The design, history, origin and making of kites.

Seek happiness

People have the same pursuit of happiness. Bat is homophonic with "all happiness" and "all wealth" Although its image is not beautiful, it is fully beautified and regarded as an auspicious pattern symbolizing "happiness". Kites with bats as patterns abound. For example, in the traditional Jingshayan kite, the whole rigid arm can be painted with beautified bats, represented by "Yan Fu". Other kites with implications include "Blessed in Happiness", "Blessed with Eyes", "Five Blessingg's Birthday", "Five Blessingg's Birthday", "Five Blessingg's Monkey" and "Five Blessingg's Birthday". Hong Fan of Zhou Dynasty wrote "Five Blessingg": First, longevity, second, wealth, third, corning, and fourth, togetherness. "Being virtuous" means being virtuous, and "dying after the exam" means dying well. According to Five Blessingg's morality, happiness includes wealth and longevity. Other auspicious patterns used for praying include "Fish" and "Ruyi" (Ruyi was originally a bamboo stick, so it was named because it can scratch places that people can't reach). The auspicious patterns and kites related to this are: Fish every year, Many blessings, Carp yue longmen, All the best, All the best and Peace.

long-lived

Throughout the ages, people hope to live a long and healthy life. There are many patterns to express and celebrate longevity: there are immortal pines and cypresses, cranes and colorful birds that are said to live for a thousand years, Ganoderma lucidum that is said to live for a hundred years, and Xiantao, the queen mother of the West, which can make people live forever. There are more than 300 glyphs that pursue and express longevity, and the changes are extremely rich. The word "Wan" originated from Buddhism, which means "Up to Wan". In Shayan kites, the waist pattern is mostly a rotating "ten thousand" pattern. The auspicious patterns and kites related to this are: "Celebrating the birthday of Xiangyun" and "Celebrating the birthday of the Eight Immortals".

Full of happiness and joy

Express people's beautiful, happy and happy mood. There are many shapes of happy characters, and "Xi" is a common festive pattern. Magpie is a sign of happy events. Kites include the word "happy" and "happy" kites. Kites and auspicious patterns related to this are: beaming, double happiness, happiness, happy life and double happiness. Festive patterns are also very interesting, such as butterflies, birds, flowers, baiji, longevity, happiness, and happiness, such as "a hundred birds fly at the phoenix". Happy marriage, harmony between husband and wife, Yuanyang kite, etc.

lucky

Dragons, phoenixes and unicorns are imaginary animals. Turtles were a symbol of longevity in ancient times, and were later replaced by turtle back patterns. It is particularly important to emphasize the topic of dragons. China is a country that worships dragons. In our country, dragon has a special meaning. Dragon is a magical creature with antlers, bull's head, python's body, fish scales and eagle's claws. It is regarded as a symbol of ancient civilization in China. Traditional auspicious patterns composed of birds, animals and other images include "Dragon and Phoenix are auspicious", "Dragon playing with pearls", "Cai Feng Qi Fei" and "A hundred birds are flying towards the phoenix". Chinese traditional kites-long string kites with centipedes, especially large dragon kites, are loved by people for their spectacular flight scenes and majestic momentum.

The customs of various countries

history

Kites were invented in China. According to legend, Mo Zhai made wooden birds out of wood, which took three years to develop successfully. This is the earliest origin of kites. Later, his student Lu Ban used bamboo to improve the materials of kites in Mo Zhai, and even evolved into today's multi-line kites. Kites originated in the Spring and Autumn Period and have a history of more than 2,000 years. According to legend, "Mozi is a wooden kite, which was made in three years and lost in one day." In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, kites began to be a tool for transmitting information. Since the Sui and Tang Dynasties. With the development of paper industry, people began to paste kites with paper. Flying kites became a popular outdoor activity in the Song Dynasty. Song people's meticulous "Old Wulin Events" wrote: "During the Qingming Festival, people fly kites in the suburbs and return at sunset." "Kite" means kite. Zhang Zeduan's The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival in the Northern Song Dynasty and Su Hanchen's The Hundred Zi Map in the Song Dynasty have vivid scenes of giving kites.

origin

Kites originated in China, and kites in China have a long history. The earliest kites were made of wood instead of paper. Legend has it that the first kite was made by "Luban" and called "wooden kite". The Old Story of Zhu Gong records that Lu Ban "tasted it as a wooden kite and took it to see Song Cheng". "Lu Chunqiu Love Class" records that "losing is like a high ladder, and I want to attack the Song Dynasty. When Mozi heard about it, he went to Lu and pestered his feet day and night. As for Ying's ten days and nights, he said to King Jing,' I am a gentleman in the north. It is said that the King will attack the Song Dynasty. "Can you believe it?" This shows that Lu Ban made a "high ladder" instead of a wooden kite.

The inventor of the wooden kite recorded in Everything is done wrong is not Lu Ban, but Mozi Mo Zhai. Mo Zhai (478-392 BC), a philosopher in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, was a representative of mohists. "Everything goes wrong, the theory of foreign reserves" records that Mo Zhai once "used a wooden kite to fly to the sky in three years". Mozi was in Lushan (now Weifang, Shandong), "being a wooden kite, he became famous in three years and lost in one day" [2]. This means that Mozi spent three years researching and trial-manufacturing, made a wooden bird out of wooden boards, released it and made it fly successfully, but it broke down after only one day. The "wooden kite" made by Mozi is the earliest kite in the world, with a history of more than 2400 years. The inventor of the wooden kite defined in Kangxi Dictionary is also "Mo Zhai". It is recorded in Mozi that the "wooden magpie" invented by Lu Ban is more exquisite than Mozi's "wooden kite": "The loser cuts bamboo and wood, thinking it is a magpie, and flies three days later." After Cai Lun invented papermaking in the Eastern Han Dynasty, kites made of paper began to appear, called "paper kites".

It is said that Han Xin, a general of the Han Dynasty, used kites to make measurements. Liang Wudi used kites to send messages, but failed. In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, someone jumped from a height with a kite on his back and didn't die. When Zhang Pi was besieged in the Tang Dynasty, he sent a message for help with a kite. There is a saying in the book that "I don't understand for three days, and I am happy when I am near a celebrity" [6], which has achieved success. Since the Tang Dynasty, kites have gradually become toys. By the late Tang Dynasty, kites had been made of silk strips or bamboo flutes, and the wind blew, hence the name "kite". Some people say that the name "kite" originated in the Five Dynasties, when Ye Li pasted a kite with paper and installed a bamboo flute on it.

During the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, a bamboo branch poem written by Guo in Qingming described: "On the 104th day of cold food, the white waves went on the river and the kites swung, which was even more chaotic than when he first came." There is a poem: "Paper flowers fly like snow all over the sky, charming girls swing around, colorful skirts swing with the wind, and butterflies compete for spring." Kite art has also reached its peak.

Basic classification

Soft-winged kite: the main skeleton is mostly embossed, with single-layer, double-layer and multi-layer skeletons. The lift sheet (wing) is composed of the main wing, and the rear half of the wing is soft without the attachment of the main wing.

Hard-winged kite: the skeleton is made of two bamboo strips, with high edges on both sides, slightly concave in the middle, and the wing ends are tilted backwards, so that wind energy can escape from the ends of the wings.

Board kite: that is, a plane kite, with a pull tab as the main body and no protruding parts. The kite is supported by bamboo strips on all sides, which is the favorite of children.

manufacturing method

Ordinary kites usually use bamboo as the skeleton and paper as the meat. Other composite materials include silk, nylon cloth, plastic film or bamboo strips, gauze paper and horse-drawn paper.

Paper and silk are commonly used materials for making traditional kites, and their bright colors can better reflect the charm of China kites. But paper is fragile and silk is expensive, and the products of modern science-nylon cloth and plastic film-have become new materials for making kites.

Bamboo is the main material for making kite skeletons. Bamboo with a wall thickness of 3-5 cm can be cut into bamboo pieces, and the toughness of bamboo pieces can be used as the skeleton of kites. The skeleton of a kite can be compiled according to personal hobbies, such as dragonfly shape and butterfly shape.

Paper is the main material of covered kites. It is best to have fine and uniform fibers, toughness, moisture resistance and impact resistance, and white and clean colors. Paste the paper on the skeleton, then tie the string, and the kite is finished.

At this time, you can also paint your favorite color on the finished kite, set it with lace, or tie a ribbon and hang a paper ring. But it can't affect the flying of kites in the air, because too many accessories will make the flying of kites out of balance.