Editing Chinese culture (section)

=== Carved lacquer ===
[[File:Lacquered box with character for luck, Qianlong Period.JPG|thumb|left|Box with the character for "Spring" ({{lang|zh|春}}), [[Qianlong]] period, [[Qing dynasty]]. [[Nanjing Museum]]]]
{{Main|Carved lacquer}}
Carved lacquer or  ''Qīdiāo'' ({{zh|漆雕}}) is a distinctive Chinese form of decorated [[lacquerware]].  While lacquer has been used in China for at least 3,000 years,<ref name="Grove">Grove {{full citation needed|date=June 2023}}</ref> the technique of carving into very thick coatings of it appears to have been developed in the 12th century CE. It is extremely time-consuming to produce, and has always been a luxury product, essentially restricted to China,<ref>Grove; Cinnabar {{full citation needed|date=June 2023}}</ref> though imitated in [[Japanese lacquerware|Japanese lacquer]] in somewhat different styles.  The producing process is called '''Diāoqī''' ({{lang|zh|雕漆}}/彫漆, carving lacquer).Though most surviving examples are from the [[Ming dynasty|Ming]] and [[Qing dynasty|Qing]] dynasties, the main types of subject matter for the carvings were all begun under the [[Song dynasty]], and the development of both these and the technique of carving were essentially over by the early Ming.  These types were the abstract ''guri'' or Sword-Pommel pattern, figures in a landscape, and birds and plants.  To these some designs with religious symbols, animals, auspicious characters ''(right)'' and imperial dragons can be added.<ref name="Grove"/> The objects made in the technique are a wide range of small types, but are mostly practical vessels or containers such as boxes, plates and trays. Some screens and pieces of [[Chinese furniture]] were made. Carved lacquer is only rarely combined with painting in lacquer and other lacquer techniques.<ref>Watt and Ford, p. 3 {{full citation needed|date=June 2023}}</ref>

Later Chinese writers dated the introduction of carved lacquer to the [[Tang dynasty]] (618–906), and many modern writers have pointed to some late Tang pieces of armour found on the [[Silk Road]] by [[Aurel Stein]] and now in the [[British Museum]].  These are red and black lacquer on [[camel]] hide, but the lacquer is very thin, "less than one millimeter in thickness", and the effect very different, with simple abstract shapes on a plain field and almost no impression of [[relief]].<ref>Watt and Ford, pp. 6–7 (p. 7 quoted) {{full citation needed|date=June 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=armour / 盔甲 (MAS 621) |publisher=The British Museum |website=Collection online |url=http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=228794&partId=1&searchText=Lacquer+armour+aurel+Stein&page=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107015234/http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=228794&partId=1&searchText=Lacquer+armour+aurel+Stein&page=1 |archive-date=7 November 2017 |url-status=dead |at=See "Curator's comments"}}</ref><ref>Kuwayama, pp. 13–14 {{full citation needed|date=June 2023}}; Rawson, p. 175 {{full citation needed|date=June 2023}}; Grove, "Tang" {{full citation needed|date=June 2023}}</ref> The style of carving into thick lacquer used later is first seen in the [[Southern Song]] (1127–1279), following the development of techniques for making very thick lacquer.<ref>Watt and Ford, p. 7 {{full citation needed|date=June 2023}}; Rawson, p. 175 {{full citation needed|date=June 2023}}</ref> There is some evidence from literary sources that it had existed in the late Tang.<ref>Kuwayama, pp. 13–14 {{full citation needed|date=June 2023}}</ref> At first the style of decoration used is known as ''guri'' ({{lang|zh|屈輪}}/曲仑) from the Japanese word for the ring-pommel of a sword, where the same motifs were used in metal, and is often called the "Sword-Pommel pattern" in English.  This style uses a family of repeated two-branched scrolling shapes cut with a rounded profile at the surface, but below that a "V" section through layers of lacquer in different colours (black, red and yellow, and later green), giving a "marbled" effect from the contrasted colours; this technique is called ''tìxī'' ({{lang|zh|剔犀}}/剃犀) in Chinese.  This style continued to be used up to the [[Ming dynasty]], especially on small boxes and jars with covers, though after the Song only red was often used, and the motifs were often carved with wider flat spaces at the bottom level to be exposed.<ref>Watt and Ford, pp. 26–27, 46–61, 60 for the use of green {{full citation needed|date=June 2023}}; Rawson, p. 178 {{full citation needed|date=June 2023}}; Grove, "Song" {{full citation needed|date=June 2023}}; Kuwayama, pp. 13–17 on the Song {{full citation needed|date=June 2023}}</ref>