清代前期（順治朝至乾隆中期，十七世紀中葉至十八世紀中葉偏晚），社會上由朝代的變革動亂中逐漸安定，此時竹刻藝術中心在江蘇嘉定一邑，「嘉定竹器為他處所無」，而且「非嘉定人不能傳此法」。嘉定竹刻不但聲名遠播，而且聲震內廷，「與古銅、宋磁諸器並重，亦以入貢內府。」 當時嘉定地區的竹人甚夥，各有所長。其中，封氏一門與施天章擅長以竹子的地下莖雕製立雕人物，並曾在清朝內務府造辦處供職；康熙中晚期的吳之璠除承襲嘉定派雕鏤傳統，擅長高浮雕、立雕及鏤空等技法外，更以「薄地陽文」（又稱「薄地陽刻」，即淺浮雕）為人稱道；周顥（一六八五－一七七三）則變浮雕為陰刻，善於運用陰刻技法雕飾南宗山水與竹石紋飾，有別於前人與同時代其他竹人。上述諸人在嘉定地區竹刻藝術傳統中各擅勝場，舉足輕重，並且各具劃時代的意義。 清代前期，中國竹刻工藝除了江蘇嘉定外，其他地區也有竹器之製造。但是這些在當時比較著名的竹人，或者是未有傳人，或者未能受到比較廣泛的重視（如同時代的嘉定竹人），因此他們的藝術未曾蔚然成風，迅燃即滅。其中，張希黃以擅長「留青陽文」而受後人推崇；李希喬因清初翰林院侍讀施閏章的記載而留名；潘西鳳則不但同時代的友人--「陽州八怪」之一的鄭燮曾將他事蹟載入文集，亦有作品傳世，實屬難得。

　　　　　In the early Ch'ing Dynasty (from the Shun-chih period to the middle Ch'ien-lung period, from mid-17th century to mid-18th century), the society went steady from the change of government gradually. At that time, the center of Chinese bamboo carving was on Chia-ting county, Chiang-su province. "Except Chia-ting, there were no similar bmaboo carvings on other places," and "just the Chia-ting carvers could know the technique of bamboo carving." Not just known by commons, the bamboo carvings of Chia-ting were known by the emperors and offered to the imperial like the old bronzes and the Song dynasty ceramics. At that time, there were many bamboo carvers on Chia-ting and they had there own specialities. For example, the Fengs' and Shih T'ien-chang's specialities were bamboo shoot carvings, and some of them had been working in the imperial workshop. Wu Chih-fan, actived in the middle and the late K'ang-hsi period, could countiue the tradition of the Chia-ting carving which were in high relief, in the round and in openwork. Otherwise, he was famous of "Po-ti-yang-wen" (also called "po-ti-yang-k'o" which was one kind of low relief). ゞ Chou Hao (1685-1773) changed the releif into the intaglio. He excelled in using the intaglio to carve the decors of the Southern School landscape, bamboo and stone. These were the differences between Chou Hao and those who were the carvers of the earlier or the same period. They all played an impaortant space in the history of the Chia-ting bamboo carving. In the early Ch'ing Dynasty, except the Chia-ting area, there were the bamboo carvings in other places also. Some of the famous bamboo carvers in other places did not have students and some of them were not noticed like the Chia-ting bamboo carvers in the same time. Therefore, their arts could not become fashionable. In this paper, three of them were discussed: Chang Hsi-huang excelled in "liu-ch'ing-yang-wen". Because of being recorded in the book of Shih Jun-chang (1618-1683) who was a famous official. Lee Hsi-ch'iao was known. ゞ Not only P'an Hsi-feng was recorded in the book of Cheng hsieh (1693-1765) ho was a famous painter and one of the "Eight Eccentrics of Yangchou", but also he left several works; therefore, he was luckier than the others.