Artisan, China

The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, pp. 1–3

Abstract

An artisan in China was a craftsman or craftswoman skillful in decorating objects. Because Chinese artisan production was labor intensive, modular techniques and division of labor were devised at an early stage. An official bureaucracy was needed to calculate, supervise, and control the artisan workforce and materials. Artisans could receive a two‐year training to become a state artisan in a government workshop. Artisans were both men and women and in some crafts women outnumbered men. Although not officially allowed, many female artisans worked as conscripts in state projects. The social status of artisans was low and followed the traditional division of the four classes of people: scholar, farmer, artisan, merchant. The artisan class was regulated by legal statutes, which detailed the conscript service, taxes, mutual responsibilities, and fines. TheZhuangziis the only early philosophical work in which artisans are revered and, because of their skills, portrayed as having achieved a deep insight into nature. Painters were the only type of artisans who achieved a high status in Chinese society and whose biographies were recorded in treatises on painting. The artisan‐painter and the scholar‐official painter had different social backgrounds, causing a divide in later times.

Authors 1

1. Lennert Gesterkamp corresponding Aachen

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden University, The Netherlands