Fruit pit carving (Chinese: 核雕;

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

: hédiāo) is a Chinese folk handicraft in which the pits of

peach The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others (the glossy-skinned, non-fu ...

apricot An apricot (, ) is a fruit, or the tree that bears the fruit, of several species in the genus ''Prunus''. Usually, an apricot is from the species '' P. armeniaca'', but the fruits of the other species in ''Prunus'' sect. ''Armeniaca'' are also ...

walnut A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''. Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true ...

Chinese olive ''Canarium album'' is a tree species in the genus '' Canarium'' and the family Burseraceae, found in Indo-China; the Catalogue of Life does not record any sub-species. ''Canarium album'' produces a fruit commonly called Chinese olive or white ol ...

, yumberry and other

drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or '' pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel'') ...

s are used to create minute patterns of the Buddha, nature, or the Chinese zodiac that are said to repel evil spirits. The carved pits are also used to create jewelry and decorations. However, the art is now facing extinction because few black olive trees are planted in China and there are very few people interested in learning this art. Olive core carving has recently been recognized as an

Intangible Cultural Heritage An intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is a practice, representation, expression, knowledge, or skill considered by UNESCO to be part of a place's cultural heritage. Buildings, historic places, monuments, and artifacts are cultural property. Int ...

of the Guangdong Province of China.

History

Fruit pit carving began in the

Spring and Autumn Period The Spring and Autumn period was a period in Chinese history from approximately 770 to 476 BC (or according to some authorities until 403 BC) which corresponds roughly to the first half of the Eastern Zhou period. The period's name derives fr ...

(BC. 770- BC. 476), and the earliest example of the art dates from the

Song Dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...

(960-1279), roughly 1000 years ago. However, it did not become popular until the

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

(1368-1644). At that time, even the emperor owned master carvings used as aristocratic decoration. Fruit pit carving became even more popular in the

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

(1644-1911), but after the

First First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

and

Second Opium War The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Sino War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a colonial war lasting from 1856 to 1860, which pitted the British Empire and the French Emp ...

s its popularity began to decline.

Famous Craftsmen and Works

Wang Shuyuan

Wang Shuyuan, a

craftsman from what is now

Changshu Changshu (; Suzhounese: /d͡ʐan¹³ ʐoʔ²³/) is a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Suzhou, Jiangsu province, and is part of the Yangtze River Delta. It borders the prefecture-level city of Nantong to the northeast across the Yangt ...

Jiangsu Province Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its ca ...

, created one of the art's masterpieces, a three-centimeter-long peach pit boat in Chibi,

Hubei Province Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The prov ...

, at nighttime. The minute detail of the carved pit includes four working windowpanes, five human figures, flower patterns, and poems. The piece is remembered in "Nut Carving Boat," a literary passage included in some Chinese middle school textbooks.

Chen Zihe

Lived in

Weifang Weifang () is a prefecture-level city in central Shandong province, People's Republic of China. The city borders Dongying to the northwest, Zibo to the west, Linyi to the southwest, Rizhao to the south, Qingdao to the east, and looks out to the L ...

Shandong Province Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizatio ...

during the Qing dynasty.

Chen Zuzhang

Chen is a court artist in the

, best known for

Boat Carved from an Olive Stone The Boat Carved from an Olive Stone () is a fruit pit carving of a boat made out of an olive pit. It is part of the collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan. Description The boat is a miniature carving of an olive pit, measuri ...

. Today, the work is part of the collection of

National Palace Museum The National Palace Museum (; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: Kwet-li̍p kù-kiung pok-vu̍t-yèn), is a museum in Taipei, Republic of China (Taiwan). It has a permanent collection of nearly 700,000 pieces of Chinese artifacts and artworks, many of which wer ...

Du Langui

Lived from 1881 to 1960 in

Ding Huaizeng

Lived from 1878 to 1940 in

. Was commemorated for one of his carvings at the

Panama–Pacific International Exposition The Panama–Pacific International Exposition was a world's fair held in San Francisco, California, United States, from February 20 to December 4, 1915. Its stated purpose was to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, but it was widely se ...

in 1915.

Li Chen

Li is an artist from Anshan village of Tumen city, Jilin province, China. Li carves peach pits.

References

{{reflist Chinese folk art