In several caves far away from downtown in Ruicheng County, Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province, Li Yanjun, the representative inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage project "Yongle Peach Wood Carving", has built his own intangible cultural heritage studio. Dozens of carving knives of different sizes and thicknesses switch back and forth in his hands, and a piece of wood gradually becomes a peach wood sword.

On the 22nd, the activity of "Walking East of the River, Watching Intangible Cultural Heritage along the Yellow River" by overseas Chinese media was held in Yuncheng, Shanxi Province. During this period, overseas Chinese media representatives from the United States, France, Canada, Sweden, Italy, Portugal and other countries and regions walked into the Ritian Wood Carving Culture Institute in Ruicheng County, and were shocked by each piece of superb wood carving works.

For thousands of years, the legends about peach wood are rich and colorful, and the handicrafts carved with peach wood as the carrier have also been endowed with the meanings of "home town", "blessing", and "exorcism", forming a unique "peach wood culture". Peach wood is often made into swords or various exquisite auspicious ornaments and utensils, which are worn on the body, placed in the room, or placed on the table... Peach wood carving technology came into being.

Yongle's peach wood carving technology has a history of more than 700 years. With the continuous maturity of this technology, carving, engraving, carving, inlaying, inlaying, picking, rolling and other techniques have emerged, and the "eight treasures" of peach wood carving, such as wheel, snail, umbrella, cover, lotus, pot, fish, intestines, have been derived.

Li Yanjun, born in 1976, grew up in a woodcarving family. He was educated by his grandfather. He learned to carve knives when he was 10 years old. Because of his dexterity, his skills have emerged early. For more than 30 years, he has been interested in peach wood carving. Over the years, he has been studying and pondering over the mystery of its craftsmanship.

According to Li Yanjun, Yongle peach wood carving has a wide range of technical processes and complex processes, so it is very strict. Taking the production of peach wood sword as an example, the production of a pure manual peach wood sword requires more than 10 processes, including material selection, blanking, soaking, drying, design, drawing, rough processing, carving, polishing, and cinnabar oil application.

"The traditional hand carving of Yongle peach wood mascot originates from Taoism and is rooted in the folk. Its raw materials are local peach trees aged from 8 to 15 years, with unique cultural and geographical characteristics." Li Yanjun said that the local area is famous for being the hometown of Lv Dongbin, one of the "Eight Immortals", and has become one of the holy places of Taoism because of the Yongle Palace built in the Yuan Dynasty. The peach wood carving crafts are affected by this, It is sold at home and abroad.

In recent years, in order to make more people like Yongle peach wood carving, Li Yanjun draws on the techniques and features of other intangible cultural heritage projects to increase the appreciation and practicality of this technique. At the same time, he changed the cinnabar oil used for peach wood carving into pure natural lacquer, making the work more beautiful and conducive to long-term preservation. Unique and creative pen holder, screen, Ruyi and other products are loved by the public.

For Li Yanjun, it has always been his goal to bring out a group of inheritors and build a peach wood sculpture museum. Now, Ruicheng County Litian Wood Carving Culture Research Institute has been designated as the employment and entrepreneurship base for the disabled in Shanxi Province. It has successfully held several training courses on practical skills of disabled wood carving, which not only inherits Yongle's peach wood carving skills, but also enables the disabled to have a skill.

"The Institute trains disabled people all year round, and those who pass the exam will stay in the Institute for employment." Li Yanjun said that he often participates in activities such as intangible cultural heritage on campus, in communities, and in research, to show the technological process and cultural connotation of Yongle peach wood carving in an all-round way, so that more people like this traditional skill.

This activity was guided by the Publicity Department of the CPC Yuncheng Municipal Committee, hosted by the Yuncheng Returned Overseas Chinese Federation, and undertaken by the China News Service International Communications Group Shanxi Branch. (Author Yang Peipei Yang Jieying)

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