Quick Answer: What Is Chinese Carved Lacquer Tixi?
Chinese carved lacquer tixi (剔犀, tīxī) exposes bands of contrasting colors inside grooves cut into lacquer. The maker builds up layers of colored lacquer on an object, then carves through them. When the groove curves into a scroll, the exposed color bands follow the curve. [1][2][5]
- Layers: Different colors are stacked before the design is carved.
- Grooves: The sloping cut faces expose the bands.
- Patterns: Scrolls and clouds often carry the stripes around tight curves. [1][2][3]
The clearest place to identify the technique is inside one of the cuts, where the outer surface gives way to the layers below it. [1][2][4]
Follow a red line on a dark lacquer box. At the edge of a cloud it can double back into a narrow curl. Turn the box toward the light and look for the stripe along the inner slope of the groove.
How a Groove Reveals the Color Layers
From the top, the outermost color dominates an uncarved area. Inside a cut, the upper layer ends along the lip and lower layers appear further down the slope. A layer that runs parallel to the surface can therefore appear as a narrow stripe when seen from above. The Smithsonian describes a Ming box whose V-shaped grooves have a slightly rounded bottom. [1][2]
The width of a stripe depends on both the thickness of the layer and the angle at which the carver cuts through it. A steep wall exposes a narrower strip of a given layer when viewed straight from above. In one early Qing vessel, the Palace Museum describes a thin red line between thicker dark layers. In carved red lacquer, or tihong, the composition depends primarily on relief in a red lacquer surface. Both belong to the wider field of Chinese lacquerware. [1][4][9]
Reading Scrolls and Cloud Patterns
A ruyi cloud scroll (如意云纹, rúyì yúnwén) turns back on itself in rounded lobes. The Palace Museum describes it as one of the common designs on tixi. A curved groove can let the colored lines stay in view as they turn, so the bands trace the form as well as the carved outline. [1][4]
The Met’s term pommel scroll comes from a shape resembling a Chinese sword pommel. The museum notes that related motifs also appear in ceramics and metalwork. When identifying a lacquer object, follow one of the curved lines down into its groove. Color running through that slope is evidence for the technique. The outline of the scroll alone identifies the motif. [1][3]
Three Museum Objects, Three Ways to Look
A rectangular box at the Met is dated to the first half of the fourteenth century, in the Yuan dynasty. Its lacquer is red and black, and the pommel scrolls spread across a flat lid. The museum’s views let you compare the lid with the patterns turning around the sides. [3]
A Qianlong-period square box at the Palace Museum uses black and yellow lacquer over wood. Eight cloud scrolls surround the center of its lid, while further clouds extend around the walls. On this lid, a yellow band can serve the role a red band plays in a red-and-black piece. What the two objects share is a cut that exposes the layers. [1]
The Palace Museum also catalogs an early Qing vessel with a dark surface and red lines in the cuts. Its underlying body is porcelain. The pale glaze remains visible inside the foot. In photographs of the base, the exposed porcelain identifies the vessel body. In profile, the red lines identify the layers of lacquer above it. [4]
Jiangzhou Tixi in Shanxi
Jiangzhou tixi (绛州剔犀, Jiàngzhōu tīxī) is a regional tradition in Xinjiang County, Shanxi. China’s national heritage register lists the technique as a 2011 extension of a lacquer craft entry. The regional name cloud carving refers to the curved motifs commonly cut into the lacquer. [5][7]
The register profiles He Junming, who learned the craft in a local factory and founded a workshop. A later profile describes how his son He Pengfei applied the technique to a square table with dense cloud scrolls across the top. Seen beside museum boxes and vessels, the table shows how the grooves can organize a much larger surface. [6][7]
FAQs About Chinese Carved Lacquer Tixi
Does tixi contain rhinoceros horn?
The cut layers are colored lacquer. A Jiangzhou heritage account explains the name through the resemblance of the cut layers to a rhinoceros cross-section. The term describes a visual association. Historical objects document cores made of wood or even porcelain. [1][2][4][5]
Is tixi always black and red?
Red and black are common. The Palace Museum also catalogs a black-and-yellow box and describes the use of two or three colors in the technique. [1][3]
Why do some catalogs use the word guri?
Guri is a Japanese term used in some collection descriptions for this type of carved, striped decoration. The Ashmolean uses it in discussing both Japanese and Chinese lacquer. A label with that term can still describe an object made in China. [3][8]
Sources
[1] The Palace Museum. Square Tixi Box with Ruyi Cloud Scrolls
[2] Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art. Carved Lacquer Box with Pommel Scroll Design
[3] The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Rectangular Box with Pommel Scrolls
[4] The Palace Museum. Tixi Vessel with Longevity Characters and Cloud Scrolls over a Porcelain Core
[5] China Intangible Cultural Heritage Digital Museum. Jiangzhou Tixi Lacquer Techniques
[6] China Intangible Cultural Heritage Digital Museum. Representative Practitioner: He Junming
[7] Zou Yating, People’s Daily Overseas Edition. Jiangzhou Tixi Practitioner He Pengfei
[8] Ashmolean Museum. Carved Lacquer with Guri Decoration
[9] The Palace Museum. Rectangular Tihong Box with Lychees