The historical origin of Chinese paper-cutting?

Chinese paper-cutting originated in the Han Dynasty to the North and South Dynasties period has been quite sophisticated, but the real prosperity is in the middle of the Qing Dynasty later. Ancient paper-cutting in the countryside, to scissors hinged mainly, the interest is simple and natural, are from the hands of peasant women; paper-cutting into the city, not only the interest of the public and the ideals of life into the art of paper-cutting, and thousands of families crowded together, the suburbs into a habit, the need to be quite huge; paper-cutting artists in order to save labor, a knife more than one will be changed to carve a knife carving-based style to the subtle, the artist is not only for women. However, the times change life changes and aesthetic transformation, traditional folk art gradually can not adapt to the needs of reality, so the modern emerging paper-cutting art was born.

Paper-cutting is a folk art with a unique artistic style, it is hand-carved, and then dyed with bright and vivid colors. It is also called "Window Flower" because it is used by the working people as a decoration for the New Year's festivals and pasted on the paper windows.

The content of the traditional window decoration mainly includes opera characters, plumes and flowers, grasses, insects, fishes and animals, as well as some auspicious and harmonic objects, which are full of happiness, health and love of life, and are very popular among the masses.

The art of paper-cutting

Paper-cutting is a folk art with a unique artistic style, it is hand-carved, and then dyed with bright and vivid colors. It is also called "Window Flower" because it is used by the working people as a decoration for the New Year's festivals and pasted on the paper windows.

The content of the traditional window decoration mainly includes opera characters, plumes and flowers, grasses, insects, fishes and animals, as well as some auspicious and harmonic objects, which are full of happiness, health and love of life, and are very popular among the masses.

The art of paper-cutting has a history of nearly two hundred years. Artists inherited and absorbed the woodblock watermark window, Tianjin Yangliuqing woodblock New Year's paintings and knife-carved embroidery samples and other traditional folk art forms, created a variety of art, and through continuous innovation, and gradually formed a unique artistic style.

The art of paper-cutting is y rooted in the working people. Its authors are mostly unknown farmers, they draw, carve, dye, busy farming, farming leisure carved window, through their dexterous hands, the masses of farmers' simple feelings, good wishes and the pursuit of a happy life, poured into their own works of art, reflecting the author of the close contact with the masses, so that the art of paper-cutting has gained a never-ending artistic life. In the long years, after countless unknown peasant authors of the thousands of refinement, created a large number of perfect works of art, cultivated many outstanding folk artists. The art of paper-cutting is highlighted by the main focus on "Yin-carving" and "color-dotting". Its composition is simple and full, the shape is vivid and beautiful, the color contrast is strong, and the works are pasted on the paper window, shining through the outdoor sunlight, bright and colorful, showing a unique artistic effect.

Paper-cutting is one of the most popular folk arts in China, and according to archaeology, its history can be traced back to the sixth century A.D., but it is believed that it actually began several hundred years earlier than that. Paper cutting is often used in religious ceremonies, decoration and plastic arts.

In the past, paper was often used to make images of objects and people in a variety of shapes and forms, which were buried with the dead or burned at funerals, a custom that can still be seen outside of China. The art of paper-cutting was generally symbolic and part of this ritual; in addition, paper-cutting was used as a decoration for offerings to ancestors and gods.

It is generally popular because of its easy availability of materials, low cost, immediate effect, and wide range of adaptability; and because it is most suitable for rural women to make in their leisure time, and it can be used as practical objects as well as to beautify their lives. Paper-cutting can be seen all over the country, and even formed different local styles and schools. Paper-cutting not only expresses the aesthetic preferences of the masses, and contains the deep-seated psychology of the national society, but also one of the most distinctive folk arts in China, whose modeling characteristics are especially worth studying.

Nowadays, paper-cutting is more often used for decoration. Paper-cutting can be used to decorate walls, doors, windows, pillars, mirrors, lamps and lanterns, etc., but also for gifts for embellishment, and even paper-cutting itself can be used as a gift to others. People used to cut paper as embroidery and spray paint art model.

Paper cutting is not made by machine but by hand, and there are two common methods: scissors cutting and knife cutting. As the name suggests, scissor cutting is done with the help of scissors, and after cutting, several sheets (usually no more than eight) of paper cutouts are pasted together, and then finally the pattern is processed with sharp scissors. Knife cutting, on the other hand, involves folding the paper into several stacks, placing it on a loose mixture of ash and animal fat, and then slowly carving it with a knife. The paper cutter usually holds the knife vertically and works the paper into the desired pattern according to a certain model. One advantage of knife cutting over scissors is that multiple paper-cutting patterns can be processed at once.

In rural areas, paper cutting is usually done by women and girls. In the past, it was a handicraft that every girl had to master, and a standard by which brides were judged. Professional paper-cutters were often men, as only men could work together in the workshops and earn money.

History:

It has been proven that decorations have been made of gold and silver foil, leather or silk fabrics since the Shang Dynasty (1600-1100 B.C.), and curved decorations made of silver foil were found during excavations at the Warring States site of Gouwei Village, Huixian County, Henan Province, in 1950-1952. These decorations made of silver foil hollowing, although can not be said to be paper-cutting, but in the carving technology and artistic style, can be said to have formed the predecessor of the art of paper-cutting.

Western Han Dynasty, people with hemp fiber paper, the legend says that after the death of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty's favorite consort Li, the emperor misses, restlessness, food is not sweet, so asked the magician to cut the image of Li Fei with hemp paper to invoke their souls, which is probably the earliest paper-cutting. In 105 AD, Cai Lun to improve and promote the experience of the previous began to make a lot of paper, this form of openwork found easier to popularize the material and thus the birth of the art of paper-cutting, has been more than two thousand years of history. Paper cut into beautiful patterns and patterns, the earliest discovery and documented is near the Xinjiang Turpan Flaming Mountain, has unearthed five North and South Dynasties group of flowers cut paper: the horse group of flowers; the monkey group of flowers; honeysuckle group of flowers; chrysanthemum group of flowers; eight with the shape of the group of flowers.

The Tang Dynasty has applied paper-cutting patterns to other crafts. From the Han to the Tang Dynasty, there was a kind of gold and silver inlay technology, which is the engraved gold and silver foil pasted on the back of lacquer ware or bronze mirror, and then dried by filling lacquer, showing the golden pattern on the lacquer ground.

Tang and Song dynasties, the popularity of "skeletonization of gold for victory" custom. "Sheng", that is, with paper or gold and silver foil, silk cut and carved into patterns, cut into sets of square geometric shape, known as the "square Sheng"; cut into the shape of flowers and grasses, known as "Huasheng", cut into the shape of a human being The pattern is called "Human Sheng" when it is cut into the shape of a human being. Liang Zong懔 in the Southern Dynasties, "Jing Chu chronicles" recorded: "the seventh day of the first month for the people day, (" Dongfang Shuo biography - the year festival ": the beginning of heaven and earth, one day chickens, the second day of the dog, the third day of the pig, the fourth day of the goat, the fifth day of the cow, the sixth day of the horse, the seventh day of the people, the eighth day of the valley. The sunny day is full of the things that are in charge of it, and the cloudy day is a disaster. (Eight days, especially people day is important, also known as the "people win festival") to seven kinds of vegetables for the soup; cut color for the people, or skeleton gold foil for the people to paste the screen, but also wear in the sideburns; and create Huasheng to phase legacy."

Du Fu, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, composed a poem under the title of "People's Day": "This day, this time people **** get, a talk and a smile commonplace look at each other. The cypress leaves in front of your honor do not follow the wine, and the golden flowers in the victory are skillfully resistant to the cold." Another famous Tang Dynasty poet Li Shangyin also made a "people day" poem, the poem says: "Skeleton gold for winning Jing custom, cut color for people up Jin style." In the 1960s in Xinjiang, unearthed artifacts, there is a Tang Dynasty people win paper cuts, seven women in human form arranged in rows, this win used to decorate the hair bun.

In Japan's Masakura Yard, there are two Tang dynasty huasheng, according to Japan Qiheng three years (AD 856 years), "miscellaneous property factual record": "people win two ...... Tianping Baoji yuan year leap August 24th offerings," the Japanese Tianping Baoji yuan year, namely The first year of the Japanese Tenpyo Boseon is the second year of the Tang Dynasty's Jide (757 A.D.). One of them is inscribed in gold foil with the following words cut into it: "A good day for the festival, a blessing for the new year, a million years of peace and a thousand years of life." The other has an intricate border engraved in gold leaf and decorated with red and green roses and leaves, and in the center is a child playing with a dog under a bamboo grove.

A small streamer cut out of double silk was also popular at that time, called a spring streamer, or hansei or chunsei, and was given as a festive gift on the day of the first day of spring, either pinned to the head, hung from a willow branch, or affixed to a screen. In the poem handed down by Cui Daorong, there is this line: "I want to cut Yichun characters, but spring is cold and people have scissors", and the "Yichun posts" mentioned here are also the "paper-cutting works of art" familiar to people nowadays. The "Yichun post" referred to here is also the "paper-cutting artwork" familiar to people nowadays. Li Shangyin wrote in his poem "Jiao Er Poetry": "Please master the book of spring victory, spring victory, spring day." This means that Jiao Er Gun Shi asked his father to write the word "spring" on the spring streamers made of color cuttings. Because the day of spring for the first day of spring, symbolizing the recovery of all things thriving, so the Tang and Song dynasties, people cut the color of this folkloric activities gradually focused on the day of spring, people cut a variety of streamers, spring streamers, spring swallows, spring butterflies, etc., as a holiday gift. The emperor also received his ministers on this day, and gave them gold and silver streamers or rowan winners. Duan Chengshi "Youyang Miscellanea" said: "spring day, the scholar's house, cut paper for small coiled, or hanging in the head of the beauty, or decorated in the flowers, and cut for spring butterflies, spring victory to play.

The Song Dynasty on paper-cutting records are many. In the Southern Song Dynasty, there has been a paper-cutting as a career artists, some good cut "the book of words", some specializing in cutting "the colors of the pattern". Some of the paper-cutting as a gift embellishment, some pasted on the window, some decorative lights, and some cut into the so-called "dragon and tiger" and so on. At this time, the prevalence of shadow, carved shadow material, in addition to animal skin, but also made of thick paper. Zhou Mi "Zhi Ya Tang Miscellaneous Notes": the capital Peiliang "to the old Tiantu Street, there are cut all colors of the pattern, very subtle, as desired and become. And in the tile there are Yu Jingzhi, each cut all the calligraphy are specialized. Later, suddenly a teenager can cut words and flowers in the sleeve and so on. More than two people, so the reputation of the moment." That is, "Kaifeng" House, "cut pattern" refers to the natural "paper-cutting".

Song Dynasty female lyricist Li Qingzhao wrote in a "Bodhisattva barbarians": "Candle under the phoenix hairpin bright, hairpin head of the people over light." There is a kind of bird, because the head collar has a big golden-yellow crown of feathers is very much like inserting a branch of streamers, and was named Dai Sheng bird, Wei Yingwu "listening to the warbler song" in "Burao flew over the sound of the Bureau, Dai Sheng under the Mulberry green," Sheng has become a symbol of the return of spring to the earth.

Song Dynasty Chen Yuanliang, "the time of the year", "New Year's Day to crow green paper or green silk cut forty-nine streamers, surrounded by a large streamer, or the age of the parents to carry it, or posted in the door Mei.

Song paper-cutting for craft decoration of an important creation, is the Jizhou kiln porcelain, products such as tealights and vases, many pattern subjects, there are phoenix, plum blossom, loquat and auspicious words, etc., modeling vivid, lively, it is the author of the glaze process, pasted on the paper-cutting, into the kiln firing and become.

Modern folk blue printed cloth, is to use the skeletonized cardboard scraping pulp after imitation dyeing and rendering patterns, this printing and dyeing process has been very common in the Song Dynasty, Shanxi Province, unearthed in the Southern Song Dynasty printed cloth is an example.

Ming and Qing people's notes and local histories also have records of famous paper cutters. For example, "Suzhou Province," said: "Zhao Calyx, Jiajing in the production of clip gauze lamps to material paper carved into the shape of flowers, bamboo and birds, with the light and thick halo color. Dissolving wax coating and dyeing, with a light image clip. Reflecting the sun is bright and clear, Fen Fei Xiang dance, indistinct in the light smoke, and the real one can not be identified." The Ming Dynasty is very famous for its paper clip lanterns. It is the paper clip in the yarn. Candlelight reflects the pattern, which is another application of paper-cutting in daily life, and now people call it "horse lantern".

Yanzhou Jiande County Records: "Lin Wenyao, the word outline of the Zhai, young that is, the book, blind in middle age, is paper-cutting for the word, the potential to fly as if the dragon and snake, point and paint is not worse than the hair. Room people decorated into a shaft, ...... people called the day "Lin shear." Baoding Fu Zhi: "famous female, Zhang Cai Gong's daughter. There are ingenuity, and people talk, the sleeves of the fine cut spring flowers, autumn chrysanthemums, fine grass and poplar. Reckless; its shear incense (big + area), absolutely exquisite eye-catching, the person who got it treasured.

Chen Yunbo in the Qing Dynasty, "Painting Forest" said: "Shear painting, the Southern Song Dynasty, someone can cut the word in the sleeve, and the ancient masterpieces are no different. In recent years, Yangzhou Baojun most work this, especially the landscape, figures, birds and flowers, grasses and insects, all into the wonderful." And there is a poem that says: "cut painting clever than cut book, fly flowers and birds swim endangered fish; any other February spring breeze is good, cut out the poplar fear as well." Qing Kangxi, a court painter Zou Yuandou, painted a blessing at the beginning of the New Year's customary paintings, "the year of the axle" painted on the top end of the painting is hanging five colorful paper-cut "door cage". The form of the menkyo is derived from the chunbata (spring streamers).

In the Qing Dynasty, because the Manchu people have the custom of paper-cutting, resulting in paper-cutting into the court. In the Forbidden City, successive emperors held weddings for the cave of the Shen Ning Palace, the walls according to the Manchu custom of laminating paper, the corners of the black double happiness word pasted paper cut flowers, the roof of the center pasted with the dragon and phoenix group of flowers of the black paper cuts; in the aisle walls on both sides of the palace is also pasted with the corner of the flowers. It is said that some people use paper cut into a deer, cranes, pine "six spring" pattern, and painted, pasted on the court dress, even the Empress Dowager thought it was embroidered.

It can be said that since the birth of the art of paper-cutting, there has been no interruption. Her wide circulation, the number of large, many styles, the depth of the foundation is more prominent than any other kind of art. In a variety of folk activities, she is everywhere, everywhere, attached to the beautiful life, enriching the life, in her unique way to silently evoke the pursuit of life, the belief in life, the country's wealth and prosperity of the people's aspirations; she will be the people's ordinary life embellished with such a magnificent and colorful, fully supported and embodied the pursuit of the Chinese people on the truth, goodness and beauty of the pursuit and aspirations; she is to meet the people's higher social needs of spirituality And thrive.

Today, the world of paper-cutting is much broader, it has long been out of the small courtyard of the people of the village, into the modern design of the vast world, in product packaging design, trademark advertising, indoor decorating, clothing design, book binding, stamp design, newspaper and magazine title flower, comic strips, stage art, animation, film and television and so on all aspects of her shadow; she is also going to the world, known all over the world, and has become the cultural wealth and artistic treasures of all mankind. She is also famous all over the world and has become the cultural wealth and artistic treasure of all mankind. With the process of history, many national and traditional things have been gradually diluted and annihilated. However, the sign of true civilization should be the coexistence of traditional and modern culture, **** the same development. May this ancient tree of art be evergreen and ever new.