Chinese paper cutting

-"Paper-cutting is a hollow art and the most popular folk art, which gives people an empty inspiration and artistic enjoyment visually. Its carrier can be paper, gold foil, silver foil, bark, leaves, cloth, leather and other sheet materials. "

Edit this paper-cut introduction.

Paper-cutting is one of the most popular traditional folk decorative arts in China with a long history. Because of its easily available materials, low cost, obvious effect and wide adaptability, it is widely welcomed. Because it is most suitable for rural women's leisure production, it can be used as a practical object and beautify their lives. Paper-cutting can be seen all over the country, and even formed different local styles. Paper-cutting not only shows the aesthetic taste of the public, but also contains the deep social psychology of the nation. It is also one of the most distinctive folk arts in China, and its modeling features are particularly worth studying. As the embodiment of China's original philosophy, folk paper-cutting has the characteristics of comprehensiveness, beautification and auspiciousness. At the same time, folk paper-cutting conveys the connotation and essence of traditional culture with its own specific expression language.

On May 20th, 2006, the paper-cut art heritage was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list. On June 8, 2007, Shanghai Li Paper-cut Art Master Studio won the first Cultural Heritage Day Award from the Ministry of Culture.

Edit the history of paper cutting.

China folk paper-cut handicraft art has its own formation and development process. China's paper was invented in the Western Han Dynasty (6th century BC), before which the art of paper-cutting could not have appeared. But at that time, people used thin materials to make handicrafts by hollowing out and carving, but it was popular long before paper appeared, that is, cutting gold foil, leather, silk and even leaves by carving, carving, picking, carving and cutting. According to Records of the Historian Jiantong Di Feng, in the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, a king claimed the title of king, and cut a plane tree leaf into a "reed" and gave it to his younger brother, who was named Hou in the Tang Dynasty. During the Warring States period, leather carvings (one of the cultural relics unearthed from Chu Tomb No.1 in Jiangling, Hubei Province) and silver foil carvings (one of the cultural relics unearthed from the Warring States site in Guwei Village, Huixian County, Henan Province) were all demolished together with paper-cutting, and their appearance laid a certain foundation for the formation of folk paper-cutting. The earliest paper-cutting works in China were discovered in 1967, when China archaeologists discovered two paper-cuts with flowers of the Northern Dynasties in Astana near Gaochang site in Turpan Basin, Xinjiang. They use hemp paper, all of which are folded sacrificial paper-cuts. Their discovery provides physical evidence for the formation of Chinese paper-cutting.

The history of paper-cutting handicraft art, that is, paper-cutting in the true sense, should begin with the appearance of paper. The invention of paper in Han Dynasty promoted the appearance, development and popularization of paper-cutting. Paper is a moldy material. In the southeast of our country, the climate is humid, and the rainy days in May and June every year, paper products will rot over time. Folk paper-cutting is a popular thing. People don't keep it as a treasure, and they can cut it if it is broken. In the northwest of China, the weather is dry, the climate is dry, and the paper is not easy to get moldy, which may also be one of the important reasons for the discovery of paper-cutting in the Northern Dynasties in Turpan, Xinjiang.

Paper-cutting in Tang Dynasty-Paper-cutting in Tang Dynasty has been in a period of great development. There is a saying in Du Fu's poem that "warm water fills my feet, and paper-cutting calls my soul". The custom of paper-cutting calling my soul has spread among the people at that time. The paper-cut in the Tang Dynasty, which is now in the British Museum, shows that the paper-cut at that time had a high level of manual art and a complete picture composition, expressing an ideal realm between heaven and earth. Popular in the Tang Dynasty, the carved patterns of flowers and trees have the characteristics of paper-cutting. For example, the pattern of "Duiyang" in Masakura Hospital in Japan is a typical artistic expression of hand cutting. In the Tang dynasty, there was also block printing made of paper-cutting. People carved it into wax paper with thick paper, and then printed the dye on the cloth to form beautiful patterns.

In Song Dynasty, the paper industry was mature and there were many kinds of paper products, which provided conditions for the popularization of paper-cutting. For example, it can be used as "fireworks" for folk gifts, "window grilles" pasted on windows, or as decorations for lanterns and teacups. The application scope of folk paper-cutting in Song Dynasty gradually expanded. Jiangxi Jizhou Kiln uses paper-cut as the pattern of ceramics, and makes the ceramics more exquisite by glazing and firing. Folk also use paper-cutting to carve figures in shadow play with the skins of animals such as donkeys, cows, horses and sheep. Carved version made of blue printed cloth, carved into patterns with oilpaper board, and scratched patterns made by paper-cutting technology, divided into yin and yang engraving. Long lines should be cut off to distinguish facts from truth.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the paper-cut handicraft art matured and reached its peak. Folk paper-cut handicraft art has a wider range of applications, such as flower decorations on folk lanterns, decorative patterns on fans and embroidery patterns, all of which are reprocessed with paper-cut as decoration. What's more, Chinese people often use paper-cutting as decoration to beautify the home environment, such as door battlements, window grilles, cabinet flowers, wedding flowers and ceiling flowers, which are all used to decorate doors, windows and rooms. In addition to the paper-binding pattern craftsmen who appeared after the Southern Song Dynasty, the most basic team of folk paper-cutting handicrafts in China is rural women. Female red is an important symbol of the perfection of traditional women in China. As a compulsory skill of needlework, paper-cutting has become a skill that girls have to learn since childhood. They want to learn paper-cut patterns from their predecessors or sisters, cut out new patterns through cutting, re-cutting, painting and cutting, and describe the natural scenery they are familiar with and love, the scenery of fish, insects, birds, beasts, flowers, trees, pavilions and bridges, and finally reach the realm of their will.

China folk paper-cut handicraft art, like an ivy, is ancient and evergreen, and its unique popularity, practicality and aesthetics have become a symbolic meaning that meets people's psychological needs.

Edit the creation of this paper-cut

First, the composition method

The basic material of paper-cutting is flat paper, the basic units are lines and blocks, and the basic language symbols are decorative points, lines and surfaces. In addition, due to the limitation of materials, paper-cutting is not good at expressing multi-level and complex picture content, light and shadow effects, and the volume, depth and fluctuation of objects and images. Therefore, it is only necessary to foster strengths and avoid weaknesses, and adopt head-up composition in composition, that is, to change objects and scenes from three-dimensional images into two-dimensional plane images. Through the bold choice of performance materials, simplifying the complex and summarizing with concise lines, the focus of the picture is prominent, and the relationship between black and white is in contrast with reality, thus enhancing the expressive force of the work and expressing the objects of the world with a head-up view, which determines the planarization characteristics of paper-cutting, that is, the creation of any image is stored in a specific visual plane. Folk paper-cutting adopts an expanded way of thinking, which is very arbitrary. Under the scissors of the creator, paper-cutting has become a natural and bold creation, without volume, space, perspective and proportion, relying on experience and spirituality. In order to express their ideas, creators can break the objective laws of nature and space restrictions and put objects in different time and space on the same plane. This kind of static planarization can represent three-dimensional, four-dimensional or even multi-dimensional space, and constantly depict the world in your heart through dynamic thinking. Folk paper-cutting is to make a fuss about the limitations of paper, gallop freely in the limitations, make the impossible possible and simplify the three-dimensional world into a two-dimensional space. Infinite space and infinite complex shapes are placed on a plane, and the flat outline has become the modeling basis of paper-cutting. Therefore, the unique expressive force of folk paper-cutting is realized on the basis of the thorough concept of two-dimensional space. Paper-cut creators play their true and pure artistic nature, break the shackles of the objective world, and express their artistic objects from multiple angles, directions and levels.

This composition thinking of folk paper-cut is not limited by living customs and subject matter content, and creatively organizes a number of images to make them coherent, comparative and foil. This expression technique of flattening and taking things enhances the subjectivity, time and space, three-dimensional sense and comprehensiveness of paper-cutting, and its ultimate goal is to pursue the integrity of modeling. Perfect psychology is the foundation of all this. In folk paper-cutting, the foreground and background of the paper-cut object appear on the same plane, and the object and the image do not overlap each other, so that we can see both the front object and the back object completely, thus showing a strong decorative style. The creator broke the obstacles of realization out of pure thoughts, feelings and aesthetic stereotypes, and fully expressed the image with the method of unity of form and spirit. For paper-cutting, the back, top, bottom or interior of the object can't be seen, but it has an inner feeling. Invisibility is reasonable, but it is unreasonable not to cut it out.

In addition, the structure and expression of folk paper-cutting is not a simulation or representation of a static visual image from a fixed angle, but a dynamic dialectics that fully integrates sensibility and rationality. China folk art does not pursue the depth of perspective, but has an aesthetic recognition of "seeing more and seeing more". Folk paper-cutting also embodies this aesthetic concept, which embodies the whole picture of things in two-dimensional space.

Scattered perspective paper-cut works

The composition form of folk paper-cut completely abandons the concept of "focus" perspective painting, which not only breaks the limitation of time, space and proportion, but also completely breaks away from the specific position of natural scenery, unifying the picture with primary and secondary images, symmetry and balance formal rules. At the same time, folk paper-cutting also has the method of scattered composition, that is, different materials are independent of each other and do not cross each other, and even each object has its own perspective, so the author can arrange these different materials in the same plane reasonably. This is unreasonable in reality, but it is naturally reasonable in paper-cutting.

Folk paper-cutting is not bound by the inherent shape of natural objects, and is not satisfied with the simulation of appearance, but expresses all objects on the plane. At the same time, in order to pursue the integrity and comprehensiveness of modeling, different scenes in different time and space are described, which fully embodies the creator's wonderful ingenuity and aesthetic desire to pursue perfection.

2. Modeling method

Folk paper-cutting comes from life, and the creators of paper-cutting express their understanding of life and nature in this special art form, which is an expression of inner feelings. Therefore, this kind of artistic expression focuses on similarity rather than similarity. At the same time, due to the limitation of paper-cutting technology, it is not appropriate to adopt a completely realistic approach, but only highlight the outline characteristics of the object, and use deformation and exaggeration to highlight the characteristics of the object. Therefore, exaggeration and distortion have become one of the most commonly used expression languages in paper-cutting. Exaggerated deformation is the result of human creative labor and the crystallization of wisdom. Whether it is the painted pottery decoration of Yangshao culture, the graphic patterns of bronzes in Yin and Shang dynasties, or the stone carving art in Qin and Han dynasties, it shows its eternal artistic charm with the beauty of artistic exaggeration. As the direct carrier of primitive art, paper-cutting has outstanding performance in exaggeration and deformation. The performance of folk paper-cutting mostly comes from real life and reflects the life and things around working people. However, it is not only a simple and intuitive simulation of the object to be expressed in its works, but a common standard that transcends the objective expression of reality and changes the nature and shape of the object through exaggeration and deformation.

The creators of folk paper-cutting regard paper-cutting as a part of life, and the yearning for a better life and the worship of ancient totems are the main contents of folk paper-cutting. These themes full of folk customs, beliefs and philosophies can only be expressed subjectively, which makes the image of paper-cut arbitrary, and the depiction of inner images can not be separated from exaggerated artistic language.

The exaggeration of folk paper-cut modeling is a systematic and standardized process of complicated content, rather than an objective description of nature. Therefore, the image in paper-cut is more prominent and eye-catching than the prototype. This is determined by the big historical and cultural background and living environment, and comes from the rich life. At the same time, the processing and simplification of living raw materials is also the basis of folk paper-cut modeling. Eliminating non-essential things, highlighting the parts with characteristics and individuality, and turning complexity into simple art re-creation are the exaggeration of folk paper-cutting. Exaggeration emphasizes the characteristics of the object on the basis of ellipsis, and expands, shrinks, elongates, thickens and deforms the most special part of the object image to make the image more distinctive and artistic. In many folk paper-cut works, people can only see their eyes in facial modeling, because in people's minds, eyes are the most vivid, so the creators exaggerate people's eyes.

The exaggeration of sawtooth paper-cut folk paper-cut not only embodies the characteristics of objects, but also requires the purpose of decorative beauty, which shows the creator's spiritual pursuit of life, such as ideals and wishes. In order to make the prominent part more clear, concentrated and eye-catching, some decorative patterns are often added to the image to achieve the perfect decorative purpose. The desire for beauty has also become one of the exaggerated contents. When representing a character, the clothes of the character are covered with flowers; When depicting animals, the fur on animals is exaggerated into a whirlpool shape, or patterns are directly added to it, so that the original ordinary image becomes transparent and shows strong decoration. Sawtooth and crescent are common decorative patterns in folk paper-cutting.

The creative process of folk paper-cutting is a process of evolution and deepening from "truth" in real life to "beauty" in art through exaggeration, and it is also a process of the creator's thoughts, feelings, aesthetic psychology and pursuit and embodiment of beauty. Through long-term observation and understanding of life and long-term practice, the creator understands the law of paper-cutting, and freely combines balanced, uneven, dense and irregular lines to form wonderful rhythm and rhythm, which adds interest and enriches the appeal of the image.

Three, paper-cutting tools and instructions:

Paper-cutting is not made by machine, but by hand. The common methods are scissors and knife scissors. As the name implies, scissors are scissors. After cutting, paste several paper-cuts (usually no more than 8) together, and finally process the pattern with sharp scissors. Knife scissors first fold the paper into several folds, put it on the soft mixture of ashes and animal fat, and then slowly carve it with a knife. Paper-cutting artists usually hold a knife vertically and process the paper into the desired pattern according to a certain model. Compared with scissors, one advantage of knife scissors is that they can be processed into various paper-cut patterns at one time.

Edit the type of paper-cut in this paragraph.

1. Southern School, represented by Foshan paper-cut in Guangdong and Fujian folk paper-cut.

Guangdong Foshan paper-cut

Nanpai Paper-cut-Foshan Paper-cut

Guangdong Foshan paper-cutting has a long history, which originated in the Song Dynasty and flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Since the Ming Dynasty, Foshan paper-cut has been produced in large quantities by specialized industries, and the products are sold to provinces in the province, Central South and Southwest China, and exported to Southeast Asian countries.

Foshan paper-cut can be divided into three categories according to its raw materials and methods: copper lining, paper lining, copper writing, silver writing, woodcut overprint, copper chisel and solid color. It uses local specialty copper foil and silver foil, uses cutting, carving, chiseling and other techniques, and prints various patterns with various colored papers, thus forming a paper-cut with strong colors, resplendence and southern characteristics. Foshan paper-cut not only has exquisite and elegant characteristics, but also has vigorous expression techniques. According to the needs of use, materials are selected and used.

In ancient times, the main uses of paper-cutting were the decoration of holiday gifts, sacrificial decoration, embroidery and carving patterns, product trademarks and so on. With the development of society, Foshan paper-cutting has created the innovation of traditional art on the basis of tradition. It has the characteristics of rigorous composition, strong decoration and elegance, and it is more representative in Chinese paper-cutting art with the theme of times life.

Fujian folk paper-cutting

Nanpai Paper-cutting-Fujian Zhangpu Paper-cutting

Paper-cutting in different areas of Fujian has different characteristics. Nanping, Hua 'an and other places in mountainous areas are characterized by more works describing mountain birds and livestock, which are relatively strong and simple; In some coastal areas of southern Fujian and Zhangpu, aquatic animals are often represented in paintings, with meticulous style and vivid modeling; Putian and Xianyou are mainly gift flowers, which tend to be gorgeous and exquisite.

Paper-cutting has a wide range of functions: samples of window grilles, door decorations, snuff, ceremonial flowers and embroidery during the Chinese New Year, and paper-cutting by Quanzhou artists is also used on furniture in buildings as a basis for copying lacquer paintings.

The most distinctive style should be called the gift flower of Putian. Happy birthday, happy birthday, offering sacrifices to gods, ghosts and ancestors, whether it is a gift or a confession, or a light or thick gift, you should send a bright red paper-cut flower. Even pig's head, pig's foot, pig's belly and chicken's feet are the same. There is a saying in China that "courtesy is light on human intentions". Presumably, the gift is a symbolic act, and the flowers on the gift should be the lover's mind, right?

The shape of the gift flower is also very interesting. The paper-cut on a chicken claw is called "phoenix claw flower". What was originally unattractive suddenly became a chicken claw with a claw decorated with the pattern of "playing peony", which is more beautiful. The pig's stomach is ugly, too The author cut this flower into the image of a fat and oily pig, making this "delicious or not" gift perfect. What's more strange is that the word inside is "a mass of color" instead of "a mass of harmony", because auspicious clouds and auspicious atmosphere can be seen everywhere in the garden.

2. Jiangsu and Zhejiang schools, represented by Yangzhou paper-cutting, Jiangsu and Zhejiang folk paper-cutting.

Jiangsu Yangzhou paper-cut

Paper-cut in Jiangsu and Zhejiang-Yangzhou paper-cut "Four Seasons Flowers" was cut out in various ways. Yangzhou is one of the earliest areas where paper-cutting is popular in China. Yangzhou paper-cutting has a long history. Emperor Yang Di visited Yangzhou three times and built a palace for his own enjoyment. Every winter, the flower trees in the garden wither, the water in the pool freezes, and Emperor Yang Di wanders unabated, which makes ladies-in-waiting imitate folk paper-cutting, cut colorful brocade into flowers and leaves, decorate branches, hang them on trees, cut them into lotus flowers, dragonflies, lotus roots and other things at the same time, take out the ice cubes in the pool and arrange them out of the water one by one, just like the gorgeous scenery at the turn of spring and summer, which is pleasing to the eye. In the Tang Dynasty, Yangzhou had the custom of paper-cutting to welcome the Spring. On this day in beginning of spring, folk paper-cutting is just a flower, and it is also cut into butterflies, money and victory in spring, or hung on the head of a beautiful woman or decorated under a flower, which makes people feel happy. Paper-cutting also has some special uses, such as folk paper-cutting people, paper horses and paper money, which are used to pay homage to ghosts and gods. Du Fu, a great poet, wrote the poem "Warm soup is enough for me, paper-cutting is my soul", which means this.

1980 In the spring, all walks of life in Yangzhou welcomed Master Jian Zhen back to his hometown to visit relatives. Paper-cut artist made a paper-cut by the great monk Jianzhen, and Mr. Zhao Puchu wrote a poem "Remembering Jiangnan" for it, with the inscription "Looking at the city across the sea, paper-cut evokes the soul". During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Yangzhou paper-cut enhanced its decoration, combining appreciation with practicality. It is not only used for the decoration of women and children, but also as the basis for embroidery and cutting shoes, pillows, tablecloths and sheets. It is also used in folk ornaments, such as New Year's Day patterns, festive patterns, front door decoration, lantern flowers, dragon boat flowers, fighting fragrant flowers and so on. Folk paper-cutting artists use a pair of scissors and a few pieces of rice paper, which are ever-changing and meaningful, and cut out patterns symbolizing auspiciousness, wishful thinking, longevity, wealth and happiness. Until the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, there were still many folk artists in Yangzhou who made a living by cutting paper.

After the founding of New China, Yangzhou paper-cutting has received the attention of the Party and the government, just like other traditional handicrafts. From 65438 to 0955, Yangzhou established a folk arts and crafts society (now Yangzhou Arts and Crafts Factory), which organized scattered folk artists and arranged their working conditions, which greatly stimulated their creative enthusiasm. Zhang Yongshou, a famous old artist, is an outstanding representative of Yangzhou paper-cut art. He studied art with his father from the age of 12, and has experienced more than 70 artistic spring and autumn periods, creating thousands of paper-cuts. His main works are/kloc-100 Flowers in the 1950s,/kloc-100 Chrysanthemums in the 1970s and/kloc-100 Butterfly Flowers in the 1980s. When the paper-cut collection of "Hundred Flowers Blossom" was published, Comrade Guo Moruo wrote a poem for it: "Yangzhou artist Zhang Yongshou cut out a hundred flowers. Please cut off the spring and autumn, so that the east wind will spread all over the country. " From 65438 to 0979, Zhang Yongshou was awarded the title of Master of Arts and Crafts in China by the state.

Today, there are more than 1000 kinds of Yangzhou paper-cuts, which are sold to dozens of countries and regions, making contributions to cultural and artistic exchanges at home and abroad.

Zhejiang folk paper-cutting

Jiangsu and Zhejiang School Paper-cutting-Zhejiang Paper-cutting

"Wulin Fanshi" in the Five Dynasties recorded that "the day when Wang Xingji of wuyue was lucky ... there were hundreds of households outside the city, and people were replaced by colored paper", describing a grand paper-cut landscape that once appeared in the native land of wuyue.

The tradition of folk paper-cutting is enduring in rural areas. Before 1953, the investigators recorded: "Paper-cut with window flowers can be seen everywhere in Zhejiang Province, especially in Yongkang, Pujiang and Pan 'an in Jinhua, Yueqing and Pingyang in Wenzhou, with different styles and uses. "

Judging from the products collected, most of them are window grilles and snuff in Jinhua, and the fine-line engraved paper in Yueqing is mainly used to decorate dragon lanterns. The "circle potted flowers" placed on gifts in Pingyang are the most distinctive. Secondly, there are clothes, shoes and hats with rural patterns everywhere.

Common themes are flowers, fruits, birds, animals and fish, and opera stories are the best works in Yongkang. The patterns of flower arrangement are mostly the patterns of the older generation preserved when women were girls; The other part is made by folk craftsmen drawing Buddha statues and then cutting them by skilled hands. Of course, some skillful hands can also make their own samples and cut them out, or even cut out a complete set of operas after watching the play.

Zhejiang opera window grilles are good at taking typical scenes and plots in the play, which fully embodies the beauty of the characters' bodies. Different from traditional operas in China, paper-cutting with appropriate background shows the advantages of a specific artistic language. Zhejiang paper-cut modeling pays attention to the big elephant wheel corridor, and cuts out thin yinxian lines from the image. Appropriate shadows can add color to the image structure and the rhythm of the picture.

3. Northern school, represented by Shanxi paper-cut, Shaanxi folk paper-cut and Shandong folk paper-cut.

Shanxi paper cutting

Folk paper-cutting is a very common mass art in Shanxi. Grandmothers who are over half a century old and simple and handsome girls often use a pair of small scissors or a meat cleaver to cut and carve patterns on paper naturally and flexibly to decorate their lives. On the occasion of the Spring Festival, I walked into the village courtyard in northwest Shanxi and saw yellow mounds in the distance and gray caves in front of me. The colors here seem too monotonous. However, if you look out of the window, colorful window grilles and patterns, doorplates fluttering in the wind, cupboards, grain depots and corrals full of auspicious colored paper flowers, you will surely admire them sincerely, as if you felt the rich flavor of life. Yes, paper-cutting is such a folk art form that is rooted in the people and closely related to people's lives, adding color and joy to thousands of families. In the old countryside, people often regard the paper-cutting skills as a sign to judge their daughter-in-law's dexterity or clumsiness, and rural women naturally become folk inheritors of paper-cutting technology.

Paper-cutting is an important part of folk activities, and rich folk activities provide a broad world for paper-cutting to create freely. Folk paper-cutting is closely combined with local customs and habits, which contains the basic quality of national spirit and national psychology and is an organic part of national traditional culture. Seasons, residences, costumes, births, weddings and funerals, and birthday banquets are all reflected in paper-cutting.

Take the new year as an example. On the first day of the first month, every family hangs a banner stick grilles, which is a festive atmosphere. On the fifteenth day of the first month, colorful lanterns should be pasted with paper cuts, which are more beautiful and attractive. In Tomb-Sweeping Day in March, paper-cutting should be put on the sacrifice to express the feelings of remembering the ancestors. May Dragon Boat Festival, cut and paste the "five poisons" to avoid the epidemic. On July 7th, the girls got together to cut patterns and compete for wisdom. On the Double Ninth Festival on September 9, the flag of Double Ninth Festival was cut and carved, which meant climbing higher and higher step by step. On October 1st, Hannong Festival, in the north of Shanxi, five-color paper was cut into clothes to keep out the cold, or made into clothes, hats and shoes, and burned in front of the door or cemetery to express the grief of the living for the dead.

From the perspective of weddings and funerals. When you get married, you should put red double happiness characters on both sides of the gate, and the dowry in Jinnan area should be decorated with large-scale paper-cuts such as "fish watering lotus", "Kirin sending children" and "Yuanyang playing in water". Embroidery on pillows and handkerchiefs is also based on paper cutting. Paper banners, cash cows, Jinshan Yinshan, chariots and horses at the funeral ceremony are all made of paper. Although these very ordinary paper-cut works are not as luxurious and brilliant as pearl jade, they involve everyone's heart, accompany the lives of thousands of families and exude charming artistic charm.

The subjects of folk paper-cutting are mostly people, animals, plants and flowers. What is commendable is that it can use common things in life to form a symbolic artistic picture through homophonic and symbolic means. For example, "dragon and phoenix become auspicious" and "phoenix beats peony" symbolize the happiness and sacredness of marriage. Liu Hai Xi Jin Chan symbolizes the sincerity of love. "Persimmon Ruyi" means happiness, peace and happiness in the four seasons. "The magpies climb the branches" means jubilant and full of happy events. The pattern on the fat pig is composed of a group of piglets, which is a metaphor for "many children" The new wife holds a doll in her arms, which means "having a child" or something. In the art world of paper-cutting, people's skillful hands can describe all ideal things with imagination and show their cleverness, originality and beauty with form.

The genre of Shanxi folk paper-cutting is adapted to local folk customs and actual needs. The most common is window grilles, the size of which depends on the shape of the pane. For example, the window formats in the northwest of the mountain are diamond, round and polygonal, and the window grilles vary with the windows. They are small, ingenious and full of childlike interest. The big ones are "group flowers" with four corners, six corners and eight corners, which are elegant and generous. In Xinzhou area, when celebrating the Spring Festival or holding a wedding, it is necessary to post "full window flowers", that is, cut off persimmons, ruyi, peony, bergamot, lotus, osmanthus, sheng, etc., and wish the newly married wife wonderful workmanship, early birth and happiness.

Generally speaking, the style of Shanxi folk paper-cutting has the characteristics of rough expansion, grandeur, simplicity and simplicity in the northern region. However, due to the similarity of regional environment, living customs and aesthetic concepts, paper-cutting varies from place to place. For example, the paper-cuts in southern Shanxi, Jinzhong, southeastern Shanxi, northwestern Shanxi and Lvliang mountainous areas are mostly monochrome paper-cuts, with simple and rough styles. Dyed paper-cuts popular in Yanbei area are elegant and magnificent, especially "Guangling window grilles". Jincheng magnetic paper-cutting has added scientific and technological elements to the paper-cutting culture with a history of 1500 years in China, making it more fashionable and more widely used, which embodies the value concept of scientific and technological progress.

People compare life to an evergreen tree. Then, we say that the art under scissors is flowers and fruits on evergreen trees. Folk paper-cutting is rooted in the people, spread among the people, original and simple, and always exudes the fragrance of art.

-Guangling Paper-cutting

"Guangling window grilles" are famous for their lifelike modeling, exquisite carving and gorgeous colors. Its raw material is a piece of white rice paper, and its tools are several oblique-edged carving knives of different sizes. The procedure is to carve out the finished paper-cut products with a knife and then dye them. Folk craftsmen attach great importance to knife carving and coloring skills. They can carve many finished products in just a few minutes with simple tools, mainly negative carving, supplemented by positive carving. When coloring, use good white wine to color, and add a small amount of alum in darker places, which can not only make the painted colors bright and moist, but also ensure the long-term preservation of paper-cuts. Guangling paper-cut has won a reputation for its exquisite skills, and now it has been sold to France, the United States, Japan, Poland and other countries, becoming a cherished work of art by overseas friends.

-Magnetic paper cutting

Jincheng paper-cut is represented by magnetic paper-cut, which is unique in the country.

Magnetic paper-cut can be attached to magnetic photo frames, magnetic drawing axes and magnetic writing boards by its own magnetism, and can also be attached to iron objects such as refrigerators, security doors, cars, filing cabinets and pencil boxes. Spray some water or clean it, or stick it on glass or other smooth surfaces. Magnetic paper-cutting can more fully reflect the through-carving characteristics of paper-cutting and the through-air effect of paper-cutting.

Magnetic paper-cutting is the inheritance and development of paper-cutting art, and its contributions to paper-cutting are as follows: first, magnetic paper-cutting expands the market of paper-cutting; Second, magnetic paper-cutting enriches the theory of paper-cutting; Thirdly, magnetic paper-cutting enhances the artistic expression of paper-cutting, and the artistic creation techniques are innovative and the artistic expression techniques are more diversified.

Magnetic paper-cutting is a utility model patent (patent number: ZL 200420067 15 1.0), which was awarded by the Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China on August 17, 2005.

The patent of magnetic paper-cutting adds scientific and technological elements to the paper-cutting culture with a history of 1500 years in China, making it more fashionable and more widely used, which embodies the value concept of scientific and technological progress.

Shaanxi folk paper-cutting

From south to north in Shaanxi, especially in the Loess Plateau and Qinchuan, red, green and green paper-cuts can be seen everywhere. What about Gu Zhuo's modeling, rough style, and