What is XiPi?
XiPi can be wirrten as 犀皮, 西皮 or 犀毗 in Chinese. In English, it is commonly known as Rhinoceros-skin lacquer when searching on google or wikipedia. If you read the book 《髹饰录》(Xiu Shi Lu) , you will be aware of that the translation may mislead the true meaning of the technique. Therefore, we use the term Rhinocerotic instead of Rhinoceros-skin, as it isn't crafted by real Rhinoceos skin. As a technique of lacquer, Rhinoceoric lacquer involves at least 5 colours (originally ranging from black to red, and from red to yellow, etc.), and craftman meticulously apply these layers, allowing the colours to emerge and shape into a texture resembling Rhinoceros skin, accurately, the texture surrounding Rhinoceros navel.Ornament adoned with such lacquer technique is referred to as XiPi.
The pattern or texture created with XiPi lacquer technique can resemble cloud, flowers or pinaceae. The surface is characterized by its cleanliness and smoothness. In traditional Chinese aesthetics, the cleaner and smoother, the XiPi lacquer is better.
