Quick Answer: What Is Jiading Bamboo Carving?
Jiading bamboo carving (嘉定竹刻, Jiādìng zhúkè) is a tradition from what is now Shanghai’s Jiading District. Carvers use the tube, curved wall or root of bamboo to make brush pots, wrist rests, small figures and other pieces. Deep relief, openwork and shallow carving can all appear in the Jiading tradition. [1][2][3]
- Tube: Its curve carries a scene around a brush pot.
- Strip: A shallow curved section can become a wrist rest.
- Root: Knots and irregular shapes can become part of a figure. [1]
To identify a technique, look at how far the design rises and which part of the bamboo is visible.
Turn a bamboo brush pot and a scene can lead from a pine branch to a figure and then to a carved poem. The cylinder gives the carver a surface that unfolds as the pot turns. The profile of the cuts changes as they catch the light.
How the Bamboo Sets the Form
The national register traces the Jiading school to the Ming carver Zhu He and to his son Zhu Ying and grandson Zhu Zhizheng, known as Zhu Sansong. Their work drew on painting and calligraphy. The cylindrical brush pot brought this approach to an object used alongside the four treasures of the study. [1][2]
A section of the hollow bamboo stem, or culm, gives the pot its cylindrical wall. Splitting the stem lengthwise yields curved pieces for wrist rests or small screens. A root has thick, uneven forms suitable for small figures or landscapes in the round. [1][2]
Deep Relief, Shallow Relief and Retained Skin
Deep relief creates pronounced height differences on the surface. The carver lowers the background to let a figure or branch stand forward. Undercutting around a form deepens the shadow beneath it. In openwork, parts of the background are cut away entirely. Another approach, thin-ground raised carving, takes away less of the ground, leaving figures only slightly raised. [1][2][3]
Retained-skin carving, liúqīng (留青), uses the thin outer skin itself. The carver keeps selected parts of the skin and removes or thins other parts to create the image. It is one method in the broader bamboo-carving repertoire and also the focus of regional traditions such as Changzhou’s. [2][4]
Two Brush Pots in the Palace Museum
A Palace Museum brush pot by Zhu Sansong carries a woman holding an orchid beside a rock and a twisting pine. The brown bamboo cylinder is 14.6 centimeters tall and stands on three short feet. Its maker’s inscription is dated 1614. A poem by the Qianlong emperor, added later on a rock face within the composition, is dated 1777. [2]
A Qing brush pot signed by Wu Zhifan shows a board game on one side and a boy preparing tea on the other. The museum identifies its method as thin-ground raised carving. A slight rise can distinguish a figure from the rock wall behind it. Turn the pot to follow the scene from the players to the tea stove. [3]
Wang Wei and the 2026 Suzhou Exhibition
Wang Wei entered the Jiading bamboo-carving workshop in 1981, studied with Fan Xunyuan and others, and later organized a bamboo-carving department at Jiading Museum. His work includes a pierced brush pot depicting the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove and shallow relief pieces. [5]
From January to May 2026, Suzhou Museum showed nearly 60 works or sets by Wang, including examples of the thin-ground relief for which he is known. He donated a carved wrist rest with a scene of people cooling off beneath a pine. His pupil He Xin donated a retained-skin carving of a woman to the museum’s development foundation. [6]
FAQs About Jiading Bamboo Carving
What is a bamboo wrist rest?
A wrist rest supports the wrist or forearm at a writing desk. In Jiading carving it can be made from a curved strip of bamboo, with a design on the exposed surface. [1][5][6]
Does liuqing carving mean painting bamboo green?
The term refers to preserving selected areas of the bamboo’s natural outer skin. The design is produced by how much of that skin the carver leaves in place. [2][4]
When was Jiading bamboo carving nationally listed?
Jiading bamboo carving entered China’s first national intangible cultural heritage list in 2006. [1][6]
Sources
[1] China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network. Jiading Bamboo Carving
[2] Liu Jing, Palace Museum. Zhu Sansong’s Brush Pot with a Lady
[3] Liu Yue, Palace Museum. Brush Pot with a Board Game Scene Signed by Wu Zhifan
[4] China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network. Changzhou Retained-Skin Bamboo Carving
[5] China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network. Wang Wei, Jiading Bamboo Carving
[6] Suzhou Museum via the Chinese Museums Association. Wang Wei Jiading Bamboo Carving Exhibition