastes of literati, and its varieties include pen holders made of bamboo tubes and bamboo chips, incense tubes (kaoru), arm rests, interstitial screens, hugging pairs, etc., as well as characters carved from bamboo roots, landscapes, grasses, trees, and animals. Its techniques include more than ten kinds of shallow carving, profound, thin Yang script, bas-relief, deep relief, through carving, circular carving, etc., with obvious regional style and distinct originality, and the aesthetic value far exceeds the practical value.
Because Jiading bamboo carving is pure manual operation, the process flow is complex, the production is time-consuming and laborious, it is difficult to form large-scale production, and the economic benefits are low, so most of the artists have changed careers. The Chinese painters trained by the Academy of Fine Arts also have no one to carve bamboo, and there is a lack of communication and exchange between calligraphers and painters and bamboo carving artists, resulting in the gradual loss of the cultural connotation of Jiading bamboo carving. In addition, with the pace of urbanization, large areas of bamboo forests have disappeared, and raw materials for bamboo carvings have been lacking. All of this has led to the decline of Jiading's bamboo carving skills, and it is urgent to formulate measures to rescue them.
On May 20, 2006, Jiading bamboo carvings were approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.